Morris tribune., 1898-04-06
BRlDGEWATER's NUGGET.
History of q Canadian Town That Wa,
ERuJIf OF NTOrhIa

a millionfold, the giants of the west
ern forest spring from a seed nc
larger than a pea, but for gold, the
magic metal, humanity has levele6
mountains and bridged seas and
oceans" said a we'll known civil en-
! gineer to a Portland Oregonian re.
porter.
81 was assistant engineer on the
Ontario and Quebec railroad, q
branch of the Canadian Pacific rail,
way, and in running our prelimi.
nary lines one of them touched
Bridgewater, Ont, deserted town
that was the personification of Oil
yer Goldsmith's Deserted Village.
BFidgewater was brought into ex-
istence by one of the strangest gold
finds and orazes in the history of
this continent, and it goes to show
what great results sometimes follow
small and unimportant occurrences.
will tell you the story of how a
stray COW caused millions of money
to be'spent in search of gold.
Nearly % years ago a farmer Is
wife was searching the woods sur
rounding their farm for a COW that
had strayed and, becoming thirsty,
stopped to get drink from spring.
Slipping, she fell against a small,
loose rock, which rolled to her feet
and which proved to be a 20 pound
nugget cf almost pure gold. Bridge
water at that time was nearly 40
miles from the nearest railroad, and
the present site of the town was
nothing but wilderness, but the
effect of that accidental find of the
farmers wife was such that inside
of six months what had been a
burned over, barren wilderness was
converted into a substantial city of
nearly 5000 persons.
In digging a shaft about a mile
south of the town site on the claim
of the Hon. Billia Flint, life sena-
tor Of Canada, an immense quarry
of the purest white marble ever
found on this continent was discov-
cred, and at the suggestion of the
senator the town of Bridgewater
was practically built of marble, for
it has today the only hotel, church,
school, courthouse and dwellings
constructed entirely of white mar
BILE in the world, and a mile north
of the town are an abandoned ak
factory and the grist mill, whose
foundations are built of the same
beautiful material.
During the building of the town
Thousands Of men prospected the en-
tire country, and shafts and tunnels
were driven, some of them nearly
100 feet deep; but, strange as it may
seem, there was never enough gold
found to pay the cost of a single
shaft or tunnel sunk or run in the
entire district. So excited did the
farmers around Bridgewater become
that some of them actually hired
guards to keep men from going on
their land to pick up gold.
"Pat Kehoe, an old Irishman who
owned 100 acres of rock strewn, bar
rem land, was offered $685. GO for
his holding, but held out for $780,
600. Today you could buy the prop
erty for probably $3.50.
lone rancher, whose farm ad-
joined 'Aladdin's Cave, the place
where the original nugget was
found, sold As acres to an English |
syndicate for 100000, and it is an
established fact that the syndicate
spent as much more developing |
their claim, as every thing was very |
costly, all material having to be |
hauled nearly SO miles over rough |
roads, and they did not get a single |
ounce Of free gold out of their pur-
chase, but they mined some quartz |
about 100 tons-shipped it to the I
States, and in return gotta bill from
The smelling company for $500
smelling charges over and above the
gold in the quartz. This was the
first and, I believe, the last ship !
nent of quartz ever made, as the
cost of hauling, shipping and smelt-
ng was $3.50 a ton more than the
rock produced.
"For some reason the marble
1uarries Of Bridgewater were never
worked other than for local build
ng purposes. Just why I do hot
know, for, thought have seen many
70 called marble palaces in different
parts of Europe I have never seen
anything like those to be found in
Bridgewater, probably the only en-
ire town built Of white marble in
he world"