The mines of the Anaconda company are regarded as the greatest wonders of the Cripple Creek district. They consist of three claims on the southeastern slope of Gold hill, the Superior, Great View and Anaconda; one across the gulch, on what I believe is called Little Bull mountainEnnis Mountain [aka Raven Hill], the Rose Maud; and three in Squaw gulch, directly south of Gold hill, the Excelsior, Oro Fino and Grover Cleveland.

The principal developments have been in the three first named, although a shaft is being rapidly sunk on the fourth, the Rose Maud, with gratifying results.

The chief interest in the Superior, Great View and Anaconda is in the manner in which they are being opened, the counterpart of their workings, present and prospective, being found nowhere else in this country, I believe, save at the Father De Smet mine, at Deadwood.

A very extensive dyke of mineralized porphyry runs across Gold hill northeast and southwest, and these claims extend along its coarse their entire length. The apex of the vein is in places scarcely more than six feet from the surface. On the southeast a distinct wall of porphyry is outlined. On the northwest seventy-five feet of prospecting had, at the time I visited the property, failed to disclose any wall.

The company started in on the southeast end-line of the three claims, and are working northwestward, by a series of open cuts and shallow shafts, it being intended to strip the vein, its entire length within their lines, of the shallow surface, and quarry from the top, precisely as granite is quarried.

To a certain depth this of course can be done more economically than any other way, and the future is already being provided against by the running of a tunnel into the hill from the level of the gulch.

At present the development has the appearance of a wide cut in the hillside, as if made for a railroad. Timbering will of course not be necessary, or at least only a small amount of cribbing on the upper side line, to prevent the surface ground from falling into the workings.

There will be, for a long time to come, and until water level is reached, no water to contend with, no timbering and no bad air. The work of extracting the ore will be carried on in the sunlight, the product will be loaded on to wagons at the surface, and transported down to the mill or the railroad in the gulch below.

Thus it will be seen the Anaconda's chief property constitutes an ideal mine.

The Rose-Maud, and the three claims in the same consolidation down the hill and across the gulch, are separate propositions, but if the reasonable expectations of the owners are realized, the Rose-Maud is likely to develops into a bonanza itself.

The vein material which I saw being loaded from the mines on Gold Hill was complex, and I should say that if the same general characteristics continue, the bulk of the product will be shipped to the smelters in the valley, as but little of it, comparatively speaking, is free milling.

There are thin streaks of crystalized quartz found in cavities, resembling some ore I saw taken from the Amethyst mine at Creede; there are also streaks of tellurium, not dissimilar to that of Boulder county, and again rich streaks of coarse free gold.

In seams between the rocks is found considerable quantities of a coarse mineralized gravel, and the manager told me all of this was being shipped, its contents being about as valuable as the quartz or the tellurium.

I washed several pans of this dirt, and found colors, as well as black sand, said to be rich in gold contents.

The Anaconda company owns a fifteen stamp mill, which I have before referred to, at the mouth of Squaw gulch, now running on selected lots of ore, but of insufficient capacity to handle any large percentages of the possible product.

A comfortable office has also been erected at the foot of Gold hill, where some very seductive samples of mineral from the various properties in the vicinity are exhibited.

From statements made to me by different parties, and which pass current on the ground, as to the precious metal contents of the ores, I have compiled the exhibit of values appended, and is given for what it is worth: