Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1883-11-28
CGUR DALENE.
The Country and How to Get
There.

The ROute by Railroad, Water and
ON FOOt-Sfxty.6ve Miles Through
Mammoth rimber-Ihe Diggings
No Wagon Enters One Mule
Making $40 q Day.
We give below those portions of q letter
from John B. Parker, formerly Of Eureka,
to his wife, who resides here still. which
relate to the new Ell Dorado. The letter
is the most interesting and satisfactory
concerning the Ceur d'Alene region that
we have seen yet. 1t is dated Nov. 16:
We have been cut off from all mail com-
munication with the world for three
weeks, and there is no way Of sending let
ters out, either-we just hand Thorn to
any one leaving for civilization and take
the grand chances.
My trip here was the toughest and most
romantic / ever had-full Of adventures.
The camp is q new discovery in the
heart Of C9ur d'Alene Mountains. We
left HALEY, Wood River, . jolly party Of
seven-only . small part Of the number
who went from there towards the great,
new strike. We had it hard, 1 can tell
you. We slept out of doors all the way
on the ground in the cold, rain, mud and
snow. Our grub was bacon and slapjacks
cooked at the campfire. The diet hasn't
hurt. In fact, I never felt better.
Our course Of travel was rs follows:
From HALEY to Pocstello; from Pocatello
to Garrison, the point at which the North
ern railroad makes a junction with the
Northern Pacific; thence to Rathdrum.
This ended our railroad travel. We hired
q wagon to take US from Rathdrum to
Fort C@ur d'Alene on the border Of Lake
C9ur d'Alene. A small steamboat is run
ming on the lake to furnish supplies to the
Indian mission at the other end Of the
lake, but as this boat does not make any
regular trips, and a. we were in q hurry to
get on, we hired q small boat and taking
only u bedding and small baggage
with Us, launched out on the venturesome
trip OF sixty miles, across the lake and mp
the river C1ur d'Alene to the mission.
Well, we got away with this in good style
remarkable for three ~greenhorns. We
made the trip in three days.
And then came the tug OF war. At the
w SAo06S0 LAC Ava OAA
to pack our bedding, etc., and We struck
ont afoot over sixty-fve miles of the worst
mountain trail that ever man saw. We
| had to wade the river that wound in and
out Unfortunately. We crossed one of
these Meanders eleven times in one day.
| And such steep mountains! One almost
needs telegraph climbers to get up them
| with.
During the whole distance we were in
| fine timber mammoth pines-cedar, tam
arac and cottonwood trees AZ large az six
and seven feet through and from 100 to
200 feet high; and all these as close to-
| gether as trees can grow, almost as thick
as wheat sown in q field. The timber, in
in fact, is 80 dense that it is next to im-
possible to leave the trail. Should a man
ever get q quarter of a mile from the trail
he would be lost, for the underbrush and
the fallen timber is six or eight feet deep.
You can judge something Of what it is
by this: Several parties that have tried
to approach this camp from different
directions have travelled for days, making
no more than two or three miles q day,
and in some cases no more than q mile q
| day. In several instances men have aban-
doned their horses and equipsge piece by
| piece, and have arrived here with only q
blanket and the clothes on their back, and
nearly starved. One party Of men were
out between here and q point on the
| Northern Pacific called Heron, q distance
OF rs miles, for 81 days, and if it had not
been that they discovered some fresh
water clans on the north fork Of the
Ceur d'Alene river they probably would
have persisted.
Men are Drawing all these obstacles and
dangers TO reach the new Ell Dorado. They
are coming in in great numbers every day
from all parts of the country.
Well, after twelve days of this sort OF
travel, we came all Of q sudden to a little
opening cleared Of timber, a spot probably
OF three acres. at the forks Of Eagle creek.
Here we found eight or ten log cabins,
some of them large enough to rise to the
dignity of houses.
This is Eagle City-fve saloons, four
stores, q butchers booth and two places
where some dirty individuals dish up
bacon, coffee and fried dough, cooked at a
camp fire, for 81 . head. This is the
starter for a new camp. which / believe,
from what l have seen with my W eyes,
will make as great q mining camp az has
ever been since the days OF 40. On Eagle
creek they pan out from a color to rs
cents and ST. for IL to IA miles, and on
Pritchard creek the same result for Is
miles. Besides these there are three other
tributaries in particular OF which they
have got q sufficient prospect to justify
very extensive locations. There is actually
q radius of 20 miles OF placer country,
which gives very flattering prospects
everywhere.
As yet not much development work has
been done, as practical miners are only
beginning to ZONE in nov whom the season
is very far advanced.
In fact, the whole country was located
by ranchers in the regular ranch style,
twenty acres Of mining ground to the man.
Even this didn't satisfy them. The same
persons located over and over again by at
torney. There were probably as many as
100 of these locations made. A Palouse
rancher would come in and locate his
brothers and cousins and aunts and their
relations in the same degrees, etc.
Since the old miners have arrived this
fraud has been knocked endways. They
went straight for the records and wherever
they found one OF these claims they relo-
Gated it and held it; SO that but few of the
~'hogged" claims remain to the ''hogs."
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