Turner decided hydraulic mining was the best way to utilize the claims, and conceived the idea for a canal and flume to bring abundant water from the San Miguel River for the task. The company was managed by Turner, a somewhat mysterious figure who had reportedly gained experience in hydraulic mining in California. In 1887, Lone Tree sold its claims to the Montrose Placer Mining Company, which consisted of investors from East St. Lone Tree engaged in conventional placer mining on one claim, using limited water from nearby Mesa Creek. The five mining claims were filed from 1883 to 1885 by the Lone Tree Mining Company, a group of Salt Lake City investors. Instead, it only reached the southernmost of those claims, and never went farther. Turner’s company built seven miles of flume, and planned to construct another three miles to reach the northernmost of the company’s five mining claims along the Dolores River. And it required more than a year before the flume was partially completed. “The total cost will be about $75,000 when finished, and it is expected to be completed within a few months.”īut the Journal was also wrong. “This work will show how easy it is, when backed up by enterprising capital, to bring water … to points which were always thought to be inaccessible,” the Journal said in May 1890. A year earlier, the national Engineering and Mining Journal had been equally enthusiastic. Turner wasn’t the only one to tout the promise of the wood-and-steel engineering marvel that clings to the rock high above the Dolores River. Gold production wasn’t as great as hoped, and Turner’s company was in constant financial turmoil. Turner’s prediction proved incorrect, however. “Washing (of gravel and rock) has been in progress for the past 10 days,” the newspaper reported, based on information from Turner, “and everything looks promising for a speedy and profitable return to the company.” In May, 1891, Nathaniel Turner - manager of the firm that had recently completed the hanging flume in Dolores Canyon - optimistically told the Grand Junction News that the flume was operating just as intended to mine for gold. From The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Bob Silbernagel):

Mining water flume