["B.," Letter from White Pine, Alta California, March 4, 1869]

 

LETTER FROM WHITE PINE.

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[FROM AN OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE ALTA.]

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Winter on the Summit — Hamilton and Its Prospects — Scarcity of Lumber and Water — Real Estate and Business Prospects — High Rents — Mining Prospects — A Sanguine People — Etc.

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HAMILTON, White Pine District. )

February 20th, 1869. )

Weather, Mining Prospects, Etc.

            Editors Alta: A residence of two or three months in this region of the country, and at this season of the year, ought to show the roughest side of mining life, if it is ever found in any country; for this stormy, cold weather is anything but pleasant. Since your last flying trip to this new El Dorado we have had winter in earnest. A small portion of the time only is pleasant, so that we can go around the District. Yes, we are really in winter quarters. The snow has fallen about one foot since you left; but to get at the average depth here, as it is mostly in heaps, by the wind, is a difficult task. On the sunny, or south sides of the hills, it is melted away to a great extent, and there is very little frost in the ground: while on the north and shady sides of the hills the same has accumulated at every little storm, so that now it is, in many places, three feet. Although this is my first winter in the snows, I call it a mild winter. So far, in the valleys no snow of any note has fallen. The valley north of this we call Mirage Valley, as a portion of it so nearly resembles a small lake, which, as you approach it, disappears. This valley yet wears its frost-colored dress, in beautiful contrast with the snow-capped hills on every side. The new road from Elko, on the railroad, passes through this. We hope this may remain, with its present color of dress, during the remaining portion of this dreary winter.

            There are about five thousand people here at the present time, in the three towns, and more are coming in nearly every day, while some are leaving (I hear temporarily) by every stage starting for Elko. The road is now in a bad condition, and the stages make any other than good time; that, added to the recent break on the railroad, renders it almost impossible to get any mail matter. All freight and the stages come in on wheels. Here, at the hills, we have good sleighing. The last few days the wind has blown a fearful gale, until the 15th, when the snow fell very fast. To-day a number of passengers arrived, and you may guess what a very rough introduction they have had to White Pine. Many of the tents and some houses have been blown down. The three towns, as when you were here, continue their rivalry, each holding out all the inducements they can for new-comers to settle in their respective town.

            Hamilton, with its projected waterworks, will be the front door to the mining portion of this district, and bids fair to be the best place for trade, while Treasure City, being the nearest the mines, or amidst them, will, it is claimed, always be the centre of business connected with the mines, and will be the largest place ; while Silver Springs (Sherman) claims to have the best climate and plenty of water and wood, it being some 700 or 800 feet lower than Hamilton, and being so much warmer, most all persons in this district like it much better than any other section. There are several mills projected there, and if the water power is to be as plentiful as they anticipate, it will be the centre of the milling interest. There is one mill of ten stamps now running on rock from the Eberhardt, and belonging to the same Company. Their returns for the week ending the 13th was $34,000. The eight-stamp mill belonging to Messrs. Moore & Co., and remodelled and rebuilt by J. M. White, will in a few days be in running order, and will be a prettily arranged mill. The ten-stamp mill at this place (H.) and also the five-stamp mill a half mile from town are also in successful operation. The tunnelling at Silver Springs is progressing finely, and should they succeed in finding, as they expect, plenty of water, it will be the centre of the milling interest, as every mine has access by a good grade to that place, while those mines on the side of the hill cannot well get their ore to Hamilton. They have an abundance of water for their present purpose but whether they will have for their protective business remains to be seen. Yo no se. But there is no probability that they will ever find water or lumber on Treasure Hill; no water is to be found there: and now that this cold weather has cut off all the water-carts that have hauled water at eight and ten cents per gallon, the only water they get is from melted snow. Several little arrangements for melting snow are now in operation, and they haul it around the town and sell it at two bits per pailful. Whether they have a Company for that purpose and incorporated in San Francisco, I have not heard. Water is now a cash article, and when you again visit this place you will not be surprised to see so many unwashed faces on the Hill. A large portion of the time Treasure Hill is enveloped in (Pogonip, as the Indians call it,) a dense fog, very damp and frosty. and it sticks on to everything it comes in contact with; while walking in it the windward side looks as though one had on a flour sack. We hear of a very large number of mills coming here this spring and summer. If one-half come here that intend to come, of course, the business will be over-done. We hear of many coming to this place to use the water to be brought in by the White Pine Water Company. Prospecting, of course, is done for this season; no one can do much in that line now. So long as this weather lasts nothing can be done towards bringing in the water to Hamilton, or but very little to develop the mines — only those having their mines housed or in tunnels can work them now, waiting for better weather and livelier times. Some of the land-grabbers have gobbled up what they think will do them, providing they can sell, and set by and wait for some one to buy them out. Of course, they are willing to sell, but at such prices that no business in this country will warrant to pay. Single lots are selling very high; they have raised in value on the principal street from $50, $75, $100 and $150 to $500, $1,000, $3,000 and $5,000, and mill sites they ask $5,000 to $10,000 for, and, strange to say, some of them have some prospect of water, a scanty supply at least, while very few, if any of them, have any now, and seem to think it of small importance whether they have water at all. Most of them holding lots in large tracts, near the town sites, ask so high a figure for their lots that many are deterred from building at all here. Most of the people wish to see the water on its way from the large spring before they can make up their minds to pay such prices for mill sites and house lots. Rents, like house lots, are enormously high, and at this rate this little town of one street will outstrip Montgomery street in her palmiest days, in prices at least. Any cheap wood-shell of a building, or a heavy duck tent covering a 25-foot lot, rents for from $200 to $350 per month. Provisions are very high (a la Cariboo), and it costs as much to live here with the poor comforts of life we get as at the Cosmopolitan, at San Francisco, although very little doing. Flour is selling at from $17 to $18 per 100 pounds; potatoes, 22 cents; beef 25 cents; sugar, 35 to 40 cents; bacon, 40 cents; all other things in proportion. Wood on the hill is selling from $20 to $30. We have a live San Francisco man here that has just opened a meat market, and we hope he will maintain a lively opposition. Labor (common) is rather scarce, while skilled labor, mechanics, etc ,command good wages when the weather will admit of doing any business. Common labor is 5 per day; carpenters, $8 to $9; masons $12 to $15, when there is work and the weather will permit of doing it. Morals in this country are not the things most called for — very little attention paid to them.

            Jumping lots at Treasure Hill has been the order of the day, and will be again when the weather will admit of out-door quarrelling; and many of the claimants will receive only that protection the six-shooter gives. We have no Sunday here; gambling is carried on as openly as any other day, and most business transactions.

            This is probably the best silver mining district we have ever had discovered on this coast. No district has shown so much silver-bearing ore on and near the surface. So far as has been tested, by depth of shafts, the amount of work done shows a degree of permanency not found in any of the districts in this or adjoining States. There will, without doubt, be a large influx of population; some will come to make permanent homes, others to make money soon and hasten home to enjoy it. The weather is very cold, yet the thermometer has not indicated 10 degrees (Fahrenheit) below zero but few times, and only two or three times 15 degrees below. To-day the wind blows a perfect gale or hurricane, and I am told that at Treasure Hill they have to go around on their hands and knees, and as one takes the last look at his hat as it goes over the hill he has no regard that he lost his hair years before. As yet, but few fissure veins have been found; but the ore is found in large or small deposits, or in sheets and layers, sandwich style, running in no direction or in every direction. In many instances it is merely excavated, the same as grading for a street in San Francisco, or a house lot on the side of a hill.  On Chloride Flat the pay rock lays in stratas, alternating with lime rock, of from 4 to 12 inches in thickness, and a shaft 30 feet might pass through 12 to 20 of these layers These shafts are sunk in some instances within 15 or 20 feet of each other, and most of them claim from 800 to 1,000 feet each. Unless the ground at the bottom is very elastic there is likely to be a scarcity of territory, affording great chances for litigation, and the lawyers, like the monkey dividing the cheese for the cats, will be the principal gainers. Those mines on the Flat show, so far, a good degree of permanency. There have been some very good, promising ledges discovered late this fall, or early winter. Among others, may be named the Auburn, the Evans, and Tremont. Many of the locations have been made since the first snow, and promise well. We have also a new town laid out recently, called Eberhardt City, at the foot of the caρon leading from the celebrated mine of the same name, and in the caρon leading from Hamilton, about one mile southeast from the Eberhardt Mine; it has a very eligible site, and promises to be one of the leading places at no distant day. Lots are now selling there from $100 to $900. Its proximity to all the other towns, and the facility of building roads to it; its warm climate (being so low); its many mill-sites, with good facility for furnishing water for mills and other purposes, render it a very excellent position; its proximity to so many mines on the west, south and east sides of the celebrated Treasure Hill, and to all the base range of ledges — it certainly has advantages not possessed by many towns in this State.

Roads and Highways.

            There are many toll-roads projected in this District, and two have their terminii at the new town of Eberhardt, so that Oakland is not the only place that can boast of a terminus. Two other toll-roads are now in course of construction, encircling the celebrated Treasure Hill, commencing and terminating at Hamilton, so we will not have to go to the Bay to find a terminus. One of these roads reaches Main street, Treasure City, near the South Aurora Mine, running around on the northeast side of the hill, past the Pocotillo, Phil Sheridan, the Emersly, Continental, Tremont, Waterville, and about one thousand feet from the Hidden Treasure Mine. Another, commencing at Hamilton and pacing on the west side of the present road and winding up the hill to Union street or below, and passing on to near Chloride Flat about the centre. Many times when the weather is pleasant the street is filled with "prairie schooners," with twenty mules, and loaded with all the various kinds of freight wanted in the market.

Character of the Population.

            These little towns are getting filled with all kinds of people, but until recently a more orderly and peaceful people could not be found; but the new importations show a different stripe. The district is getting filled with all kinds who have graduated in the high school of crime and come here to teach and put their nefarious schemes in practice; many of them failed to get justice done them before coming here by the hemp process, for fear of the disgrace it might bring on the institution itself.

Express Facilities, Etc.

            The Union Express Company have at last made arrangements to bring passengers and freight, have complete arrangements for successful operations, and we expect and hope to see that branch of business attended to with a little more despatch.

            There are now a large number of lodging houses (corrals) here, arranged with from 30 to 40 beds in one room (something not often enjoyed in San Francisco), and often the only room in the home. I have never beard them complain of the fleas troubling them in these places, but as for the Washoe turtles no questions are asked, if even they should outnumber the fleas of Egypt.

            There have been several cases of small-pox in the district — five here and about as many at Silver City: four or five have died, but there is only one here at the present time. With the conveniences for its treatment and care the sick get here it is hard indeed for them.

An Indian Raid.

            The Indians made a raid on us a few days since, to the number of about fifty of both sexes. They came with their horses, the men riding and the women trudging on foot in the deep snow, following in the track the cayoose made, and carrying the papooses and whatever other baggage they have. This was a gambling and begging raid. The speedy growth of the city has crowded their hitching posts far out of their once centre. They came in, and standing along the street in rows all day, wondered at the mushroom growth of this place. On the next day they trudged up the hill to Treasure City — the greatest wonder to them of all. They seemed to be puzzled to know why these deposits have built up these places, and think they will have a nice place after the white people leave it They seem to enjoy themselves hugely. They finally rode off, with their rags fluttering in the breeze. How many Washoe turtles are left on their trail, quien sabe. They have much more pride in their dress than in former times. In warm weather, we used to frequently see what they term "big Indian" in full dress, which consists of a tall fur hat some one gave him, and a shirt.  The ladies' dress consisted of a piece of the bark of a tree, a little larger then a fig leaf, and fringed at the bottom, but they are getting civilised; they wear any old pieces of blankets, rabbit-skins and a kind of moccasin that they can get. The males, by their love of whiskey, are also getting civilised.

The Bottom of the Sea.

            Everything here in regard to the formation of this country goes to show that this was once the bottom of the sea. Some of the hills are covered with the fossil remains of a great variety of sea shells, and nearly all show more or less. Millions of them, imbedded in the solid limestone rock, are also found, and many, too, are found nearly free from rock. I also found some petrified walnuts (apparently), some with part of the bark yet adhering to them. This certainly forms a great study for the naturalist, and is a puzzler for the geologist. There are two kinds of mining here: one for the poor man, when he can work at surface silver quartz mining, which takes very little capital; and the deep deposit mining, when it takes capital to work it and bring out its value.

Caution to "Rushers."

            I am in constant receipt of letters from the Bay, asking information from this place concerning the climate, mines, conveniences for getting here, cost of living, expense of living, expense of house lots, when best to come, etc. I would say to them that unless they have long and well filled pockets, and are unwilling to sit by the fire and eke out a cold existence a large portion of the time, and can drive a good track when it is good weather, they had best not come until spring, or at least until it is warmer than at present, otherwise they may find next spring that their money, like "Bob Acres'" courage, has all oozed away.

            Wait until spring, be sure you are right, and come to White Pine, for this is where we have sandwich mining, and this is the place where we find silver in the bottom of the well.  

B.