KAII BDAV. AI’IUI» II». U»-l.
«¡HANTS PASS DAIIA’ COI KIEB
PACK SIX
Scraps of . Oregon History
Present Deputy
tor finding gold In paying quantities
: had by this time dwindled down to
almost nothing.
Do you know
how to select a
good varnish?
Tho country opened out now and
wo found ourselves In quit« a good
sized valley. Captain Root and my
By Dan
Breon
Having been disappointed in find- self thought we would try for a deer,
Ing pay in Rancharee Creek, a tribu- but soon gave up all hopes on ac-
tary of the Illinois River, we ’con- count of our damaged powder. We
eluded to build a strong boat and go saw plenty of evidence that at least i
down the river in quest of better n hundred head of elk had wintered!
pay. Oar party, consisting of my there. Deer and big black timber
self, Captain O. T Root and a sailor wolves could bo »eon at all times of
Navigation became quite
by the name of Fisher, about the the day.
middle of August. 1N57, with a goou easy to what it had been, and wo
boat well loaded with supplies, em were soon gladdened by tho sight of
barked for the lower unknown river. Rogue River. Crossing over to the
Before proceeding
further with north side we soon found ourselves!
this, in mining on Rancharee Creek in the Boulders Camp, where Ini
June. 1154, Chief John and hl» on-1
we found specimens of pure cop-
If you can remember that famoui
name and the famous Acme Bull's
per. and there is no doubt but that tire force of warriors surrendered
Eye Label you can buy the best var
this was the first discovery of copper to the regular and volunteer U, S.
Thl» »pot Is now the
nish for your needs as well as any ex
in southern Oregon, otto nugget army,
pert. Eor under this label you find a
weighing two pounds of pure virgin town of Agnes*. Navigating Rogue!
River was more like play than what
special varnish for every purpose.
copper.
Made by men who thoroughly under
Proceeding down the river, our wo had boon having. When night ap
stand varnish, in one of the largest
first stop was a few miles above the proached wo camped foj- tho night
varnish works in the country.
mouth of Briggs Creek We found a with no sign of ocean or tide water.
prospect that paid from four to six I have heretofore neglected to men
For 40 years Acme Quality prod
woodwork, your
dollars per day with rocker for a cou tion that Capt. Root owned a largo
furniture. Acme ucts have been the acknowledged
black
dog
that
accompanied
us
on
Qu illty varnishes standard of the industry.
ple of weeks. While there we learn
We know
assure a hard dur
ed that a party of Indians had rob this voyage of exploration, and prov
them. We recommend them. And
able surface.
ed
to
be
useless
except
at
night,
bed several miners’ cabins on Bailee
your neighbors who have used thciu
Creek, getting quite a supply of guns when the big timber wolves would
recommend them.
and ammunition and provisions. The put up a blood-curdling howl and
Fannie,
as
we called our dog. would
Indians were pursued by the Bailee
miners for.several days in the direc venture out a little too far and find
(»Hint» l’w»». On-gon
tion of the Illinois River, but herself being chased on the dead run
finding that the Bailee miners back to catnp by a balf-dozeu or so
were in hot pursuit, the redskins of the big wolves. The early morn
separated and made further pursuit ing found us speeding down stream
impossible. On arriving at Briggs at as rapid a rate as possible, having
Cree kwe discovered that the In lost nearly all our supplies when
dians had been there and gone down the boat was swamped, except for a
the river. Just below Briggs Creek small amount of syrup and flour.
would weigh four hundred pounds,
Boomsrangs.
we entered a canyon about ten miles
Boomerang-like object» are claimed
We were soon gladdened by tho' packed by a strong mule wearing one
by some to have existed In ancient
in length, at the lower end of which near approach to the coast, as evi of thvso saddles.
Egypt and Assyria, and It may be that
we found a large flat covered with denced bp the numerous sea fowls
In the year 1857 waa the time certain bone object» which belonged
grass and large pine trees. Captain and the unmistakable pounding of
that construction t>f 'he wagon road to prehistoric man were uaed In the
Root named the place
Pine Flat. breakers along the beach.
In the
aero«» the mountain» was begun, lam» manner us boomerang«. Tills
We found that the Indians had cross latter part of the day we landed on ;
leading from Creacent City to the II- weapon wus uaed by the Australian
cut the river here in an old battered- the south side of the river not hav
llnola valley In Oregon, but not com buahmen. it average« 2% feet In
up Indian cunoe. Our next discov ing seen a sign of a human being all
pleted until the summer of 1855, an length by 2*4 Incite« In width. It 1»
ery was what was afterward called day. Here we found about one hun
made of the green wood of the acm la,
event
that In a short time sent the
Collier Creek, coming in from the dred miners mining the black sand
or some other hard wooti, treated with
Mexican
and
his
pack
mules
to
east
fire. In India, boomerang» are made of
direction of the coast. Here we along the beach, and apparently do
found quite a large abandoned In- ing well at It. We found Mr. Peter ern Oregon and Idaho, to do packing Ivory or steel, and are generally ali-kle-
In the new mines of that country. •11« ped.
dian camp, the Indians having evl- Oregon wa.« keeping a well supplied ,
My
companion Fisher, and myself,
dently gone down the river. After miners’ supply store.
1 will here'
here parted, ho going to work on the
spending two or three days prospect mention that there were three of the I
wagon road, 1 going back to Joseph
ing this creek and the nearby river Oregon brother»—Peter, John and !
About the
ine county in Oregon,
and finding nothing that would Dan- who were Josephine county's
first person
I met on arriving In
we continued on down the river, earliest merchants, doing business
soon entering into a terrible hell on Althouse and Sailor's diggings ' Kerby was Captain Root, who came
near losing 111« life In his attempt to
gate of a box canyon.
The water We were not long In discovering that!
Creek from the
was at a dead standstill the entire the beach mines were quite limited J reach Rancharee
length of the terrible gorge, and in and that there waa no room for us. i mouth of Rogue River over the
The miner» of Ranch-
places the way was blocked with lm- So we broke up camp, Captain Root | mountain».
aree and I’lersatil Bar »aid thnt when
mense rocks so close to each other going back through the mountains
Captain Root reached them tho
that we had to unload cur boat and to Rancharee Creek, and undertak
emaciated appearance of tho Captain
haul it over, or turn it up edgewise ing that I considered very risky,
and his faithful dog showed very
in order to get It past. Being un while Fisher and myself went over
plainly that they could not have gone
acquainted with the river, we at to Crescent City, a distance of seven
more thnn one or two days more.
times feared that we were trapped ty miles. Thero was a Cherokee In
The distance he had traveled was
In this gorge, and that perhaps a dian at the mouth of the river who
had antlclpat-
big fall In the river might be await owned a fine and well equipped much greater than ho
ed.
ing us, made the matter a very seri whaleboat, and when the wind and
ous situation. After two days of this waves were just right would make
I have written this story of facts
experience we fo tnd ourselves out of the run from Rogue River to Cres as they occurred, as a example of
the canyon and could Bee In all dl cent City and carry express matter. what the early prospector and gold i
l' tfo:i
. I .f only stra. -‘it up, He invited us to go with him, saying seeker had to endure In order to do
as when we were in the gorge. We that he would be ready to go soon, velop the mining resources of tile
soon passed thu mouth of Silver and that he would land us In Cres- Southern Oregon Territory.
Creek, which later on proved to be cent City Inside of six hours, re-
quite a historic mining stream.
marking that it would take us about
prow bi*r<r(>r and
Our thoughts now began to center three days to get there on foot. The
Modern Inventions
on getting out of the place as soon month of the river was In plain view
interosfing each
Timothy—Marla 1 Marla 1 Open the
as possible, as we had found nothing with big white-rapped breaker» chas- door.
vear. It’s up to you to
ing each other in. did not make me
that looked like gold mines to us.
Al Falfa—Kind o’ deaf, ain’t she?«
start now.
Inside of two days the moccasin hesitate long in declining to accept
Tim—No, she ain’t deaf, but tryln'
tracks of Indians began to Increase his kind offer, so Fisher and myself to listen to the phonograph ini' the
at a rapid rae in the sandy places were soon on the road on our own telephone an" the wireless, an' havin'
along the river. Captain Root no way to Crescent City, with no road only two ears It’s hard sometimes to
get her attention.
ticed that I was not m >ch pleased except the beach, and Indian trails
with the appearance of the situation, across the points of mountains that
No Waste Involved
and he said, “if we can only get a made Into the ocean
Arriving at
“When n man any» he hu thrown lit»
hearing with them we can soon have Chetco River we found a man and
peace with them.’’ Just at this time his wife by the name of Miller, where hat In the ring he merely uses u figure
of speech."
HAVE WITH IS
the river was a dead eddy, making we stopped for dinner, and In a
“Of course,” answered Senator Sorg
THE
HABIT GROWS
it easy for us to move along with short time found ourselves partak hum.
“Many n political tile-b>s»er
hardly any noise. Rounding a sharp ing of the first square meal we had wouldn't be so reckless If he had to
bend in the river suddenly brought had In many days. After the meal use a genuine lint." Washington Star.
us within less than one hundred was over Mr. Miller carried us across
feet of the Indian camp.then rose the the river In a model type of Indian
wild savage yells of tho Indians, the canoe, Date in the day found us at
s and little the mouth of Smith River, where
t. Captain there waH a largo number of Indians
Root and his glib use of the Chinook engaged In fishing for salmon, with
language jAov 1 to be of no avail apparently good success. Traveling
whatever. The Indians had a dam up the river a short distance we
constructed of willows the entire crossed and soon found ourselves
I
width of the river with intakes made among the mammoth redwood trees.
of willow at Intervals along the dam In my mind the gigantic redwoods
for the fish to run into. They seem of Smith River were certainly the
ed to be catching an abundance of most wonderful of all trees. A few
fish. Pulling our boat over the dam hours of travel found us in Crescent
we sped on our way down the river. City, a very lively and wide awake
Going but a short distance we ran little town, made so principally be
into another camp, but no Indians cause of its being the seaport where
were In sight, our coming having goods were being delivered to be
been signalled to them by fhe first packed on mules over the mountains
camp we had encountered. So this to the different mining camps in
ended our anxiety about the Indians, southern Oregon and northern Cali
1 for one being glad to have It turn fornia. A man named Stateler was
out just the way it did.
tho principal wholesale merchant of
On the approach of winter this the town, whose house was a very
party of Indians, which consisted of busy place repacking goods to go
about twenty in all, went up the over the mountains.
This packing
Good Lumber lusts longer, makes a better
river to Rancharee Creek and gave was principally carried on by Mexi
looking building and more than saves the
themselves up to a party of miners at cans, who came from Mexico with
difference in cost over poor lumber in the
that place.
[their pack trains already equipped
less labor required to use it.
The river was a continuation of io engage in this particular trade of
bad rapids for some distance, and we (tacking from Crescent City. Their
had the misfortune to swamp our equipment was a Mexican pack-sad
boat on one of them, and lost a good dle called “aparajo, which consisted
part of our supplies, had our ammu of a pad made of good leather and
nition damaged, so that we w.-re un canvas, and well made for packing
Phone 187-.I
able to get any game, of which there all kinds of freight. It was not an
was a great abundance.
Prospects unusual thing to see a safe that
ACMEQUALITY
sell it and we know
Candidate FOR REPUBLICAN NOMINATION
for County Treasurer
OF JOSEPHINE COUNTY
ROGUE RIVER HARDWARE CO.
If nominated and elected I pledge an economical and efficient ad
ministration of the office.
Your support at the Primaries May 1G, will be highly appreciated.
( Paid Advertisement )
“Forest Protection Week,’’ pro
claimed by President Coolidge as
April 21 to 28, is furthered by an
article appearing in the April num
ber of the Volt, Copco’s official pub
lication. The article, written by E.
n. McDaniels, formerly Forest Super
visor of the Siskiyou National For
est. presents a comprehensive sur
vey of southern Oregon’s most im-
portant
'stries and at the same
ore care in the preserv-
time u-
national forests. Mr.
atio.
McDau
article,” “The 1 Rogue
perity Machine.” is
i ex-
River
.iteresting and a few of
i the
tremel
fact«- ,iven by the writer are given.
“ .ogue River Valley has four big
industries—lumbering.
agriculture,
water power and mining. A fifth
husky youngster, recreation, 13 grow
ing up and promises to be as big as
any of the rest of the family. With
out these, the Indians would be wel
come to take the valley back at any
time.
“Prize fruit, fat livestock, train
loads of pine, electric power to sup
ply great cities, and crowds of tour-
ists are the products of the prosper
ity machine and they get the atten
tion they deserve. The rest of the
works, however, merits considera
tion. It care will keep it in running
order it is only reasonable to see that
it gets that care.
“Take the timber industry. There
is a definite amount of timer in Jack-
son and Josephine counties, approx
imately 18 billion feet, according to
the best information to be had. Do
your own figuring, and make your
own allowances. Some of the esti
mates are low and some are high,
and some of the timber counted can’t
be logged, and so on; it is impossi
ble to get the exact figure; however,
the annual cut is one hundred mil
lion feet, and we expect to see it
doubled before long, and if you take
200,000,000 from any amount often
enough, you finally get it all.
It we were talking about a coal
mine, the outlook would be serious.
Fortunately, timber land is more
like an alfalfa patch, and will keep
right on turning out crops, if given
a little encouragement. To be sure.
it takes time, but not so much as
you might think. There are plenty of
two-inch seedlings today that will
be sawed Into shop and finish and
box before the Savage Rapids dam
has to be replaced. There is nearly
time to raise a crop of Douglas fir
saw timber before the bonds for the
State Soldiers' loan are due.
“The valley gave up trying to get
along without irrigation long ago.
In April, every tributary to Rogue
River is running bank-full, Water
in August is at a premium, Along
about September 1st, every stream
that can be coaxed into a field is
running wholly in an irrigation
ditch. Water has been brought from
other drainages, and still there is
plenty of land that goes unfarmed
because it is too dry.
“Everybody knows how water runs
off a tin roof. It runs off a barren
hillside somewhat after the same
fashion. Grass holds it for a while;
brush holds it longer; heavily tim
bered regions
part
with it very
slowly. A shower that falls on a
burned hillside in May leaves the
country and Is gone
for good by
June. If it falls on a wooded sec
tion. it Is likely to be on hand to fill
out the pears and help with tne last
crop of alfalfa.
Pumice and lava
rock do their shore of water conserv
ation; dams and storage reservoirs
are Invaluable; but the Valley's blr-
gest reservoirs, and the ones she
owes most to, are the forests on the
high Cascades and Siskiyous.”
The entire article Is replete with
many attractive photographs which
(Continued on Page Eight)
START RIGHT
FIRST NATIONAL
BANK OF
SOUTHERN OREGON
It is Economy to Buy
Good Lumber
Wide Clear
I
Long Cedar Boat Stock
Cedar Posts
Valley Lumber Co
West F Street
BORLAND LUMBER CO.