The daily mountaineer. (Dalles, Or.) 1861-1866, 1866-03-18
LETTER FROM susANvlLLE.
SUsANvlLLE, OREGON, Feb. "a, g


venture to write another letter, and if l
should, would devote some attention to
what regarded as ultimately to become tie
leading interest and great resource of wealth
of this peculiar section Of country. am not
as well prepared to particu arizc in regard
to the name, locality, bearing, size, amount
Of work done, &C., of different fedges as
expected to be at this time but such inform
alton as cannot give now will be given from
time to time as became posses ed of it.
should, however, remark right hire, that
the limited amount of work done on the
quartz lodes in this vicinity, is not attribut-
able to any want of enterprise on the part of
miners, or want of confidence in the richness
of the lodes discovered, but to the want of
means to carry on the work for meh must
not only have powder and fuse, and tools to
work with, but they must have something's TO
eat and wear also, and all these necessary
Articles cost money, and to obtain that nee
to extract the gold, or hire to work for those
who can afford to employ them. But when
capital begins to seek an investment here, a
new impetus will be given to industry, con-
| fdence will be strengthened, and men of
| limited means will be able to accomplish
more in the development of their discoveries
than they can without such encouragement.
of the many discoveries and locations
made, can only refer in this letter to the
following: Elk Creek, National, Wabash,
Sweep Stakes, Last Chance, Mammoth,
| Apollo, General Grant, Home Stake, Father
Abraham, Nondescript, Gray Etgle, Lilly
White and Camp Creek All of these except
the latter, are on the north side Of, and in
close proximity to Elk Greek, where the frs,
placer mines were discovered. Notwith
standing the embarrassments met with, the
owners of the Elk Creek and National lode'
have exhibited considerable perseverance ir
work to develop their lodes the former i!
penetrated bya shaft and a tunnel, and or
the latter, q shaft has been sunk twenty
seven feet in depth, at which point the ledg'
is four feet wide and tunnel is also being
run, which, when completed will strike tn,
ledge about hundred feet below the sur
face. The rock of both these lodes has b,
all tests to which it has been submitted
proved its great richness, and all that is e
quired to bring into active circulation tn
hidden treasure is money to erect mil s an
this, unfortunately for themselves and tn
,eountry, the present proprietors have no
got in sufficient quantities The other ledge
named above, and many others to whic
I cannot refer in this letter, have give
from their groupings equally as Aa,terin
prospects as the Elk Greek or National, an
will doubtless prove, upon further develop
ment, some of them at least, equally va
liable.
The proprietors of the Elk Creek ledg
late in the fall, determined to run anotht
tunnel, and for the purpose of making q
: opening in the side of the hill where ii
I tunnel was to be started, they turned
I stream of water to run off the dirt and roc
@ having first asoertained that the color cou
be got in the pan. This rubbish they sluict
off through boxes, and upon cleaning II
found the yield in fine -four geld, to be q
v most fabulous ;they were prevented by Il
8 freezing weather from knowing what is
}, the ground sluice. will reserve further
marks on the subject of quartz for anoth
q letter.
. This camp is not so remotely situated
> is generally supposed. Parties who ha
, been over the ground confidently assert ,h