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About The Sumpter miner. (Sumpter, Or.) 1899-1905 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 28, 1900)
Wednesday, November 28, i.;oo THE SUMPTER MINER NATURE'S WONDERS. Eastern Oregon a Museum of Topographical Freaks. A. J. Johnson, forestry expert for this, state, has given the Oregonlan an inter esting interview on eastern Oregon. He Mates that there are Immense lava flows, or beds, comprising many curious forma tions in which scarcely a. living tiling is to be found. In Crook county in a large tract uf magnificent yellow pine timber, free from undergrowth, and the ground cov ered with grass, he found a sink or de pression In the ground which exposed the entrance to a lava cave, said to be two miles long. The entrance Is large enough to drive a four-horse team into, but the interior roofs, walls and bottom, are fearfully rough and jagged, so that ex ploration is very difficult and unpleasant. Only a few miles from this lava cave the timber ends and a desert is reached, Some four miles out on this desert are a uumrter of ice c ives, of considerable ex tent, but they are of no use to any one, as they are too far from any settlement. On the upper branches and tributaries of the John Day river are what are known :is the famous fossil beds of the Pacific loast, where a great many rare and valu able fossils ot prehistoric animals are found imbedded in large hills, and along liver and creek bottoms. This region was once inhabited by races of animals not now found on the earth, but just how so many of them came together in one place, to be destroyed and buried there is a tuery which only Professor Condon can explain. There are a number of strange geolog ical formations in the territory traveled over by Mr. Johnson In the John Day country, but one of the strangest is what he calls a "rock torest," on a steep moun tain tide, where there stand pillars of rock, several hundreds of them, some as large as 2$ feet in diameter and many Irom 2$ to 150 lectin height, standing like trees in a forest, and having the ap pearance of a forest which had been vis ited by a cyclone, breaking off the trees at various heights. The pillars vary greatly in the materhl oi which they are com posed, and show streaks, veins, bands and blotches of different colors, forming a most wonderful spectacle. The task ot explaining the form .Hon of this wonder tul rock forest, Mr. Johnson leaves to the geologist. Some 20 miles from this rock forest is a section of several thousand acres known as "the devil's potato patch." 'I his patch is covereJ with round buttes run-1 ulng up to sharp points, some of them ' 1000 to 1 soo feet in height, some a mile through at the base, looking from a dis tance like a lot of gigantic potato hills. These buttes are covered with sagebrush and hunchgrass. The devil selected a they form a stream 50 feet wide, three feet deep, is cold as ice and clear as crys tal. Half a mile from its source the stream is over 100 feet in width. This is ' the shortest river and the widest for Its length to be found anywhere. Mr. John-1 san saw hundreds of remarkable and ' strange things in that wonderful region, 1 an account of which would till a book. In regard to the forests of eastern Ore-1 gon, he says lie has located and reported 1,000,000,000 feet of lumber, which the. government has never known existed in I that part of the state. The principal vari-. eties are yellow pine, tamarack, lodgepole pine, white fir and mountain spruce. There is considerable sugar pine scattered ' on buttes In southern Oregon. There are hundreds of thousands of acres bearing but juniper and mountain mahogany, which trees are quite valuable to that : country for fencing and fuel. l;or fence-' posts the juniper Is a good timber, being very durable, and It is also a good fuel. The mountain mahogany grows to a size of live to six inches in diametei and makes splendid fuel, equal to nut coal. Stamps Will Soon Drop at the Gold Hill. Col. James A. Panting, manager and under whose personal direction the mines of the Burnt River Mining company at Gold Hill have become great and valuable properties, is in the city on a brief busi ness visit. Col. Panting is as happy as a clam at lii'h tide over the splendid showing being made by his mines and says inside the next 30 days he will have 10 stamps of a 1000 pounds each dropping on ore that will net handsome returns and a continuous run. The mill will crush 35 tons of ore per d ty. l:or three years past the Gold Hill mines have been In course of development and at this mine 30 miners are employed. Thousands of feet of de velopment work has been done and there is a world of good ore blocked out. The company has all along preferred to do de velopment work and block out ore rather than be hasty in operating a mill, which policy shows practical management. Democrat. Eight Feet of $20 Rock Word was received in tills city yester day that the ledge had been tapped in the Proebstel tunnel on the properly ot I'roeb stel Hros., in Rock creek district. The property is not far from the Chloride and Deer Lodge mines. The tunnel has been run a distance of 680 feet to tap the vein. It is said the face of the tunnel now shows eight feet of ore that assays ?2o a ton. The character of the ore is sulphide sim ilar to that found In the Chloride. This is the most Important strike for that dis trict. The Proebstels are residents of La Grande. Democrat. Off For Mexico Again. A. L. McEweu received instructions yesterday from the British syndicate which he represents to proceed at once to Old Mexico,for the purpose of experting a mine and he left on the afternoon tiain, Mr. McEwen was married only about two Fraser and Chalmers Chicago MM I ING MACHINERY-Rnlls. Stamps, Crushers. Pertmatrd J Atetnk. Jies. Priie Vanners. I:tc. J MINING MACIUNEUY-Hoilcis, j including Sederholm Holler, Ah t Compressors, Reldler Pumps, Pur i naci's, lit.". Wiitt to our Chicago J ultuf lor Catalogue. 3 Represented by MENNO UNZ.'CKER, Hotel Warshauer, BAKER CITY, OREGON Ft ? -aJM S3 HwrFirirg Klilljlj ' 11 1 KBBIBi5BftEB12-JiP IJBUJHHMRflni pjjjjjj 'WW'Vk. OPERA HOUSE SALOON SUMPTER BEER ON DRAUGHT BILLIARD AND POOL TABLES Agents for Matting ly and Moore Wilis key a 20-year-old whiskey as good as Elixir of Life. All whiskies arc out uf bond and guaran tied the genuine ar ticle. Popular re soit for Commer cial Travelers and Miners. L SUMPTER, OREGON if I r- C v t 0 (" ( i (' ' ' ( A. P. (JOSS, President A. J. 50bS, Cashier .'-'' t '-.''''''' '''''? ! V S Bank of Sumpter 3 TnnmU Ctinril linkln liitlniti Interest Allowed on Time Deposits Drafts drawn on all parts of the world. Special attention to collet lions. Safety Deposit boxes lor rent. SUMPTER, OREGON 4'wrf level tract ot country for his potato natch I week,.,,nce anJ, liaturally, was not much and the wagon road wends In and out I among these buttes for several miles. The rivers and lakes of eastern Oregon are also very peculiar. Some lakes are fed by a number of streams and rivers and have no visable outlet. They rise and tall with the changes of the seasons, but are said to be constantly growing smaller and more shallow. Many of the rivers are headed by immense springs, run a dis tance, disappear and reappear miles away : and finally fall into some lake, and that is the end of them. One river particularly attracted Mr. Johnson's attention. It is calleJ Spring river. This river is only three-fourths of a mile in length from head to mouth. It is ted by enormous springs welling up from the ground. There are hundreds of those springs with in a small area, all bubbling up like foun tains, of all sUes, and where they unite, about 100 yards from the main fountain, elated over the necessity of making the ' long journey. It was only about a month ago that lie returned from Mexico, where , he went on a similar mission. The prop erty which he goes to examine now is in 1 a different district from the other. Vale Turn a County Scat Trick. The tnivn of Vale is erecting a court house by subscription, to be presented to the county of Malheur. It is thought this move will go a long ways toward retain ing the county seat at that place. The building is to cost $$000, and will be mod ern in every way. Lcuona in Lace. Mrs. Marsh, next door to MINER office, will give practical instiuctions in lace work. Materials and hundreds of pat terns to select from. Bousum & Spalding CRYSTAL T-Tp Company Free delivery of Pure Ice. Leave orders at office of Columbia Brewing and Malting Co., next door to MlNI-H otfice. 5 Paul E. Poindexter, MIN EIS corono McNcal'S Code. iumpter, - - Or. i