one.
This crude device served the purpose as long as a wheel could be set
near the edge of a claim on unbroken ground, or along the roadway; but
when all the claims were at the bottom of one huge open pit, it was
obvious that only the outer tier of claims could be worked by this
method.
Then
a haulage system of really remarkable ingenuity was contrived. A
massive timber staging was set completely around the mouth of the mine,
carrying two, and in parts three, platforms, one above the other. The
upper platform was connected by strongly anchored ropes with the claims
in the middle of the mine, and the lower platform in the same way, with
the claims
