[Albert S. Evans, White Pine, Alta California, February 18, 1869]

 

WHITE PINE.

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Confirmation of Our Report — Agricultural and Other Resources of the Country — Wood and Timber — Outlying Districts — Extent of the New Silver Fields — Etc.

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            The White Pine Mining District proper was pretty fully described in a lengthy article published in the Alta last week, nevertheless much of interest to the public might yet be written on the subject of the resources of the country immediately surrounding it.

Confirmation of Our Report.

            Many letters and statements confirmatory of the general correctness of our recent report on the White Pine District have been received within the past week. From among them we select the following, which comes in the form of a private letter from J. C. Corey, Esq., formerly Superintendent of the Imperial Company at Gold Hill, who has also had much experience in Mexico as a practical miner, and whose judgment is well known and will be regarded as reliable to the fullest extent by numbers here:

TREASURE CITY, February 10th, 1869.

            Dear Sir: I have been here over a week; have examined numerous mines of all classes, and must say this is certainly the greatest mining region ever yet discovered.

            The mines are much more numerous, and extend over a much larger area of country, than I had supposed, and the two great features that render it so attractive are the richness of the ore and the cheapness of development.

            With the exception of "Chloride Flat," there are no such things as "horizontal" deposits or beds of ore lying flat.

            I have seen more well defined veins, with good walls, and having all the characteristics of true veins, here, than I have ever seen in any mining district before.

            Such is my impression of the country, and I do not say too much when I say that more rich mines will be opened and worked in this district in the course of the summer than was ever thought of even by the most sanguine.

            I know of claims here now that can be bought for cash for from ten to seventy thousand dollars, that with a little more development will easily bring one or two hundred thousand before fall, or that money can be made out of them by working them. * * * * * * *

J. C. COREY.

Agricultural and Other Resources of the Country.

            Within the bounds of White Pine District proper there is little, if any, land which could ever be made to pay for cultivation. There is no large tract of soil, and if such was to be found it would hardly pay for tilling, owing to the shortness of the season and low temperature at an altitude of 7,000 to 10,000 feet above the sea. But immediately outside of this district there is an abundance of the very best grazing and arable land, which will this season be made to yield large and highly remunerative crops. To the southwards there is little cultivable land, but some good grazing country, plenty of white sage and bunch-grass for winter pasturage for horses and cattle, within fifty or sixty miles, beyond which the country is so little explored that its resources cannot be spoken of with confidence.

            We know but little of the country lying directly eastward. To the westward there is abundance of summer and winter pasturage, with water at considerable intervals, but no farming country worth mentioning until some distance beyond the Diamond Mountains. But to the northwards things promise far better. Stretching from the Centenary Mill, in the Newark District, on the eastern side of the Diamond Range, northwards to the point where the stage road to Elko crosses the South Fork of the Humboldt River, is an open valley country, abounding with springs, lagoons and small streams of living water — in many of which fish are found — grasses and containing hundreds of thousands of acres of rich black loam or light clayey soil, which will richly repay cultivation. Barley, oats, wheat, potatoes, cabbages and other vegetables will yield largely in this valley, with or without irrigation, and as the road to Elko passes directly through it, the farmer can be sure of the most remunerative prices for everything he raises. The earth is covered with alkaline efflorescence in many places, but this does not in the least affect the crops named. Potatoes grown in this soil are the best found in the United States, not even excepting these from Humboldt County, California, and barley yields finely. The land is now most of it unoccupied, and we presume open to preemption and purchase at Government prices. Crops can be put in there late in the spring, and a good yield secured. Round Valley, Long Valley and Butte Valley, lying to the northeastward of White Pine, from twenty to fifty miles distant, will each afford a large amount of pasturage, and Steptoe and Schell Valleys, lying east of them, are said to contain a considerable area of cultivatable land. Ruby Valley, fifty miles to the northward of Hamilton, and fifteen to twenty miles east of the Hamilton and Elko road, is the finest in the State of Nevada, that of Carson perhaps alone excepted, and being already settled and extensively cultivated, will yield a vast quantity of grain and vegetables for the benefit of the White Pine District this year. There is no good reason why hay should be worth more than $30 per ton delivered in Hamilton, another season, while it may sell for less, and the county of White Pine can eventually produce barley, potatoes and vegetables enough for a population of thirty, forty or fifty thousand people and the proportionate number of working animals.

Wood and Timber.

            Of wood there is likely to be no lack for several years to come, though this is not what would be called a timbered country. Nearly all the hills and mountain sides throughout the new country are covered with juniper cedar, which makes good fuel and is easily cut and handled. The cañons in the White Pine District, in the immediate vicinity of Hamilton and Silver Springs, contain large quantities of mountain mahogany, which makes unequalled fuel, and the nut-pine, which is found in the same region, makes fine firewood and charcoal, which for smelting and refining silver is preferred to that of any other timber. There is, therefore, no immediate want of firewood in the district.

            Within the present month bituminous shale, which burns freely in an open fire, and is supposed to indicate the immediate vicinity of coal, has been struck within two and a half miles of Hamilton, on the east, and even if coal is not ultimately discovered, the material already found may prove highly valuable for fuel, as it resembles that found near Elko, which, for generating steam, is said to equal a fair article of bituminous coal.

            Of large timber for sawing into lumber and general building purposes, there is a lack, the supply on White Pine Mountain proper being only sufficient for immediate use and indifferent in quality, and certain to be soon exhausted. Nevertheless, there is a moral certainty that a branch railroad to Hamilton from Elko or its vicinity will be constructed within eighteen months, probably within the present season, and supplies of the finest lumber, fuel and timber for mining and building purposes will then be received directly and cheaply from the Sierra Nevada.

Outlying Districts.

            Immense as has been the amount of prospecting done in the White Pine District, there are, doubtless, still new discoveries of value yet to be made in the immediate vicinity of Treasure Hill. But it is outside of the White Pine District proper that the greatest amount of prospecting will be done this season. From the Grant and Troy Districts, fifty to sixty-five, miles to the southward, come reports of immense discoveries. Well defined veins of ore, assaying fully up to the average of While Pine, are said to have been found, and there is certain to be an immense rush in that direction when the snow melts away. The writer will visit those districts as early as practicable, and give the readers of the Alta the result of his observations.

            The western side of the White Pine Mountain, where the district was first organized, and where the Monte Christo Mill is situated, is known to be comparatively rich in mineral deposits, and will, doubtless, be more carefully and searchingly prospected next summer than ever before.

            Forty miles to the westward of Hamilton, on the western side of the Diamond Mountains, five miles south of Trefren's Station, is the Eureka District, which but for the discovery of White Pine would now be creating a sensation in the world. The writer climbed over the Diamond Range, on foot, in a terrible snow storm, on the 30th of last month, to pay this district a visit, and was well repaid for his trouble. The general formation of the district is somewhat like that of the White Pine, but the country rock has been more upheaved, broken and displaced, is harder, and the metaliferous deposits are less regular and easily traced, while the ore is generally of a more refractory character, the silver appearing in combination with lead and other base metals to such an extent as to require working by furnace process. The district was discovered before White Pine, and an Eastern Company — the Tannerhill — wasted a considerable sum in very scientific tunnelling, then suspended work, leaving the rich rook, which they had taken out to get it out of their way in running into the hill, lying piled up on the hillside, where it still remains untouched. A little work has been done on a great number of claims, but, unfortunately for the district, so little in any one place that it is as yet impossible to say whether there are or are not well defined fissure ledges to be found there. Mr. A. Munroe, the Recorder of the district, who is directing most of the work now being done there, and owns two-thirds of the claims in the district, showed the writer some of his mines, which certainly promise well. They are situated a mile from his headquarters, in a cañon leading into a spur of the mountains to the northwest. The hard, dark lime rock here pitches westward, about as it does at White Pine, but it is cut across from north to south by harder ledges of reddish quartzite, which has been forced up through it in immense waves three or four hundred feet above the bottom of the cañon. The ore crops out in a line of deposits running through the face of the limestone from the bottom of the cañon nearly due west up to the immediate vicinity of the quartzite cross ledge. This ore is of a mixed character, in places partaking of the appearance of the chlorides of White Pine, and again of the black conglomerates of the Noonday and other claims on Chloride Flat, and again a few feet away running into oxides and carbonate of lead, rich in silver, but only workable by furnace process. The richest of these claims appears to be the Gem, from which quite a number of tons of ore were worked after roasting at the Manhattan Mill at Austin, yielding $344 per ton. Ore of the same quality is still being taken from this claim, and hauled to Austin for working. The shaft, down 20 feet, shows large masses of the ore, and the appearance of calc-spar at intervals, and other promising indications, lead to the hope that a defined vein may soon be struck. In the immediate vicinity of the Gem are the Ruby, Topaz and Amethyst, which are more or less of the same character, and just south of the Buckeye, which shows an abundance of outcroppings of dark greyish ore, ranged in a line running from east to west up to the edge of the quartzite cross ledge, and presents indications of a regular ledge beneath. Samples broken off from these croppings by the writer assayed $102 82 in silver. Two miles farther south is what is known as Mineral Hill, which is apparently made up of carbonates and oxides, and other formations and combinations of lead and silver only workable by smelting process. The extent of these deposits is immense, and if the large smelting furnace now nearly completed by San Francisco capitalists, under the direction of Mr. Stadefeldt, in the cañon just below Mr. Munroe's place, works successfully when completed, there is a world of wealth to be realised by the holders of the claims in this district. Mr. Munroe had some ten thousand bushels of charcoal burned ready for the furnace, and wood ready for several thousand more, when the writer visited the district. This district is worthy of more attention than it has heretofore received, and the present is a good time to obtain interests there.

            From the Eureka District the writer recrossed the Diamond Mountains to the Newark District, on the east side of the point where the Hamilton and Elko stage road strikes the range. Here is the Centenary Mill, of twenty stamps, with eight large roasting ovens, one of the best arranged and most complete mills east of the Sierra Nevada. It belongs, together with the mine, situated about a mile back of the mountain to the westward, in Minnehaha Cañon, to a Company in Newark, New Jersey. Mr. Samuel H. Folsom, the excellent Superintendent, accompanied us to the mine and showed us many points of interest. The mountain is composed of dolomite, lying in strata, pitching westward, exactly as at White Pine, and a person standing at the mill and looking up towards the summit would see precisely the same disposition of country rock as if he stood on the east side of Treasure Hill, but the rich chlorides are wanting. The lodge belonging to the Company cuts sharply across the dolomite running from north to south, and cropping out from the bottom of the cañon to the top, some 300 feet perpendicular on both sides, pitching on either hand a little to the westward. It is quite narrow, and is composed of hard quartz, showing a good quantity of silver, and has well-defined casings or walls of dolomite throughout. Something like $100,000 has been taken from this ledge. At present there is but a little rock in sight, and as the dead work is very expensive, owing to the hardness of the casings, Mr. Folsom very judiciously confines operations to taking out the best ore, not judging it expedient to spend large sums for the Company in barren feats of scientific engineering. Most of the ore will work up to $200 per ton, but requires roasting. Some of the specimens of silver, in combination with antimony, taken from this mine, resemble the finest fresh-broken cutler's steel, and are beautiful beyond description. The mill under Mr. Folsom's direction turned out between $300,000 and $400,000 in bullion, from White Pine rock, in the last three months of 1868, and as it is on the direct road from Elko to Hamilton, and ore taken on as return freight can be hauled to it at low rates, it will probably have considerable work from that source this year.

            Across the Diamond Range from the Centenary Mill is the Diamond District, which is said to contain a large number of ledges as yet unprospected to any extent. Nothing is now being done in that locality.

Extent of the New Silver Fields.

            From Northern Idaho to the Mexican line, and how much beyond no one knows, is a belt of country of which White Pine appears to be the centre, through which rich deposits of silver are known to be scattered, and all of which is worthy of a careful examination. It is said that the formation of the famous Batopilas Mining District of Chihuahua is almost identical with that of White Pine, and the writer has seen beautiful specimens of silver ore taken from mountains of a somewhat similar formation in the heart of the Apache country, north of Prescott, Arizona. What a field is here opened for the investigation of the adventurous American people! The gold deposits of California added so many millions to the wealth of the world as to unfix values and affect the whole commerce of Christendom. What California did with her gold, this new Silver Land is apparently about to do with its silver, and no one can predict the extent of the effects which will be produced on our country by the recent discoveries and those to which they will most certainly lead during the coming summer and autumn.