The Nome daily gold digger., 1907-02-22
JIM WARDNER WELL KNOWN HERE


 the most picturesque and energetic mining men that the country ever saw, is dead at Fl Pasa, Tex He Is known from Mexico to Cape Nome, and he has operated in most of the camps between. MT. Wardner look ed upon Spokane almost at ..s nome, for he long lived here during the days when he was upbuilding the Occur d'Alenes and the Kootenai district of British Columbia.
 A dispatch last night said:
 "El Pasa, Tex, March 30.--James Wardner died at the Hotel Dieu Tuesday For two months he had been in the state of Sonora in the interest of a company of prominent capitalists of British Columbia. The district in which he was conducting his operations was in the very center of the Yaqui country, where Indians nave been on the warpath. MT. Wardner fell i'll over month ago, but, owing to the fact that he could not get an escort, he could not get out of the country. About two or three weeks ago he secured an es- cort and reached the United States, coming through El Paso en route tc British Columbia. When he reached this city he found himself too ill to proceed further on his journey. He has prominent relatives re- siding in Chicago and Milwaukee, The remains have been ordered shipped to Milwaukee.
 At Ivanpah began Wardner's. ca reer as @ miner, and out of the Liz lie Bullock mine, which he and his partner purchased, he in time draw a good many thousands of dollars. He was now on the nigh road to fortune, but disaster, which seems never to have been far away in Nardner's life, paid him q visit. A pack train, carrying a load of ore 10 Los Angeles, was attacked by Apache Indians and all the members slain. Wardner resolved to quit Arizona.
 He betook himself to San Fran. cisco, then in the throes of the great
 est investment speculation in min. 1 ng stocks that the world had ever known, and in q short time Ward aer himself was in the midst of the excitement, making a fortune today md losing it tomorrow, practically lenniless at times, but never with. 1 out friends, and always able to raise | he funds needed when he decided to ,hange the base of his operations. After mining in Utah and Mon 1 tana, he followed the gold placer | boom in the early sos to the CoeuI | l'Alenes of Idaho. Wardner's first | venture in the Occur d'Alenes was | the running of a stage line from l Thompson's Falls to Murray, and for
 | time he did a tremendously profit | lble business. Then he bought
 mines, organized companies, and | money came to him at a rate that l made him say he was actually tired l of it and wanted a rest"
 In the early days of Rossland he
 went there, and, backed by Montreal
 men, he bought S42 lots in the town
 iite from the Ross Thompson inter-
 asts for $176,000 After that he
 formed the townsite of Wardner,
 3. G., in company wgith George
 Pfunder, and they forme the Inter national Transportation Company 1 with line of three fine steamers tC ply on the Kootenay river from Jen
 1ings, Mont, to Wardner. During
 he height of the boom, two of the
 boats were wrecked on the same
 lay Ihe Wardner boom burst, and
 Mr. Wardner himself was bankrupt He went into the Klondike and Cape
 Nome, with minor success. Return ing about three years ago, he oper- ated for a time in British Columb bia
 and was last heard from here sev-
 eral weeks ago in Sonora, Mex,
 where he and several other Amer ! 1yr Tv,
 dians. He wrote to the American
 government, calling TOT Yankee
 troops to give protection If the Mex innra AhnrltInr. EnAlnd An hn1rA