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I A Weekly Journal Devoted to the Interests of the Elk City, Red . River, Crooked River, Newsome, Dixie and Buffalo Hump Mining Camps, Issued Every Friday By Chas. Hofbtetter. SUBSCRIPTION: One Year . . Six Months . Single Copies 10 Cents. Advertising Rates on Request, , , $ 2.00 1.00 Office in Postoffice Building, Main Street, Elk City, Idaho, Application made for transmission through the mails as second class matter. I. : SALUTATORY. When a new paper is establish ed it is the custom for the pub- ( lisher to tell something of the object for which the paper is intended and the policy to be pursued. At that time the edi tor is in a reminiscent and peace ful mood and casts his prophetic eye into the dim and distant future and tells how his paper will evolve itself into a great and influential journal; how the mul titudes will scramble to have their names placed On his sub scription rolls; he will paint beautiful word pictures of his surroundings and thank a bount iful Giver for the privilege of ex isting in such a place, and gen erally the finish of his journalis tic venture is like a spavined nightmare in the wake of a beautiful dream. In giving- to the public the Elk City Mining News we have no excuses to make and no apoli gies to offer, we do so with an abiding faith in the vast mineral district drained by the South Fork of the Clearwater. This faith was not gained by what somebody has told us but by the greater part of two summers spent in prospecting- and practi cal experience in different prop erties. It is our earnest beleif that there is no district in the northwest that can even compare with the section mentioned as to the number, quantity and grade of its gold showings and the adaptability of the treatment of the ore at home. It has. been proven beyond a doubt that the source of the placer gold here is the quartz veins and porphry dykes and an examination of the district should convince the most sceptical that where Nature has produced millions of dollars by her crude processes, when up-to date artificial means are employ ed for the extraction of the pre cious metals Elk basin will be the bee hive of the mining indus try of the great northwest. IT is now about forty years since the Elk City mining district v/as first organized. Since then it has, like most of the camps of the northwest, had its lean yean as well as its fat ones, but has gone on producing the yellow metal in varying quantities. Tak ing. however, the general est mates of the old timers and cii v id ing thorn by tw'O it has ar average of half a million a year to its credit for each of the forty years. This estimate is probu lily near enough the truth to be) taken as evidence of the impor lance claimed for the camp by ftf people, The fact that thb Cold was taken from alluvial or ELK. CITY DISTRICT. , I * i. * , j # . ml deposits Instead of quartz as truth that %r h n *i the gold was freed by erosion and derived from two sources, v its ; The Immense gold bearing Intrusive dikes of conglomerate, and the smaller though high* / grade veins of quartz. Both sources will in the comparatively near future, without doubt, fur nish as great a yield to the stamp - mi11 as the y dld to frost and sun and glaciers in past ages. Seldom indeed has it fallen to the lot of even the most ubigui-. tous prospector to find in one camp so many different sources of precious minrals in so small a compass. Never was there a more promising harvest of the yellow metal awaiting to be gathered. Does capital desire the telluride ores of Cx'ipple Creek? We have them here and are only two hun dred feet in depth. Does capital want a dredging proposition? There are thou sands of acres on Crooked river, Red river, American river and Elk creek bottoms. Is capital looking for a hy draulic layout? They are to be found here, hundreds of feet of gravel banks with the surface merely scratched arid miles and miles of ditches already con structed. If you are looking for a Tread well or a Homestake this camp can size up with either in quanti ty and discount them for quality. The foregoing are cold facts and susceptable of proof. It is not desired to convey the impres sion that a man can come here with pick, pan and shovel and a months grub and reap a glitter ing harvest. It will require more capital than that—much more— and good hard work, close intel ligent work, but the reward is here for the man with capital and brains as sure as fate. But there is also ample room and fine opportunities for the prospector. There lies between here and the summit of the Bitter Roots a small empire waiting to be tickled with the prospector's pick; an empire large as some of the parishes in the east, which are dignified by the names of states. The future of this district will, of necessity, be the future of the vast new empire of central Idaho comprising all the camps already established as well as those to be established in the future, it rests largely uqon the personnel [ of the various communities, it therefor behooves all and sundry, camps as well as individuals, to stand shoulder to shoulder in all .that which concerns our internal v'welfare; whatever the injustice inflicted upon us today, if sue cessful, will be the injustice in flicted upon our neighbor tomor row. Ixri the slogan be that of ; the "Three Musketeers," "one for all. all for one, for that which is the injury of one is the ! concern of all, ! Let our rivalries be of a fair and honorable character, If you: I . ... ( cannot satisfy a possible pur chaser pilot him to your neigh » » bor's claim, if your camp fails to meet Ids approval, fill his grip and start him for the next camp, rejoicing If possible, This course will pay the biggest kind of dlvl demis* A PROFESSIONAL JUMPER. One of the worst parasites that preys' upon the efforts of honest prospectors is the claim jumper and the most radical s?eps must be taken to eradicate ; him. He never prospects but spends his time picking out, tech- j nicalities in other people's loca tions* and when a prospect, begins to show up favorably or the oy<m er has a deal underway, he • cov ers the ground with a second set of stakes and a lot of litigation ensues by which no one profits, unless it is the attorneys. We have in mind such a man who, came, into this section in 1902 and jumped several claims in the Seigel crook section, quo of which the original owners were developing at the time. This was not all. He made his pres ence so obnoxious to the pros pectors that, a meeting was held and' thé, proposition discussed as to höw it would do to use him for the decorations of a summer Christmas tree. The result of the meeting was that he was told to fan the breeze, which he did in a Way that would put to shamé a scared coyote. But like a Camas prairie horse thief, he came back again. This summer he did business down on Crooked river, jumping a group of four claims, one of which was located and held since 1897 and, besides the ten fqpt discovery shaft, has a sixty foot tunnel, half mil© of wagon road and a cabin on it. Profiting by experience, his en trance into the district this sum mer was not annuonced by a fan-fare of trumpets but he came as a thief in the night and spot ting the ground mentioned, jumped it and hired men to do the location work without delay and then immediately left the country. His next appearance was in Lewiston and shortly afterwards a lenghty article ap peared in the Tribune, of that city, telling of Mr. So and So's arrival from Crooked river where he had discovered and located a dike 600 feet wide, the lowest assay obtained being $27 in gold per ton. Then came the an nouncement that he had interest ed with him several prominent Lewiston citizens in this new Eldorado. A ranker piece of wildcatting and misrepresentation has not came to light for a long time and out of justice to the legitimate mining interests of the district and to the people whom this un scrupulous claim juniper is inter esting with him, he and his methods should be exposed. "The printing outfit for the Elk City paper pasaed through town yesterday, and another man's laborious task be gins; it's no child's play. There ought to be at the very least $1000 in cold coin given to the man who ventures in these small burgs. We are glad to hear that our friend was assisted in such by the patriots of the old gold camp." — ßtites Journal. We do not consider it a labor ious task but rather a pleasure in being in a position to extoll to The world the merits of a district such as Elk City is situated in, and will say that the extent of our "assistance" was considéra j bly less than $1000 in "cold coin. " a way Wpj are told that some of outside brethren are somewhat I suspicious of the financial out come of our venture here. They don't know this country. We have been mighty short of cash 1 once or twice since the gentle j breezes wafted us hither but we! never missed a meal. our l ' <w \ lmn ^ ^ Htmv J L)tow which way the wind Is blowing. IT REQUIRES TIME. People in the east who invest in mining shares have a very im perfect idea of the time neces sary to make a paying mine. In a vast majority of cases the man who takes a flyer in mining stocks is surprised, and com mences displaying symptoms of uneasiness, if he does not secure returns upon his investment able circumstances it requires years to place a new prospect up on a producing basis. This is natural and to be expected. Mines are not found, they are made, and it calls for months of Hard and expensive work to evol ve a mine from a mineral loca tion. If mines existed without the trouble and expense of mak ing them the country would not be flooded with stock at a few cents per share. This has been shown time and time again, in deed it is the history of every dividend paying mine in exist ertce. We have an illustration of this near at home. The Granby Mining and Smelting company, ownnig mines and operating a smelter just across the line in British Columbia, announces that the first dividend of 1 per cent on the par value of the stock will be paid December 16. Here is a company that has been operating steadily for seven or eight years, during which time hundreds of thousands of dollors have been paid out for labor and machinery, yet the first dividend is just in sight. Patience is a virtue nec essary to possess by those making mining investments. — Loomis (Wash.) Prospector. within a few months. ' They do not seem to understand that a vast amount of labor is required to develop, a mine to that stage where returns are possible. Too often the unscrupulous promoter,, in order to dispose of stock, will make misrepresentations that the investor accepts without consid ering their plausibility, thus cast ing suspicion in the end upon legitimate and meritorious propo» sitions. Under the most 1 favor ARGOSY METROPOLITAN Magazines at the POST OFFICE i j ! 1 I ! I. O. O. F. ft Dance At The AUDITORIUM Tonight, ! ' ) ] / l r - ; G. A. PARKS V ' Dentist I* Elk City ... . • • Idaho * G. L. L. BASKETT DRUGGIST — O— ; Dealer in Drugs, Medicines, Chemicals, Fancy and Toi- , let Articles, — O'" Physician's Prescriptions Carefully Compounded. n. S * * - Postoffice •( NEWSTAND y . ' i /* . All thq latest— MAGAZINES rv and ILLUSTRATED WEEKLIES —o— ► Subscriptions taken at Publiëh, er's Prices for all magazines and periodicals, ELK CITY IDAHO Natwiçk & .„I Bullock ELK CI'P SAW, • • LUMBER MINING woo ^Prompt Delivery