“We observed the working of the wooden tram-way or railway, and its peculiar advantages, at the Comstock lode, the property of the Boston Mining Association, in Summit county. There are two entrances to this great mine, the principal one about 1,000 feet above the valley, on Glazier mountain, and the other about 700 feet above this. By Capt. Ware, an educated and experienced mining captain, and one of the best practical miners in Colorado, who has charge of the working of this mine, we were informed that the expense per ton, of delivering ores from their mine to the reduction works at the base of the mountain, did not exceed twenty cents. This we could readily understand, after examining the road, which is constructed of square timber, with double track, carrying ore cars capable of transporting about 8,000 pounds each. These cars are so constructed that they dump the load by a mechanical contrivance, when their destination is reached, and the only labor required to keep the trains in continuous motion is that of one man at the brakes. The entire cost of the construction of the road, its cars and appurtenances, was about $3,000, and with this trifling expenditure immense quantities of ore can be transported from the mines to the reduction works at a merely nominal expense. The brake used by Capt. Ware, is one of his own invention, and the entire construction of the road so simple, and yet so secure, and so well adapted to its purpose, that it is well worthy of careful inspection, and should be duplicated in most of the mines, on the mountains surrounding Georgetown, where ores are now transferred by “jack-trains,” at an expense of 810 a ton, for a few thousand feet.”

Source:  The Rocky Mountain Directory and Colorado Gazetteer for 1871, S.S. Wallihan and Co. Denver, page 163