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About The Sumpter miner. (Sumpter, Or.) 1899-1905 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 20, 1901)
Wednesday, February 20, 101 THE SUMPTER MINER 1 ADVERTISING IS WHAT'S NEEDED. Waiting World Anxious to Learn About Our Mines. everything Is a close-mouth, close fisted corporation that apparently wants no one else to get in on the good thing they are enjoying. It seems to be up to the small fry, to unite and make some concerted effort to Inform the public of this opportunity in fested mining district. Till: MINER has already done and is doing much in this direction, and is anxious to do still more, If half way "decent' cooperation can be secured. I:ew sections of the West have re celved so little advertising by its Inhabi tants as has the cold fields of eastern Oregon; none witli one-quarter Is its min eral wealth is so little known. As a mat ter of fact, the only systematic advertis ing the country has ever had Is that which the O. R. & N. passenger depart ment has given It. Baler City has Is sued a few thousands pamphlets and last winter the Sumpter Townsite company sent out some literature, but both of these efforts put together are mere drops in the bucket to what Is needed. This printed matter was not sufficient in number of pieces to reach one In ten thousand of the people who would be interested in learn ing of a mining section so prolific In op portunities. The truth of these assertions were forci bly impressed on F. O. Bucknum during his recent trip to Colorado, in which state he spint several weeks. Where ever he went, peoole who heard that he was from a mining region, were eager to learn about the district, being interested In every detail. He took with him all the literature pertaining to eastern Oregon that he could secure before leaving here and all of it went into the hands of those who were anxious to get hold of such reading matter. Mr. Bucknum says that the folders and pamphlets Issued by the O. R. & N. were especially prized, those containing maps of the district, on which the mines and mills are located, exilting the greatest in terest. When one of these was shown, it would be almost Impossible to get it back. The universal comment was that the number of producing mines with mills is greater than In the same large area any where else In the world. He thinks that in no other state In the Union could as good results be obtained by business-like, systematic advertising of our resources, as in Colorado. In the first place, that is a state of mining men, who know a good thing in that line when they see It and when they hear of such, they are anxious to Investigate. It is therefore easier to secure money for in vestment In a legitimate mining property than in an agricultural or purely commer cial community. Last, but by no means least, that is the class of people eastern Oregon needs; alfalfa miners from the Palouse and Willamette valley are, in re ality, a detriment to the country. Right In line with the foregoing, a re mark made by J. G. McGulgan, the min ing man from Spokane who owns the Alamo, while here last week, is peculiarly pertinent. He says that the policy pur sued by the owners of the producing mines hereabouts of persistently refusing to make public the output of their mines, or In fact, anything about their properties, Is the greatest obstacle towards rapid de velopment which this country has to con tend with. Besides being an actual, pos itive detriment to the small mine owners, and the district in general, he maintains that it injures themselves. Nothing would so quickly attract attention of the financial world to the gold fields of east ern Oregon as the publication of authentic statements of the monthly output of the big producers. All mines were made to sell and most of them are for sale. The more money that could be Induced to be invested here, the more properties opened up, the greater would be the selling value of every mine east of the Cascades. In all other mining sections, the dividends paid tell this story to the world, but here GENERAL LAND OFFICE REVERSED Secretary of the Interior Rules That Long Custom Makes Law. Secretary of the Interior Hitchcock re cently decided one of the most Important mining questions ever before the depart ment. His decision reverses the general land office, which refused to grant patents to the Hidee Gold Mining company for the Marks, Hidee, Dale and hay lode mining claims, embraced in the Denver mining districts, the patents being refused because certain parts of the location lines of those claims had been laid within or upon other patented loJe claims, namely, the Notaway, Meeker and Pittsburg claims. In his decision Secretary Hitchcock states that the locators of the claims for which patents were refused entered upon the patented premises apparently without opposition, and what was done by the lo cators had the sanction and approval of the custom of many years throughout the western mining regions. Property rights of Incalculable value depend upon main tenance of the principle Involved In such custom and practice. Should this custom be declared unlawful every patent issued and dependent upon It would be void. "Extra lateral underground rights are often," the secretary declares, "the most valuable obtained by a lode location. The statute requires that end lines of a lode location shall be parallel. Unless end lines or portions of them can be placed upon other patented claims there will be many tracts of mining ground lying be tween irregularly shaped patented claims, to which the mining laws will have no application. Unless the locator can place the lines within, upon or across adjoining or Intervening properly of another.hemust choose between the loss of surface and the veins beneath, and the loss of the extra lateral underground portion of the vein. "The extttior lines of a location are not in themselves property, but are mere boundaries or instruments of description. I'hey do not give a right to all that is embraced within them, but instead so much thereof as is public land and subject to disposition by the United States. Min ing Improvements may be placed upon adjoining public or private lauds and need not be upon the land actually claimed. This is equally true of location lines, so long as private proprietors do not com plain." The secretary thereforr directs that patents shall issue for the claims and states that the department, after very carefully considering the long established custom and practice before cited, finds ample support In the law itself, as well as in a wise public policy relative to the dis posal of the public mineral lands and that a departure therefrom at this late d ty, en tailing necessarily Immediate and wide spread confusion and uncertainty of titles to mining claims, would he altogether un fortunate and without justification. if ) INI 1 H BS fe SL lC ?; vo kY' fc Well Dressed Men. Mutnrcv.nllv li.no ilu'lr ilotlu' m.iJi- f .111 ixiilinci'J TAILOR Such is M. STEFFEN KVa'iilh Irnm I'ntll.in.t, ulii'io lu li.is .io. I.itoil Mill) tin' IimJIiik MUnilng luniM'N lor inn tmlvc i-rv Nuw Litijlni; .1 lino lino til I .ill ,111.1 Winter Milting, Otortit.it l'.iltoin ,m.l I'.iiin ttiii.U .it Corner Second and Washington Stieets Baker City, Ore. T'Clothrs Cleaned and Pressed on Short Notice ....The Elite Cigar Store.... L. HARRIS, Proprietor Newly remodeled and refitted. Smokers' resort. We are daily receiving fresh cigars of the leading brands. No stale goods in stock. Healy Block. Cor. Granite and Center Sts. Eureka Feed & Livery Company II. K. BROWN, Proprietor Horses Boarded by the day or Month. First class turn-outs ancl saddle horses. Our spec ialty is the quick and safe delivery of freight and passengers to any and all points. HAY AND GRAIN FOR SALE-IK rAVID RUSSELL CARRIER MACHINERY BROKER BOO DIVISION ST. CHICAGO, ILLINOIS Kindly send me description of any machinery that you want to buy or sell " KJSTl rJU fiEss .4KIA I Miy tit ENUII.L3 w BOILERS RUSSELL High Grade Machm SAW MILLS THRESHERS STACKERS RUSSELL & CO. Wrlto for Catalogue and Prices. PORTLAND, ORCGON. I: Removed. C. Hrodle, watchmaker and jeweler, W. S. BOWERS ABSTRACTS Real Estate, Loans and Insurance. Mining Patents Obtained Years of experience in Haker County Records. No. 2104 Couit Street, Haker City; Oregon. has moved to the store formecly occupied by Reardsley and Cushman, the barbers, opposite the Columbia market. Every housekeeper in Sumpter can have the advantages of green vegetables, fruits, butter, eggs and fresh fish the same as in Portland, at H. O. Raker & Co.'s, 140 Mill street, next to the bank. SUMPTER BOTTLING WORKS Manufacturer of all klnJt nf ( jrt on.itrJ Dilnkt jtiJ CMm. OfcMtrJ In connection mIHi Hid Kentucky Liquor Hous WHOLESALE AND RETAIL. GAGEN & SLOAN, PROPS., SUMPTER, ORE. I