Page:All Over Oregon and Washington.djvu/342

336 this portion of Oregon famous. Curry County embraces some of the most valuable beach diggings on the coast.

Coos County has also its gold, silver, and copper-mines of undisputed richness. But it owes most of its present celebrity as a mineral county to its coal, which, for several years, has sold readily in the San Francisco market; and the supply is apparently inexhaustible.

Douglas County has a gold-field situated on the Middle Fork of the Urapqua, and extending along the several creeks which head in the Cascade Mountains and their lateral spurs. Considerable gold has. been taken out of the Middle Fork, Myrtle Creek, Cow Creek, and Coffee Creek diggings; and new ones are from time to time discovered. Silver is also known to exist in this county, though it never has been mined. Marble and salt are among its mineral productions; but its people being almost entirely an agricultural and pastoral community, little attention is given to any thing except farming and grazing. About where the north line of Douglas County intersects the Cascade Range a gold-mine has recently been opened, which promises to turn out very rich. Already a large amount of the precious metal has been taken out, and the indications continue to be good. This mine is called the "Bohemia."

There are no counties in the Wallamet Valley known as mineral districts. That gold and silver exist in the western slope of the Cascade Mountains is a well-known fact. So far it has been mined only on the Santiam River, where the famous pocket before mentioned was emptied of its contents. Many other lodes were located, but nothing has subsequently been done toward developing them. Other discoveries have been