[Letter from White Pine, Alta California, April 2, 1869]

 

LETTER FROM WHITE PINE.

__________

[FROM AN OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE ALTA.]

__________

The Late Storm—A Hard Winter — Difficulties of Housekeeping — Troubles and Trials — Mines and More Mines — A Roseate Prospect Ahead — Great Anticipations — "The Wonder of the World" — Etc.

__________

TREASURE CITY, March 27th, 1869.

The Trials of a While Pine Winter.

            The effects of a storm which commenced with furious winds and culminated in a heavy fall of snow is fast passing away, and the streets are alive with new comers. Probably from this time accommodations at both Hamilton and Treasure City, as well as the facilities for travelling from Elko, will be vastly increased and improved.

            The struggle has been to get through the winter, to hang on, and the sunshine of spring, although we have had but little of it, seems to warm into life some of the civilized luxuries. Occasionally a real bedstead may be seen at some store, and some one is carrying an arm-chair home.  A few fresh fish are in market, and potatoes are to be had every day. It is true prices are high — potatoes twenty-five cents per pound, and good butter — not strong butter for boarders, but the ranch article — one dollar twelve and a half cents; and a milkman drives along once a day with real milk. I am unable to give a quotation on milk. I am sinking, and when I strike "chlorides" the milkmen will come to me —  these dealers in luxuries seem to have an instinctive knowledge of our "prospects." When I bought a bedstead and took it home on a sleigh, some one must have noticed the movement, for the baker called to solicit my patronage — would serve me at my house each day. I moved, after living three months in my own hired house — I moved to be out of the way of mines, street grading and mud — moved up on Treasure Hill, or, rather, a little further up on the hill — up near the Hidden Treasure Mine. I bought a lot and built a home — used a couple of months' rent to do it — and supposed I might, if at home, be at peace. But during the day, bump and thump underground convinced me that I was not yet out of trouble.

            The Silver Wave Mine, seventy-five feet in my rear, which had been quiet for a few days, was in motion, and I found a mine worth noticing. The work is developing a large and rich ledge. I should judge it to be a continuation of the Hidden Treasure vein. For convenience of working and hauling ores it has no superior, and should that Silver Wave be the one to carry me along, they may blast away. Quieted about trouble from that source, I returned to my home, and found a Deputy Sheriff waiting to serve a summons. The paper he politely handed me states that the action is brought to recover judgment for a piece or parcel of land situate about one hundred miles, in an easterly direction from the city of Austin, and it calls upon John One to John Seventy for damages. I don't know which John I am, but shall remain where I am till something more than paper is fired at me.

            The storm was very severe, and numerous cases of illness have been the result of exposure. We have a few cases of small-pox, but nothing alarming.

Improving Prospects.

            The improvement in the mines is very general; from Hamilton, to a long distance below Silver Springs, new discoveries are almost daily made. At the California I found a crowd of men, attracted by the business-like manner in which the work is now progressing. A strong force of men are sinking and taking out ore. It is doing more than its most sanguine friends anticipated. West of it about one fourth of a mile, the Massachusetts and Santa Clara Mines are situated, and a shaft down twenty feet in ore on the Massachusetts Ledge shows very fine average rock, full of chlorides, and assaying over $200 per ton. A short distance south, the Little York struck a vein of grey chlorides and free metal, and next adjoining, the Salisbury, George Peabody and Rochester are all promising good ore, if one can judge by surrounding claims where work has been done. Passing up by Argyle Hill and the Copper Glance, where the immense wastes of ore attract general attention, for the ore in sight on the Copper Glance ledge will run a mill for months. I followed or tried to trace a continuation of this ledge on the opposite side of the gulch — Keystone Gulch — and found that some parties had tried the same thing nine months earlier than I did.  The Chicktonaga, or Cheektonaga, opened last June, shows the name kind of surface ore — not as highly colored, but full of chlorides, and within a foot of the surface. 'This ledge is east of the Eberhardt, and on the slope towards Pocotillo City. No work has been done, with the exception of a few days, on this claim since August last, but about sixty feet below on the same ledge some enterprising prospectors have made a location, and hope to sell before they are gobbled up by the old one. They have the same ore — rich and abundant. I note this locality particularly, as the ledges seem to cross the gulch and appear on this side-hill — not cropping out as distinctly, but I think you will hear of very rich mines being opened up in this comparatively new place. The Cheekatonaga will have no trouble in tracing their ledge, as it may be seen by simply turning over the top of the quartz which lies on the surface.  It is full of fine chlorides; the black quartz resembles that of the Hidden Treasure.

            The new town of Pocotillo has been surveyed, and a road connecting Hamilton and Treasure City by way of the East and the Aurora Mine is nearly completed.

Other Interests.

            Some excitement was created and a number started off to see the Blue Wing Mine, a new location, below Shermantown, on a reported strike of rich ore. Such was the case, but they struck the ore at such a depth that "chloriders" who wait for a strike and then sink within a few feet of the pay and take their chances of a sale to some green one, left disgusted.  The Blue Wing ore is of a red cast, but containing very little base metal and carries plenty of silver. The mine has been worked every day since the location, and a shaft some forty feet is down on it. This shows the extent of the district, or its great extent, for the Blue Wing is about four miles south of the Hidden Treasure. The situation of this mine is favorable, being on nearly a level with the mill road, and in a thickly wooded tract, directly west of Treasure City. The Taibor Mine, just opened, promises to attract attention. It is on the Shermantown and Hamilton road; ledge eight feet wide, and ores somewhat base, assaying from $100 to $1,000 per ton. I will not tire your readers by further detail, nor excite their desire to see this rich and wonderful district; but it is a fact, evident to all who have through the winter remained on the ground, that the half has not been seen or told. Under the most discouraging circumstances, with tools and supplies of all kinds worth almost their weight in silver, labor scarcely to be had, and the fear of a hard winter keeping back work of all kinds, great developments have been made — something new in mining; ores turned up to view in quantities to justify the erection of all the mills that can get a show for water, and to set at work tunnelling projects for water. What may not be expected when these ledges are worked systematically and energetically, with weather to favor, and plenty of supplies and mines. I say, look out for the wonder of the nineteenth century.

A "Bull" Letter.

            This is evidently a bull article. But I am not an owner in the California — don't even own the very bad title to the lot I live on — nor had I heard of the Silver Wave till I stumbled on it — nor was I carried away by the enthusiasm of my friends who tramped and often do so with me; but it's a conviction forced upon me by the actual condition of things in this locality. I have never said stay away till spring; the coming events seemed to cast a shadow before them; and my bull articles are not new. I don't think our population of 50,000 (they will be here) can all get in and out with fortunes; but for the miner, merchant, mechanic and speculator, probably no such field was ever opened. From my window I see camp fires way up in the Diamond Mountain range — the base range — prospectors opening out those immense ledges which traverse the mountains hundreds of feet above us. This population will bring all that ore into market. Every inch of tillable land will be cultivated in the valleys around us. A railroad through this valley must be built, and works that now would seem nothing more than imaginary will be put in operation. The mines are barely scratched; the little flush of excitement is but the ripple before the full strong wave that will soon set in on us !