The silver state news. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1907-1909, 1907-09-09
). F. LEETE HAS
PRAISE FOR
NEVADA
AN ADDRESS BEFORE THE
NATIONAL IRRIGATION
CONGRESS AT SACRAMENTO
Says the Great Deserts of Nevada are
the Most Valuable Part of the
Great Domain

Hon. Is. +. Leete OF keno, IN an
address before the national irrigation
congress, which recently met in Sac
ramento, delivered the following inter
esting address concerning Nevada:
| have lived in Nevada forty-fve
years and l have no present intention
of ever living in any other state. Ne
vada is a world in range and latitude,
climate and natural resources.
In latitude she stretches from the
Colorado river to the southern boun-
Diary of Oregon.
Her climate ranges from semi
tropical at the Colorado river to tom
perate northward, and in her highest
northern mountains is frigid.
Her products vary from cotton,
coffee, tobacco, figs, grapes, peaches,
oranges and lemons on the south, to
ice in her northern mountains.
In the worlds exposition at Chi
cago she was awarded first premium
for cotton, and as that was a world g
fair, that award was one sort of evi-
dence that Nevada produces the fin
est cotton in the world. If she did
not take first premium on rice, sugar,
tobacco, grapes, figs, peaches, oranges,
lemons, barley, corn, oats, rye, wheat
and all useful vegetables and forage
plants it is because she did not try
Utah lies east of Nevada, and in
like latitude, elevation and climate.
/ challenge the state of California to
present an exhibition of cereals,
fruits, orage plants and vegetables
equal in excellence to the display
Utah makes here today.
End of Nevada's chemical and min
eral resources there is none.
We recognize that an undeveloped
resource is now productive.
Nevada is a land of surprises. In
1859 we surprised the world by dis
covering the Comstock lode and open
ing and developing the richest silver
gold belt that has ever been discover
ed on this planet. A lode that yielded
in gold and silver more than 100000.
Forty-nine years ago | visited the
Comstoek lode. At that time there
was not a wagon trail in that camp,
and as | rode along a bride path in
the ~sagebrush, on the eastern slope of
Mount Davidson, the first person |
came to was a miner leaning on a
pick. / inquired about silver ore, and,
pointing to a pile of ore he'd dug, he
said: "There is the stuff; they say
there is silver in it, but | don t
know 4hat man was a moulder
from Mr.. Bowstead's foundry in sac
ramento. That man was the best sill
yer miner in the United States at the
time. Today we have the best miners
in the United States at the time. To-
day we nave the best miners and met
allurgists in the world. In Nevada
when we want to do anything we put
a man at the head who believes in the
thing to be done, is determined that
it shall be done, and then we go ahead
and never fail. Such a man you have
, at the head of your board of control,
!, the Hon. George w. Peltier of Tusca-
!, rora, Elko county, Nevada.
! We invented our own machinery
|, and formulated our own processes.
|, In the early sixties the reduction
, plants on the Comstock would not
, touch an ore that carried less than
, 800 and would not attempt reduction
for less than $50 per ton, and would
not guarantee results.
Under the system of reduction that
grew up on the Comstock lode, from
no knowledge of the metallurgy of
gold and silver to the complete Com
stock process, we took the ores from
the mines and cleaned them of their
precious metals down to 81 per ION.
Today we can reduce ores for 70
cents per ton, and guarantee 80 pr
cent of extraction, from which ! con
clude that mining in Nevada is as
permanent an industry as farming in
New York or Missouri. 1t is unthink.
able that with our present knowledge
and skill in the %metallurgy of the
precious metals, that the time will
ever come in Nevada when mining
will not be more profitable than farm
ing in the agricultural states.
In Nevada we have raised a gener-
alton of men who have had gold ores
and silver ores and reduction works,
and acid chambers and manufacturing
chemistry plants, and refineries and
hosting works and power drills for
playmates in childhood.
They can operate a mine, extract
the ore, and extract the precious met
ais from the ore, and refine and turn
it out in elegant bars of bullion 800
fine. So pure that the government de
bases it to coin into money.
The excellence of our natural re-
cphiNto tphoioAS III IuiuionlbS iiC 4
ticle used not only in our country, but
throughout the world, in fixing and
measuring the values of the products
of all other states and countries.
The first overflow into Nevada on
discovery of the Comstock lode was
from California.
They took it away, because, as they
said, Nevada was worthless.
Then they came back to carry off
the Truckee river because they said
they needed the water. We of Nevada
said not one drop.
That Lake Tahoe lay in the water
shed of the eastern slope of the Sierra
Nevada mountains, in Nevada, and
there is no precedent in the human
family where any government ever
took the waters on one watershed
away from it's citizens and diverted it
to another watershed for the benefit
of one citizen at the expense of an
other, and you can't take a drop, and
hey did not. and saw IA nv friend