On Globe Hill the geological conditions were perfect for the opening of great ore bodies Mr. Stratton thought. 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.
The Lady Stith 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.
On the surface there is a great mass of thoroughly oxidized ore that averages $20 to the ton.

W. G. Rice, the present general manager of the Stratton company, is now figuring on installing a huge cyanide mill on the hill and treating the mass of ore, which will mean an enormous saving to the estate over the present manner of shipping to the mills.
There is little doubt but that the mill will be a great success, and for the very reason that other parts of the hill yield rock that is thoroughly adapted to the cyanide process. General Manager W. G. Rice is striving hard to make of the Stratton properties an estate that will fully justify the dreams of the late owner.
Mr. Rice took charge of the company as general manager on the first of June 1901. His business ability soon won for him the respect and admiration of everyone. After a personal examination of the properties Mr. Rice started the work of the mines, and from the first month the great corporation was on a paying basis.