Dr. A. J. Lanterman, having resided in Leadville and at Buena Vista for the past fourteen years, and being everywhere, is recognized as a person of the highest integrity. Since November last, he has spent more than half of his time in the Cripple Creek district and is doubtless second to none in possession of information concerning its resources. He has watched the progress of events with painstaking interest from the beginning, and his simple relation of them constitutes a pretty succinct history of the camp.

The reporter asked Mr. Lanterman; "I heard, before coming in, that the Washington was a good mine, but since my arrival I learn that it has closed down. What about it?"

"That property is on Wilson Creek, near the town of Lawrence. It is three miles from the Anaconda group, which is situated on Gold hill. On the Washington a shaft is down eighty feet. It made one shipment of 1,100 pounds, the returns being very satisfactory to its owners.
It was recently bonded for $80,000 to Colorado Springs parties, $10,000 of which has already been paid. There are, I understand, between two and three carloads in the bins, ready for shipment, but I presume nothing further will be done until the new owners perfect their organization. It is the most southerly developed mine in the district, being four and one-half miles from the Gold King."
I know the Washington vein is a true fissure vein with granite walls, the other one I know about is located in the Blue Bell. In all the other claims I have seen, they all have walls of porphyry.
I am not a geologist or a mineralogist, although engaged in mining for many years. I am not, therefore, bold enough to entertain a theory of the formation of this district. The generally accepted idea, however, is that the porphyry has been thrown out through the fissures in the granite, and the mineralized quartz has formed true fissures in the porphyry."

From visiting the Anaconda Co. workings, I crossed over Bull Mountain to the headwaters of the Grassy, eastward, passed over another divide and followed Wilson creek south to the Washington mine, the most southerly developed property in the district, lying near to the bustling mining town of Lawrence.
I was disappointed in not being able to enter this property, since it and the Blue Bell are the only mines in the district distinguished by granite and porphyry walls, all of the others being porphyry alone.
But the property had just been sold and the shaft house locked up. However, the principal characteristics of this section are easily traced on the surface.
A granite dyke crops out on the surface, extending up the hill in a northeast-southwest direction, and forty or fifty feet from it the porphyry is as plainly discernable. Float everywhere abounds, and I should pronounce this section of the camp a most interesting one for the geologist to visit.

In terms of value of the ore, I had to take other people's statements for as I had no means of positively verifying. From statements made to me by different parties I have that the Washington had $16 to $60 in Smelter or Mill Returns.

The Washington have made shipments or can with absolute safety be relied upon as a shipping mine in the immediate future.

FREMONT, Colo., June 12.—Cripple Creek is proving not altogether a low grade camp. Washington, at a depth of 108 feet, obtained an assay on a quantity of broken stuff of $134 to the ton.

It is reported that the entire property of W. S. Stratton, in the Cripple Creek district, including the Independence, Washington, May Raymond and several other claims, has been sold to San Francisco parties for $155,000.

Principal Producing Cripple Creek Mines - 1898:

Name: Washington Group (Battle Mountain)
Owner: W. S. Stratton
Capital:
President:
Vice-President:
Secretary:
Treasurer:
Superintendent:
Manager:
Lessees:
Description: 125-foot shaft.
Employes:
Contact:
Notes:

Cripple Creek—Stratton's Independence (Ltd.), the British corporation owning 112 acres of patented property, including the famous mines known as the Independence and Washington, staked out by the late W. S. Stratton, on the Fourth of July, 1891, has, through its manager, Charles M. Becker, inaugurated an entirely new and liberal leasing system under which operations outside of company work will be conducted.

The report of this company operating the gold mine at Cripple Creek, Colorado, for the year ended June 30, shows that both the mine and the dump continue to yield profits. It is not necessary to recapitulate the history of this mine, as we have given it on previous occasions.
Of late years, operations have been confined to re-treating the dump by the method described by the manager, Philip Argall, in our issue of November, 1911, and to the working of parts of the mine by the company and by tributers. In 1908 the capital was written down by reducing the shares from £1 to 2s. 6d, and stands at £125,000.
The report now issued shows that the output of ore by tributers was not as great as during the previous year, but that the ore produced by the developments conducted on behalf of the company showed a substantial increase. In all probability the production by tributers will still further decline, and the yield of low-grade ore on company account will increase.
The new vein system, called the 'mill veins,' discovered a year ago, promises to lengthen the life of the company.
The output of ore from the Independence mine was 10,455 tons produced by the tributers, containing gold worth $304,464, and 4550 tons produced by the company, having a content of $116, 518; in addition 1922 tons containing gold worth $48,599, was taken by tributers from the Washington claim, and 1567 tons from the dump containing $35,735, also by tributers.
The net returns from the sale of the ore amounted to $377,480, of which $87,156 was received by the company from its own ore, and $108,752 from royalties.
The company also won 13,019 tons of ore which was treated by the company's plant, containing $67,887, and yielding a profit of $20,784.
At the company's treatment plant, 99,372 tons of dump-ore as well as the 13,019 tons of mine-ore was treated, yielding 18,833 oz. gold.
The profit at the plant was £13,778, the net proceeds from sale of ore on company's account £17,970, and the company's royalty on tributers production was £22,432.
The cost at the mine was £14,122, administration expenses were £6954, London expenses £2209, and allowance for depreciation £3505, leaving a profit of £27,465, out of which £25.000 has been distributed as dividend, being at the rate of 20 per cent.