November 15, 2011

Nevada's Online State News Journal

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Nevada History:

 [George B. Ellery, Letter from White Pine, Alta California, April 14, 1869]

LETTER FROM WHITE PINE.

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[FROM AN OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE ALTA.]

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Matters and Things about Austin — The Belmont District — The Rage for White Pine — Rapid City Building — Mere Mention of Sundry Mines — New Discoveries — Real Estate, Lots, Roads, Etc.

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TREASURE CITY, April 7th, 1869.

            Editors Alta: It is some four years since I have had the pleasure of contributing to your columns, but as our Silver State is once more occupying so much of the thoughts of your citizens, and such a general desire in California to obtain reliable information, I once again assume the quill.

            I reached Austin on the 2d instant, and found the once famous city very quiet — every one, it appeared, had departed for White Pine. It was a very difficult matter to secure men to render the operating of the Manhattan mill. The Fane & Fuller Mine is looking better than any mine ever opened on Lander Hill. They have large quantities of ore which will produce about $500 per ton, and the end of the ore not yet discovered. The richest and largest body occurs in the face of the west lower lever, some 500 feet below the surface, and is nearly directly beneath the old Isabella Mine. The Florida is producing fine ore, but not in quantity, while the Manhattan old and new shafts have very rich ores, and lots of it. The Yankee Blade and Chaco Mines are sinking shafts to tap known bodies of rich ore. Austin will be a good mining camp for years.

            At Belmont the same difficulty is experienced in obtaining laborers, and work has nearly ceased on that account. The last month the Buel Mill was run, it produced from the Transylvania and Eldorado South ores at the average of $260 per ton. A new and very rich deposit was discovered last week a few hundred feet north of the Eldorado, and it is my opinion Belmont is one of the best and richest districts in the Great Basin.

            Still, White Pine is all the cry, and as at present strangers predominate, all others are hooted at unless they chance to be offshoots of this celebrated locality. There are at least 15,000 people now in the district, and perhaps 1,000 in the surrounding mountains prospecting. The towns have increased at a marvellous rate since my departure in September last, and had lumber been procurable there is no telling where it would have reached. New towns are being laid out every few days, and by the middle of the summer there will be a perfect nest of cities on Treasure Hill.

            I have been laboring under a severe cold since my arrival, and have not been able to visit the mines very extensively, but am appalled at the vast amount of rich ore piled up at the different mines on which any amount of development has been performed. The Eberhardt has at least 1,000 tons of ore out, and sufficient in sight to run a 20-stamp mill upward of three years, and, as if to put a damper on the non-ledge croakers, they have exposed their walls some 180 feet in length, and find ore at the depth of over 150 feet in what is called the Blue Bell Shaft. They yesterday purchased the More Mill for $40,000. Gen. Pane offered $35,000 for the mill, but the $5,000 "raise" secured it. The Aurora has a large pile of ore, which I judge will produce something over $200[?] per ton, and no limit as yet in the mine. The Hidden Treasure looks well, also the Emersley, while Chloride and Bromide Flats are nothing but piles of ore.

            I visited the Ida, one of the White Pine mines incorporated in San Francisco. I found a shaft about twelve feet deep, and was informed that although snow had covered the mine all winter, they had taken out sufficient ore to defray all expenses.  $10,000 was offered for the property a few days since, but refused. The proper way to purchase a mine would be on the ground, but I find mines can be purchased much cheaper in San Francisco than here. I was asked to give an opinion of a mine on Chloride Flat, while in San Francisco, and told the parties that it would not do, as they had little or no ore, and I did not think the title good; on my arrival I met the owners and jocosely informed them that I was authorized to offer them $12,500 for their property. I was coolly put off with "We don't wish to sell at present, and will not take twice that amount for this mine." I shall run all over the country, and in my next will be able to render a true account of the prospects of our first-class mines.

            New discoveries are being made daily, but Madame Rumor will not do to trust in this camp. We are shipping upward of $250,000 per month, considerable of which goes East. Some half dozen mills are being erected, and all have contracted for ores to start on. There will be a vast quantity of bricks sent from here during the fall, when all are in full blast. The smelting works are still an experiment, and nothing but a fair test can decide their merits.

            Our new county is fairly organized, but thought by many to be unconstitutional. Court was opened on Monday by Judge Beaty [sic], and a test case will be sent up to the Supreme Court at once, and we shall soon know the result.

            City lots are bringing $5,000 to $6,000 in Treasure City, and $4,000 to $5,000 in Hamilton. The two daily papers are progressing finely, and each has a great many friends. People are coming in at the rate of at least 150 per day. The snow, where the sun had a chance to shine on it, has disappeared, and it is uncomfortably warm for several hours in the middle of the day, while the nights are not near as cold as on any of the rivers in California where mining is carried on.

            The road from Austin to Hamilton, with the exception of Diamond Mountain, is dusty, not a particle of snow on it, while from Argenta to Austin, I think it was the roughest I ever had the misfortune to travel over.

            Wages here are from $5 to $6 per day for miners, and none will work who can afford to prospect. Patterson District, some 85 miles southeast of Hamilton, seems to take the lead, as an outside district, at present. Pinto, a new district, 25 miles west of Hamilton, in the Diamond range, is also attracting considerable attention; but I must leave these for my next.

GEO. B. ELLERY.