Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1897-05-28

SIMPLY iuhrVel5 now 1t was done
what manner of men were thew,
Yet many such men live TODAY
But they got paid for what they
did then; a thousand dollars a day
was no uncommon wage. An old
man told mo in Florence that hf
and his partner used to fill a bak.
ing-powder can full of dust in q
day, and what was over that went
for amusement. Poor old mani
He doubles thought it would last
forever, and | am afraid that he
must have dipped into the can a
little.
When you get mp on the 1igh-
est divide, east from the Salmon.
you look fifteen miles across to the
other divide. Below you, deep
DOWN. don't know how Deep
lies a chaos of timbered hills,
ridges, streams, and. little meadows
Tho best place il all the world
to get lost in fofssa few hours.
Florenee, the town, lies on q little
upland ,gclear Of timber, near the
place Of the richest find. Eyery-
thing round about it has been over
turned to a great depth; the earth
seems torn up by the roots, in q
systematic way. EVERYTHING.
from the old drifted galches to.the
huge, time-worn log buildings that
stand in dismal row, seems the
relic of some past agey when there
were giants in the land. But the
old place has taken q new .hustle''
unto itself. It was reasoned that
all that gold must have come from
somewheret And now they have
found lodges of quartz scattered
all over that basin-decomposed
quartz bearing free milling gold, if
that is the right expression. which
the old-timers paid no attention to.
They are liable, at almost any
time, to drop down into something
compared to which the most cele-
brated mine at Cripple Creek
would be blotch on the face of
a beauty. AS it is, there are sew
eral mines there paying their own
expenses, as they go along, from
the rich seam which follows their
larger vein. Water has caused,
and will probably cause still fur
Their trouble; but tunneling in
many cases obviates this. The
man who can't afford a pump runs
a tunnel. By SO doing he can test
his mine in that camp sufficiently
to estimate it's paying qualities.
A bad practice in Florence,
which has been followed in many
camps in these later years, is the
pernicious habit of allowing man
all the claims he can cut stakes for.
There is something wrong with
the law on that point, and it ought |
to be corrected. A man-until he
has proved up a claim by doing the
necessary assessment wOrk-should |
not be allowed to stake out Sec
ond claim; then he would be forced |
to rely somewhat on his judgment,
and the next man, who probably |
has a better intention, would be |
given show. I know dozens and |
dozens of well-intentioned men
who left that camp because every
thing was gobbled up. One of |
them wrote facetiously above
notice:
II claim everything from the top
of this tree.'
ooh, WE'LL" they say, "these men
will allow these claims to lapse,
and then somebody else will have |
q show" But it is not SO; for the |
man who goes away disappointed,
seldom returns. Florence is a
great camp, but it should correct |
these abuses. There is a good |
wagon road into Florence via Mt.
Idaho, forty miles toward Lewis
ton. We came out that way, and,
not having gone about enough yet,
started for the country beyond
Elk City, GO miles to the east.
There is first-class wagon-road to
Elk City, and the distance from
Mt. Idaho, the county seat of
Idaho county, is ffty-six miles.
The road was finished last year.
Here, as in Florence, one wonders
now the first white men ever found
heir way into this densely-timber-
I'd country, almost impossible for
lorses when you get away from the
'oads or trails. Elk City is much
he same looking place as Florence.
From neither place can one judge
If the activities fiourishing in the
great many persons liv-
ng in their tents or cabins near
heir work. Quartz here, as in
Florence, is the Juror of the time,
md, although in an article like