RE: FRANKLIN MINING - FMNJ - History # 3 in Serie - continuation -
The Old Franklin Gold, Silver & Copper Mines & Mill -
The Old Franklin Gold, Silver & Copper Mines & Mill -
History -
* Franklin Mining Company - was established as a Colorado - exploration and mining - company in Est. 1864.
* In 1865, the claims that comprise - The Franklin Mines - were located about 1½ miles north of Idaho Springs and the vein system - that became the ore bodies of - The Franklin Mines - were also discovered that year, with the sinking of the Franklin shaft.
* Between 1865 and 1870 - shafts were also sunk - at the Gem Mine - Freighters Friend Mine - Franklin 73 Mine - Franklin 87 Mine - Alpha Mine - Reilly Mine - Silver Age Mine - Freemen Mine - and Seaton Mines -
that would later be combined - all of the above into -
- * Franklin Mines * -.
To All - Don't underestimate FMNJ backbone - The Great Franklin Mines - Rich Old Mines - the Gold made U.S. Rich from the start -
Ex. 1. Note. Seaton Mines -
at the bottom of FMNJ old Gold Mines list -
History # 3 in the serie - cont. from # 2nd - of Old Franklin Gold Mines - History -
Seaton Gold Mine -
At the bottom of the shaft, the vein was eighteen inches of nearly solid ore, consisting of galena, gray copper, yellow copper, and iron pyrites.
The first-class ore brought $100 to $180 per ton. The second-class ore milled out from $90 to $100 per ton and the concentrating ore ranged from $40 to $50 per ton.
The first class ore assayed at ¾ of an ounce of gold, 170 ounces of silver per ton with 4 to 6% copper.
4.5 The Casino Shaft - (to the right and below the road) has a 500-foot shaft that connects with a 640 foot adit.
It produced considerable amounts of rich telluride ore.
In 1893, the Casino reported 82 pounds of ore that contained 76 ounces of Gold and 18 ounces of silver.
An 82-pound, solid block or ore is about the size of a small watermelon.
Below the road is the Foxhall Tunnel, the lowest portal for the Seaton vein.
Crossing the Bullion-Interocean vein.
We are simply criss-crossing the section as we go down the hill.
The road traverses tightly folded biotite gneisses cut by a few Tertiary porphyry dikes.
Open stope on the right is the Metropolitan shaft. STAY AWAY - from it - Boreas adit is below the road on the left.
The Bride shaft is up the mountain on the right.
The Adits seen across the valley on the horizon are the Ottawa (upper dump) and the Esmeralda (lower dump)
These are located on the east side of Seaton Gulch.
Below in Boomerang Gulch, lies the portal of the Idaho Tunnel that was also called the Rattler Tunnel or Idaho-Bride Tunnel, depending on which company was operating it.
The Idaho Tunnel starts in Boomerang Gulch and heads into Seaton Mountain for over 700 feet.
It crosses nine different Gold veins, with the Bride being the richest.
The Idaho Tunnel was operated until 1945!
In 1880, The Consolidated Seaton Mountain Mining Company
was one of the most colossal enterprises under way in Virginia Canyon.
The property included 25 lodes that were to be intersected by the Tunnel.
The average grade of the ores of the different lodes ranged from $100 to $200 per ton in gold and silver.
The tunnel, in 1880, was 600 feet long and intersected the Inter-Ocean and the Carpenter.
The company organized on a capital of $50,000,000!!!
This same company owed the Colorado Tunnel that opened on Sulphuret Hill, and then was projected to penetrate Seaton Mountain in a different location.
Thomas B. Bryon, the Mayor of Idaho Springs, managed all of this property.
The series of mine dumps on the eastern side of Boomerang Gulch, extending from the bottom of the gulch to the road, are on the Bullion-Interocean vein.
Further up the gulch, but still below the main road is the 1850-foot long Metropolitan Tunnel or Boreas adit that accesses the Metropolitan and Kangaroo veins.
Additional mine workings on the Metropolitan and Kangaroo veins can be seen above the road.
The Kangaroo and the Metropolitan veins were located in 1873 but weren't patented until 1882.
They contained ore ranging in Gold value from .2 to 2 ounces per ton.
Most of the Gold mining was done prior to 1915 -
The Gold Mines were also most last worked to the early 1940s -
when most of the US Miners volunteered for WWII - and didn't returned back to the US Gold Country -
and kept the tradition since most Gold Miners had also volunteered for WWI -
often as soon as the Miners heard the Christian Brothers were in the war -
they put down all the tools and volunteered to help the Brothers & Sisters.
Note. Don't under estimate the Oldtimers - - the US Real Miners - who made - U.S.A. Great.
Franklin Gold Mines -
should be proud to be the owner to one of the first US Great Mines -
i am honored to have owned some shares for long time and been able to - buy more is Great gift - would never sale any ! -
my FMNJ shares will be past on to help next generation -
FMNJ - will soon rediscover what great assets are in the FMNJ Mines safest safetybox -
down below 1000' to the 20000' deepth is saved -
for the modern Hi-tech mining state of art mining methods today -
the Old Timers only got a sniff of the treasures - and still showing theirs sons were to find the Gold -
if You know of any old - Franklin Mines - history -
please contribute - the history often repeat itself - Tia.