Water Taken Out of Valley Queen - Mine is Being Retimbered - Survey for Water Pipe Lines; Work on State Highway from Pagosa.

Jack Bell was in Denver yesterday.

(By Gen. Frank Hall.)

Very little news has filtered out of the Plator district for some time. The boom that came on in the spring and brought some hundreds of fortune seekers to the camp is heard of no more.

It looked almost like a repetition of the first attempts to build a large camp there in the eighties and early nineties, some of which occurred as early as 1874. But a fair contingent has stuck bravely by the camp and some of them are doing things - no great things, to be sure, but manifesting a disposition to find out whether there is sufficient merit to justify permanent settlement.

By courtesy of Frank A. Wadleigh, general passenger agent of the Denver & Rio Grande railroad, The Post is furnished the notes following as to what is being done down there. He writes. "Perhaps first among the activities of the district is the unwatering of the Valley Queen mine. This is one of the old properties with a good record of high grade output. The character of the vein and strata in the Valley Queen is similar to that of the Mammoth, which undoubtedly lies on the same vein a quarter of a mile to the south. Retimbering this mine will continue all winter and the property wil be ready for the shipment of large quantities of milling ore in the spring.

MINERS TAKE STOCK.

The miners of the Smuggler-Sunbeam company are working under an agreement to take half their wages in the stock of the company. A two compartment shaft has been completed to a depth of sixty feet, and after ninety feet further is sunk this shaft will cut the Smuggler vein. The Alamosa river cuts this vein, which corsses from Platoro to Stunner, at right angles. A 200-pound lot sent to Henry E. Woods' testing plant in Denver showed values of $40 per ton, with a 93 per cent saving by cyanide.

Late this season announcement was made of some rich discoveries by Jack Bell, an old-time Colorado miner, on the divide between the Alamosa and Navajo rivers. With Mr. Bell are associated some prominent Denver men, and a good camp in this neighborhood seems certain with the commencement of operations next spring.

Surveys have been made during the past summer along the Alamosa river for pipe lines, and from estimates made an ample supply of cheap power for mining and milling purposes will be available.

WORK ON HIGHWAY.

Work on the state highway to Pogosa Springs from the San Luis valley is progressing rapidly, and before winter comes the road will be completed to a point about a mile above Stunner. This road is easy grade and its completion will remove a serious drawback to the district in the way of impassable roads.

A series of strong, clearly defined fissures, among them the Miser, Perry and Guadaloupe, which carry high grade tellurium values from near the surface, crosses Cornwall mountain at Jasper. The Guadaloupe crosscut tunnel, driven to cut the Miser and Guadaloupe, which are on the same vein, is about 290 feet in, and will have to go ninety feet further to reach its objective. It will then drain the mines and afford a good stoping area. The present operators have taken from the old workings ore that ran from $15 up to very high values.

NEWS FROM EAGLE.

As to Eagle Camp, word comes down that the Harvey interests at Brush Creek have suspended work for the winter, having failed to find the ore shoots that were leaking, but will probably renew the search next spring. The lessees on the Lady Belle are preparing to sink a winze from their lower tunnel to a depth of 200 feet. From the Dakotas two cars of ore have been sent out to the smelter and others are being loaded. A few frame houses have recently been built at Elkton, a little above the Lady Belle, and prospectors continue to arrive in the district daily.