MADE TWO STRIKES.
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Midget Mining Company Reported to Be in Rich Ore.

Colorado Springs, Sept. 1 - President J.F. Burns of the Midget company, returned from Cripple Creek this morning, where he has been examining the Midget property. He confirms the report that two big strikes have been made on the Midget during the last few days.
Mr. Burns is enthusiastic over the prospect of the company and believes that the Midget will eventually equal in value the Anchoria-Leland and Moon-Anchor properties.

Principal Producing Cripple Creek Mines - 1898:

Name: Midget Mine (Gold Hill)
Owner: Midget Gold Mining and Milling Co.
Capital: $1,000,000
President: J. F. Burns
Vice-President:
Secretary: L. F. Curtis, Colorado Springs
Treasurer:
Superintendent: R. A. Trevarthen, Cripple Creek
Manager:
Lessees:
Description: main shaft, 400 feet; 60-horse power boiler; 100-horse power horizontal double flat friction hoist; Smith-Vaile sinking pump; No. 5 Fairbanks-Morse duplex station pump.
Employes: twenty employes.
Contact:
Notes:

SHAFT HOUSE BURNED
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Fifty Thousand Dollar Blaze Yesterday Morning.
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ESCAPE OF THE MINERS
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WENT OUT THROUGH THE CONUNDRUM SHAFT—RESCUE PARTY FROM GOLD HILL TUNNEL PENETRATED THE FIERY WORKINGS.
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The Midget shaft house caught fire yesterday morning at 5:45 and was completely destroyed.

Just how the fire started none know, and it is believed that the watchman was not in the building when it started. At the time the graveyard shift was in the mine at the seventh level.

It has been the custom for the engineer when he leaves at 12 o'clock to lower the graveyard shift when the 4 o'clock shift comes to the surface, and the mine after that is in charge of the watchman until the day engineer comes and relieves the graveyard shift when the day shift goes down at 8 o'clock.

The fire spread rapidly after it started and the heavy air current soon carried the smoke into the workings.
Ed Campbell, one of the five men in the mine, detected the odor of burning pine and he expressed the belief that something was wrong. Going to the shaft they saw the burning framework of the collar and at once comprehended the danger.

The sump was filled with burning debris and the station about to catch fire, which would have shut off escape.

Connecting with the workings of the Midget is the Gold Hill tunnel, also the Conundrum shaft below the Moon-Anchor dump.

Mr. Campbell and his companions lost no time in getting to the old shaft of the latter property, and after considerable trouble and much danger, they all got safely to the surface after climbing 400 feet of ladders.

C. L. Varney, employed on the graveyard shift on the Moon-Anchor, with several others of the Moon-Anchor force, realizing the danger of suffocation, hastened to the mouth of the Gold Hill tunnel, broke in the bulkhead and penetrated the Midget workings.
The tunnel was dense with smoke, but the men persevered, making headway by keeping close to the floor of the drift where air was pure. They found that the men had left the mine, and supposing that egress had been sought by way of the Conundrum, hastened to that portion of the property and found that the men had all gotten out safely.
Mr. Varney and his companions went to the burning building, turned on the water from the pipes utilized some time ago by the city during the water famine, but the water could not be used effectively, so the plan of flooding the burning shaft was abandoned, and all day the timbers below kept burning. The smoke has also permeated the Moon-Anchor workings, and during the day kept pouring from the Gold Hill tunnel.
The shaft is 700 feet deep and is timbered to the bottom.

The Midget is the property of a company controlled by J. F. Burns, John Harman and other Portland people. John Trevarthen, up to the time of his transfer to the Portland, was superintendent at the Midget.
The mine is one of the most valuable in the camp. Although not shipping, the property is being developed. The loss on the shaft house and machinery aggregates $15,000.

RIGHT-OF-WAY
The Colorado Springs & Cripple Creek Railway company yesterday filed deeds for right-of-way over the following mining claims:
* Southern Boy
* Robert E. Lee
* Blanche
* Lucky Corner
* Union Spy
* National Belle
* Pointer
* Shark
* Little King
* Yellow Bird
* Cotton Tail
* Reno
* Pet
* Bon Ton
* Midget
* Sunnyside
* Maryland
* Cumberland
* Reno Merit
* Red Coes

The Midget on Gold Hill, Cripple Creek, is now making a steady production of about 40 tons daily, and probably there is not any one of the old-time mines of the district that is making any more money than this little mine.
It is estimated that the profits will average $1,000 a day, as all of the ore is of smelting grade.

Mr. Jas. F. Burns gave orders last week to Jno. H. Nichols, superintendent of the Midget on Gold Hill, to start the latter on the first of June. This property has been idle three months.
Mr. Nichols says he has seen most of the former employes and most of them have expressed a desire to return. They will employ about sixty men to start with. An open policy will be used, requiring a card neither from the Citizens’ Alliance nor of the union.

Colorado Springs, Oct. 4.—Lessee F. G. Peck and associates, who recently secured a lease on part of the Moon Anchor property, which adjoins the Midget mine and which is being operated through the latter's territory, are sending out regular shipments from their recent find.

Colorado Springs, Oct. 20.—F. G. Peck and associates, who are operating under lease a block of the New Moon claim, belonging to the Moon Anchor Company, are pushing operations through the Midget shaft.
Mr. Peck is getting out a large production of two or three carloads per week, which gives returns of an ounce and a half to the ton. The ore is being broken at a depth of 200 feet, and near the Midget shaft, where the vein carries in width from two to five feet.

Midget—A carload of ore was marketed by the lessees on this property last week. It is expected to yield about $40 per ton.

The Wm. A. Allen Co. has commenced work on the Bonanza King on Gold Hill. Operations will be carried forward in the Midget shaft.

Cripple Creek—Allen and associates, lessees on the Midget mine on Gold hill, have opened up a new ore shoot on the 250 level from which they loaded out, in one day, a car of $30 ore.

Operations have been resumed on the Midget property, on the west slope of Gold hill. Operations will be conducted on the 500, 600 and 700-ft. levels.

The Midget mine, near Cripple Creek, has resumed operations after a close-down of two weeks, during which necessary repairs have been made to the compressor.

The Gold Issue M. Co., leasing on the Midget mine on Gold hill, is preparing to install a large hoist for the purpose of extending the plan of operations.
The main shaft is now down 900 ft. and will be sunk to a greater depth.

The construction of the aerial tram to extend from the Midget mine to the Gold Issue mill has commenced, the distance to be traversed being in excess of two miles.

The Consolidated Tramway Co., of Roanoke, Virginia, has commenced the construction of the aerial tram, to extend from the Midget mine, on Gold hill, to the Gold Issue mill, on the northeastern slope of Carbonate hill.
The distance to be traversed is about 10,800 ft., and will be built according to the Loop Section system, by which each section operates independent of the others.

The Gold Issue Mining Co. is installing an aerial tram by which ore is to be transported from the Midget mine on Gold hill to the Gold Issue mill on the northwestern slope of Carbonate hill, about two miles distant.

DENVER, COLORADO—Another aerial tram is about to be put in operation in the district. It will carry the ore from the Midget mine on Gold hill to the Gold Issue mill on Carbonate hill, two miles distant.

Ore cars are moving over the aerial tram from the Midget mine to the Gold Issue mill on Carbonate hill. The capacity is at present 100 tons per day, but by the addition of more cars, the capacity will be increased to 200 or 300 tons per day.

More than 30 cars of ore, or from 750 to 900 tons, has been shipped since January 1 from the Bonanza King mine, on Gold hill, operated under lease by the Gold Issue Mining & Leasing company.
Operating through the Midget main shaft, Supt. "Billy" Allen has opened a new and immense ore body and is shipping seven to ten cars a week of about one-ounce grade.
Large bodies of milling grade ore are also being blocked out for later treatment at the Gold Issue mill in the Midget mine workings.

Large bodies of milling grade ore are also being blocked out for later treatment at the Gold Issue mill in the Midget mine workings.

The properties of the Midget G. M. & M. Co. at Cripple Creek, Colo., are reported sold to J. F. W. Doethe and associates of St. Louis, Mo., for $100,000.

Announcement has been made by Superintendent William Allen of the Midget that the mine will resume operations at once.

M. F. K. Doepke of St. Louis, president of the Midget Bonanza Gold Mining and Milling Co., owning the Midget and Bonanza King, as well as other claims, has been visiting Cripple Creek, looking after the company’s business.

Carr & Co. are sending out a shipment from the Gold Hill tunnel. The lease is on one of the blocks of the Midget Bonanza Gold Mining & Milling Co. on Gold hill.

Midget Bonanza—Carr & Co., lessees on a block of the ground owned by this company, are shipping good mill ore through the Gold Hill tunnel.

The Midget-Bonanza Gold Mining & Milling Co. has leased its property of Gold hill to Owen Roberts of Cripple Creek, now operating the El Paso Gold King.

A 20 h. p. electric motor, to be used in driving the fan now being installed for the ventilation of the mine workings, has been delivered at the main shaft of the Midget Gold Mining Co. on Gold hill.
The property was recently leased for a long term to Owen Roberts of Cripple Creek.

In the Gold Hill tunnel level of the Midget-Bonanza mine, a 6-horse power electric hoist has been put on to be used in pulling ore from a winze for Allen and Carr, sub-lessees, who have opened a good body of ore, it is said.

Operations will be resumed on the Midget and Bonanza King mines of the Midget Consolidated on Gold hill by the Backof Leasing Co., of St. Louis, early in February. The property has been closed since December 1917.
The old sublessees, nine sets, who were in ore when the mine was closed, will return to work.

The Backhoff Leasing Co., operating the properties of the Midget Bonanza company on the western slope of Gold hill, has resumed production after a shut-down lasting from December 1917. Ten sets of sub-lessees are at work.

The Midget mine on Gold hill will re-enter the shipping list during March.

Denver, Colorado
Gas in Cripple Creek Mines.

The peculiar effect of atmospheric conditions upon mining in the Cripple Creek district is again brought to our attention in two fatalities that resulted on February 12 in the Midget mine.
During a heavy snowstorm the barometric pressure became so low as to permit an undue amount of the residual nitrogen gas from the extinct volcano to exude into the workings. Such phenomena were discussed by Lindgren and Ransome in Professional Paper 54 of the U. S. Geological Survey, published in 1906.