Page:Report on the geology of the four counties, Union, Snyder, Mifflin and Juniata (IA reportongeologyo00dinv).pdf/225

Rh from which six or seven thousand tons of ore have been cheaply mined. Most of the work, however, has been confined to short drifts near the outcrop, where the ore bed could be readily reached and was found leached to an excellent soft fossil ore. It is highly probable that a large amount of ore still remains untouched between the many ravines centering here, the small size of the bed and the increasing hardness of the ore under good cover rendering its development however more expensive.

Dark red blocks of the Iron sandstone show profusely on the first ridge going north from J. C. Weller’s towards Meiser, and this is the same ridge before noted in the description of Franklin township, which furnished the block ore to the old Beaver Furnace at Paxtonville. There are several additional openings in the Bird’s Eye fossil ore bed along the Middle Creek township line.

The W. Ripka property (formerly Emanuel Duck) has ten different openings on the Bird’s Eye bed, which is here a hard fossil ore, and was being mined during 1888 by S. Krebbs, of Danville, on a 15 cent royalty. The ore mined went to the general market; but mostly to Danville. The bed averages about 8″ and is capped with a hard purplish-red slate and has a floor of greenish slate, both of which adhere so closely as to require every car of ore to be hand-picked at the pit mouth to remove this slate before the ore would be accepted by the iron masters. As this operation practically necessitates the entire attention of one mason at each main drift, it adds considerably to the expense of the ore.

In August, 1888, the output was not over 175 tons a month, furnished by eight miners two ore-dressers, and a teamster, The mining rate was $2.15 a ton, after which the expense of hauling the ore two miles to Meiser station had to be added, as well as the royalty, so that the ore could not have cost less than $2.50 or $2.75 delivered on the cars.

The mine is developed by parallel gangways carried in several hundred yards from the outcrop about 5′ high and 6′ wide. The ore is taken out in consecutive rooms, 18′ wide, everything being robbed from the ends of these