["X," Letter from White Pine, Alta California, February 2, 1869]

 

LETTER FROM WHITE PINE.

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[FROM AN OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE ALTA.]

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New Developments — The Need of Water — How the People Feel — Doubtful Operations — Bonding and Buying Mines — Good Advice — The Morals of White Pine — Good Chance for Moral Missionaries — Etc.

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TREASURE CITY, January 26th, 1869.

The Weather — Holding Possession Under Difficulties.

            Editors Alta: We have had a week of splendid weather — days warm and cheerful, with clear, bright nights; everything favorable for the prospector and for outside work. Jumping lots has been the excitement in this town, and many a poor man has been forced to stay up most of the night to hold his little real estate. I noticed an old woman who is a property-owner standing on her ground somewhat after Betsey Trotwood's emphatic style, only a little more belligerent in appearance, for she had a pistol stuck in her belt, and was, I think, determined enough to use it if occasion required. New developments have been made on some of the flats near town; fine chloride ore, quite as good us anything before found, has been struck in a dozen shafts. The fine weather gives an opportunity for working without shelter, and it shows what may be expected when uninterrupted work can be prosecuted and longer days give a better chance for action.

Water Wanted.

            The want of a supply of water will be our great drawback in the spring, and it is strange, with the evident fact that the range of mountains running down to and below Hamilton is full of water, no Companies are pushing that most needful and profitable work of tunnelling. Water in such supply as must flow when a tunnel reaches a point under these springs would produce a large revenue. I hear of but one Company organized, and do not yet know what their plans will be.

Mining Stock Operations.

            Large sales of mining ground continue to be made, and I think the figures here are reasonable; but a word of caution to your good people, who cannot come and see for themselves. Every new mining camp is filled with irresponsible men, who get hold of some mines — perhaps very good ones — and put any price upon them that they can, but at a very heavy advance from "first hands." They bond mines and take them to your city. No parties here will bond a mine at anything like the cash price: but they are talked into it, and you pay for such useless service. I say useless, because most of the purchasers have friends here, and should certainly take some advice before action. Quite a batch of mines have been taken to your city in this way during the past week. Many of your capitalists contribute a few thousand dollars to some agent or representative for the purpose of buying property, and said representative is a big toad in the puddle while the money lasts.

Good Advice to Speculators.

            The best way to get hold of mines, after some proper investigation, is to buy and pay for them without asking credit of a miner. The character of our ores, and the fact that few are at all acquainted with them, have given inexperienced men a good opportunity to compete with those long in the business and in some cases parties who are good experienced miners have been disappointed with the looks of the ledges or deposits of ore; but by careful attention and investigation, some of the shrewdest Virginia City men are so fully impressed with the fact that the ores are rich and abundant as to induce them to invest heavily in permanent improvements.

Good Prospects for the Future.

            I expect to see a thousand stamps at work by midsummer — then, the real excitement about White Pine will begin in earnest. Until mills are ready it will be up-hill work for small operator. Rich ores are not currency, and it is not possible to make engagements at any of the mills now in operation. Capitalists or any parties able to get mines in order for ore extraction will arrange now, or soon, and by judicious selections they will secure mines that cannot disappoint. The present price for reducing ores is enough to keep good rich claims at a low figure. Ore working under $100 is very little thought of; but soon it will give a large profit.

            I do not propose to puff any mines that are for sale. We hope the good ones will soon speak for themselves. An industrious population like this will show the richness of the country or prove it to be a failure in a short time. So far there is abundant testimony to prove all that has been told of our mines.

"Happy and Content."

            The three towns are building up rapidly; there is very little sickness, and a general feeling of satisfaction. With the opening of roads, cultivating land, and other occupations, a very large population will find profitable employment, and I am not croaker enough to use any shade of disappointment to annoy the active worker in this field. It costs but little to work mines here — that is, so far as they are now opened, and there are immense masses of ore that lie near the surface, requiring but little labor to raise, and, of course, small expense.

            Should this fair weather hold, you will hear of more discoveries. The snow disappears from the southern hill-sides, and the spur ledges are exposed, inviting the prospector to a trial. Underneath this spur, and usually at a distance of from two to five feet, lies the black spur, or rock, and this is accepted as "indications." A much greater progress toward developing and proving these ledges would have been made but for the fact that all are anxious to secure more mining ground, and soon as the two or three days', work is done to hold the claim, and work is recorded, the claim is left to take care of itself till such time as the owner can afford to open it. Your friends would do well to look after some of these, as in most cases fair interests may be secured by the expenditure of from $500 to $1,000 on them. From the fact that our busy and obliging Recorder is up most of the night to get through  the business, and that yesterday he took over one hundred acknowledgments, you may judge of the movements here. Our Recorder could not afford to exchange his log-house for the White House this year, as they say, "not for coin."

The Morals of this Community

Receive but little attention, and godliness none at all; cleanliness, which is next to godliness, is somewhat neglected, and I wish a certain Divine of your city, with whom I once made the trip from Panama to San Francisco, could come up and repeat a sermon he gave to us one Sunday morning on ship board; in fact I think he got hold of the wrong sermon — it was evidently intended for the unwashed, and we had all been to our trunks on that occasion. But seriously, it is a matter worthy of prompt attention. We are to have a new county; a Court House and the jail, opposite my room, is under way. While thee comfortable arrangements are being made for the convenience of the body and the settlement of law points, would it not be well for some of the societies that are now active in seeking out avenues through which their good works may flow, to send up and take a look at the situation? We have had no prospecting of that kind done here yet, and one well disposed could locate a ledge unmistakably rich; he could go to work without drifting about. Send us a missionary, a street preacher, a tract distributor, one who could visit the sick and comfort the troubled. Most of our population come in able to carry blankets and provisions only. I speak of the mining population — the workers. They could not bring Bibles, or changes of clothing, or even the common companion, a pack of cards. Our enterprising merchants have supplied the things most needful, and the favorable winter has given an opportunity to work and earn money.

A Good Missionary Field.

            But, I assure you, a city missionary is needed. I will not say a word against foreign missions — the green fields that are far away — but I must relate an anecdote of a somewhat eccentric Judge, a Presbyterian, I think, of Utica, New York. The old gentleman was decidedly opposed to foreign missions, but was caught at church one morning when an agent of the Foreign Missionary Society stated his case and made the annual appeal for aid. When the plate came to the Judge he put a copper cent in it, and then handed in a dollar, whispering to the deacon who passed the plate, "Here is a trifle to pay the expense of getting my contribution to the heathen."

            Here is a settlement of four thousand five hundred people, with a prospect of large increase, and within the reach of your paper there are numbers who are interested in the future of the town and the mines. They can best judge of some course that shall exercise a sound, healthy influence on the minds and manners of their employés. I have given you a long and I fear uninteresting letter, for I have not given the exciting topics of conversation. There is little rough work, shooting or fighting. Since we were all hunted out, by telegraph, aided by that gang of roughs that came in from the East, all has been quiet. We were a little frightened, it is true, when we heard of our narrow escape, but all have recovered. What an opportunity to make a strike by selling White Pine stocks "short."

X.