THE SUMPTER MINER
Wtidrtesd'av, Novembei ii, :i&i
8
ACTIVITY IN
MORMON BASIN
Mines Being Opened
And Stamp Mills
Installed.
Up
Judge Newbury, who has just
returned from Mormon liaiiln-, says
tbat ho found the owners of prope
rties in that district generally ut
work developing them. At the
Tarball property, on tho south aide
near the lower end oi tho liaelu, the
llostou company who purchaited it
the lust week in August for 150,000,
have a force of men at work and an
engineer in charge. It baa already
erected good bunk mid mess hoiiBos
ud ottlco, with water in nil, broiiKbt
from h big spring oil tho mountaiu
wide; h timbered Mhaft house with
eight inohoH Miiaro unwed timber
and a heavy hoist. It la raid that
machinery ia on the way for u ten-
amp mill. Tula proporty la near
tho mill of tho Humboldt group,
owned by Coatua iirothora of San
liernardiuo. Culifornlii, who also
own the Kiiuday Hill group, ut tho
head of the liuslu, thoy iiltio own
aomo of tho plncor ground and the
water dltohea In the IIiihIii.
Ho wont to oxamliio tho Morning
Htar group, which ia on the north
aide of the Hulsn and near the aummit
of the mouutalu. Tho work has beuu
oompletMl for this your. Tho under
gouud workiugH am well timbered
with tawed timbera. They havo over
400 feet of uudritrgouud work, 100 of
which la a ahaft. Four lodgoa Imvo
been opened ud tho voina curry
good vhIiioh. Thore ia n sawmill
one and n half uiIIoh from the mine,
with good tlmlwr and u good road
from mill to mine, where timber can
Ut delivered for twelvo dollara n
thousand and wood for three dollara
a cord. If Judiciously doveluped
there will be it mine there that will
be a large and rich one.
One mile cant of thin the California
Commercial Mining company, of Port
laud, W. K. King, mauager, la beiug
developed and ore la beiug takeu out
for milling.
The adjoining property, owned by
the Oregon City oompauv, Peter
Will manager, la being worked.
The Rainbow, adjoining 'the two
last named proportion, owned br
Head and Oouley, la being worked
continuously aud their ore hauled
two miles to the llolden (late mill,
on Dixie creek. They are operating
thia mill ulght aud day. He waa
Informed by the operator that it
produced fifty dollara to the ton.
To the northwest of the Morning Htar
several proportion are beiug developed,
among them tho Hold Kldge mlue,
which, he waa Informed by freighters,
had hauled ten tons of coal per day
for forty days from Durkee, and are
awaiting another shipment, it beiug
cheaper than wood.
Tim re are four good roads from
all direct I ons to the llaslu, from
Durkee, Huutiuglou, Miilhour mid
ilridgoport.
As extensive aud judicious de
velopment proceeds, the Mormon
llaslu district will bo rcoogulzed us
h rich mlnerul section aud is nl ready
attractiug the atteutlou of mlue in
vestors. It Is reached by the new
aud old wagou road from Sumpter via
MoEwton to Hereford, Bridgeport and
Clarka creek, distance sixty miles.
From Durkee on the O. R. AN., by
way of Rye Valley, it fa twenty miles.
OLD" BLUE flWMr
STORY REVIVED.
History records the fact that gold
wis first discovered on the Paclflo
Coast by John Marshall, at Butter's
Mill, In what la now 1 Dorado
county, California, In 1848.
As a matter of fact, gold was found
by an old emigrant train on the old
Steve Meek's cut-off, in Crook or
Harney county, in eastern Oregon,
between the Malheur and Deschutes
rivers In 1855. This fact can be yet
sufficiently attested by living wit
nesses. In giving mr vorslnn of the Hlue
llucket diggings, us tbey are fami
liarly called, I will explain how it
rnmo to me aad "by whom. My
grnadfatber and his family were In
tho wagon train that broke the trail
afterward known us Meek's cut off.
My father was ut that time u boy
fourteen years of age. Ho told me
tbo full particulars in u different
country, having removed from Oregon
in 1800. It was not the train bo
whh in thut found tbo gold, but the
one following them, and bo repeated
to mo from memory tho story as told
at tho tlmo. being unmixed with tho
version of modorn years.
Tho train encamped on u small
stream somewhere along the rim of
Harney basin, there being hills to
the uorthward aud tbo level stretch
of the desert to the south. A freshet
bad sluiced out the gulch leaving!
tbo bedrock bare. A lady passing
over this bare bedrock picked up
some yellow pieces of metal and
came into camp, carrylug it iu ber
apron and calling atteution to It.
No one soemed to know what It waa
aud when asked how much of tho
metal she could havo picked up had
she wished, she pointed to u woodon
water bucket puluted blue aud
replied title thought, she could have
picked up tho bucket full In a little
whllo; hence the name given thia
lost mine, "the llluo llucket Digg
ings." The auggestlon made by someone
that It might be gold brought the
wle men to the fore. He ia ever
with us, fend It Is upon those special
ocoaaioua that be is wont to exhibit
his marvelous wMan. H explajped
that goM'and stiver were the only
metal,'vtiat had ft natural ring 'to
them (he bad evidently forgotten that
It was the alloy in the coin tbat gave
It the "rlug,,) He forthwith
hammered a piece out flat on the
wagon tire and tested It for the ring.
As It would not ring, be promptly
pronounced It brass, (he bad alio
evidently forgotten that brass waa not
a aneclHo metal, but composition)
hence sometime called the Wagon
Tire Diggings.
Somo of this glod fouud its way
Into tho Willamette valley, beiug
preserved as curios, but It was not
until later the discover of gold iu
Cttltloruiu thut those people kuew
what they had fouud und lost upon the
old Immigrant trull.
The old blue llucket has uever
been mllst'overcd. A much credited
verslou tbat Cauyou City was the
place is undoubtedly erroneous.
After a personal examination I urn
oontldeut upon this poiut.
Another error made by those old
poiueers, aud it is still extaut, is the
confounding of Crooked river with
the John Day river. Tbey atraok
the Crooked river near Prinevllle,
and mistook It for the Jdhn Day.
Tbey did not touch the John Day,
leaving it to the north and eastward
of their route. John L. Rlggs, of
Marvin, Oregon, In Oregonifen.
TO DEVELOP JOHN
DAY COAL FIELDS.
Tony Mohr and Local Associates
Will Start Operations Soon.
Anthony Mohr, who has the man
agement of 1,200 acres of Jobn Day
coal lands, which he owns in con
junction with local associates, states
that work on the development of the
deposits Is to bo started this fall, or
winter. He rutbor thinks ho will
get around to It this fall.
Mr. Mohr, who has thoroughly
prospected the ground, states tbat
from surface indications the
John Day coal ia of a better quality
thau tbat found at Heppner, which
the O. R. & N. has recently proved
to be well suited to railroad
purposes.
The lauds controlled by Mr. Mohr
und associates are located south of
Fossil, iu the John Day Valley, aud
thore are three beds of coal, ranging
in thickness from rive to forty feet.
The samples secured from the out-
cropplngs.show a good per cent of
fixed caruou, and there Is evrey
evidence that the deposit when de
veloped will prove a good quality
of coal and of enormous extent.
Aother item in favor of the compay
ia that the Bonta railroad will go
within striking distance of the lands,
thus furnishing transportation
facilities.
The receut tests of Heppner coal
made by the O. R. & N. has excited
interest auew in the John Day coal
deposits. It Is stated thut these tests
proved eutlrely satisfactory, proving
that the Heppner coal, if anything is
better for railroad purposes than the I
Wyoming product.
People here who are conversant
with the Jobn Day fields state that
the deposits there are even superior
in quality to tbat found at Heppner.
It la said tbat there are good veins
rnlgug In width from eighteen Inches
to five or six feet near Dayville,
Small's bridge;' John Day City and
Bear Valley, in the John Day country.
Statementa are made tbat the both
quality aud quantity exist.
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Ageut, 142 Third street, Portlaud,
Ore. .
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