Late in the year 1900 W. S. Stratton started active operations, buying up claims, his especial favorites were Gold, Globe, Ironclad and Bull hills, on those hills he acquired hundreds of acres of territory and for a period of ten months he expended the enormous sum of close to $500,000, all of which came from his private purse. That sum does not include the vast amount he spent in equipping the various shafts with machinery, or the development performed prior to forming the big corporation Stratton Cripple Creek Mining and Development Company, in which all the acreage was included.
Deep mining, he thought, would prove profitable to the man who had the nerve to go ahead and not worry about what he was spending. His hobby was Globe hill. The geological conditions were perfect there for the opening of great ore bodies. He figured that the granite of Poverty gulch was dipping in the hill at such a rate that it would be cut at a depth varying from 1,800 feet to 2,000 feet. When the granite was encountered, he theorized, great ore bodies would be encountered.

With that theory well in his mind he projected the Lady Stith shaft, and gave orders to commence sinking and go to the depth of 2,000 feet. The shaft is the largest in the district, being 4,5 by 15 feet 4 inches in the clear. No one, aside from W. S. Stratton, would ever have had the nerve to even project such an undertaking, much less start it and pay the expenses of such a gigantic operation.
The shaft contained three compartments. One was equipped with a cage, for the cars ran in the levels extended for exploitation. Another one was used for a bucket, so sinking could be carried on without interruption, while the third one was used as the man-way and for air pipes.
The shaft was started in an extinct thermal spring that has excited much mental speculation on the part of geologists and mining engineers. Many mistakes the place as the seat of volcanic action or an old crater.
Mr. Stratton recognized what it was, and studied the conditions long and carefully. Whether the late Mr. Stratton figured that from the porous and barren condition at surface and just below, that the values had been leached out by the thermal waters and deposited below was never learned from him, but certain it was that his theories were that water played a most important part in the ore deposits of the hill.
The leached condition of the veins near surface show that the ascending, descending and circulating waters robbed the veins of the values, but where they were afterwards deposited is hard to tell. It would be natural to believe that the descending waters removed the values to great depth, and it was along those lines that development work was pushed.

That the late Mr. Stratton had abundant faith in the future and believed in deep mining was evidenced by the amount of work he did on Bull and other hills.
An example is the now named Plymouth Rock shaft, better known as the Lady Stith, which is 655 feet deep, and were there has been performed a total of 2,315 feet of drifting and cross-cutting.

George Keener, former superintendent of the Mary McKinney, who is leasing on blocks of the Stratton estate or Globe Hill, including Lady Stith and Globe, shipped 1550 tons of ore in May of $31,000 gross value.

Colorado Spring, August 4.—On the Lady Stith claim, belonging to the Stratton's Cripple Creek Mining and Development Company, and located on Globe Hill, is to be found without doubt one of the largest ore bodies ever encountered in the Cripple Creek district.
While the great open pit has been broken for over 100 feet wide and the ore simply quarried out, the extent has not been ascertained, for not at a point 150 feet east of the dip and about 5 feet south at another point, everything is found to be ore.
A high-grade streak, showing considerable gold, has been found in the ore and there is every indication that instead of the place being known as the greatest low-grade ore shoot, it will be proved to be a shoot of more than average value. The work of development is being pushed as rapidly as possible, the ore being opened up at various points, which will insure a greater production wherever the lessee so desires.

Colorado Springs, Aug. 25. William Fitts, formerly undersheriff of El Paso county, operating under lease a portion of the Lady Stith and Deerhorn claims, owned by the Stratton estate, is now sending out practically as much ore as any other lessee operating on property of this vast estate. He is shipping in the neighborhood of 900 tons, with a gross value of from $20,000 to $25,000 per month.

Colorado Springs, Nov. 24.—Geo. L. Keener, who is operating a lease on the Globe and Lady Stith, belonging to the Stratton estate, and located on BullGlobe Hill, is now making a production of a car of ore each day of smelting grade values. The ore is being broken near surface, where the lessee has encountered both an oxidized and sulphide vein of mineral that is returning values of around $60 to the ton.

It will be remembered that this lessee during several months of last summer shipped out over 1500 tons a month, which gave average returns of one ounce to the ton. This ore was broken in a 30-foot vein, the ore being simply gouged out, loaded into wagons and shipped. However, this large body of ore pinched.

The Lady Stith, of the Stratton Estate on Globe Hill, worked under lease, shows a remarkable body of medium grade, which is making a steady and gratifying profit. The development of this large ore body in a region poorly prospected was an event of 1904.