Principal Producing Cripple Creek Mines - 1898:

Name:
Owner: Union Gold Mining Co.
Capital:
President: E. S. Johnson
Vice-President:
Secretary: C. H. Morse
Treasurer: C. H. Morse
Superintendent: C. H. Huggins, Altman
Manager:
Lessees:
Description:
Employes:
Contact:
Notes: own Pike's Peak, Orpha May No. 2, etc.

Union and Colorado Mining Stocks.
4718. (Schenectady, N. Y.) Please inform me regarding what you think of the Union gold mines as an investment? What gold mine stock do you consider the best for an investment? What is a good low priced stock for a speculation?

Ans.: The Union Gold Mining Company owns 35 acres of patented ground on Bull Hill, which has produced $950,000 and paid over $84,000 in dividends. The entire property is being worked under lease at royalties ranging from 30 to 50 per cent. The company is capitalized at 1,250,000 $1 shares. The stock is very favorably regarded in Colorado, and was quoted at about 44c. on January 19.
It would be invidious to single out one particular gold stock as the best for an investment, but, among others, may be mentioned Elkton, Isabella, Portland, Vindicator, Gold Coin, etc. The same remark applies as to a good low-priced stock for a speculation, as there are a number of about equal merit, on the best selection from which probably no two equally well informed persons would exactly agree.

Cripple Creek.—The Western Investment Company, operating a dozen leases in the district and which is the heaviest producing leasing concern in the camp, has made another important strike in the Orpha May on Bull hill, at a depth of 1,000 feet. The vein is 2 to 3 ft. wide and assays $30 to $300 per ton.

Cripple Creek, Colorado.
Successful Leases.
The Western Investment Co., same leasing co. as operating the Specimen claim of Stratton Estate, is also driving at a depth of 800 ft. east and west of the Orpha May shaft for the extension of the Lucky Guss veins.

Denver, Colo.—What is believed to be the richest ore ever uncovered in the Ophir May near Victor was encountered by lessees last week. The streak is eight inches wide and is worth several thousand dollars a ton. The lessees began work on the property only a short time ago, and had drifted about eight feet when the bonanza stuff appeared.

An extensive plan of development work has been undertaken by the sub-lessees in the Orpha May property on Bull hill, they working under J. H. White and associates, who have the main lease.

The Orpha May mine on Bull hill, one of the first mines to be discovered in the Cripple Creek district, now owned by the Stratton estate, has been started up by J. H. White & Co. of Colorado City and the first shipment sent out.

Operations will be resumed shortly in the Orpha May claim on Bull hill, owned by the Stratton Estate, according to advices from Colorado Springs.

White & Co., who have a lease on the Orpha May, one of the Stratton estate properties, expect to start work soon.

White and associates, operating the Orpha May, on Bull hill, one of the Stratton estate properties, have opened up the old ore shoot on the 600-foot level.

After much dead work completed, A. F. Brown has opened up an ore shoot 50 ft. from surface on the Orpha May.

Ralph Inman, his brother, Joseph Inman, and Herbert Davy, all of Goldfield, leasing on the Orpha May property, have opened a seam of sylvanite on the 500-ft. level, from which the richest of the ore is being racked and the regular vein, worked four ft. wide, shipped without sorting.

Stratton’s C. C. M. & D. Co.—This company has given orders to equip the Orpha May shaft with machinery, and preparations are being made to this end. The property has been closed down for a couple of years. There is said to be a considerable amount of ore in sight.

Three ounce ore is being mined at the Orpha May claim of the Stratton estate on Bull Hill, the bulk of the ore coming from the 150-ft. level.

Orpha May—While extending a drift at a depth of 120 feet, a streak of mineral has been encountered carrying twenty ounces in gold. The strike is in block No. 197 and is under lease to I. Schiele and associates.

Orpha May—This property, owned by the Stratton Estate, is sending out three carloads of $35 ore.

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 that in the old Orpha May the greatest amount of drifting and cross-cutting has been done, a total of 20,210 feet of work.

The Orpha May Reveling in Richness
The Orpha May is in good ore and the mine in good shape. The report of a strike made yesterday and so stated in The Times was correct. It was kind of quiet, every-day strike, however, and nothing to make an inordinate amount of noise about—a nine-foot vein with eight inches of stuff on the foot-wall that shows value of a thousand or two dollars to the ton.
The mine is now being worked principally at the third and fifth levels, the former at a depth of 170 feet, the latter at 275 feet. From the 170-foot level drifts have been run thirty feet north and fifty-five south. At the 275-foot level about 400 feet of drifts have been run north and south. Forty-five men are employed and they are getting out about twenty-five tons of ore each week.

The Orpha May Reveling in Richness
Six tons of ore sent to the smelter a few days ago from the Orpha May are said to have averaged eighty ounces per ton.

SOME OF THE WEEK'S SHIPMENTS.
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WEEKLY SHIPMENTS
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Some of the Ore Sent Out From Cripple's Mines.
The following shipments were made last week from the Union territory via the Orpha May;
2¾ tons averaging $28.39
3½ tons averaging $36.10.

DEATH OF CHARLES A. KEITH
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Fell One Hundred and Forty Feet in Union Shaft of Orpha May Yesterday.
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DIED IN HALF AN HOUR
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Brave Battle for Life When Within Five Feet of the Collar of the Shaft.
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NEVER REGAINED CONSCIOUSNESS
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One of the Best Known and Most Successful Men of the Gold Camp.
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Charles A. Keith, one of the best known and most prominent citizens of Cripple Creek, fell 140 feet in the Union shaft of the Orpha May at 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon, and was so badly injured that he died in half an hour.
Mr. Keith had been down in the mine inspecting it, and at 4 o'clock concluded to return to the surface. He hooked the cable to the bucket himself on the 145-foot level and gave the signal to hoist.

When within five feet of the top the bucket was in some unaccountable manner released, and crashed down to the bottom, the engineer at the same time noticing a sudden swaying of the cable, which lashed from side to side in the shaft, and the rattling of chains, which told him that something was wrong.
No one saw the tragic event, and the bruises on the body of Mr. Keith mutely tell the story of his battle for life and his subsequent death, which the entire district will mourn.

Mr. Keith tightened his grasp on the cable, and in doing so the flesh was torn from his right hand, which was badly lacerated. In the swaying of the cable, he must have struck the side of the shaft and been rendered unconscious, and it was at that time that his grasp was released and he fell downward into the shaft.
The impact when he struck the bottom broke his left foot and his right arm, while he was badly injured on the left side, in the region of the heart, and there is a deep gash in his right temple where he struck the bucket.

Superintendent Dan McDonald immediately fastened another bucket to the cable, which was lowered, and tenderly lifting the bruised and unconscious man, gave the signal to hoist.
All that man could do was done for him. Rough miners became as tender as women, and tears flowed from every eye.

Medical aid was summoned, and a telephone message was sent to Dr. Whiting to repair at once to the residence of Mrs. Keith in this city and break the news to her, for she is in a delicate condition.
Mr. Keith was beyond all human aid, and his life was ebbing fast, and at 4:30 o'clock, surrounded by friends who hastened to the point as soon as the news of the accident became known, he expired, quietly, without having regained consciousness.
The remains were immediately conveyed to Cripple Creek.

No arrangements for the funeral will be made until the arrival of his brother, E.W. Keith, from Leadville, to-day.

No one knows how the accident occurred. The cable did not pull out of its socket, and was equipped with a safety hook, but in some manner it slipped, with the result above recited.
Mr. Keith was one of the most prosperous and best known men in the Cripple Creek district. He was 32 years of age.

He was a partner in the immense transfer business of Keith & Grube, and was operating a number of paying leases, while he was manager of a number of well known properties and was one of the richest men in the district.
He came here five years ago, where his success has been marked by everyone.

He had hundreds of friends and no enemies. He served two years as alderman from the Second ward in this city, and in addition to his many other interests was the local manager of the Hayden Electric Light Co.

He leaves a wife and two children to mourn his loss, a boy three years and a girl five years of age.

The business of the firm of Keith & Grube will be conducted the same as in the past.

Girls' Leasing Company—The girls have given up their lease on the Orpha May, after sending out two cars of milling ore.

Stratton's Independence M. & D. Co., the American Eagles shaft, on Bull Hill, is now 1500 ft., the John A. Logan shaft, is down 1500 ft., and Orpha May shaft is down 1500 ft.

The Orpha May vein is forty feet wide. It includes too other veins each three feet wide, fifteen feet apart, the interval filled by cross-seams of quartz carrying ore worked all together and valued at $8 per ton. Six ore-shoots have been opened averaging each 50 feet in length, pitching south.