New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-06-17
BRITISH COLUMBIA MINES.
WONDERFUL. DEVELOPMENT OF THE
LAST TEN YEARS IN THE ROSS
LAND DISTRICT

|
Rossland. B. c.. June 10 (speciaD-It is just ten
| years since Joe Morris and Joe" Bourgeois
! French Canadians in quest of fortune. pitched
their beside the noisy rvulet that gurgled at
| the base of Red Mountain. Thirty years before a
young Englishman, Edwin Dewdney built tran
| there through Southern British Columbia, which
has ever since been called Dewdney Trail 1t was
carried through the passes from the Kettle River
and reached the Columbia River along this very
creek. Since then the creek has been known as
Trail Creek, and here Morris and Bourgeois lighted
their lonely campfire in the summer of 1890 The
bald and lofty mountain to the north was strewh
with red float. and the two Canadians prospected
| this mountainsde for gold. They discovered and
| located five mineral claims-Le Ro, War Eagle
| Iron Mask Centre Star and Idaho One of these
| claims. lie Roi they gave away for the $40 they
needed to record the others. Later on they sold
| the rest for about $4,000 and then went prospect
! ing anew until they found another great mine
| the North Star In East Kootenai. This also they
| sold and having won fame and fortune in gold
! hunting, they abandoned the pick of the pros
! pector for farming and pastoral pursuits.
joe Bourgeois bought himself extensive ranges
| in the Northwest Territory. stocked them with the
! finest herds of cattle. built himself elegant
home, brought thither his friends and relatives, and
! in their midst he leads kind of patriarchal life
and often to their wonder and delight he tells the
story of his hardy and adventurous days in search
| of gold in the Rocky Mountains.
IN 1891 another adventurer, Ross Thompson,
| CHANGED visit Bourgeois and Morris. and saw
them deving away on the mountainside, Ross i'm
mediately located a homestead adjacent to the min
eral claims of the prospectors. and on that home
stead stands to-day the city of Rossland, the min
ing metropolis of the Kootenais
ROSSLAND'S RAPID GROWTH
A few years ago Rossland was still collection of
log cabins and ramshackle wooden structures only
the most miserable accommodations could then Re
had and the wagon roads and trails leading from
Rossland to the outside world were the toughest
ia pf rIa ind IN tho Mort
Now you enter and leave Rossland In palace
cars over two great transcontinental lines of rail-
road, for the Great Northern Railroad and the
Canadian Pacific Railroad have termini there. You
can lounge and rest and be handsomely entertained
in the Rossland clubhouse a building which. it is
no eXaggeration TO say. IS fitted up as eIe-
Ranuy as the St James OF the Carlton. You
live here now as comfortably as at the Waldorf or
at the Savoy, and you associate with as charm
ing as cultured and as delightful society in any
part of the world.
MOTHS and Bourgeois and Ross Thompson were
the heralds Of Rosslands future grea tness The
discovery of the FrenChman has added materially
TO the gold and copper output of the world The
1--WE mines located by them have now a market
value of more than S20.O00.O0O The lie Roi which
Colonel Topping acquired for $40. sold by him
to number of Spokane lawyers for some SO 900
or $1,000 and the SpOkaneites. though poor Of
purse. were OF magnificent assurance and after
Years OF struggle they succeeded in developing the
lie Roi and making 1t rich dividend paying mine
London, varied
most interesting negotiations Whitaker Wright ac-
quired 1t for SOO0OOo
The lie Roi can easily produce six hundred tons
OF ore a day for ten years to come and probably
Tor generation. This will average more than
per cent IN copper and 81 a gold Two per
cent OF copper is forty pounds of copper to the
short ton. and forty pounds Of copper at 1s cents
q pound Is SC 40 The lie Roi owns its own smeter
and at the present price for the metal the copper
| in the mine pays for both the mining and
Yards tha
mine pays the cost of production, and the gold IN
the ore IS the net profit. The lie Roi can produce
100000 tons year, and Is therefore easily capabI
Of making profit of 81 100000 a year and of pay
ing p per cent in dividends on It's capital OF
fI.C0o000 and at the Same time Of accommodating
handsome reserves. 1t is more than making these
dividends now. but instead Of paying dividends it
has been putting Its profits into mining machinery
and charging its smelter In fact the smeter
has a daily capacity of 100 tons and
the mine itself is equipped with the necessary
| machinery to enable it to produce chat amount of
ore.
to make it known that statements published in
London financial papers to the gross output Of
1t during the last year grossly misleading
The gross receipts given for the mine by these
| papers about equal the net profits
| of the mine and the smelter combined The
smelter was bought and paid for by the lie
Roi Company, and all the profits of the smeter
| belonged to the company. It is safe to state
| that the monthly profits of the mine and the
! smelter combined fully equal to 100000 when
! both mine and smeter were in operation. This
statement does not tally with the given by
| the London papers, but is made in order that the
stockholders of this great mine may better able
| 10 appreciate its real value.
! SOME GOOD PROSPECTS
! Besides the lie Roi, Whitaker Wright acquired
| for this British-American corporation the Josie,
No and West LIE Roi. all three being Incorporated
as the West lie Roi. The East lie Roi is another Of
| Whitaker Wrights companies. and includes the
| Nickel Plate and Great Western. The British
| American corporation also the Columbia and
! Kootenai mines The West lie Ro group has three
mines of great value that give enormous promise.
and the universal opinion among mining men is
that the West lie Roi will be in time as large
| producer and big dividend paying property as
! the lie Roi itself The East lie ROi has in the
| Nickel Plate a rich and valuable mine in itself
and that is developed to the six hundred foot
| level but the Golden Chariot and Great Western
| have not, up to date at least proved of any
| particular value; in fact, far both disap-
| pointing.
In the Columbia and Kootenai the British-Amer-
lea corporation has mine that bids fair TO out
strip all others in Rossand a producer AS
soon as transportation facilities are afforded this
mine will a position yield one thousand
tons of a day. The is low grade. but with
| economical mining and smelling the Columbia and
KOOtenai, ii is believed, pay large and hand
some dividends to It's stockholders. For two years
| the Whitaker Wright people have been spending
| enormous sums of money developing these various
! groups and within six months the combined output
| of the Columbia and Kootenai East and West lie
Rol, should ne hIteen hundred tons a day. This
VIII increase the gold and copper output of Ross
land by least s. 100000 year.
The Centre Star and the War Eagle, after vari-
Gus Vicssitudes, acquired by Mcssrs. Gooder-
ham and Backstock, of Toronto. The Centre Star
Is the greater mine and is fully believed by Ross
land mining experts to be equal to the lie ROi but