Bolivia Mine

Work on the Bolivia
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Steam Plant and Air Drills Being Put on By the Company.

A plant of machinery consisting of a 50-horse power boiler, a 40-horse power hoist, and two air drills is being placed on the Bolivia claim, owned and operated by the Dorcas company.

The Bolivia is located about a mile this side of Gillett, just below the Lincoln mine.

The development work already done consists of a shaft 100 feet in depth. The shaft is vertical, and is calculated to cut the vein at a depth of 200 feet.

The vein on the surface made a showing which the company thought justified a deep shaft and a plant of machinery.

Morning Times (Cripple Creek, El Paso County)
1898 Sep 09

Big Ore Lies Ahead
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Bolivia Will Now Go to 700 feet.
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What The Diamond Shows

Three Hundred Feet Below The Present Depth There Is Marvelously Rich Ore - Will Sink For It - Dividends By The Anchoria-Leland And Portland

On the Bolivia mine, near Gillett, it has been determined that there is a body of immensely rich ore at a point 300 feet below the present bottom of the shaft.
How large a body it is cannot yet be determined, but it is there, and it is rich.

The company will now sink the shaft to a depth of 700 feet and get at it. The company has for some time been exploiting the rock below the bottom of the shaft, which is 400 feet deep, with diamond prospecting drills.
A few days ago the core showed that the drill had entered a body of enormously rich sylvanite. Of course there is no means of knowing how wide the chute is, but the management, being sure that high values are to be found, will at once put the shaft down another 300 feet to catch the ore.

The Bolivia is well known as a mine which has a big steam hoisting plant, air compressors and machine drills, and never a pound of ore.

The claim lies about a mile and a half to the west of Gillett, and nowhere near any of the big producers. The company has plenty of money back of it, and can easily sink the shaft to the required depth.
If the ore body proves to be extensive, the result will be another appreciable widening of the recognized gold belt of the Cripple Creek district.

Morning Times (Cripple Creek, El Paso County)
1898 Oct 13

Three Shifts At Work
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Said To Be Have Found With A Diamond Drill - Other Properties Adjoining The Bolivia Preparing To Put On Heavy Machinery.

The way things are humming at the Bolivia, on Galena hill, is almost positive proof that the story that has been current for several weeks to the effect [?] that the diamond drill used there for some time had cut into a big body of high grade ore was absolutely true.

All that the local management will say is that instructions are being followed, but add they expect to be shipping plenty of ore before the end of the year.
Just at what depth pay was found with the diamond drill cannot be learned.

Morning Times (Cripple Creek, El Paso County)
1898 Oct 19

Forty-two Feet Of Ore That Will Pay
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What the Diamond Drill Is Credited With Finding in Bolivia Ground.

Three shifts of men are driving a cross-cut east as rapidly as possible from the bottom of the Bolivia shaft on Galena hill. The depth of the shaft is 420 feet.
From what is believed to be a perfectly reliable source, The Times learns that the diamond drill that was used in prospecting the property was started west at first and driven for 300 feet, but at no place did the core show any values.
Then it was started directly east and before it stopped had gained a distance of 320 feet. At 250 feet pay was found, and according to the core 42 feet of ore was passed through before country rock was again encountered.

On this enormous body it is positively asserted that no assay under $14 was ever had, and from that on up as high as $64.
One man not connected with the company got a piece of the core, and his assay showed a value of $20 to the ton.

Of course, until the vein is cut, it will be impossible to tell the width of the fissure, as it is possible that the diamond drill, instead of passing through the ore at right angles might have run almost with the vein.
In any event, however, it is probable now that the Bolivia may become a great property.
As the company now operating it has already spent a little more then $90000 on it, they are certainly entitled to a mine, and if they get it, how all the country north of Cripple Creek will boom!

Morning Times (Cripple Creek, El Paso County)
1899 Jan 01

Only things I now find is some text under a "sales pitch" for how great Gillett is about how the manager of the Bolivia mine in spite of not having to much luck still keeps digging as he knows there are great values down below. And how he have hopes for other companies to help in covering the expanses for dewatering - which sort of indicates a water problem.
Also, another place in that issue I find a list over depths the mines has reached, the Bolivia is mention having a depth of 420 feet.

Morning Times (Cripple Creek, El Paso County)
1899 Dec 31

Only thing I could find was that Bolivia is mention on the list over mines and their depth, still listed as having a depth of 420 feet. Which to me indicates things are not going very well...
This is the last I can find, but the online newspapers database is only reaching to march 1900 and only for one of the many newspapers in the District so stuff might show up to my attention down the road...

Fairplay Flume (Fairplay, Park County)
1907 Jan 18

Cripple Creek Morning Times, 01 Jan 1898⁽¹⁾

Bolivia Mine
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Operations of James Parfet and His Associates, near Gillett, Colorado.
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The Dorcas Mining, Milling and Development Co. was organized in August 1897 with Frank B. Hower as president. J.M. Hower, Jr as secretary and treasurer. The board of directors are Frank B. Hower, J.M. Hower, Messrs. Burnes, Taylor and James Parfet.
The property of the company consists of five patented claims. - The Phoenix, Bolivia, St. Joseph, John Kyle and Gurley, besides the Summit tunnel now in 400 feet, and six claims now undergoing patent.

The machinery consists of a double 7x10 Fairbanks-Morse hoist and a 50-horse boiler, together with a 12x12 Norwalk compound air compressor with four power drills.
A number seven Cameron pump on the ground is capable of handling the water to the depth of 400 feet.

The underground work consists of a well-timbered shaft 200 feet in depth, where the second station is now being cut. At the 100-foot level a substantial station was put in and cross-cuts driven 82 feet to the east and 58 [?] feet at the west.
Five well-defined veins have been exposed, ranging from 2 to 12 feet in width, and assaying from $8 to $20 per ton. In the shaft at 85 feet from the surface a phonolite dyke six feet in thickness was cut, showing a nice contact vein on both sides. This dyke was comparatively flat and dipped to the west.
At 130 feet the second dyke was cut. This dyke, with it's vein matter, was 20 feet thick. Good assays where taken at this point.
It is the intention pf the company to again cut this dyke by a cross-cut at the 200-foot level. Very little water has as yet been encountered in the mine.

The Kyle and Gurley are the two most promising claims on the hill, and show more float on the surface than can be found on any other portion of the hill. This float shows an average value of $8.
A vertical shaft 80 feet deep was sunk on the Gurley, cutting through the phonolite at the depth of 35 feet. No cross-cutting was done below this point.

The Summit tunnel is situated on the east side of Trachyte Mountain, and is being driven in a westerly direction through the center of the mountain, and has a vertical depth at the center of nearly 1000 feet.
Few properties in the entire District have more favorable indications for the amount of work done, and it will, Indeed, be a surprise if the Bolivia will not be ranked among the big producers in the year 1898.
Judging by the equipment and the manner in which the work is being done, the company have every confidence in their property, and are determined to thoroughly test it at the shortest possible time.
The mines are in charge of James Parfet, a man of large experience, and known all over the west as a thorough and competent mine manager.