Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1898-03-31
BRlDGEWATER's NUGGET.
History of Canadian Town That Was
Built of Marble.

History of Canadian Town That Was
Built of Marble.
Zone salmon multiples it's species
millionfoid, the giants of the west
ern forest spring from seed no
larger thar a pea, but for gold, the
magic metal, humanity has leveled
mountains and bridged seas and
oceans said a we'll known civil en-
gineer to Portland Oregonian re.
porter.
1 was assistant engineer on the
Ontario and Quebec railroad, a
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. ,
Bridgewater 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.
I will tell you the story of how a
stray COW caused millions of money
to be spent i'll search Of gold.
Nearly rs years ago a farmers
wife was searching the woods sur
rounding their farm for COW that
had strayed and, becoming thirsty,
stopped to get a drink from spring.
Slipping, she fell against small,
loose rock, which rolled to her feet
and which proved to be a 20 pound
nugget Ct 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 substantial city of
nearly 5000 persons.
"In digging a shaft about 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 $125, OCO for
his holding, but held out for $780,
600. Today you could buy the prop
erty for probably $3.50.
Zone rancher, whose farm adj
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 everything was very
costly, all material having to be
hauled nearly SO miles over rough
roads, and they did not get single
ounce of free gold out of their pur-
chase, but they mined some quartz
about 100 tons shipped il to the
States, and in return got a bill from
the smelling company for $3.50
smelling charges over and above the
gold in the quartz. This was the
first and, / believe, the last ship
ment of quartz ever made, as the
cost of hauling, shipping and smelt-
ing was $3.50 ton more than the
rock produced.
For some reason the marble
quarries of Bridgewater were never
worked other than for local build
ing purposes. Just why I do not
know, for, thought have seen many
SO called marble palaces in different
parts of Europe have never seen
anything like those to be found in
Bridgewater, probably the only en-
tire town built of white marble III
the world. ~