Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/757

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from four to six dollars a day. Or. Statesman, Aug. 11, 1857, Sept. 28, 1858; Or. Argus, Aug. 20, 1859. In 1860 reputed silver quartz was found on both the Santiam and Moballa rivers, and many claims were located. But it was not until 1863 that undoubted quartz lodes were discovered in the Cascade Mountains on the north fork of the Santiam. A camp called Quartzville was established at a distance of about fifty miles from Salem and Albany in the autumn of that year, and in the following season some of the leads were slightly worked to show their character, and yielded twenty-one dollars to the ton, a little more than half in silver. Portland Oregonian, July 29, 1864. The most noted of the veins in the Santiam district was the White Bull lode, situated on Gold Mountain, where a majority of the leads were found. It was eight feet wide and very rich. The Union company of Salem removed a bowlder from one of their claims, under which they found first a bed of gravel and earth several feet in depth, then bastard granite, and beneath that a bluish gray rock with silver in it. Beneath the latter was a layer of decom posed quartz overlying the true gold-bearing quartz. Out of this mine some remarkable specimens were taken. The hard white rock sparkled with points of gold all over the surface. In some cavities where the quartz was rotten, or at least disintegrated and yellowed, were what were called eagle s-nests; namely, skeins of twisted gold fibres of great fineness and beauty attached to and suspended from the sides of the opening, crossing each other like straws in a nest, whence the name. This variety of gold, which is known as thread gold, was also found in the mountains of Douglas county.

The Salem company took out about $20, 000 worth of these specimens, and then proceeded to put up a quartz-mill. But the mine was soon exhausted, and the treasure taken out went to pay the expenses incurred. This out come of the most famous mine discouraged the further prosecution of so costly an industry, and the Santiam district was soon known as a thing of the past. It was the opinion of experts that the gold was only superficial, and that the true veins were argentiferous. A company as late as 1877 was at work on the Little North fork of the Santiam, which heads up near Mount Jefferson, tunnelling for silver ore. At different places and times both gold and silver have been found in Marion and Clackamas counties, but no regular mining has ever been carried on, and the development of quartz-mining by an agricultual community is hardly to be expected. Surveyor-general s rept, 1868, in Zabrix- kie, 1046-7, MS., Sec. Int. Rept, 1857, 321-0, 40th cong. 3d sess. ; Albany Regis ter, July 28, 1871; Corvallis Gazette, Sept. 1, 1876. I have already spoken of the discovery of the mines of eastern Oregon, and its effect upon the settle ment and development of the country. No absolutely correct account has ever been kept, or could be given, of the annual product of the Oregon mines, the gold going out of the state in the hands of the private persons, and in all directions. In 1864 the yield of southern and eastern Oregon together was $1.900,000. The estimate for 1867 was $2,000,000; for 1869, $1,200,000; for 1887-8, over $1,280,000; and for 1881, $1,140,000. Review Board of Trade, 1877, 34; Ried s Progress of Portland, 42; Pacific North-west, 32-3; HittelV Resources, 290. The annual yield of silver has been put down at $150,000, this metal being produced from the quartz veins of Grant and Baker counties, the only counties where quartz-mining may be said to have been earned on successfully.

The Virtue mine near Baker City deserves special mention as the first quartz mine developed in eastern Oregon, or the first successful quartz opera tion in the state. It was discovered in 1863 by two men on their way to Boise", who carried a bit of the rock to that place and left it at the office of Mr Rockfellow, who at once saw the value of the quartz, and paid one of the men to return and point out the place where it had been found. Upon tracing up other fragments of the quartz, the ledge from which they came was discovered and Rockfellow s name given to it. Walla Walla Statesman, Sept. 5, 1863; Idaho Silver City Avalanche, Nov. 11, 1876; Portland Oregonian t Sept. 16 and Oct. 7, 1863. The Pioneer mine and two other lodes were dis covered at the same time. An arastra was at once put up, a