Elk City mining news., March 05, 1904, Image 1

About Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913

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Rill City Mining News
m
Elk City, Idaho, March 5, 1904
$2.oo The Year
Vo!. I, No. 10
ANSWER. TO 'MR. FENN.
Conditions as He States Them Are Not as The Inhabitants of
The Forest Reserve Sees Them.—The Major Does
Considerable "Beating Around the Bush.
> >
and about the only saw timber in the
basin is tamarac and we believe we are
well withip.the-truth when we say it
will not average a hundred thousand
feet to the square mile« This »".jack
pine" is slowly supplanting the lodge
pole pine and will itself—the forestry
sharps tell us— be supplanted in about
two hundred years by a better grade of
timber, perhaps. Now that this would
take place without the supervision of a
crew of forest officials we believe it is
Superintendent Fenn, of the Bitter
Root forest reserve, gave out an inter
■ view recently to the Lewiston Teller,
in which he attempts a defense of the
principle of forest reserves in (particu
lar and incidentally their administra
tion.
*
We have read Mr. Fenn's document
with a great deal of interest and must
say that it is remarkable chiefly for its
inaccuracy of statement and erronous
f conclusions. It smacks strongly of the
spellbinder rather than of the student
of a cult recently adoptéd. He con
tents himself with eternally' begging
the question or firing off a string of un
- supported assertions and accusations
and prates voluminously of our duty--ter
posterity, which we are to serve by not
cutting any timber, for with the • acu
men of the special pleader, Mr. Fenn
leaves his, readers in the dark as to
how they are going to get any timber
without working an irreparable injury
Upon the aforesaid posterity.
Nor does he enlighten us fas to ,»the
Hows, or by what manner, hei readies
the conclusion that the miner is more
destructive to timber than any other
man whose business requires that com
modity. We submit that we have
known the miner for about twenty
year sand^never have we-known-him to
fall a tree for fun or start a fire to see
\
%
fair to assume, r
The foregoing information would not
be needed by Mr. Fenn, had he paid
more attention to his duties as a for
ester' and less to the duties of a spell
binder. ,
But to resume the thread- of Mr.
Fenn's narrativ'e. Aftçr a discursive
journey to the Black Hills in which we
^re informed of the gtrenuous ^opposi
tion at first and final conversion to the
forest reserve idea of the Homestake
company, by what means we are left in
ignoi^nce, though it'is fair tu sqpposfe
the happy result was .brought about by
the eloquence of the superb> tendent of
the resevv;e,v'"m" ■ y
Wéll, we accompany Mr. Fenn back
to Idaho, -still discursively, where he
has the hardihood to voice the follow
*
"As respects the present petition
ing:
I have npt seen it nor ha va I been in
that part of the reserve since it was
it blaze; -
- -*x*
speaking alleged
of Owyhee county of timber, Mr. Fenn
has this to say: "The use of steam as
a motive power in the mines has, of j
necessity, been superceded by electric-as
ity, generated by water power from
Snaké riYer, thirty miles distant.' 1
Mr. Fenn seeks to cbnvey the idea
that this is a calamity whereas, a
compàny whq would not Substitute^lec
tric pfcwer f&r steam when they can
drive their dynamoes by w ater is a
company that needs ; a new manage
ment badly. It is a well known fact
that many mines in the Coeur d'Alenes
being operated by electric power
transmitted from Spokane,- a digtahce ;
exceeding one hundred miles, and we |
have yet to hear of the mountains of
that region being denuded of timber. j
Of course electricity will not serve j
for stulls or lagging any more than
will hot air, and how the gentleman
proposes to overcome the lack of these !
where there is a lack, does npt appear ;
in his interview. .Again, after dealing
general and aimless way with the )
of the Coeur d'Alenes and Butte j
determining whether or
It
Eenn's view i
point, that this palpable truth had
never occurred to the operators, but it
is possible that this information was
given out for the benefit of the agri
cultural department. Again, "the peo
pie around Elk City argues that/because -
there is sufficent timbtr in sight for
present needs there will always be suf
- - a 1
matter of fact the people of Elk City
Sgue no^hnS/thS know
there is not enough for present needs,
measured by the present mineral show
m but, like the P major, they cannot
for the life of them, what relief the
forest reserve system is going to bring
F«n„ gravely informs
/
are
in a
mines
and what timber he thinks they might j
use and without explaining their bear
ing on the present cohtroversy, he fires '
off this ten-inch gun; "Probably no
other one vtem in actual working of a
large mine is so important as the cost
of timber in
not it may be operated profitably.''
is conceivable, from Mr.
Now, as
ficent for all purposes.
mgs,
see
l
them in this shortage.
Mr.
True,
them that, if they are nqt careful and
when
exercise a proper self restraint,
' the nearby supply is exhausted, they
will be compelled to go a little further
by the
afield; a flash of inspiration,
way, which is worthy of the major. As
relates to Elk City, the threatened
shortage does not apply to that class
of timber which usually goes to gencr
ating steam, but to mining timber.
The timber here, generally speaking, is
*
%
of such a poor quality, known as "jack
pine," that when under ground a few
months, it has about the same consist
ency and power of resistance as a wet
This species seldom exceeds
There is
sponge.
• eighteen inches in diameter.
also some red fir but it is very scarce.
of the conservative, deeply, financially,
interested miners of the country in
volvëd, the men who look to the future
well as to the present in managing
their 'business enterprise, will show
them almost unanimously in favor of
proteotwag and preserving the forests
as proposed in the forest reserve sys
tern." This paper Will state to its cer
tain knowledge that in the Elk City
district there is «niy One man in favor
of the reserve system in the abstract,
aside from the rangers, and not one of
any classor distinction in favor of Mr.
Fenn's conception of a forest reserve,
If Mr. Fenn will come in we will take
great pleasure in proving it to him, al
though he needs no such proof, his
rangers must keep him informed in the
matter,
"As respects the difference between
quartz and placer mining as respects
the forest reserve policy the latter is
the more deeply affected,"' says Mr.
Fenn, and proceeds in his usual lucid
style to disprove it. He asserts that
the placer miner, as a species,
the placer miner will continue to guage
the
is
threatened with extinction, or his water
supply is, by the wood chopping mania
which has developed among the quartz
the scene,
e d to our attention before,
miners since Mr. Fenn's advent upon
This mania was never call
No, sir,
son by the extent of the rainy season
in the fall and spring, as well as the
snowfall, nor * there a solitary in
stance in the Elk City basin wherein
the timber has been stripped from the
the source of a single tributary, they
are well wooded by the same scrub pine
which obtains generally in the basin,
which fact, we think, should dispose of
the maior's assertion that the water
supply of Elk City has diminished from
Clauses 3 * him. As a
further instance of Mr. Fenn's faulty
reasoning from effect back to cause,
Le wi.l cite the fact that Anderson's
Butte, which forms the northeast rim
0 f the basin is as bald of timber as the
major's "interview" is of facts, but
„ hic h. nevertheless, 1,aarKmsly watch.
e d by the placer miners, whose
0 f water supply is there, for while the
__ _
snow lies upon this butte their water
continues, and the snow lies there
longer by six weeks or two months
the heavier timbered
than it does in
sections thereabouts. We ofier no ex
| p l an ation for this natural refutation of
many of Mr. Fenn's fine spun theories,
[ but it is there for all to see who are
! no t wilfully blind. The same conditions
obtain in Buffalo Hump camp, the snow
dissapears in the timber long before it
does in the open. We are, however,
gratified to be able to go with the gen
tleman a short distance in one of his
conclusions, the one wherein he ex
the belief that the present
presses
Union Has
Fine Ore.
Andrew Brader, on his way . out of
camp, paid us. a brief visit and gave • an
outline of his operations upon the
Union group, which comprises' seven
claims, consisting of .the Union No. 1,
Union No. 2, Companion No. 1, Com
panion No. 2, the Idahç t Idaho fraction
and the Cornucopia, respectively.
There is g53 feet of work done thus
far, consisting of drifts, crosscuts and
one upraise of 60 feet. There are three
crosscuts from the foot to the hanging
wall of 26, 32 and 32 feet respectively,
most of this width consists of porphyry,
however, with a well defined ledge on
either wall of high grade ore. On the
foot wall the ore body is three and a
half feet, six inches of which gives
values exceeding two thousand dollars
per tpn.r (This shoot extends two hund
red feet; along the course of the vein
with the end not yet in sight, r.
In the upraise the. vein retains its
size, but the values -get lighter toward
the surface, which would seem to be
an added proof in favor of the conten
tion of the operators thus far, which is
that values increase with depth in this
camp.
This group is situated on the summit
of the watershed on the headwaters of
Seigebcreek and is owned by the Mam
mouth & Great Eastern M. & M. Co.,
of Chatham, Ontario. C. E. Monteith,
of Chatham, is president and Andrew
Brader, of Spokane, is resident mana
ger.
controversy was precipitated by ."tem
porary inconveniences" which he says
are remediable. As to that we will
say for the enlightenment of Mr. Fenn
and his readers, that the miner's life is
an arduous one and his business is of a
character which requires all his atten
tion and time. In short, he is addicted
to the habit of minding his own affairs,
keeping, however, a wary eye upon
everything which relates theretb, there
fore, when this forest reserve foolish
ness was first projected he looked it
over, concluded it was merely an ex
tension of the political pie counter and
not of any menace to him, he therefore
threw r it on the dump with the other j
foilies he had encountered and cast ;
aside at other periods of the life of his
industry and thought nothing more of
it until he found the fool acadamieian
on his track with the spoilsman bring
ing up the rear with his interminable
don'ts and do's, when it became appar
ent that if his industry was going to
live he must shake of the brood that |
was sapping its life. . 1
Congress has given him the right to !
locate mineral on the public domain i
wherever he may find it; he also enjoys
the cumulative rights necessary to the
successful operation of this mineral
deposit, which, in his opinion, are nec
essary, such, for instance, as the build
ing of roads, trails, ditches, telegraph,
telephones, etc. These laws have
never been repealed or amended, forest
reserve laws to the contrary notw.th
standing, he, therefore as far as this
section is concerned refuses .to tolerate
any further interference from an a P -
patently irresponsible set of men.
whose pretentions to ability to pass up
on the miners needs is only equalled by
their ignorance of the subject.
Mr. Fenn informs us in the course of
hfe interview "that the establishment
of forest reserves in European lands is
easier than it is with us for the reason
that whatever the government does
must be-acquiesed in by the people/'
The method may apply there alright,
whore they are a^tonied to having
their hves regulated fiy efficts frorn t he
possible here? Hdwe^etVthere * if one
one thing he said in favor o' the system
as applied there and that is that none
ah example' by the way, We have
steadfastly refused to follow in our
public affairs.
trem^fiberfilky^'of ^Jmd'eHsarn^ du'ring
which he seems to forget who Uncle
Sam really is and endows some indi
vidual, to himself known, with the at
tributes of that interesting character,
Uncle Sam declaim
"I must re-1
Mr. Fenn makes
thus to the prospector;
quire that in the use of timber . .*
SNOWSLIDES ARE MANY.
Dispatches From Thunder Mountain Say at Least Forty Oc
curred pn Main Road.—Two Men Rèported Killed in
Cabins. — Mail Carriers Had Narrow Escapes.
-
Bpise, Feb. 24.—A special from Blac- j
erville to the Statesman says :
Hans Hegne*,, the, mail carrier, reach-j
ed Blacerville , today from Roosevelt
and brings tidings of disastrous slides
in the Thunder mountain country.
Avery Henderson, who has been living
alone in a cabin six miles up Monumen
tal creek from Roosevelt,, was the vie
tim of a sli4e that occurred on the
night of February 12. His cabin was
partially destroyed by an avalanche,
but it is supposed that he escaped from
the structure and succeeded in making
his way to a place pf temporary safety
as he could be tracked for some dis
tance from, the cabin. •<
It is supposed that as he made his es
cape he started another slide in which
he was buried. The next day 25 or 30
men started Out to find his remains but
nothing had been discovered at the
time Hegne left the camp on February
!
15.
The other victim was "Shorty" Mat
son, who is supposed to have been
killed on the night of February 16. The
cabin in which he was staying was
demolished that night and It was sup
posed that Matson was in it. The cab
in was located about three-fourths of a
mile below the sceUp of the other catas
trophe. Matson has been working for
B. R. L. Boston,
' 'At least 40 slides have occurred
,,
along the main road to Roosevelt,
said Hegne. "In the first five miles
out from camp it has snowed about
. .
| companies and business
1 sa ™ e conditions obtain in the Hump
! Mr. Fenn admits that "to satisfy the
i demands of the people miners and
others, rightfully upon the reserve all
the various branches of trade and busi
ness are necessary. Yet it is a mat-,
tcr of recent history that the depart
ment undertook to compd the various
î 5 ™^ 8 . ^o furnish 8 bonds'which
mining, to furnish bonds which
Inasmuchfife Tthe
the pleasure of
bondupon^
matter 0 f course by the advices of
this m e has
0U Tmrtters not. It is a fa Z
rfl hich j mme diately
when once placed
outside Îhe o ÏrSoU of the common
outside the operation oi me common
law, besides the abrogation of this rule
*
ag ^ t3 ° r ïoint of^ection Mr Fenn
Another g of ^
£
' j j d within the reserve from
seMement \ ut does not admit the truth
of the stateltlent and 8aya , "whenever
any .onsider.ble are. of. the re.^e
tends are shown to be of the charactei
stated it-is prompt y . . . ..fenet
p] V Vi tv'thereare certain \tacts of
agricultural purposes.
Well, "Uncle Satti, with the par
ticular brand of liberahty to , whlch Elk
^ on^effthese 'ranches °and° S $72()
besides, the result of the industry of a
j P«or man, and finally the major closes
! this remarkable interview with this re-1
j markable peroration;
year appeals have gone up to congress
for appropriations for the improvement
of the navigation of the Snake and
you ssk for what you want, be econom
ical m what you take, etc. ' ' The fact
is that under the rules a prospector is
entitled to just one hundred dollars
wörth of timber outside the lines of his
ground if his claim is barren of timber j
and he must buy after he exhaust« that j
one hundred dollar donation, which
would hardly be sufficent to build a
How many prospectors are able |
to buy timber for such development
work as even the Average prospector is j
able to carry, on? Another instance:
There is hundreds of cords of down
timber at various points around and in ;
the immediate vicinity of Elk City
which is rotting and which as a fire
trap and generator has not its equal
anywhere. Under the rules this dead
wood costs 25 cents per cord to mining
The
cabin.
men.
"Year after
I
six feet on the summit in the last ten
Hegne thinks the snowslides are now
about over for this winter except in
the higher valleys. He states that the
mail carriers snowshoe the last twenty
miles intp Roosevelt and says that the
greater portion of the distance is cov
ered on top by snowslides that have
come to that point down the creeks,
Two mail carriers had a narrow es
days.
cape, he said, on Little Indian creek,
one pouch of mail from Idaho City
being sacrificed in their scramble for
safety. The two men were walking
along near the bottom of the gulch
when they heard the peculiar noise
made by a showslide in starting. Hast
ily dropping the sacks, they began
climbing the rocky sides of the gulch
and had barely reached a place of safe
ty when the avalanche swept past
them.
Three other carriers had a similar ex
slide passed. In this instance, how
ever, they found the mail after search
ing for it three days.
j A report from Idaho City is to the
j effect that, the postmaster at Roose
ve lt had sert word to that place .that
__ , , , . . \
Henderson was only severely injured.
perience at Deadwood. They discover
ed the approach of a snowslide in time
and dropped their sacks of mail and
reached places of safety before the
| ^ is known, however, that his brother
i in Ohio has been advised of his death.
Tbe Occidental group, formerly owned
by j G chesebro and F. A. Baner and
now incorporated as the Occidental
M j n i n g Company, Limited, consists of
f our c i a i ms located on Deadwood moun
^in about eight miles south west of
E lk City. These claims contain three
! f gG and Wel1 defined l° deS "'l
th , r0Ug / ofl " bzed
schist and contains from a trace to $6.00
m JP d PCr t0 . n ' . , , — 1200
, pr ° pert V S by , ovel
^ ° f ^ .vZ- denth
b ? m £ °P e ''' ed a pe . rpend "îf 1 .
of 20 ° at ^ p0lnts .
,Bg8 . d ' Scl ° 3e im " ïLZ
grade ore carrying sufficient values to
be mined and treated at a safe profit.
AHong these lodes good sized shoots of
Ji 1 ' 6 appear running well up m values,
The largest of these lodes is seventy
feet between walls at a perpendicular
ated for economical working. There is
a wagon road direct to the workings
a fin* supply of timber both for
pvining timber^ and lumber. A good
; tunnel site is available from which over
drifting directly on the lodes. A good
wa t er power is also to be had, solving
1
ores. Work will be prosecuted during
the year.
,
1 US your advertising
Columbia rivers. How futile will be
the improvements if the grand moun
tains surrounding the drainage basin of
the Columbia be denuded of their
forests. ' '
He .admits the Clearwater cuts very
little figure but still it helps some and
adds, "there is still another considera
tign." Here the major developes the
characteristics of a very Jeremiah and
predicts all sorts of calamity if the
southwest comer of the Bitter Root
forest reserve is restored to the public
domain. He sees the world rolling
down hill to the devil with himself
holding onto its coat tails and using
his heels for brakes. The major dies
hard,
The Occident»
Mining Company
depth of 160 feet..
The property is advantageously situ
the problem of cheap treatment of the
Do you know that 98 per cent
j of the miners in the Elk Basin
take the MiNinc News? Give