I Wpt1' tf k-v mm c- "" "-""i anas "- JtfrTW"fTaWWJfTatffPt"iTTaWTJT"tTTTJTPftTaFt VOL IV. SUMPTER. OREGON, JANUARY 14, 1903. NO. 19. MINERAL BANKERS AND CLEARING HOUSE SUCH WILL BE THE OREGON SMELTING AND REFINING COMPANY. A Home Market Here la Sumptcr for all Products of the Mine, Quartz or Placer Bullion, Ore aod Concentrates Purchased Progress Being Made at' the Works. The Oregon Smelting and Hutlulhg company art' rapidly gutting in sliae to purchiisu bullion, amalgam, placer gold, or in fact any kind of mi alloy of the noblo metals no matter how base. TlieHu metals will Ins refined by the company here in Sumpter, paid for jipot cash and forwarded by the Smelter company to the markets; of the world. lly tilts nieniiH the Oregon .Smelting and Helloing eonipany of Smnptur will be the mineral hunkers and clearing house of eastern Oregon. What 11 world of ojMrtunlty tliiw plan opeiiH up for the entire district. It will be the next thinn to having a govern ment assay ollice in the Htate. In home rt'HH-ctH it will he letter than an insti tution of that kind. No matter what a miner produces, an long iih his product linn a metalie value that will pay, he can hriii: his product, whether pure gold, silver, copper or any coiuMiund of these tuetalH to thu local smelter, have them ho pa rated and refined mid obtain the full value for the came without wuithiK a long time for returiiH. Thin will ulso nave him the coot of expressagc to distant nointtf, the rink of Iohh from hold-ups or any other cause. Those operation stamp mills, or thu placer miner can duxisit their gold in any bank, if they ho chmise, and thu Smelter eonipany will receive it and attend to the rent. Therefore, anything from pure gold to the most refractory concentrates or rebellion. ores, have a ciihIi ciiHtomer almost at their doors. Within live weeks of this date the Smelting and Helliiiug company will bo in shuu to curry out these plana. Sampler in now the acknowledged mining tnetroMlis of eastern Oregon. With the additional prehtage it will gain by the oHrution of the extensive works of this progressive concern, will place it in a mxition to rank with any miiiitivc or reduction center on the con tinent. By the means that the smelter people have adopted, at the end of each year the exact production of the entire country will lt known. Hut it iuiiHt.be understood that no individual's business will be made public. Only the aggre gate will he given. At the site of the works below town everything is hustling activity. The stone ami brick work will be complete! I In a few days. Grading on the terraces is about all finished. The massive foundation for thu l!W loot steel stack is ready to receive its load. Nearly all Milliters for the super structure are in place, and the immense building is being rapidly housed in. Ah soon as practicable the Sumpter Valley Ituilway company will hae the spur from their main Hue constructed to the works, and it is expected thej Smelting and Itetiiiing company will be i ready to blow in their tirst furnace be fore early spring is far advanced. At their commodious ollice everything is completed, and this structure is ready for occupancy. It is in this building where gold and silver bullion will be separated and refined, as outlined in the (circuiting. COMPLETE UP-TO-DATE FURNACE New Feature in Robbins 6c Robbins Assay Office and Laboratory. HnbbiiiR & Hobbins have added a new furnace to the equipment of their assay ollice and laboratory, which is about iih up-to-date and complete as any innova tion of thu kind to lm seen anywhere. This furnace is just large enough to hold two muffels, sine nine by seven by fifteen Indies, one being alxive the other. The lower being used for scori fying and crucible work and the upier for cupelling. This furnace is built of lire brick, sheatcd with asbestos, over this a cover ing of sheet iron and sheeted over that again will be another layer of itU-sto. lly this means it will lie next to im possible to losu any heat. Soft coal will Ih) used as fuel, which is an advantage in many ways. The doors are of asbes tos with mica windows. They also have a gasoline furnace which will be used as occasion requires. Developing the Cracker Eagle. On the Cracker Kagle, one of the Kil ltn, Warn,, Stewart mines, the cross cut which has been energetically pushed forward for some time so as to cut that Immense vein from wall to wall, is now in over HO feet, starting on the hanging and run to cut the foot wall. The objective Mint has not been reached yet. However over thirty feet of line milling ore is develoed. It is the intention when the foot wall is found to drift Ixith ways along this wall, crosscuttiiig at intervals so as not to miss thu rich shoots of ore which ure known to exist in that wonderful tissure in other places. Suerinteiident .luck sou, who ban the work in charge, has had considerable exerieucu in ojieiiing up other mines on. the great mother lode, and is considered iiiulitied on ac count of Ida past exH'rienee to Hud the pay channels in the- one where he is now directing development. OUT NEAR THE IBEX. An Eastern Company is De De veeoping: a Splendid Showing;. Something to depend powder. upon (iiant Preparations are being made for more extended operations on the Tahoma group of four claims and a fraction, lo cated alsiut one and a half miles south west of the Ibex mine and on the same mineral belt. I.iiiiiIht is now on the ground for thu building of large quarters so that ipiite ' a uumlier of men can he added to the force and comfortably housed. Win. II. Ha I Icy and Andrew (iteii have owned this procrty for four years. Uist September they bonded it to Maryland parties (or eighteen mouths. It in thu parlies holding thu Ismd who ant now doing the development work. Previous to bonding, the original own ers sunk two shafts. One thirty and the other thirty-live feet deep. They also run two adit tunnels, one I'M mid the other M feet in length. These tunnels are from 140 to "WO feet from the surface at their faces. In the thirty foot shaft there is a streak of ore from two to four inches wide which is said to be worth over fl t pound in gold. Samples taken across the thirty-live foot shaft, four feet and ek'lit inches in width, return an average value of fl''.:.'l ier ton in gold. In places the main vein is forty feet in width. In all the oH'iiingM the vein matter and ore is much wider than either shaft or tunnel. Four veins in all cross the locutions and the parties holding the Isiud pro viso to prove the value of all of them. SNOW-SHOEING TO SOUTH POLE. This Mine can now be Reached From Sumpter. W. W. Itobbius arrived in town this ufteiuooii from atrip to the tunnel of the South I'olu t nusolidated Mines com puny tin Hock creek. This is the lirst trip to the pioperlv Mr. Itobbius has made by crossim; the North Pole mountain since the snow fell. He left the caiiiii at the mouth of the tunnel at II o'clock this morning, travel ing on Web snow shoes, and reached Hourne by noon. He had a iiiiiiiImt of samples with him. The tunnel he went to insis-ct is now ill HAO feet. All hut the lirst 100 feet is in ore of a grade which upis-urs to Ih satisfactory to the company. list to the nresent theiu Iihh Iwcii o little travel over North Pole mountain that thu trail was not kept open. Mr. Hobbins has made several trips when he had to go and return via linker City, traveling sixty miles to reach a point not much over eight inllen from Sump ter. The snow has drifted considerable on the route, hut its general average ia six or seven feet on a level, , TO ERECT MILL ON JAY GOULD. New York Capitalists Will be Here. In a Few Days. A local mining man received a letter .vesterday front Cjrus Hind Icy, o'f Spo kane, slating that he and a number' of New York moiihd men would Ih in Sumpter in a few dajs for the purHise of examining the .lay (ioultl group, and if the appearance of the property justi fied it, a ten stamp mill would ! erect ed as soon as posih!e. The .lay (iould group consists of live claims, mid is located on (iimlet creek, about ten miles westerly from Suinptcr. It is owned by llradley, Holterman and Thomas. Mr. Thomas now- living in charge of the property. Over L1XMI feet of work has bteu iN'rformcd on thu group, anil vast iiiautlt(es of ore'nro 'In sight. t .... ' U the New Yorkers are pleased' with the outlook, they will furnish all 'thu capital necessary to cipilp the 'mino' with all necessary machinery, taking ' stiH'k in the company to rcihtriursu them. Know of Eastern Oregon Now. ,, )r. K. W. Mueller, general manager of the Oregon Smelting and Helloing company, lias returned from a uioutliM vacation scnt at his old home, St. Joe Missouri, and in ChiciiL'o, The toclnr says there is a great difference U'tween going east than any time in the past hs far as eastern Oregon Ih concerned. Heretofore if this count ty was men tioned H'ople would express surprise if told that gold was produced in thlnKr tion of Oregon, Now, if it is known a IH'rsou is from IheSiimpter district, they are plied with ipieslious alsiut different mines whose names apN-ar to lie quite fainilliar to those who take an interest in the industry. It upM-ars the fame of eastern Oregon is spreading rapitllyi.due in great measure to those enterprising eiioiuih to advertise lis resources. Cleaver Brothers' Propositions. I). K. Cleaver was in town Sunday, finm Prairie City. Acting for Major Itiiiitn, he keeps a force of men at work continuously at the Will Clcavcrgrnu'ps. He hems regularly from that gentle man, who left for the east Iht-emher 'JO. He writes very encouragingly relative to the progress Isiug made to finance the electric line prnsiition. Dr. Um Cleaver has been sick in linker City for a mouth past, which has delayed some of Cleaver llrothers' hushiccs plans. Spokane Mountain Claims, Mr. W, II. Atkinson, of llailey, Idaho, one of the owners of the O. K. group on Ssikane mountain, near (Srauite, is at the proHrty doing the Hsswhsinent work. The work that has been done on SMikauu Moiiutaiii during the past year gives every indication of making the O. K. one of the valuable proertics of that locality. Oraulte (Jem. u "riyyrrOTH TsWf r