The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1897-04-21
OUR GOLD.
Story of the Excitement IN inns
Section Some Years Ago.
THOUSANDS SUNK.
Silver City at White Iron Lake
Doomed Beautifully.

The gold excitement in the Rainy
lake country and the fabulous tales OF
rlr-i3ss unearthad, revive memories IN
The Did timers of St. Louis county, OF
the various gold bOnms which have
had their day and had been exploded.
The gold excitement Of 1865 at Gold
island on Lake Vermilion and the
various other rich finds in divers parts
of ST. Louis. Cock. Lake and ltasca
counties are recalled. Up to the
present spring many of the people
Who had the misfortune TO be caught
in The bursUed booms have shook their
heads and discredited the Rainy lake
stories. This spring. however, several
Of the properties in the north country
nave demonstrated that the yellow
metal in paying quantities is at hand
and the people in the near vicinity
are losing the chances which rightly
helonr to them and are being goboied
bv capitalists Of England, Canada and
other foreign countries.
In the winter Of 1856 the citizens
Of St. Louis county and principally
the city of Duluth, says a writer IN
The Duluth Herald was in the widest
state of excitement over alleged gold
discoveries near Hunters island in
Cook county. in townships 64-6, Oh.
65-6 and 65-Z. The land in those town
ships was subject TO entry and before
the bubble bursted 10000 acres We're
purchased at the land Office and
hundreds OF Duluth's citizens were
confident that they were millionaires,
the only fears which many OF them
had being that gold would be found
shere in such enormous quantities
that it would oyerstock the market
and reduce It's value to such an extent
that it would be comparatively worth
less. The excitement sprang up in a
slav. grew in fervor for several
months and died out in day. 1t all
came about n this way.
In August, 1884, Gus. Stevens, a
wellknown land explorer. was pros
pecting in 64-6 in search iron which
was known to exist there in large
bodies. He had at that time little
practical knowledge Of minerals. but
ne found some rock which he was led
20 believe. from what he had read.
contained gold. He packed lot OF 1T
TO Duluth and took it from here to
East Tawas. where he had associates
in his land operations. There he
turned it over to a local assayer
named Nightingale. who made d num-
Der of assays and found, SO he said,
that it contained $3.50 to the ton in
gold. The result Was shown to Ii.
Emery, a wealthy lumberman who
became sufficiently interested to
accompany Stevens to the place where
lie procured the rock. A lot of it was
picked UP and brought out. Emery
guarded il closely, took it to East
Tawas and crushed it. Nightingale
was given a third of it, another third
was sent TO Cornell university and the
remainder was shipped to Chicago.
Nightingale's showed that the rock
run from $3.50 to $3.50 to the ton in
gold. When the reports from Cornell
university were received confirming
this assay Mr.. Emery was satifled
that he had stumbled on to a bonanza
He interested his brothers in the
enterprise and they came quietly to
Duluth and before anyone knew OF
what was going on purchased l4.00i
acres of land from the government
through the Duluth land Office, pay
ing s1.25 an acre.
Henry NJ. Loud, another wealthy
Michigan man was let into the secrei
and he posted to Duluth and invested
in $500 acres. Henry w. Sage, mil
lionaire of Ithaca, n. Y, with whom
Hi Emery had been associated IL
business for years, on learning OF th'
ASSAY made at Cornell university de
sired to get hold of some OF the pro
perty and offered Stevens $4,000 il
cash for the interests he had acquired
The offer was scornfully refused b.
the original discoverer. Reports o
the discoveries crept into the papers
everybody was aroused and soon tn
land Office was thronged with peopl
who were anxious to enter land tina
had hitherto been considered worth