Today's Denver Post has this story on the London Mine selling water to the city of Aurora, CO.
This is a photo above American Flats looking east, down the Mosquito Creek drainage.?ÿ The waste piles in the left center are the North London Mine.?ÿ To the left of the piles are the Mother Lode (MS 204), Emma Nevada (MS 4348) and Silver Monument (MS 15714).?ÿ These claims are involved on one of the more important DoI Land Decisions, Sinnott v. Jewett (33 L.D. 91).
For those interested in the decision which cites a plethora of court cases that uphold the principle of monuments controlling over course and distance, here is a link to an article I wrote in the August 2009 issue of Side Shots.?ÿ The cover is a photo of Mosquito Creek with London Mountain in the background (looking back at the above photo).
For completeness, here is a copy of the Land Decision.?ÿ I appended a scan of the index card for the Mother Lode.?ÿ It was surveyed in 1876 and patented in 1878.?ÿ In 1907, the land owner requested an amended plat because, 'to bring the claim as staked down to the statutory length of 1500 ft" with a reference to a GLO Departmental "N" letter (8324).?ÿ Yep, the land owner got scared that the original monuments showed the claim to be 1635 long instead of the statutory maximum length of 1500 ft and requested that the Land Office permit him to "lop off" 135 ft so that it would fit the insanity that occurred during the Binger Hermann period.
An aside for Dave Karoly.?ÿ Hope you enjoy the photos in the Denver Post article of one of the areas we visited during your 2009 trip.
My avatar is a granite porphyry stone that is Cor. No. 1 of the Mother Lode, which also happens to be Cor. No. 1 of the Mater Lode (insanity lode staked over the top of the Mother Lode).?ÿ It is also Cor. No. 4 of the Towne Lode, the field notes of which state the other two corners are as staked on the ground, NOT as patented.
Water is a large issue around here.
During the oil and gas activity in Harrison County, many people here drilled new wells and pumped from ponds, lakes and other waterways simply to sell water to the operations with trucks running 24/7.
Then there is the deal with our local politicians supposedly trying to broker a deal to provide water to the I45 conduit of water wasters and leaving our rivers and lakes to become mud puddles.
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Water is a large issue around here.
During the oil and gas activity in Harrison County, many people here drilled new wells and pumped from ponds, lakes and other waterways simply to sell water to the operations with trucks running 24/7.
Then there is the deal with our local politicians supposedly trying to broker a deal to provide water to the I45 conduit of water wasters and leaving our rivers and lakes to become mud puddles.
?ÿ
In the late '70s the COE attempted to?ÿbuild a water reservoir in the Oklahoma panhandle.?ÿ By the time they got it built?ÿthe aquifer had been sucked up by all the deep irrigation wells upstream.?ÿ There's a nice dam there now...but only about 15 acres of marsh instead of a reservoir...oops.
Staying on-topic, here are a plan view and cross section view through the mine workings of the "North London Mine"?ÿ The right side of each plot is labeled "South London Tunnel" which is near the mine dump in the photo in the first post.?ÿ The plots are part of a 1912 publication by the Colorado State Geological Survey - Bulletin No. 3, "Geology and Ore Deposits of the Alma District, Park County, Colorado".?ÿ At one point in the past there were different owners for the various levels of the mine.
Thanks for the maps, Gene. Reading those maps it seems the miners are actually chasing those fault lines, or maybe they are far more ubiquitous and the plans only show the relevant ones. Do the miners actually follow the fault lines ??
My fondest memory is the only one I spotted before Gene. It was in a big pile of rocks, I was about 50' away and yelled to Gene hey is that it? He was only a few feet away but from my vantage point with the sun just right it stuck up like a sore thumb. 🙂
Thanks for the maps, Gene. Reading those maps it seems the miners are actually chasing those fault lines, or maybe they are far more ubiquitous and the plans only show the relevant ones. Do the miners actually follow the fault lines ??
The London Fault trends from the NNW to the SSE for several miles.?ÿ The fault is not vertical, but about 20?ø from vertical (dip is 70?ø to the NE).?ÿ The fault was later mineralized with an average width of?ÿ approx. 18".?ÿ
Here is a description of the London Mine from the above referenced bulletin.?ÿ The author was a professor at the Colorado School of Mines.?ÿ I have his 1893 Manual of Instructions on mineral surveys.?ÿ He was a U.S. Deputy Mineral Surveyor in the 1890s that worked in the Cripple Creek district.
If you want I can post the chapter on ore deposits of London Mountain and Mosquito Gulch that explains the faulting and vein structures in greater detail.?ÿ The two maps I posted are from this chapter.
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My fondest memory is the only one I spotted before Gene. It was in a big pile of rocks, I was about 50' away and yelled to Gene hey is that it? He was only a few feet away but from my vantage point with the sun just right it stuck up like a sore thumb. 🙂
Dave,
I sure enjoyed your visits.?ÿ When your grandson is a bit older you might have to plan another visit.?ÿ Is this the stone you found, Cor. No. 1 of the Emma Nevada (MS 4348)?
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That looks like it.
If you want I can post the chapter on ore deposits of London Mountain and Mosquito Gulch that explains the faulting and vein structures in greater detail.?ÿ The two maps I posted are from this chapter.
?ÿ
Thanks, Gene. Just an observation on the faults.?ÿ
