The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1898-05-08
eRIpeEwATER.s NUGGET.
History of . Canadian Town That WEs
Built OF Marble.

mllllOuAOAup A1C kAdnAS O4 IuG WCEA~
ern forest spring from a seed no
larger than a pea, but for gold, tho
magic metal, humanity has leveled
mountains and bridgod seas and
oceans, said a well known civil en-
gineer to a Portland Oregonian re-
porter.
''I 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, a deserted town
that was the personifioation of Oil
yer Goldsmith 8 Deserted Village
Bridgewater was brought into ex-
istence by one of the strangest gold
finds and crazes in the history of
this continent, and il goes to show
what great results sometimes follow
small and unimportant occurrences.
I will tell you the story of how q
stray COW caused millions of money
to be spent in search of gold.
Nearly 25 years ago a farmers
wife was searching the woods sur
rounding their farm for a cow that
had strayed and, becoming thirsty,
stopped to get drink from a spring.
Slipping, she fell against a small,
loose rock, which rolled to her feet
and which proved to be a 20 pound
nugget # almost pure gold. Bridge
water at that time was nearly 30
miles from the nearest railroad, and
the present site of the town was
nothing but a wilderness, but the
effect of that accidental find of the
of six months what had been "a
burned over, barren wilderness was
converted into a substantial city OF
nearly 5000 persons.
I'm digging shaft about "A mile
south of the town site on tho claim
of the Hon. Billia Flint, a 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 il 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
ren land, was offered $l25, OOO for
his holding, but held ~ut for $780,
600. Today you coulc Juy the prop
erty for probably $15C.
"One rancher, whose farm ad-
joined 'Aladdin's Cave the place
where the original nugget was
found, sold 40 acres 70 an English
syndicate for S1O0, 600, and II 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 80 miles over rough
roads, and they did not get a single
ounce of free gold out Of their pur-
chase, but hey mined some quartz
about 100 tons-shipped il TO the
States, and in return got 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 $50 a 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 1 do not
know, for, though 1 have seen many
so called marble palaces in different
parts of Europe l have never seen
anything like those to be found in
Bridgewater, probably the only en-
tire town built of white marble in
the world"