Wren Mine assay records, page 3

than it had been when we shut her down in 1910. Rather than leave my judgement to chance, I returned several times, just to go over the veins and outcrops, and take more positive looks at the ore as it appears underground. I am convinced that I am correct, the Wren has the earmarks of making a mine, and the advantage of having ore that can be taken out during the development period.After a lot of hard-learned lessons, through some years, I learned that, in mining, I had to be darned cold-blooded and not let hope, or desire, rule over judgement.There is no such a thing as a certainty of any prospect, no matter how good, of becoming a mine. Nor is there any assurance that when a prospect is developed into the mine stage, that it will be a paying proposition.I saw one "sure thing" in northern Arizona. John Hays Hammond had paid $1000000. for it, plus an interest to the owner. The ore was there all right, and it could be sampled on three sides. There was one block of ore worth over $1,500,000, showing. But when Hammond got his mill built and the mine started, the block of ore proved to be three separate ore shoots, that the workings had passed through, making it look like a solid ore body. Hammond mined through the ore shoots, took out about $300,000. caught his mistake and called it deep enough. It was one of those rare strokes of bad luck that just "could not happen." But it did.The reverse happened to me at the Boss mine. I had run tunnels, drifts winzes and raises for an ore body that had been cut by a fault. I ran over 1500 feet of work, but could not locate the ore body. I had a bit of luck, a lot of wet weather, plus an earthquake along the Las Vegas-San Bernardino-Bakersfield fault. There was a cave-in, a very small one, and the rock broke free from the ore, right over the main drift, and not more than 5 feet above it. It netted a small fortune.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------My plan for the Wren is a simple one. The first step will be to build about 2 miles of road, only about l/2 mile of this will be time consuming. My old roads were built for wagons, with stone-walls around a few steep slopes. Those sectmons have to be cut away, the old stone-walls are either gone or too weak to depend upon. It should take around two weeks to get a passable road through. Nothing is left of my main road, which is OK, [with the?] road I intend working over is the one that ran to Constellation and there is a cattle ranch, pens and water there. The rancher has built a road to it, rather kept it up, and all that is needed is to do some grading and fill.Next a temporary camp at the Wren, merely a couple of frame sideded tent houses. Tools and so forth, including a compressor and drills and get started. The track I laid in the hole 47 years ago is still there, as are a few of my old tools.Had the roads remained all right the place would have been gutted of its ore, and none left on the dump. That is a story I shall include in my next book, which I am working on now. All together the cost should not be much. I figure about $5000. will do the trick. Its the tools and equipment that cost now. Fortunately the mine does not need timber, only where it is stoped.