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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1881)
a MINING IN EASTERN OKWiON. It it the belief of those well-informed npon the subject, that mining in Oregon will take new departure during the present year. Hitherto, mining in Oregon, ha been mostly among sur foes diggiugii, and ha not risen nhove thedignity of the hydraulic hose. The ra of the long-torn and rocker, has long since panned by, and those primi tive implement are used chiefly by the unconverted Mongolian, whose " smile ii childlike ami bland." The quart.) ledge of eastern Oregon have long been celebrated for the high grade of rock produced, but the nr row newt of the veins, ha hitherto pre vented them from being worked at a profit. The Connor creek mine, in Maker county, owned by S. G. Heed, Jno. A. Paull and Joseph Mvrick, was an exception to this class. The vein is over ix feet in width, thus relieving them from quarrying any waste rock. What the yield of the mine has brer, no one know, for it ha always been a close corjMiration, and it owner have never allowed it to be listed on the ttock lioard in San Francisco. The success of thi mine caused a new activity to spring up among the veteran proector of that section, ami we may be prepared for extensive discoveries in that region a toon as the snow goc oil the ground. Somewhere in the tributaries of Olive creek, near the boundary line letwccn the counties of Baker and Grant, lie a body of argentiferou galena, similar to that lound at, I' iodic, Eureka and the other large town of eastern Nevada. Thi one ha Wen sampled and assayed somewhat extensively in the past four months and goc front 35 to 58 per cent, of lead. In tome place it shows at high a $30 in gold to the Ion, while In other localities, it contain more silver than gold. A imilr deposit has been found in Union county, with silver going a high a $io( to the Ion, while the traces of gold are barely discerni ble. Across from Olive creek, about eight miles, are the Granite creek ledge, of an entirely different character of ore, Wing ihe " ruby ilvcr,n found in southern Idaho, This is a 44 roast ing ore," ami ha to W burned before crushing. The lleagle brothers, whose mine U aWut two mile from the M Monumental," have tlte U-t of these THE WEST SHORE. ledge, the vein being over four feet in width. One hundred tons from this yielded $10.50, mid a second crushing of one hundred tons, yielded $105.25, So far, the Monumental 1ms not been worked to any great degree of profit, but the ledge widens gradually. Eastern Oregon offers to capitalist two peculiar advantages not possessed by Nevada, and which contribute ma terially to the economical and success ful working of mines. Wc allude to the splendid water power and abundant supply of wood, enjoyed by the tribu taries of the Grande Ronde, Powder and Burnt river. The gulches all bear abundant supply of pure water, free from any refractory mineral substances, and the pine wood is so abundant, that four dollars per cord is over the average price. Just contrast this with Nevada mining. At I'ioche, the same sort of wood is worth $16 per single cord and by the thousand cords. The nar row guage road from I'alisades carries Evimstou coal to Eureka for fuel, but for which those mines wiild be lying idle to-day. In the Cornucopia district the Leopard mine declared dividends so long as the wood lasted, but was obliged to shut down in 1877, because there was no timber within forty-two miles, and the cost of hauling wood to smelt ore, cut oil" the profits of the mine. No such contingency can occur in either Maker or Grant county. It is not always the richest quart that makes the best paying mine. Mining upon scientific principles must lie conducted with economy, or it can not prove lucrative. From what wc have been able to glean from parties Wttcr posted than ourself, we arc justi fied in saying that the mining of these ledge will W profitable, and that Ore gon i rapidly advancing as a bullion producing Mate. A geological survey of that section would W of untold bene fit lo our state at this time, but Oregon cannot afford the expense, and there is no private citizen who can afford lo ad vance the money for it. Hence we must "learn to lalwr ami to wait;" but wc don't think we will have to wait very long for the dawn of a new mining era in our already wealthy tate. Why it Hymen alway represented a Waring a torch?" asks the Moston Post. That' easy enough. It' a hint at to who thall build fire. February. 1661 COUNSEL AND CAUTION. As our caption would imply, we feel moved at the present moment to give the good people of our sovereign state, a few words of wholesome advice well seasoned with a due allowance of cau tion. Through and in consideration of the World's Fair, to be held at New York during the summer of 1SS3, it is pretty certain that strenuous efforts will be made by the constituted agents of the various immigration societies of our western states and territories, to secure their own quota of emigration which this fair will cause to leave Europe for our shores. That the fair will provoke a mighty influx of settlers from the Old World, nothing can be more certain. It may not be generally known by the masses of our people that this very ob ject is one of the moving elements in the underlying machinery of these great movements. Eastern capitalists themselves have large land interests in the west and northwest as well as in some of the Pacific states and territo ries. My inaugurating these monster cxihitions of our facilities, they count on inducing thousands of well-to-do European husbandmen to come over here and purchase their lands that are now not paying the interest on invested capital. Much of this financial ma chinery has already been set' in motion, though for the most part, as yet, only in a oit of sub silentio way, the active agents of each interested party think ing, very naturally that they have gotten the start of everybody else. Governor Perkins of California, how ever, comes out publicly and boldly in his recent message and appeals to the people ol his state to begin operation .it once in this good work. He pro poses that the district agricultural socie ties report immediately to the state agricultural societies everything of im portance relative to the inducements offered to settlers in their respective localities. The amount of wild and improved lands in market, the price per acre, kinds of soil, adaptability to different crops, nearness to railroad or water transportation, chaiactcr of mar kets, etc.; the approximate supply of timber and water, healthfulncss, climate, rainfall and temperature, etc., etc., are matters of great moment to settler, and these the governor wants collected and prepared in convenient form, ready for