The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-04-16
OREGON IS 4 GREAT GOLD MINING STATE Annual Output of Yellow Metal
 Worth S6,O0O,000 THE INDUSTRY Is GROWING Mineral Wealth of Webfoot State Is Being Developed Rapldly-Meth- ods of Mining Shown at the
 Portland Fair.
BY BLAINE PHILLIPS.


 Portland, April 15.-An enthusiast has said that of every ten men in the United States, one is interested in gold mining, two Of the remaining nine know some thing about, and the rest desirous of being enlightened
 An unparalleled opportunity is afforded everybody to visit one of the greatest gold mining states in the country. The extremely low railroad rates offered vis- istors to the Lewis and Clark exposition, which opens in Portland June 1, places the trip within reach of millions of peo- pie. They may not only visit Oregon and learn something of it's remarkable mineral wealth, but in the Mines anc Metallurgy building at the Lewis and Clark exposition they may view every method of gold mining and see a repre- sentative display of the various gold ores found abundantly in the state. Placer and quartz mining will be illustrated practically; and enormous stamp mills, concentrators, ore crushers and various other patterns of mining machinery will offer an instructive and interesting ex- hlbit
 While Oregon has achieved an enviable
 
 mineral wealth, gold mining as yet in the ''Webfoot' state has not progressed be- yond embryonic stage.
 The gold mining belt in Oregon is found in the Cascade mountains This range begins in the upper part of British Co., lumba follows the coast line through Washington and Oregon, and disappears in northern California, where 1t joins with the Slerras and the coast range of the "Golden state.s
 Interesting State.
 Geologically, Oregon is one of the most interesting states in the Union. Ger tainly no region in the entire world of- fers such an opportunity for research along these lines as the Cascade moun- tains. Extending over the Sumeter and Bohemia districts, a survey has been made by the government, but in so far as these localities comprise but a small part of the state, it is remarkable that more complete surveys have not been made.
 On the little North Fork of the San tam river, strata are found well de- lineated. The mud flats which after ward became the auriferous shades of the present Cascades, accumulated to great depth upon the ocean bottom when the west shore line of the continent lay east of the mountains and nearly all or what is now Oregon and Washington was submerged. So slowly did the Cas- cade region and it's westerly foothills emerge from the ocean that for many years it remained comparatively low and flat The plocene rivers found their birth during this period and their erosion commenced. It would seem that in pur- suing their devious courses, they doubled upon themselves and ran for long dis tances in various directions oozfng slow ly through the great champlain forming islands, side channels. bayous deltas and lagoons on their long journey to the ocean. It was in this manner that the fiuviatile system which so puzzles sa. wants and scientists of the present day to decipher, was plotted out.
 The geological observer cannot fail to notice that the gold-bearing gravel of the neocene rivers of Oregon Washing ton and Idaho, with their watersheds. formed mountain range as distinct as those of today, and that it's first summit in general, coincid, with the corre- spending modern divide: which observa- ton proves that the grades of the remain Ing neocene gravel channels are to A certain extent determined by the direc- ton in which they flowed. Since the time when the neocene rivers flowed over the surface, the slopes of the Cas- cades and the Blue mountains have been considerably increased From a studv of the grade curves and the remains of the channels 1t seems possible that the surface of the mountains has been deformed during the uplifts the most conspicuous deformations having beer caused by the subsistence of the great valleys adjacent to the Columbia and Willamette rivers. These ancient gold bearing river channels, which are mostly buried n mass of debris of volcanic material, which cap a large part of the toft IL. the Cascades.
 Easy to Distinguish.
 Channelwashed gold can be dIstin- guished immediately from that later eroded from the quartz veins and porphyry rocks by the experienced miner Bearing no resemblance to the former the gold is rough and craggy, and as the topography of Oregon has been nearly In It's present form for the last two geo. logical periods what js called the buried or dead rivers are the gulches and can yons of the present Cascade mountains which were sealed up about the close of the pllocene epoch Of the tertiary period This is easily dscerible east of 1the Cas- cades and along the John Day and Des Chutes rivers. which have been greatly distorted, leaving many of these buried branches on the summit of the R1o mountains during the uplifts. The rivers. when once changed, had to gather their waters together again. and in the hum dreds of thousands of years that have elapsed, these streams have eroded their new channels, in some places to the ex- tent of thousands of feet
 The vast exodus from the east to tha Pacific coast, accompanying the discov cry of gold in California in 1s4g led to the early institution of placer mining on the Klamath and Rogue rivers in solitb- ern Oregon. Until 1860. placer mining was prosecuted in these districts with much energy and vigor Subsequently, prospecting was begun in the moro northern part of the state. resulting in many discoveries of placer gold. which was mined in the famous Orc Fins, Flor ence and Elk City camps
 Development Is Astonishing.
 But 1t is not my intention. to delve deeply into Oregons earlier mining his tory. At present the development among the various quartz mining districts Is wholly without precedent and astonishes even those who were associated with mining in the early days when it was in its zenith Eastern capital is literally invested In the quartz mines of the Blue River, Gold Hill, Bohemia and aSntiam districts, which have developed to be
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