Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1896-01-29
SNAKE RIVER LAVA FIELDS.

The great lava flow covers a section
OF country in Idaho four hundred
miles in length by forty miles in width.
1t lies in the southeastern part Of the
State, on and along the course of the
Snake river and mostly on the north
side of that stream.
After flooding the great plain lying
to the southwark, the lava turned and
flowed backward to the north. There
1t flowed into the mouths of the val
leys lying between the foothills, filling
all the streams that flowed out toward
the south. The str ans thus checked
and damned presently found passage
beneath the porous lava, and now flow
under it from thirty to fifty miles, to
repppear as large springs or to burst
forth in cascades and tumble down the
walls Of basalt that border Snake river.
On the line OF the back flow, up to-
ward the northern foothills, lies the
most ragged and forbidding portion of
the great lava plain.
These lava flows covered rivers and
creeks, canyons and valleys, and even
basin regions filled with low hills.
Many OF the streams, gulches, flats and
basins i'll the country surrounding the
lava covered section on all sides have
been wonderfully rich in gold, where
fore it is reasonable to suppose that
many of those covered by the lava are
also rich in the same way.
The Snake or Shoshone river forms
the great center OF the Idaho river
system. 1t has course of $50 miles
within the State, and, with its branch>
es, drains nearly the whole country
The Clearwater. the Salmon, the Wei-
ser, the Payette, the Boise, the Lemhi,
the Owyhee and other rivers tributary
to the Snake were wonderfully rich in
gold. The Yankee fork of the Salmon
and many other creeks were wonder
fully rich in yellow metal. Rich pla
GERS were found in the streams that
formed the Boise river ia 1862, in the
year following in the tributaries of the
Owyhee and many other places. The
valleys of the Weiser and Payette, con
stituting what was known as the Boise
basin, was one of the richest placer
regions ever found.
What are called basins in Idaho are
not bowl shaped depressons, as many
suppose, but are sections of low coun-
try surrounded by mountains. Within
the basins are many hills and creeks.
The Florence basin was astonishingly
rich and many others were little be-
hind it as producers. Prior to 1868
these basins and other surface diggins
in little flats and on gulches produced
S45, 100000 Then began the rich dis
coveries in the quartz-but placer min
ing is still continued and occasionally
rich finds are made
From what has been said of the rich
deposits Of gold in the basins, valleys,
gulches, flats and streams Of Idaho, it
is reasonable to suppose that under the
grea. lava flow covering an immense
area-not less than 10000 square
the heart of the orferJus re-
sion, must lie many exceedingly rich
deposits Of gold.
The gold placers OF both California
and Idaho are countless ages older
han the lava flows. In California the |
channels of the ancient rivers beneath |
he lava are much richer than those |
If the modern rivers an dplacers, This |
S because the channels Of the ancient
,ivers had served as bedrock sluices
or untold ages before the disturbing
ava flows began. The present rivers
# California received the greater part
# their gold by their cutting across
md carrying away great sections of
he richschannels of the ancient rivers.
and Mining Journal
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