The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1907-06-17
THE HISTORY
OF The TOWN
OF OSCEOLA
BEGAN AS A LIVELY GOLD CAMP
IN THE EARLY SEW
ENTITIES.
HAS PRODUCED GREAT WEALTH
Although a Quiet Place at the Pres.
emf Time, Prospects Indicate
Better Times.

town of perhaps 900 souls. The little
hamlet is situated in rocky gulch
or canyon high up in the Snake creek
range of mountains forty-five miles
from Ely and a trifle southeast of
that city. 1t stands at an elevation of
1000 feet above tidewater. The
dates back to the discovery of the
Cumberland group of mines, after
sufficient work had been done to JUS
tify the laying out of a town. The
Cumberland company built a five
stamp mill, and the town at once be-
came busy place, furnishing mar
ket for the produce of the farms in
Spring and Duck valleys and giving
employment to many hands, and pro-
duced in mineral wealth $1,000, 900
or $2.0OO,000 to the worlds COM
merce. In rs large acreage, lying
on gentle slope leading from
Osceola far out into Spring valley
was located as placer ground and is
exceedingly rich, carrying gold with
every shovclful of dirt washed, and
in 1882 another twenty-stamp mill
was put up over the Osceola summit,
which in 1898 was removed to the
eastern slope of the range, just below
Osceola. The two mills built were
never a pronounced success, not be-
ing able OF save the gold, and the
owners of the Cumberland group de-
pended on the stock market for their
profits more than on the merits of the
mine. AS all things not built on a
solid foundation must crumble, so 1t
was with the stock manipulations of
the Cumberland group, and Osceola's
high standing as business center
began to decline, as the company did
not seemingly try longer to develop
that which is rich in gold, and in
time will be again recovered and pass
into history as one of the greatest
wealth producers in the state. Osce-
ola, at the present time, is almost
dead, but If all plans now in course
of incubation are carried out the
place will soon be awakened and pass
on to greatness uninterrupted.
There are but four families living in
the little place at the present time,
but about sixty men are prospecting
in the nearby hills. About one year
ago new capital put fresh blood in
Osceola's sluggish veins, and the
promise is given out that the canyon
and all the surrounding country will
soon become the scene of great actiy-
ity 4 development. H. S. Wooley
of Salt Lake, the head of the Osceola
Placer company, has taken hold of
the placer ground spoken of above
and promises to make the town hum
again and dance a quickstep to the
rattle of gold nuggets washed from
the gravel The prospectors support
a large general merchandise store In
the town, with J. H. Marriott at its
head, ably seconded by his son-in-
law, George H. Doyle. Mr.. Marriott
does a large volume of business in
the course of a year. He carries a
full line of miners supplies, grocer
les, dry goods and boots and shoes.
Everything at the present time, how
ever, seems to hinge on the ramifica-
tions of Mr.. Wooley's company, he
having bonded a great deal of prop
erty, ranches as well as mines.
j. H. Marriott is the managing di-
rector of Mr.. Wooley's company, and
expresses himself as being confident
that Mr.. Wooley will carry out the
plans laid to success. NotWithStand-
ing the fact that Osceola is still some
what in the dumps, it is sufficiently
important to attract the festive Whis-
key drummer, for there are three of
them here today-One from far
away Los Angeles, another from Sac
ramento, and third from Salt Lake.
But to go back to my story, | regard
Osceola as one of the most promising
gold camps in all Nevada. Hydrau-
licking the placer grounds Is part
of Mr.. Wooley'S comprehensive plan
of action, and | regard it as the
most promising feature of Osceola's
future makeup if Mr.. Wooley
makes good" Two lines of ditch
are already built, but in bad repair
at the present time and will have to
be recovered before the gravel can be
systematically washed. The bitches
were constructed years ago, and the
two are thirty-four miles in length.
The water is taken from the vicinity
of Mount Wheeler. One mile of
twenty-two-inch iron pipe has been
laid and is on the ground, and with
the force of water to come through
the bitches and pipe force will be
generated that will wash the old hills
clean and separate the grain from
the chaff' at the rate of many cubic
feet per day. Years ago nuggets
were washed out valued at from SIS to
$40 in one solid lump, and, indeed,
one hunk was found valued at 49,
900, but in the main the gold is fine.
The company has large blacksmith
shop, boarding house and clubhouse,
Office and other buildings for the sue
cessful handling of the gravel, and
have in contemplation the construc-
ton of a large electric light plant.
The Amalgamated Placer company
owns 700 acres of patented ground,
besides large acreage on which title
has not as yet been perfected, lying
outside the patented belt. Four
thousand dollars has been in past
years taken from the collaborating
gravel beds, nearly all of which was
used in securing title to water and
more land for the future handling of
the vast enterprise. There are to-
day six men employed in ground
sluicing from the water furnished
from the melting snow on Mount
Wheeler. All along the rugged sides
of the Snake range more or less pros
pecting is being carried on, and the
immediate surroundings of Osceola
are full of prospect holes, tunnels
and trenches, showing that the men
of the present age are bent on mine
development. If all the good things
promised come to Osceola and to
Spring valley the Snake range will
echo great prosperity, and the
echo" will be heard in every section
of White Pine county, and, indeed,
throughout the world.