A two days' jaunt on horseback took me from Rhyolite hill, on the north, to Grouse mountain, on the south, and from Pisgah, on the west, to Wilson creek, on the east, within which boundaries some four thousand claims have been located.
The greater part of those have nothing more than the assessment work done upon them, and in many instances, this has been so indifferently done, and with such an utter abandon and disregard of the statues, that they cannot be held for a moment to comply with the legal requirements.
But, in traversing Ennis, Globe, Gold, Bull, Tenderfoot, Womack, Mineral and a score or more of hills in the district, sources of Cripple, Wilson, Requa, Squaw and other water courses, I came upon scores of properties that were being developed with more or less vigor and intelligence, some with tunnels or inclines, others with shafts or open cuts, and the owners of each full of hope and expectations.
Among those having already good indications of mineral is the Orphan Belle Mine on Bull Mountain.

CRIPPLE CREEK, Col., Sep. 1.—Early this morning three masked men entered the shafthouse of the Orphan Belle Mine on Bull Hill, and covering the engineer, blacksmith, lander, and helper with revolvers, ordered them into the shaft.

The night foreman was already below. When the mine employes finally came up, fifteen minutes later, the robbers had gone, and taken with them ten sacks of sylvanite ore, weighing sixty pounds each.

The sylvanite had been sorted just the day before by Manager Lornton. The total value of the ore was $5,000 or over $8 per pound.

The Orphan Belle was recently sold to a New York company for $375,000.

Principal Producing Cripple Creek Mines - 1898:

Name: Orphan Bell Mine (Bull Hill)
Owner: Orphan Bell Mining and Milling Co.
Capital:
President: T. S. Hunter
Vice-President:
Secretary: D. H. Imler
Treasurer:
Superintendent: Lessees 1.
Lessees 2.
Lessees 3.
Lessees 4. Richard Fitzgerald, Cripple Creek
Manager:
Lessees: 1. F. J. Crane, Cripple Creek
2. Herington Mining and Milling Co.
3. R. M. Maloney, Cripple Creek
4. Parker & Gardener
Description:
Lessees 1. 90-foot shaft; windlass.
Lessees 2. 140-foot shaft; 60-horse power horizontal boiler; 4-drill Rand Compressor; 8x10 cylinder Mine and Smelter hoist.
Lessees 3. 315-foot shaft; 80 and 40-horse power horizontal boilers; 3-drill Rand compressor; 35-horse power 8x10 friction hoist.
Lessees 4. 75-foot shaft; 85-horse power horizontal boiler; 6-drill Band compressor; 40-horse power 8x10 cylinder Mine and Smelter hoist.
Employes:
Lessees 2. twenty-five employes.
Lessees 3. fifty-five employes.
Lessees 4. fifteen employes.
Contact:
Notes: leased.

TWENTY TON SHIPMENT.
The Orphan lease on the Orphan will to-day send a twenty ton shipment of medium grade ore out.

Cripple Creek— Vidler and associates, leasing on the Maloney workings of the Isabella property, on Bull hill, are breaking ore of better than ounce and a half grade from a vein measuring almost 6 ft. between walls. This vein is under development at a depth of 250 ft. The lessees are sending out on an average of three cars a week.
A heavy monthly tonnage is being made from Isabella ground on company account, and the ore is carrying good values.

A new strike is reported on the Orphan Bell of the Isabella M. Co., on Bull Hill by Vidler and associates, on the 400-ft. level.
This body is said to be 3 ft. in width and average $25 per ton.

Cripple Creek—The Isabella is shipping 1,200 tons per month of smelting-grade ore and 100 tons of dump stuff is run through the mill daily.

Isabella—The August production of the Isabella property was 1232 tons, of an average of about $25 per ton. It was produced entirely by lessees.

An 18-months' lease, with low graded royalties, has been secured from the Isabella Mines Co. on the Orphan No. 2 claim on Bull hill, by Dewar and Nicholson of Cripple Creek.
These lessees have opened up ore of shipping grade in an old abandoned shaft.

Isabella—Dewar & Nicholson, lessees on the Orphan claim on Bull hill, have opened a vein of shipping ore in an abandoned shaft.

Isabella—During October four cars of mill ore from the Ophir shaft of this company where shipped.

Isabella—The leasers on this company's properties will this month have produced approximately 1500 tons of ore, estimated at a value of 1 oz. gold per ton.
A Seattle company has taken a three-years' lease on the mill and tailings dump.

Stockholders of the Isabella Mines company are invited by a circular letter signed by C. M. Carson, vice-president of the company, to participate in the organization of the Isabella Leasing company, formed for the purpose of further development of the Isabella estate on Bull hill.
As set forth in the letter, development on company account has been impossible "because of the advance in price of mining material and labor, occasioned by the "War."

The lease, it is understood, will be granted the new company for a five-year term, with the privilege of a three-year extension, and royalties on ore marketed will be on a sliding scale.
The ground included in the lease extends from the eleventh level of the Lee shaft to the bottom, or fifteenth, level, west from the west sideline of the Orphan No. 1 and includes the Orphan No. 2, Ida Bell No. 1 and 2, Emma No. 1, Comet and Jack Rabbit lodes No. 1 to 4 inclusive, X. J. Gold, Bully, and Tom Thumb lode claims.

It is proposed, according to the circular, to start work on the 15th level of the Lee shaft, taking advantage of a cross-cut 1000 ft. long and to continue the cross-cut 300 ft. to cut the Sump and Buena Vista veins.
The veins would then be cut at a depth of 450 ft. below the Buena Vista and Sump oreshoots that produced approximately three million dollars.
It is further proposed to continue the cross-cut some 200 ft. farther to explore the junction of the Buena Vista and Maloney veins, the No. 2 vein, No. 3 vein, and finally the Emma vein.
All of these veins have produced ore in the upper workings.

Subscriptions to the leasing company stock will be limited to 6000 shares of the par value of $1 each.

The old and well-known Isabella mine, during the active speculation that formerly prevailed in Cripple Creek stocks, was for years used as the basis for numerous stock-jobbing schemes.
Owing to the relative inactivity of this mine for some time past, a movement has been started by stockholders to interest a sufficient number of such stockholders in the proposed Isabella Leasing Co., to be capitalized at $25,000 with shares at one dollar par.
Capital derived from disposal of this stock will be devoted to development of new ground. Ore produced by the leasing company will be charged royalties ranging from 8% to 30%, depending upon grade of shipments.