Page:All Over Oregon and Washington.djvu/340

334 The gold-fields of Oregon lie along the bases of, or in close neighborhood to, its mountain ranges; and there is no mountain chain which has not somewhere along it a gold-field, more or less productive. As to the mountains themselves, in Western Oregon, their rugged nature and impenetrable covering of timber have prevented their being prospected. It is only in the placer diggings of the southern counties, and the beach diggings of the coast counties, that mining for gold has been carried on to any extent.

After the rush of '49 to the gold-bars of the California rivers had made miners and experts of a hitherto purely agricultural population in Oregon, they began to find indications on their own soil of the existence of the precious metal. Traveling overland to and from California gave them opportunities of observing the nature of the country, and it was not long before the gold-hunters stopped north of the California line. As early as 1852 good placer diggings began to be discovered, and for a number of years were worked with profit. They still yield moderately, but are chiefly abandoned to the Chinese miners, who content themselves with smaller profits than our own people.

Jackson County is divided into several mining districts, the gold being placer and coarse gold. Formerly some nuggets were found not far from Jacksonville, worth from $10 to $40, $100, and even $900; but no such discoveries have occurred of late.

The annual production of gold in Jackson County is a little over $200,000. About five hundred American miners and six hundred Chinese miners employ themselves in washing out gold dust. It will be seen, by averaging the amount produced among the number