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About The Sumpter miner. (Sumpter, Or.) 1899-1905 | View Entire Issue (June 4, 1902)
Wednesday June 4, 1902 THE SUMPTER MINER ' " ' 'MM GOOD WORK AT CRACKER-OREGON Will Soon Begin Using E. & E. Air Drills. On thii iiivitiitinii of Kvcrctt llniwn, local representative of the Oregon Devel opment 'oiiiiiiiiyt which owns the Cracker-Oregon group, 11 rpri'"iMtutI v of 'Inn Minkk visited mill thoroughly in upcctod thill property few davs since. It 1m thoneaiest working iiilini to Hournc; in fuel, (In1 mouth of the lower tunnel In In tlm corporal!) limit h of Unit town. It consists of four cliiiniH and u friiction, thu Cracker, Orison, I'cinbrookeand tliu Thornier Mountain placer claim. The fraction in also a placer location. The Hrst two were locatcil more than ado.cn yearH ago anil are patented ground. The othera have heeu located hy tint coin pany sinco it bought thu two from Clark Talier hiHt February. Warren Cable in in chargeof the work, UH HUNriuti!iideiit. Ills in an lutcrcst itiK H)rxonality and a volume could lie written ahout him and IiIh mining ex perience in the gold HcIiIh of eastern Oregon, hut thin !h not the place for that entrancing story. It iH entirely perti nent, however, to remark here that he liari heeu mining in the dlstiictH contig uous to Suiuptcr ever sincu llald menu tain wan a hole in the ground; twenty seven yearw, to stale the cum' accurately whicli in a Ion;.', long weary age for a proHpeclor and miner to remain in one region, lie, tlieiefoni, knows the dis trict mh well as, if not better than, any other man in it. It wan under IiIm guid ance Unit the writer examined the prop erty ; for .Mr. Ilrowu doesn't claim the distinction of being a "mining expert" he Ih Ht ill a tenderfoot, hut in an apt pupil of a master craftsman and in learn ing plenty fast. Twenty or thiily feet uhnie Cracker cteek in the month of the new tunnel, now in thirty or forty feet. Near hy Ik the recently completed blacksmith shop. There ale Ihiee or four other buildings on the pioperty, from live to ten veins old, cnuenieiitly locatcil, all in pmt I re pair, Hint will Ih iim'iI for oillecs, hunk and Imaidlug houses. This new tunnel will hediiven '.1KI feel to cut the vein, which Iuih heeu uncoxcicd ill an omii cut at that point. Comparatively little depth will he gained in that distance, perhaps cenly.lve feet, hut the pur pose of running it llicie is ohvioiis and pract cal. Thedittaud rock is needed to grade a site for a mill, which will he located just there, making the delivery of ore more convenient and economical than at any other mine in the district. The mill must Ihmiii the creek and this tunnel has lieen started as near hy as s)ssllile. A trestle has lieen con structed over the low ground, from which the cars will lo dumped. It is seatcely necessary to statethat all this preliminary wotk has heeu careful ly planned and admirably executed, when it i known that Warren Cable was in charge. Tluee shifts of two men each are em ployed in dining the tunnel and in a few dajs as many more will Ih put on, when woik will be started on an uper tunnel. Atiaugciucnts hac been made to use the water Nwcr autl air drills of the famous old K, K , the mill of which is only uUiut UHI yards away. These power drills will lie employeil just us soon as needed, when the hard coun try rook is encountered. For the pres ent hand drilling is preferable. tiucriulciidciil Cable says it is the most advantageously located ledgu in tiHHteru Oregon to work ; that the mine vthii txi dev'loied with more ease, loss work and uxieiine, owing to thu favor able toography. TIiIh is his plan of opening up thu ore bodies. When thu lower crosscut tunnel reaches the vein. it will then Ihj a continuous drift. Thu Upper tunnel will go ' on thu ledge from the start, about 250 from where it is cut in thu lower workings, which will at that point liavu attained a vertical depth of '.IK) feet. Ileru an upraise will Iri driven, through to thu mouth of the upper tun nel. At this point it is estimated that! pay ore will lie encountered, ami the up raise will be a great convenience in stup ing. Its. principal use, however, will Iks for thu transmission of ore from thu up pur working to the mill, milking that process practically a gravity proposition. Some Idea of the vast amount of bucks that will be pained can he formed from the fact that when thu lower tunnel is in 1-MHI feet its vertical depth will hu KXKI feet, while the upper tunnel, when it reaches a p'int perpendicularly above, will be only IMiO feet in length, with fully K(X) feet of depth. And Warren Cable can walk up an in cline liku that with more easy gracu than he can glide along luvel ground, so long has Ik'oii IiIh exeriencc and llxed thu habit of prowling around thesu hills in search of their hidden treasures. The old workings, aged ten or a dozen years, on which thu patent was granted, consist of thu usual open cuts to locate thu vein, u shaft sixty feet deep and a tunnel 150 feet long, far up thu moun tain side, probably 1500 feet above thu creek. Until the shaft and thu tunnel are in ore all thu way, hugging close thu hanging wall. Still further up, prob ably LtMl feet, there is a prominent out cropping, standing up full six feet and ahout twenty in length. Mr. Cable says there is thu rich pay shoot and under that point he predicts will Ik- found ore that will carry values fully as high as those recently taken from thu North I'ole and (iolcouda Itoth mines near by that have excited thu mining world, lie slates as his leason for this belief that several years since he packed out a couple of tons from a ten-foot hole, to which he pointed while expounding thu tl ry, thai milled $17. That is the highest value ever found on the surface in Ciacker Creek district. In this connection, Mr. Cable ad vanced the theory that the (iolcouda is not en the same ledge with the Colum bia. North I'ole anil K. A K., hut that it is on a parallel vein, the Mime that runs through the Cracker-Oregon, lie says it can be traced very distinctly lictweeu thu two mines, while the Columbia ledge swings off into the Climax. It is, of course, presumptions for the writer to put up his judgment against the best (Misted man in the district, hut on this point lie begs leave to differ, at thu same time granting Mr. Cable's contention that the ore from the (iolcouda and the Crackur-Oregon are practically idon-tit-ally the same. There is no crosscut ill either the old tunnel or shaft, so the width of this ledge is not accurately known. The open cuts show it to be from llfteen to forty feel wide. It is good and strong enough, all right. Assay value are evi dently satisfactory, as the character and extent of the work planned demonstrates. It has always liccu understood that they are somewhat hlghoi than thu average of that locality. Superintendent Cable has made his tests thus far only by pan ning, which shows colors everywhere. The company owns ItlKH) feet of this vein. Leave your measure, (or a suit of clothes at Neill Mercantile company's. Only the best brands of liipiors ami cigars at Duupliy'H "The Club." If you wish to striku it rich use Giant I'owder. SimgprtHif I loots, .lft, long 14.4?. Racket. P GENERAL BROKERAGE BUSINESS Money in mining, the big fortunes, is made by developing Dromising prospects into mines. I have properties on my list that can be bought from 5,000 to $25,000 that can be made worth $100,000 to 500,000 by the ex penditure of from 10,000 to $50,000. This list includes both QUARTZ AND PLACER MINES. 1 have also a few choice tracts of Oil Land in the Malheur basin that can now be bought at a very low figure. Or, I can locate you on government land in the same district, that may be just as good. Remember OIL HAS ALREADY BEEN STRUCK. Write me what you want and I will supply you with just the kind of proposition you are looking for. fclfclfclfcifcifclfclfclfclfclfclfc E. SANDERSON SMITH MINING BROKERS Sumpter, Oregon. &. u 1