The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-11-30
A NEW BOOM FOR OKLAHOMA.

! To the Editor of the Eagle.
From the time that Uncle Sam first
began to eject intruders from the Indian
Territory until the last reservation is
| thrown open to settlement, there will be
always a temptation and field for the
"boomer." Captain Payne and his col
ony forced the opening of the agricul-
tural portions and the thousands who
have found homes in Oklahoma verify
his predictions. while tens of thousands
are awaiting the opening of the strip
TO further augm ent the population of the
coming state.
But there is another kind of "boom"
breeding now that, if it develops, will
eclipse any boom that has yet taken
place in Oklahoma, and it is of some
thing that is little known outside of the
territory, but is being daily waited on
the breezes of speculation, and old
miners stories are being retold and COM
mented on all over the territory.
Twenty-Five miles southwest of FL
Reno. in the Comanche and Apache res
ervalion, is short mountain range that
is marked ON some maps as the Wichita
mountains. The range proper is about
ninety miles long by twenty five miles
wide, aud further than this but little is
known, as the government post at Fort
Sill and the Indian scouts have religious
lie elected all intruders.
In 1879 an old miner named SNYDER
visited these mountains, and after pros
pectiug them went to Independence,
Kan, and organized a mining company
and returned 10 the mountains and laid
out a mining camp. Claims were Staked
and development began. and Snyder
claimed 10 have pay rock enough in
sight to value MS claim at 5000, 900, but
in the midst of the first mad rush to the
new -'diggings" the soldiers at Fort Sill
swooped down and CLEANED up the
miners themselves, and since then the
government and Indians have used
every effort 10 prevent prospecting.
But stories of gold, silver, copper and
lead have been continually cropping out,
as so-called hunting parties" have re-
turned from the mountains with speci.
mems of ore and quartz. The field runs
into Greer county, Texas. where at
Quartz City mining Is actively carried
on, but the boomers claim that the
Greer county diggings are only the
shadow, and that the substance is
IN the mountains proper aud that
There Is millions in IL" There are
those who claim that this district will be
the richest gold field in the United States
while presence of lead and copper in
large quantities is too manifest TO admit
of doubt. II is only fair 20 say that
others say that while mineral NAV exist
there, that the miners stories are greatly
exaggerated.
Jack Stillwell, the veteran frontiers
man, says that he does not credit the
stories of gold or silver. but that there
are indications OF copper and lead, and
that the mountain range contains some
of the most fertile valley he has ever seen
in his long and varied experience.
The Cherokee commission has nero.
tiated a treaty with the Comanche and
Apache Indians by which this reserva-
ton viii likely be thrown open to settle
ment next spring. aud the mystery of
the Wichita mountains will be laid bare.
provided that there Is not some pre-
mature work done by ''sooners," who
cannot restrain themselves. rumoy is
now circulating 10 the government has
ordered geological survey OF the