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About The Sumpter miner. (Sumpter, Or.) 1899-1905 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 24, 1900)
THE SUMPTER MINER VOL II. SUMPTER, OREGON, OCTOBER 24. 1900. NO. 7 CAPITAL PRIZE HAS BEEN DRAWN. Mammoth Ore Carries Thousands in Gold to the Ton Million Dollars Worth Blocked Out. It looks as if the en pita I prize In the gre.it mining lottery of eastern Oregon li.is been drawn. Sure it l that the strike made last week by the Mammoth Milling company in its Belle Baker .laim Is the richest, largest an J most Important yet made in these gold fields in fact, in the entire Northwest. Manager McCallutn exhibited at his of' li.e over the Bank of Sumpter the gold seamed rock and made public the find for the first time Monday. To a MlNliK man he stated th it for a month p it he has known that an usually rich body of ore was there, but only last week was its ex tent and high values definitely determined And this is the wav the whole thing hap pened.a perfect, fortunate union of Intelli gence, experience and luck. Some years since A. W. McEwen, a prominent mining man of Salt Lake, late candidate for the United States senate train Utah, had a bond on the Mammoth group of mines, consisting of three claims, one by that name, the Belle Baker and the Red Fox, through all three of which runs a ledge, located on Bald mountain seven or eight miles out from Sumpter. John Cupid, an oldtimer of this camp, was associated with Mr. McEwen In the deal and personally superintended devel opment work. Young McEwen, son of the mining operator, was also around the mine more or less, but had frequent press ing engagements in town, where he was setting the pace. These people selected an advantageous point for driving a tun nel, near the line between the Mammoth and the Belle Baker. They drove this hole straight into the mountain for some thing like 200 feet. It would have re quired nearly that much more workings to have cut the ledge, giving them more than 300 feet of depth. But they became tired at that stage of the game, turned the tunnel to the right and went into the vein at right angles.thirty or forty feet further on, at a depth of 180 feet. They then followed out the regulation program, drifted on the ledge, something like 200 feet further on into dark, damp inner earth. For some reason or other, however, they neglected to crosscut. And, to cut a long story short, though they found fair values, the rock was not suffi ciently high grade to justify the heavy ex pense of operating the mine at that time, so the bond was forfeited. Last summer Mr. McCallum tied up the properly, went east and floated the proposition. Hr has been working out there all season. About a mouth ago he put men to work cleaning out the tunnel, the timbers hav ing rotted. In doing this considerable ore was knocked down from the sides. Like the good mining man he Is", Mr. McCal lum examined this ore carefully every few days. Occasionally he'found a piece-that, was remarkably rich. After the debris was cleared out, he had a crosscut run near where the tunnel cut the vein. The results were not what he expected. Fur ther on another crosscut was run and the rich chute encountered eighteen inches from the side of the tunnel, and held good for twelve solid feet. Two other cross- cuts were mide, (lie last one at the head J of the tunnel, where the same conditions obtained. I For a distance of 170 feet the men who drove that tunnel dinted within a foot and a half of fabulous wealth, the largest, rich- J est body of ore ever uncovered this side of Cripple Creek. 1 lie gold is in seams. On the surface of the rock it looks like wire gold, but break It, and the yellow metal is seen to be in sheets, an unusual formation. This gold is carried in an arsenical substance, green in color. At places it is In layers, from one to three inches thick; again It is found in lumps, the size of a man's fist, but gold everywhere. The Intermediate gray quartz, In which no free gold can be seen witlt the naked eye, assays from twenty to thirty dollars. From the dust like coating washed off from the surface of the half doz:n samples In the office here, a teaspoon full of gold was panned. The stuff carries anywhere from f 5,000 to f 50,000 to the ton. The ore chute as now blocked out is 170 feet long, 180 feet deep and varies from 5 to 12 feet in thickness, with neither bot tom nor one end in sight. From open cuts on the surface the same quality of ore has been taken. There is, easily, from three quarters to one round million dollars worth of gold In this one body already re vealed, and only time can tell how much more lies hidden there. "The men who were working in the crosscuts, seeing the green rock and be ing unable by the dim light to detect the presence of free gold, mistook it for cop per stains, and frequently remarked: "We are getting into good copper ore here." They have been taken out of the tunnel and none of the rock will be knocked down until the mill, ordered a couple of weeks since from the Joshua Hendy Machine works, San Francisco, Is ready to begin operations, whkh will be sometime in January. The Mammoth is owned by the same people who control the Bald Mountain, two or three miles away. Both properties are under the management of Mr. Mc Callum. The principal stockholders are Lowell, Massachusetts, capitalists, while the local lucky ones are the manager; Sec retary Reed and Superintendent Davidson, all of whom are more or less interested. These are Sumpter mines, the officers reside here, the companies buy their sup here plies, and If the question had been put to a popular vote In this camp, there would have been an overwhelming majority in iavor of a big strike in these mines, as against any other hr the district. Al ready they have spent $170,000. Took a Drink of beetle Acid. S. Anderson, who resides in the north end of town, had an experience which he won't care to have repeated verv soon. A driver of a delivery wagon while on the way to the vinegar works on Center street with n bottle of the acetic add, met Mr. Anderson who Inquired the contents of the bottle. The driver who had been told it was vinegar so informed Mr. An derson. A discussion of the relative quality of different kinds of vinegar ensued and Mr. Anderson was Invited to sample the Baker City product. As it came to us there was no intention to pl.iv a practical joke on the part of the driver, who handed the bottle over and Mr. Anderson took a swallow of its contents. In the nest instant lie was nearly strangled and his throat and stom ach were so burned that the services of a phvslclan was necessary to relieve him. It is thought that nothing serious will re sult, but at last accounts he was sutterliig greatly with his throat and stomach and was unable to swallow anything. Acetic acid is used In making vinegar but Is hardly to be swallowed at full strength. Democrat. Ball for Benefit of Reading Room. The ladles having in charge the reading room met Mondiy at Dr. Fishn's psi deuce, to arrange for a fair, but after due deliberation decided th.it the time was too short, and it would not he advisable to attempt it at tills time. 1 hey decided to give a ball on All Halloween eve, Wednesday, October )i, at bills opera house, and appointed the following com cem mittees: Mrs. Harrison, Mrs. Bell, Mrs. Hllller, Mrs. Mercer, Mrs. EJwards and Mrs. Richards, as patronesses; C. E. Roblin, M. C. Mercer, J. Brown, A. C. Davidson and Tom Ingram, Moor mana gers. The Sumpter Social society will meet Friday evening at the I. O. R. M. hall. There are now more than sixty members of the organization. Town of Sumpter Finances. The finance committee of the city coun cil has sold a warrant for 2,000 to R. E. Strahon. With this money thirty-five outstanding warrants have been redeemed. Since the first of the month f 2200 in war rants have been paid from the license rev enues for this quarter, and the proceeds of September fines. 1 he past year has been an expensive one for Sumpter, the salary roll aggregating $1500, lighting I4. water ty)6, surveying Moo, street cross ings $1525, and the expenses of quaran tining about 1 500, or a total of over 0600, and not one cent of tax has been levied, but all this Mill be met by Ikeuse lees and the Hues, levied In Recorder Manning's court. Work to be Resumed on the Ohio. The owners of the Ohio property in Cracker Creek district above the Colum bia mine, will resume development work as soon as Mr. Thompson, one of the owners, returns from the east, which will be soon. The intention is to gain depth as rapidly as possible by means of shaft work, and demonstrate clearly whether or not they have a mine. The ore chute on the Climax, adjoining property, is said to extend Into the Ohio on one end and the owners know they have another on the opposite end. Bryan's Relative Speaks Here. , M. A. Miller and Ed. L. Bryan; of Portland, made democratic speeches to a large audience in Ellis opera house Mon day evening. They are both bright young men and put up Wave talk for the cause. Mr. Bryan is said to be a relative of the great commoner. DIED ON THE TRAIN. Resident of Sumpter Found Dead Near Los Angeles. Mrs. Fisher, who resides on Cracker street, returned from southern C iliforula Saturday. Two weeks ago Sund ly, she left with her husband, who is a consumptive, for I'hoenlx, Arizona, as a last resort to save his life, on the advUe of physicians. Press dlspaUhes state that alter the train had lett Los Angeles, Mrs. Fisher awoke one morning and IhiiihI her hus band dead in the belli). 1 line was not enough vitality lell to eudiile the fatigue of the trip and lip qulrtlv passed away. Mrs, Fisher corroborates this story in all important points. -, , Eastern Capitalists In Sumpter. E. A. Smith and wile and Mr. and Mrs. Hiiuchett, of Lowell, Massachusetts, ar rived In Sumpter Mondiy ami will re main here a week or mote, kinking over mining properties. Mr. Smith is vkr president of the Mammoth and a director of the Bald Mountain Mining company. Mr. Handled is a man ot large means who has made Investments In the west, and the presumption is that hr Is here looking for more. I lie party is out to tin Mammoth today with Manager McCallum, inspecting the great slilkr in that property. Planked and Graveled Streets. '1 lie wisdom of planking, instead of graveling, the streets ol this town is al ready made apparent. I lie difference in the condition ot Granite, planked, and ol Mill and Cracker, graveled, is so great that there can no longer be any difference of opinion on this subject, which was dis cussed at length last spring. TUB MlNliH refrains from saying: "I told you s-i," but calls attention to this matter in the hope that no more good money will be wasted 011 the streets of Sumpter. Proving Up on Timber Claims. Charles O. Morrell returned vesterdav from La Grande, where he went to make liual proof on his timber ilalrn. W. C. Colder went down with him as a witness. James K. Pardee and David Wilson, who were to have proved up, were not there; the former being sick in Montana mid the, latter in Spokane on more important busi ness. The extension of the Sumpter Valley road crosses Mr. Morre)'s claim. Burnt River Sportsmen's Paradise. J. T. Parkinson lias returned from a hunting trip In the Burnt river district, south of Sumpter, In the vicinity of Here ford. He reports ducks, prairie chickens, grouse and s igr hens so pl-ntlful that hn was able to kill more than could be con sistently cared for. Will Make Hint Coiple of Millionaires. Dr. Anderson put on his sweater and ;i few other articles of clothing and went nut to Miuersville a day or two sine to fire a stick of giant powder in some claims he has out that way, claims that lit" says are going to make him a miiple ot millionaires. t . , Six O'Clock Dinners. The Golden Eagle Hotel has inaugu rate) the plan of eveniugdliiiiersaiid mid day luncheons,which idea is an acceptable one to the majority of those living at hotels. . Saddle and Bridle for Sale. In good condition and offered -cheap. Apply at THI: MlNKR office. -i ... . Something to depend upnnuGlant powder.- ' " " .