[J. D. Emersley, Matters at Reese River, Reese River Reveille article, reprinted in the Sacramento Union August 1, 1868]

 

            Matters at Reese River.— We find the following local intelligence in the Reveille of July 28th:

            The following note from J. D. Emersley, who resided in the district of White Pine almost since the discovery of the rich deposits, gives a moderate and no doubt a correct account of it:

            In the notes I gave you on Saturday respecting the value of the ore from the Eberhardt South in the White Pine District, I see I have not been fully understood, and wish, therefore, to make a slight correction. The ore being worked at Newark is part of the first class milling rock of which 110 tons are extracted. The second and third class ores have not been worked, and the values I gave of them were from the estimates of Sproul, the superintendent, who is probably the best judge of White Pine ore we have in the district. I examined the ores and think the estimates moderate. His figures are generally rather under than over the actual yield. There can be no doubt that during the last sixty days the four lucky owners have taken out ore enough to yield them clear of all expenses $80,000 each in coin, and the deposit is not exhausted. On one side of the open cut a streak about two feet wide, and carrying good ore, is found to go downward almost perpendicularly. When I left, last week, very rich ore was being taken out of this place, but the quantity in sight was small, as compared to what it was a few weeks ago. The Keystone is now yielding a better quality of ore than the Eberhardt, and bids fair to give an equally liberal return to the parties to whom it belongs as the other has done. No other deposit of equal value to these two has been discovered in the district, though valuable mines are being located almost daily. On the southeastern face of Treasure Hill, about a mile from its summit, a very premising ledge, known as the Best Chance, was located a few weeks ago by the Lake brothers. Another, named the Metropolitan, was found recently about half a mile below Sherman's new town site. On Treasure Hill there are scores of holes being dug, and it seems that one can scarcely go amiss; ore is found almost anywhere that an opening a few feet deep is made. Still, all of those will not prove mines; hundreds of locations are being made which will never become of any permanent value. Like most new districts, White Pine is being overdone in everything. There are more prospectors, more storekeepers, more saloon-keepers and more Micawbers than the place can support at present. As a matter of course, disappointment is sure to prevail, and in a few weeks you will see the disheartened pilgrims returning to Austin, cursing the country as a "bilk." The man who is unsuccessful in the district will be very liable to give it a bad name simply because he cannot make money there.

            The following extract from a letter written by Len. Wines to D. W. Welty of this city in relation to the projected road down Reese River valley to the Humboldt river, to connect Austin with the Central Pacific Railroad, cannot prove otherwise than deeply interesting to our citizens:

            "D. W. Welty— Dear Sir: I met Crocker yesterday at Wadsworth and presented your letter to him, which he says he will answer on his return to Sacramento. In the meantime be authorized me to say to the citizens of Austin that freight would not be over $20 per ton from Wadsworth (the present terminus) to the mouth at Reese River valley; and should teams undertake to carry freight from Wadsworth to Austin, or Belmont, the railroad company will carry it so cheap that teams cannot possibly compete with them. He says, tell the Austin people to go ahead and build the road and he will see that freight and passengers go that way; and to satisfy us that he means what he says he authorized us to put him down for $1,000 to aid in building the road."

            The busy, enterprising prospectors of White Pine permit nothing to escape them. We learned from a gentleman just arrived from that district that every bank of snow on the hills adjoining the towns was claimed and located for the purpose of supplying the whisky-shops. On one bank he observed several stakes on which were placed notices that "we, the undersigned, claim 50 feet of this snow-bank," etc.

            There is a report in the city that the grasshoppers, which proved such a plague to Utah, are moving westward. They are said to have reached Deep creek, 220 miles east of Austin. If they continue to move in this direction they will be disastrous to the fine grain crops in Ruby valley.