[Albert S. Evans, Letter from White Pine, Alta California, April 1, 1869]

 

LETTER FROM WHITE PINE.

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[FROM THE SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE ALTA.]

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Fine Weather Once More — Real Estate Lively — A Conflict of Legal Jurisdiction —Indian Butchery — Pocotillo, California, and Other Mines — The Woodman's Strike — Etc.

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TREASURE CITY, March 27th, 1869.

            Editors Alta: Weather this morning beautiful and work resumed all over the district. Everything is lively again as usual. A man just now stepped in front of the office with seven small pieces of siding, for a house, on his shoulder, for which he had paid $17 50 coin. That illustrates the condition of the lumber market. I went to a stable with a friend to get a small bunk bed-tick filled with hay. They charged twenty cents per pound for the hay, or $6 for 30 pounds, and we concluded to buy curled hair or pulu instead. Hay is too luxurious. Real estate, too, is excited. Coming down from our cabin this morning I saw a jumper sitting by a little tent he had erected on a lot belonging to somebody else, with a heavy rifle across his knee, waiting to see if there was any other gentleman who had been "hunting for him for three weeks." A party of jumpers have been for a week holding armed possession of a lot next alongside the log stable next south of the Pacific Union Express Company's office, on Main street, which is claimed by a woman who bought it some months since. A crowd has been hanging around there for days, and frequently it has seemed as though bloodshed was inevitable, but to-day the jumpers appear to be in quiet possession, and they will probably remain so until the Courts in this new County of White Pine are organised next month. As for the mining excitement, that continues all the time.

A Speck of War.

            It is reported here to day that there is to be a conflict of jurisdiction between the old officials of Lander County, Nevada, and the new ones for White Pine County — cut off from Lander County by the act — created by act of the last Legislature of the State. The new officials come into office by the terms of the act on All Fools' Day, and it is admitted that that portion of the act which creates a new Judicial District in this part of the country is legal, but that the creation of a new county outright, without submitting it to the vote of the taxpayers, is illegal and void. There is also a question as to the right of the Legislature of the State to appoint the officers, it being claimed that in the Governor alone rests that power. It is reported that the old officials will come over here from Austin and try it on next month, but it is not impossible that the whole affair will end in smoke or gas.

The Indian Murders.

            The report that there bad been a butchery by Indians in one of the new districts east of here, mentioned in my letter of Sunday last, proves to have been well founded. The Inland Empire, which made its first appearance to-day, gives the following version of the affair:

            "From a gentleman who returned from Patterson District a few days since, we learn that on the 12th instant a band of Indians attacked a party of prospectors near Snake Mountain and killed and scalped a young man named Colgan (familiarly known hereabouts as 'Dublin,') and a Chileno, name unknown. Some sixteen men had been encamped upon Snake Creek, and the party attacked (five or six) had started into the mountains to prospect some placer gold diggings known to exist there, when they were attacked and two of their number instantly killed, the others escaping to the camp. A few days previous to this affair, Colgan and two companions were out hunting, and on approaching a grove of timber saw five Indians skulking in the brush. Arms were immediately brought into readiness, and one of the party having a shot-gun, began loading, when an Indian threw up his bands and approached the whites, the other Indians following, unarmed, behind. The leader of the band, in broken English, gave the whites to understand that that was their chosen hunting ground, and that the pale faces would not be permitted to kill game in the vicinity — intimating at the same time that, although they (the Indians) were not particularly hostile, still they did not dote upon the whites. Colgan and his companions returned to their camp, in order to allay the fears of the Indians, but soon afterward repaired to the stream and began shooting trout. The Indians complained of this also, but the whites did not desist. For several days afterward, and up to the morning of the attack, the red skins were observed skulking in the neighborhood and apparently watching the movements of the whites, doubtless awaiting an opportunity to make a successful attack on a portion of the whites. Parties in from Grant and Patterson Districts believe that this outrage was committed by the Goshute Indians, while others believe that it is attributable to a band of Snakes (mostly young men under a young Chief) who recently broke away from the authority of the head Chief because of his determination to remain on terms of amity with the whites. This band moved south and it is understood has since been joined by a large number of renegades and the worst characters from other tribes, including a few of that most active, intelligent and warlike tribe the Parovans, of Fillmore Valley, in Utah. Prospectors should therefore band together in strong parties, go well armed and keep a sharp lookout for these red rascals, and it would doubtless save many lives during the coming summer if General Gregg would establish a military post either in Snake or White River Valley."

            A little healthy killing by white volunteers would have a wholesome effect on the "Lo !" family over there, and the lesson cannot come too soon.

Small Pox.

            There are now eight small-pox patients in the Hospital at Hamilton and the disease is said to prove fatal in a majority of cases. There are several cases in the towns besides those in the Hospital.

Sales.

            I hear to day that Alfred Fonda, an old San Francisco merchant, has bought eighty five acres adjacent to the Western Addition to Hamilton, and will lay off a new addition to that place. The "Bull Springs," a mill site eight miles down the cañon below Silver Springs, have been sold for $12,000, coin. The sale of the Watson tract, at Hamilton, for $250,000, I mentioned last week.

Another Strike.

            I have just seen a party from Pocotillo, around on the eastern slope of Treasure Hill, who has struck ore of a very high grade within a few hundred feet of the Pocotillo Mine. The deposit or ledge appears to run in an opposite direction, or at right angles with that of the Pocotillo, and there is quite a little excitement over its discovery.  It is called the "Good Omen," and though but a few feet of sinking has been done on it, I am told that $12,000 was offered and refused for the claim today.

            The California Mine continues to develop enormously, and the ledge has now been traced 600 feet, with rich ore at every point. I am going down to look at it again this afternoon.

            Herewith find the curious specimen of rich chlorides embedded in a nut-pine tree of which I spoke in my letter yesterday. You will see that there is bark alongside the ore, but the deposit was surrounded by wood on all sides nevertheless.

EVANS.