[William T. E. Pritchard, White Pine, The Overland Monthly, September, 1869]

 

210      WHITE PINE.              [Sept.,

 

WHITE PINE.

 

            BENT on a "prospecting expedition," and provisioned for a six months' stay in the wilds of eastern Nevada, a band of venturesome and hardy miners started from Austin, in the spring of 1865. Wending their way eastward, over lofty mountain ranges and across wide-spreading alkali plains, passing range after range which had indications of silver, but which did not come up to the standard of their ambition, they at last reached a locality where they were tempted to examine minutely the " croppings " and "indications ; " and finding rich ore, they pitched their tents and remained some time, at what is now known as the Piute District. Urged onward still by some restless spirit, they looked across the valley with hungry eyes and the ambitious hope of approaching fortune, and longed to explore the rugged heights and lowering peaks of the snow-covered mountains before them. The fact that those mountains with their rugged croppings peering out from under the dazzling snow-drift were before them, was alone a sufficient incentive to those bold men to climb them. Descending from the chilly heights of the Diamond Range into what is now known as Mohawk Cañon, they rested awhile to observe the "float" that may have been scattered round the foot-hills in the olden days when these sombre-looking piles tossed in the agony of primeval convulsion. They traced the cañons in their windings, and with their picks and spades chipped the projecting croppings of the well marked strata, and bared the half-hidden bowlders which had broken loose from the heights above and rolled randomly to the lowest level. And there was the "float !" — the rock permeated with chloride and bromide of silver ! And then the thrill of excitement !— the tremor of hope rewarded, of fortune reached, of ambition gratified ! Everywhere around them the little band looked upon the indications of rich and boundless silver mines—the "float" covering the cañon and the hill-sides, the rock streaked with the sulphurets, the chloride tinging with its hue of green, and the bromide adding its shade of deepest blue—here, indeed, there must be silver mines of wealth untold !

            When, in the dusk of the evening, they rested from the wearisome tramp of the day, and discussed the indications, a Red Man appeared at the door of the tent, bearing a little piece of green- tinged rock, and on it glittered the "horn silver." With the rising of the morrow's sun, those eager and indefatigable treasure-hunters climbed the steep and rugged side of the double-peaked hill, covered with the stunted and struggling white pine groves, the untrodden snow making the ascent more treacherous still, by filling up crevices and gullies with its drift. But before the sun was at its zenith, they were on the summit ridge, between the two bald peaks, whose only mantle was that same treacherous snow : "From there I took the little piece of rock," said the Red Man, who, from those lofty peaks, had often looked upon the silver land in the primitive innocence of his untutored, unambitious life : "From this spot I took the little piece of rock," he repeated. Heavily and fast fell the pick, and eagerly and anxiously they watched the crop-pings of the chloride. As deeper and deeper the pick cleared away the rock, the great deposit of ore was laid bare.

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            And this was the famous mine now known as the Original Hidden Treasure. The photograph of the Indian who led the way to the discovery of this mine has lately been taken in Shermantown ; and thus this son of the mountains has immortalized himself.

            It was the l0th of October, 1865, that this same brave little band of California miners met in their tented camp, to rehearse the results of the expedition. The only record extant of the proceedings of that memorable day—memorable because pregnant with the brilliant future of the hitherto untenanted deserts of eastern Nevada, and portending the fortunes of many an embryo millionaire —the sole chronicle and abstract of that day, is found in the mining laws of the district, where it is said : "A company of miners met on the above day for the purpose of forming a district. Motion made and carried that this district be known as White Pine District—bounded on the north by the Red Hills, and running thence south to a point where the mountains run into a foot-hill, thence east twelve miles, thence north, and thence west to the place of beginning; the district being twelve miles square." Such is the somewhat vague definition of the limits of the White Pine Mining District, as laid down by the original meeting of miners, on the l0th of October, 1865.

            The forests of white pine, which cover the hills and mountains, from their summits to the cañons, suggested the name of the district. These forests, as the traveler first looks upon the hill-sides, give the country the appearance of being heavily timbered. But, on a closer inspection, they dwindle into a meagre insignificance, as the mind naturally reverts to the pine forests of California ; the majesty of whose groves, and the apparent antiquity of whose growth, strike awe into the beholder, as he stands beneath their wide-spreading shades. In the White Pine District, forty feet in height, and thirty inches in diameter, are the measurements of the largest trees, and these tower almost peerless over their fellows. But still, white pine trees of stunted growth, and the equally stunted mountain mahogany, whose low branches interlock, and give a welcome shade to the sun-scorched prospector who may recline beneath their foliage, in the sultry summer days of June, July, and August, cover the hill-sides, and afford an abundant supply of fuel for all the requirements of the miners and the mills. And then, too, the cedar and the nut-pine thickly spread themselves over the hills and cañons ; and the bunch-grass flourishes everywhere ; and, in the valleys below, the broad acres are covered, in spring and summer, with grass, which affords excellent hay for winter provender for stock. In regard to water, recent explorations have developed springs which promise to meet the demands of the district. There is already a large company organized for the purpose of carrying water to the height of Treasure City ; for, on the hill itself, there is no trace of water. At the present time, the supply is met by huge water-casks, in which this necessary element is hauled up the steep grades by four and six-horse teams, and sold from door to door by the bucketful, at the rate of from four to six cents per gallon. Until the end of May, the miners had their heaps of snow piled about their tents and cabins, from which they drew their supplies for drinking and cooking. But the hot sun of the summer quickly thawed away all the snow ; and now the miner has to carry his can of water or his pot of cold tea to the shaft, when he goes, at the early dawn, to delve into the chlorides and bromides.

            The White Pine mountain range extends almost due north and south, in a length of some twelve miles, and reaches an altitude of over 9,000 feet. It carries

1869.]              WHITE PINE.              211

a well defined curve in its outline ; and the contour of the landscape, as viewed from the summit of Treasure Hill—when tinted by the golden rays of the setting sun, flickering over and illuminating the snowy covering that caps the ridge, and tinting it with every hue—is at once strangely picturesque and romantic. The range, at its northern extremity, rises gradually from the plains, to stretch majestically through the whole length of the district, terminating abruptly at its southern limits ; while numberless " spurs " branch off at right angles, spreading their arms down to the cañons—some abutting abruptly, as if violently broken off; others sloping gently to a point. The cañons for the most part run east and west, the main one encircling Treasure Hill. Starting from what now is the site of Hamilton, one may ride completely round the silver hill, following the great cañon to Swansea, then passing through Shermantown, onward to Eberhardt City, and through Applegarth Cañon to Hamilton again. Scattered through the length of this main cañon, where the gently-sloping "spurs" from the White Pine Range and from Treasure Hill offer the best sites, and where the water facilities are most available, are the mills for crushing the ore and turning the rude rock into precious "silver bars."

            Eastward from White Pine Mountain is the Middle Hill, as the discoverers named it, but now more popularly known as the Base Metal Range, from the fact that its silver is largely intermixed with the baser metals—chiefly copper, galenite, and antimony. The altitude of this intermediate and minor range is about 7,000 feet, though, looked down upon from the peaks of Treasure Hill, it seems dwarfed, and gives one the idea of an attempt to "hide its diminished head." Running parallel with the great range first described, as well as with Treasure Hill, it holds an intermediate rank, both in altitude and position, and extends not more than three miles in length, between Hamilton and Shermantown.

            Treasure Hill, the great centre and attraction of the district, is still to the eastward of the Base Metal Range and of the White Pine Mountain, and nearly parallel with them. Rising gradually from Hamilton, it reaches its greatest altitude immediately above Treasure City, where its two rugged peaks tower nearly 9,500 feet into the air ; thence, still onward, down to the cañon leading toward the Duckwater Plains—a distance of six miles—in a direction from north-east to south-west. In its course, after leaving the Eberhardt Mine, it branches off into two nearly parallel spurs ; the one reaching as far as, and overhanging, Eberhardt City and Menken ; the other, verging slightly to the right, or westward, and running downward past Shermantown and the celebrated California Mine. On the east, the face of Treasure Hill is, for the most part, bluff, rugged, and precipitous ; and here and there is the most decided evidence of primeval convulsion. On the northern face, the slopes are gentle and undulating, gradually losing themselves in Applegarth Cañon ; and along this reach are many excellent mill-sites, with an ample supply of water in the immediate vicinity. Round toward Hamilton, the ascent is still tolerably easy, and the road-makers have availed themselves of these moderate slopes to wind their grades up to Treasure City. On the northern side, however, passing along the Pocotillo Flat, is perhaps the easiest grade of all, though certainly the longest. The spurs that branch off from Treasure Hill, on the western slopes, are somewhat precipitous and rugged, and carry a very large proportion of the baser metals in the ore ; in fact, the ledges here are really the same as on the Base Metal Range, and as on the White Pine

212      WHITE PINE.              [Sept.

Mountain. These ores can not be milled, but must be reduced by the smelting process.

            On the south-west slope are the celebrated Bromide, Chloride, and Pogonip Flats, which gently undulate from the southernmost of the two peaks, down toward the main cañon—now the road from Hamilton to Shermantown. On these flats the richest ores of the district, next to the Eberhardt, have been found; and they are the most easily mined and milled, perhaps, of any silver ores in the world. The fame of White Pine has arisen from these flats ; and to-day they present an appearance of being thoroughly honey-combed. Wherever there was the faintest trace of chloride, the prying miner has burrowed with pick, and spade, and blast. Sloping gradually down from the peak above to the cañon below, Pogonip Flat offers no shelter whatever from the fury of the bleak, cutting blasts, which sometimes sweep over it ; and here, too, it is that the dense, piercing fog hangs from hour to hour in the dull, dreary days of the winter. Hence "Pogonip" is now the conventional term for a roaring, piercing, cutting, bleak, merciless snow-storm, with all the furies of Boreas cut loose and filling the air with hideous noises. And, leaving this bleak, cold Pogonip Flat on the right, and following the bend round to the Eberhardt, just above the present grade, one passes a grim, rugged, frigid point, which—when covered with the mid-winter snow, and when the piercing wind is howling in fitful blasts, and the chilly, damp fog clings in trailing icicles to mustache and beard, and the thin, humid air strains the lungs in breathing—is one of the most hideously infernal spots the imagination can picture. With the road now passing under the bluffs it is passable ; but even this road, in mid-winter, with the drifting snow piling against you as you struggle along, breasting the strong wind, is a dreary, cold, repulsive walk. But life in White Pine, with all its changes of heat and cold, of "good luck" and "bad luck," of "rich strikes" and "unmitigated bilks," gradually brings the hardy miner to look with a callous eye upon the roughest "Pogonip," and to walk through the dreariest place on the hill with cool unconcern.

            On the summit of Treasure Hill are two peaks, bearing north and south from each other, in the line of its greatest length. Around the southernmost of the two, and beneath it, and far away into it, miners have traced the precious chlorides. The northern peak has thus far developed no deposits of ore. Around it the miner's strong arm strikes no drill, nor swings a pick, to delve for hidden wealth : there solitude yet reigns, in its cold, forbidding aspect ; and there, too, is the cemetery—there are lain in their long sleep, and for their last home, the toil-worn, weary pioneers, whose spirit and enterprise led the way to the wealth, the greatness, the power, the grandeur, of the Great Republic ; men to whom Athens would have given a statue, but to whom the modern civilization, in the eagerness of the race, and the selfishness of egotism, awards a lonely, unnamed, dreary spot, beneath the shadow of the rugged, barren peak of Treasure Hill.

            In the geological formation of the district, argillaceous slates, quartzite, and limestone predominate, developing continuous croppings covered with oxidized iron. Limestone is the prevailing rock, and the bulk of the ore deposits, or chloride zones, are in coralline limestone of the Silurian age. Descending from the southern peak, the upper layer consists of a siliceous rock ; the second is silicified, encrinal limestone ; the third is calcareous , sandstone and calcareous shale ; and then comes the strictly mineral-bearing zone, in coralline limestone. The outcroppings may be found in a "sag" at the Original Hidden Treasure

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Mine, immediately on the northern side of the peak, and may be traced thence, with a downward curve, on to Chloride and Pogonip Flats, in a south-west direction. This chloride zone may be traced, with certain "faults" or irregularities, and with certain undulations, around the hill to the spot whence we started. In certain localities, the ore is richer in silver, and the belt is, more or less, some two hundred feet wide.  A remarkable depression in the stratification is apparent on Treasure Hill, showing itself very clearly in the ore- bearing or chloride zone. At the same time, the stratification overhanging Applegarth Cañon, eastward from the hill, shows a convex outline. The whole aspect of the rocks and strata here gives the idea of a subterranean force upheaving the massive bodies from below and the massive bodies subsiding from the loss of the elevating power ; and everywhere there are the clearest indications of the direct action of heat, and the fumorolas whence the steam and gases escaped from below. Scattered somewhat abundantly throughout the upper and second strata, but most abundantly in the silicified, encrinal limestone, are found the calcareous skeletons of the Echinoderms and other Radiata. The calcareous sandstone and shale are barren of fossils, and interpose a line between the above fossils and those of the coralline limestone below, where are found the fossiliferous, cellular plants of the Alga: family, and the coralline Brachiopods, somewhat intermixed. The first class of fossils named indicate the younger portion of the Paleozoic cycle, and may be placed in the Carboniferous age ; the second class described show characteristics of the Silurian age.

            Almost any piece of rock on Treasure Hill, whether from the depths of the 35 per cent. deepest shaft, or from the bare surface, will "assay ; " sometimes the result gives as low as one to two dollars of silver to the ton of rock—just merest trace of mineral. But in the regular ore, the amount of silver to the ton has been found, by assays, to reach as high as $25,000. The "horn silver" has been found so pure that a pick has been stuck so deeply into it as to lift a slab from the ground ; and, almost every day, one may find samples in the richer mines where he may stick his knife into the horn silver, and hold the ore hanging from the point. And, occasionally, one may see the chloride or the bromide marking the ore in the most fantastic manner. Some of these specimens are of exquisite beauty, to the eye of the metallurgist and the geologist ; but so many have been taken away by visitors, and so many by less honorable hands, from the richer mines, that now the superintendents find it necessary to give only to those whom they know or who may be duly introduced to them. The mines of Treasure Hill will undoubtedly prove exhaustless, and of almost unlimited wealth. The ore is rich for the most part, the proportion of low grade being less than that of high grade ; it is free from the baser metals, is easily mined, and facile to reduce to bullion.  Though none of the mines have yet been worked to the water-level, enough has been developed to show their permanence and extent. Both wet and dry milling have been carried on in the district, and opinion is still divided as to the more profitable mode of the two.

            The "base metal ores" may be classified as oxidized and sulphureted lead ores, oxidized and sulphureted copper ores, quartzose sulphureted, and calcareous chloride, silver ores. The first contain from 20 to 65 per cent. of lead, and yield by fire assay from $40 to $120 of silver per ton ; the second, from 12 to of copper, and from $40 to $250 of silver per ton. The sulphureted are richer than the oxidized ores, and it is probable that the latter will be

214      WHITE PINE.              [Sept.,

replaced by the former, as the ledges are worked to greater depths. While the mills have found the ores of Treasure Hill remarkably easy to work, the various attempts to smelt the base metal ores have thus far proved failures—not because the ores are "refractory," but because the men who have made the attempts have either been wanting in experience and practical knowledge, or short of funds for the magnitude of the undertakings.

            Three years ago White Pine was a desert, where only the foot of the Indian left its print upon the snow. Two years ago the White Man was attracted by the rumors of rich silver mines, and one party after another flocked to the bleak hills and snow-covered mountains. Gradually the tents and cabins multiplied in number ; and the sound of the pick and the drill was heard, as the prospectors roamed over the ground. Suddenly "the rush" came ; and to-day there are three thriving "cities" in the wilderness of three years since, and White Pine is a country with some fifteen thousand inhabitants. The county-seat is Hamilton, with its four thousand citizens ; it is, from its location, the point of arrival and departure. Treasure City, perched away up on the summit of Treasure Hill, in the centre of the chief mines, some of which are situated on the main street, is the next in size, with its three thousand busy miners, brokers, bankers, telegraph-men, express-men, saloon and store-keepers ; here the major part of the business is conducted—certainly the larger portion of all the mining operations. Next is Shermantown, quietly shaded by the heights of the surrounding mountains ; boasting the most agreeable sites for residences, and numbering some two thousand citizens. All these three "cities" have their theatres and other places of public amusement and resort ; they have their lectures, their schools, and their churches. And besides these, there are Eberhardt City, Menken, White Pine City, and Sunnyside —as yet, however, "cities" only on paper, and in the books of the real-estate brokers. Hotels, lodging-houses, and restaurants abound, where any thing that money can purchase may be obtained. The mines are scattered all over the district, though the richer ones, for the most part, are situated on Treasure Hill and its spurs. The yield of bullion for the month of June was about $400,000 —limited to this amount by the lack of mills to extract the silver from the ores. As milling facilities increase, so will the yield of bullion increase, until probably the amount will rise to ten millions of dollars annually. And all this is the result of the expedition of those few brave and venturesome men who started from Austin, in the State of Nevada, in the spring of 1865, "to prospect the country."