The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-05-19
WONDERFUL COLD FIELDS
Buffalo Hump District Is Tribu-
tary to Montana.
is THE COMING SECTION
Richer Than klondike A Vast Colo
Bearing Regional Land of Phe-
nomenal Placers-A Talk With
Colonel Brackett.

Col w. S. Bracket Of Brackets
rahch, Park county. Montana, and of
Peoria, ILL.,, arrived in the city yester-
| day from the Buffalo Hump district,
Idaho, and is now at the Butte.
Il am extremely anxious" said he,
to call to the attention of the people of
our state to the great opportunity Mon
| tana has to make a wonderful gold field
at once and forever tributary to GU,
agricultural valleys and to our capital,
which must very soon become heavily
| interested and invested in what firmly
believe is the coming gold mining sec
| ton of America.
Buffalo Hump is but the name of
| one locality in a vast gold-bearing
| mineral zone in Central Idaho, which,
in the early years of the twentieth CEN
! fury, is destined to out Klondike the
| Klondke. Four weeks observation of
| this region and many interviews with
| old timers, experienced proSpectors and
well-known mining experts, now in that
section, confirm my belief that a vast
| area, bounded on the north by the
North Fork of the Clearwater river and
| the Lolo trail on the east by the Bitter
| Root range, on the south by line run
ming parallel to and about so miles
| south of Salmon river, and on the west
by the 116th meridian, will soon aston
ish the world by the multitude of it's
| immense well-defined and producing
| gold-bearing quartz Lodges. The old
| placer camps of the early sixties
which produced over hundred million
dollars of gold are there. They are
| known as Pierce City and ORC Elmo on
| north Nv in no
ence on the southwest and the famous
| old camp of Warrens on the south, be-
| low Salmon river Old-timers of Ban
mack, Virginia City and Alder Gulch
| know all about these once phenomenal
placers which We're worked out in the
| sixties
'The vast goldbearing lodges of the
Buffalo. Hump We're only discovered
late last fall-prospectors had seen
| them for years, but thought they were
only big bull lodges barren of gold.
They are now found to be rich in gold
| values and of immense extent-the ac-
| cidental discovery last August by Rob-
| bins and Rigley, two dead broke pros
pectors, that the Big Buffalo ledge car
| ried high values in gold all through the
| extent of its enormous outcrop, was at
| once wired and cabled to every mining
| center in the world The Big Buffalo
| and two claims on the extension of it
| prospects, it is true. but the enor-
| nous outcrop of the ledge 80 feet wide
and a thousand feet long, standing up
| like stone church in that rugged will
| derness, enabled experts to measure it
and it's values as if it were a developed
| ore body in mine. Nothing like it
| has been found in this country since
| the discovery Of the Comstock lode in
| Nevada, except perhaps the vast cop
per deposits of Butte.
THE vast region I have mentioned is
| ribbed and streaked over it's immense
| area by these great well-detined aurf-
| erous lodges. They are the ma trices
| of the rich placers of the sixties,
worked out by thousands of men at
Florence and Elk City and ORC F'ino.
| No piacers in California We're ever
| found as rich as those at Florence.
| Old-timers of Montana will remember
the famous Baboon Gulch placer near
| Florence. which produced $4,000 in gold
| dust in one day, then owned by man
| named Weiser, after whom the town of
| Weiser. Idaho was named.
| Buffalo Hump is a rugged sierra
| madre lying about 100 miles southeast
of Lewiston. Idaho. The railway now
| runs from Spokane to Lewiston, and
| from there it is 70 miles to Grangevlle
| by stage. Grangeville is on the south
| east edge of the Northern Camas pra-
RE and is situated much like our beau
| tiful town of Bozeman with reference
| to the fertile Gallatin valley. The
| Camas prairie is like our Gallatin val
ley; it is rich black SOIL but all crops
are raised without irrigation.
Its mean level is about 5000 feet
| above sea level. Timothy grows wild
there and produces enormous tonnage
| of hay per acre.
"Grangeville. Idaho county Idaho a
| town of LOO people. is now the supply
depot and Quitting point for the Buff
falo Hump and surrounding mining
districts of the Clearwater and it's
| many tributary streams. Grangeville
is about 25 miles in an air line north
west of the Buffalo Hump. Shows lie
deep and long in the Hump district.
The season is six weeks backward this
year, and the SHOWS will not disappear
and disclose the great quartz lodges
cropping out in the Buffalo Hump dis
trict until early in July
THE Hump is $500 feet above sea
| level Now, ] am coming to my main
| point that this vast treasure field
| should be made tributary to Montana,
at least from the east.
Spokane and Lewiston are the gate
ways to this region from the west. The
| Northern Pacific Railway company,
with its customary push and energy, is
now building two branch lines from
Lewiston into the Hump country as
fast as men can lay ties and rails. One
7 branch runs up the South Fork of the
| Clearwater, and another branch runs
up Lapwai creek, both from points near
| Lewiston.
What is the natural eastern enter
pot to these vast gold fields lying with
| in the drainage area of the Clearwater?
| Most assuredly the city of Missoula,
Mont. The people of Montana must.
by every means in their power, urge
| the immediate extension of railway
| lines from the beautiful valley of the
| Bitter Root across the passes of the
Bitter Root range into the Buffalo
| Hump and Clearwater mining districts.
We can find there the best kind Of
| home market in the near future for the
abundant harvests of our Montana val
| leys.
| Let us all put our shoulders to the
| wheel and demand the immediate con-
| nf 1uro, ljTnS ,-h ia1,