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About The Sumpter miner. (Sumpter, Or.) 1899-1905 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 19, 1904)
IswWEaws h VOL. VI. Story of the Big Butt-in Hero follows tbo story of the big butt-iu. Tbo tHlo cnmo to Tbe Minor from tbo mouth of a in iiu wbo kuows. it relntos tbo peculiar ciroum stauces surrounding tbo salo of tbo box mine tlvo yours ago, and deals witb somo of tbo roasous wby Colouol S. W. Ray, of tbo Kiug's oountry up uortb, dropped tbo mine like a bot potato, or, ratber, why Arthur Hill, of tbe east, dropped Colonel Ray like a superheated tuber. (t all happened during the whoop hooray times of Sumpter's incipient boom in the fall of 1800. That par ticular period was replete witb peculiar iuoldeuts relating to sudden wealth and equally sudden poverty. Colonel S. W. Ray, a Cauadiau banker, mado money in Rosalaud and tbo Kootouais in tbo middle 00s. It was easy. Tbo only re quiromont whs tbo purchase of a big mine cheap and its sudden salo for six flguros. When in tho sumuior of 1800, Kay discovered that all tho ohoap big miues in British Columbia had been bought up, he barkened to tho plaint of his friend and fellow subjeot of the then Queen, Ex Governor Charles H. Macintosh, of British Columbia author of that historical milliou-dollar Le Rol miue check and came to Sumpter. There was a lack of osteut'itiousuess about tbe Colonel's arrival thai threw about .his personality the glamour of business.-' From' a moUt suite-of rooms in the old Capital hotel he kept his linger on tbe miuiug pulse of the Sumpter gold fields. Endless and uncountable were the negotia tions inaugurated by him with suudry and divers miners, pros pectors, stock brokers, claim owuers and so forth. He oame within au ace of buyiug tbe Van Auda miue, and withiu a deuce of capturing the Bellevue. . Arthur Hill, of Saiginaw, Mich igan, counts bis money iu the millious. He made it iu sawmills and piue timber lauds back iu the lake country. It was easy. All that was required was to buy au immense tract of timber cheap, cut lumber and sell at top-of-tbe-market price The beit sawmill man in Hill's em ploy wa Simcoe Chapman, who could cut enough lumber from a sixteen-foot, pine log, full of kuots, to build a barn. When Hill dis covered that all the cheap big tiaots of pine land iu Miobigau were SUMPTER, OREGON, Being Also the Re cital of How a Mich igan Man Came Close to a Snug Cleanup in Sumpter. 1 V bought up, ho sout Chapman to J Oregon to iuvost in minus. Somo way, somehow, through somo moans, Chapmau bought tho I box mino, oight miles from Supmtur, paying, it is said, 8ufi,000 in oiihIi. Ono tbird of this sum was Chapman's money. He bought tho in I no itsolf, its tunnels and shaft, its dips, spurs and augles, for Hill. For hlmsulf ho bad oyos but for piue. His part of tbo investment ropresouted timber ou tbe Ibex group. It is said that Chapman im mediately became clamorous for a mill on the ibex. "Hut, sir," ex postulated bis principal, the Sagi naw millionaire, "wbnt do wo want of a mill when wo have so littlo ore?" "Ore! ore!" rospondod Chapman.. "Who euros for oro I want a sawmill t" Colonel Ray was a typical English man tall, military looking, dolibor ato, with regulation sido-whiskers of tho Pickadilly weepers variety, iu voguo forty your ago on Thread needle streot. Simcoo Chapman was a typicHl Yankee cute, voluble, witty, alort. Wby these two ex treme types of men should have foregathered aud become almost churns iu a boumiug camp like Sumpter in '00, 1 odd. Aud yet they dill) Out of their friendship grew a, deal for Ray's purchase of the Ibex. Chapman pointed out that here, at last, was a chauae fur tbe colouel to make 1a cleanup. Here was au opportunity to buy a big miue, instead of investing iu one. Here tbe colouel could operate tbe Ibex, instead of sell it, aud could sit iu his Canadian bauk office aud receipt for gold bulliou shipped straight from his Oregon wine. it required mauy day? for tbe de liberate, calm aud uuenthusiastio colouel to decide. Chapmau talked as he never taked before. He sent for bis son, Fred, wbo was a chip from the old block, aud wbo could himself talk a hole through a grauite boulder. Even these two word-paiuters failed to ruffle tbe oolouel's calmuess aud deliberate neas. Then Chapman recalled one of those mossgrowu old methods used to advantage iu Michigan to coerce a recaloitraut purchaser of piue Jiud into payiug spot cash. He brought a third party iuto the negotiations a mythical inteuding purchaser of tbe Ibex wbo began to send tele grams to Chapmau at tbe rate of oue OCTOBER 19, 1904 a miuute clamorous telegrams, demanding the immediate execution of a deed and tbo receipt of ready monoy. Aud still tht colouel was utimovod a secoud Phineas Fogg. Iu dire srtaits, Chapmau ombodied his mythical telegrapher gave him a local habitation aud natuo, aud caused him to leavo Spokane on a cortalu day bound for Sumpter, with a bagful of gold doubloons aud with his oyo on tho ibex Tho name of this man, according to tho tolegrams which Chapman showed Ray, was Patsy Clark, the Spokane plunger, multi-millionaire miner. Tlioto win method iu Colonel Ray's maduosH. All his calmness was ex terior. Ho really wanted tho ibox wanted it bad but ho didn't have tbo ready uiouoy. All dining tho time Chapmau was receiving myriad telegrams, Ray was secretly keeping tho wires hot betweeu Sumpter aud his home town, with moseages at in tervals to Montreal, Quebec, Toronto, Liverpool, aud dear ovor to Loudon The Boer war was at that time bathing South Africa in blood, aud every couutiug room in tbe British empire felt tho effects. Monoy was haid to get. Only promises were easy. Rut when Colonel Ray learned that Patsy Clark was bonding for Sumpter to kick the Ibex out from under him, his lighting British blood began to get wanner, the gambling instinct, which is inherent iu every man. bubbled to the top and the colonel took a long chance. He closed with Chapman for the Ibex at three hundred thousand dollars $10,000 spot cash (Ray had that uijch ou tap) aud tho balance Iu six months aud a year. It was a good deal, aud all men rejoiced none more tbau Chapman, who saw visions of a big sawmill somewhere iu tho heart of an inexhaustible body of pine timber. As aforesaid, the Ibex cost Hill aud ' Chapman ',fuT,000. 'Eleven mouths had elapsed between their purchase of the property and its sale to Ray. The difference between the purchase aud tbe sale price was $'2:15,000. This, then, was maaiug mouey at the rate of 82.'l,180 por month, or over $770 per day. Oiood wages iu any camp. Colouel Ray, when he signed his 910,000 check aud conti acted to pay 1200,000 iu a year's time, shed his calmuess like au ulster. He was no longer a Phineas Fogg he was a Yankee gambler taking a long chance. Blood cuntiuued to utain the Trausvaal velt. Every kopje battle made tbe world shudder, and every time the world shuddered, British mouey withdrew further into British vaults. By the time the six-mouths payment was due on the ibex, Colouel Ray realized that he was up against it hard. Try as he would, be couldn't "raise tbe wind" iu British financial oiroles. He wai far NO. 9 too loyal a subject of the Quoeu to let Americans in ou tho ground floorr aud the result was that he travoled from Victoria to Ottawa, ftoui Ottawa to Quebec, from Quebec to Loudon aud back again empty handed. Ho fought to the last ditch, but whon tho show-dowu oame, Chapman and Hill took back tho ibox, permitted Ray to retain it one twentieth iutorost, and the in cident passod into histtry. Hill Is stil in Saginaw, Chapman is ruuuing a sawmill down on tho coast, Ray Is In his bauk ofllco in tho British Columbia, and the ibex is still eight miles from Sumpter. A detail not touched upon in tho above recital is that there is a heap of gold iu the Ibox. it's vein iu uairow, but rich; its shaft Is crazy -crooked, but it reaches tho ore. Some day whon there aro no warn uor rumors of wars, some man will sunn up the Ibex, and when this occurs, Colouel Ray will got hia mouey baok as payment for a big butt-iu. SALE OF BUCKEYE MINE FINALLY CONSUMMATED W. II. OleiiHon returned yesterday from Baker City, where he went several days ago to close the deal for the Buckeye group, Cracker Creek district, to a syndicate of Spokane mining men, represented by W. F. Kippeu; which was done, the con sideration being HSf, 000, payable at intervals during the coming year or two. Tho property Is owned by him self aud ,1. N. Donne. It is desig nated in tho deed, now in escrow, as the Crown group. Mr. Kippeu aud his associates took a preliminary bond ou the property some months since, iu order to do a certain amount of work, to show up the ledge This work has beau done, the showing was entirely satisfactory, a cash payment has beeu made, extensive surface im provements are uow being made In preparation for winter work; so it may safely be called a bona fide sale iu which real money will change bauds. Mr. (jloasou carries around in hia pocket a gold button weighing uiiie pennyweights, aud ten grains about eleveu dollars, which ho panned from four aud a half pounds of rock from this ledge, accurately weighed. The Miner has frequently made meutiou of the fabulously rich ore taken from this property. This was a picked sample, of course, but there is two feat of ledge matter that will run MOO. The hoist at the Black Butte is workiug uight and day, while sink ing ou the veiu which furnished tbe Black Butte placers with so much gold. v w I --Aa?.1 , rfattv s&.-