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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 23, 1889)
WEST SHORK. 3!WI Northeast of Baker City, Oregon, a day's ride as travel over the mountains goes, is the Cornucopia district. There the bright particular star is the Red Jacket. Louisville men have a mill plant of twenty stamps. The mill runs night and day, grind ing out 50,00O per month. The ore of the district is like that which abounds all around Baker Ctty. There is some free gold, but the bulk of the product 1b sulphurets. To get the shin ing yellow out of the unpromising dirt requires elaborate and expensive machinery. There are half a dozen mines which the owners have opened up sufficiently to show the character and extent of the ore. While waiting for capitalists to come in and buy, these owners work along, shipping a car load of picked ore from time to time, as their needs press them. The sulphur ets are found in veins from two and one-half to six feet thick, and the veins assay from $20 to $00 a ton. The opportunities which these mines present are not for bonanxa mining, but for fair and sure returns on invested capital. The Red Jacket has tunnels of from 200 to 300 feet, and they show a vein six feet in thickne'S. One of the steady producers 1b tiie Sanger, in what is known as the Sparta district. The principal owner is C. M. Sanger, of Milwaukee. Interested with him are several Cali fornia and eastern men. The yield is from $4.r,000 to $00,000 a month. The Sparta diBtiict lies between Baker City and the Cornucopia mines. The success of the Sanger has led to nego tiations between eastern men of means and the owners of sev eral claims. The Del Monte, Oro Dell, Little and Big Pittsburg are among the mineB for which mills are likely to be erected this winter. Thirty miles southeast of Baker City is Connor Creek. In the stock markets of the country the Connor Creek Mining Company is never heard of. The plant consists of a twenty-stamp mill, which bai been in comtant operation for fifteen or sixteen years. It turns out 175,000 a month. The mining company consists of Sim Reed, a Portland capitalist, and John A. Faull, a mining man of San Francisco. The Con nor Creek mine is one of the few in the Baker City region han dling free gold ore. At the Baker City mint, so called because juleps are coined there, a very large collection of ore specimens is on exhibition. The samples from Conner Creek are finest of all. tlold, In threads and bands and little chunks, is imbedded in the purest of white quarts. Hie greenest tenderfoot knows that ha ha found the genuine stuff the moment he secB one of these speci mens. But the tenderfoot can hardly believe that the fragment of rock which he holds within his band, almost Inclosed within his grasp, contains $100. There are three pieces of the Connor Creek quarts, which together are about as large as a man's two fists. They contain $300. Richer gold quarts than some of this Connor Creek is seldom found. On the GM-foot level the miners struck a spot of almost Incredible richness. F.leven hundred pounds of the ore, a Httl more than half a ton, yield ed $44,000. There is some of the Connor Creek quarts In which no gold can be detected with the eye, yet wtien put through tho mill it gives from $10 to $20 to the ton. No formation of sul phurets is found In this quarts. In the mint collection is a fragment from the Cornucopia ore, which, if there was enough of it, would give $T)0,000 to the ton, but it has to yield flrrt place to Conndr creek. Orcss island, the largest of the San Juan gr'X'P. In PkH wind, is making quite a reputation as a producer of fruit. W ith soil strongly Impregnated with lime, phosphates and Hash, th a climate warmer than that of the other mainland, It gives promi of becoming the most noteworthy place on the Pacitlc coat for fruit raising. At the present moment its apples ami lrs are known all over the coast as the finest fruit raised. small fruits, like strawberries ami hlacklierriea, obtain the highest prices in the Victoria and Port Townsend markets, and its prunes rank as high as any raised in Oregon or Washington, Besides this, peaches, grapes, figs and apricots are easily raised and are of excellent sise, color and flavor. The principal fruit growers have recently combined and organised a fruit growers' association. The association disposes of lands through Its secretary, gives lectures and debates on fruit grow ing, inspects the fruit of monitors and looks after the market reports. Within ten years the island will be one vast orchard and fruit and vegetable garden. It Is altout the same slse as the Island of Jersey, In the British channel, on wh' -h is a city of 00,000 inhabitants, and will become as famous (or Itl fruits. Orcaa is rspldly becoming the summer result for Seattle and Tacoma, Fort Townsend and Whatcom people. Ita fresh water lakes with superb trout fishing, ita inland harbors with rod and salmon, its mountains with deer and quail, and, last but not least, the bathing bay at Fat sound, where the water la so warm that bathers can swim about for hall an hour and foci no chill, are attractions that no one other place can afford In so compact a compass. The growth of inhabitants during the psst three years has been very larva, the population having doubled in that time. This has Wen chiefly due to the rec ognition by experlenced'ffiilt growers of the fact that Orcas is to be the fruit garden of the northwest on account of soil, climate and formaton. If the value of a thing Is the price It will bring, then there are very few places where lands are selling today for so high a figure a the uncleared lands at Ft sound, which easily bring from $:fl to $'0 per acre. Fruit and diilry farming will pay big, and chicken raising la not to be de spised, but grain w III not pay. On the other hand, small fruits pay well, and, when care is bestowed, mske big returns. One man who came to the Island three years sgo has cleared land, planted berries, and this year sold his crop fur over $1,700. Prunes pay even better, and pears and applet bring In good In comes. At Kasl found there Is a commodious new school house, a very fine church (Protestant Fplacopal), a nlct Methodist church, a good hotel, poelofflce, eU At Orcas there Is a good store, and various lime factories are dotted over the island. Dr. Dawson, minister of mlnei for British Columbia, spent the llrst portion of the summer In West Kootensy, where the Indications of the existence of rich miners! wealth art very good. Considerable development la being dune, but the min ers everywhere are looking for the good timet to comt when by railway communication the era of prosrlty In mining 0 rations shall dawn upon them. Where actual work la being done In mining snd shipping ores, It Is only tht richest Scl mens that sre sent easy for mieltlng, whi tht other oret art left on the dump walling until shipping faclllllee will in ska It remunerative to smelt them. In Instance whert thtledget, though e tenlve, are low gr'le, nothing It being done. Rail way communication and Increased shipping facilities generally are what are wanted to develop the whole mining of British Columbia. Owners of claims and pruiectora art all waiting anxiously, though hopefully, for that lime to arrlvt. Where th present facilities are sulll. lenllo mskc mining pay, the own er of mines have not Ilia necwaa-y capital themselves ami art unable to Influence capltalUti. Tht successful operation of ont or tao mines In the province, I. Dawson thinks, would result in a mining " snd give a great allnmlus for mining opera tious. It would result In a rush of raplLl, and tht provlnct would he prosif ied thoroughly for Dew strikes. Very many nrw discoveries would ba madt aa a consoqnenct. At present