The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1909-12-12
ELY MAN SAYS
IS BIGGEST EVER

SPOKANE, WASH, Dec. IL
Veteran prospectors in various parts
of the Spokane country are making
preparations for a rush into the
isolated Bruneau district, in south
western Idaho, 100 miles from the
Nevada border, where D. A. Bourne,
formerly of Ely and other camps
in the west, claims to have relocated
the Lost Sheepherder's mine. The
finder has returned to civilization
with a story of discovery that has
made the most seasoned miners sit
up and take notice, saying that the
telluride ore carries values as high
as $4,000 to the ton, that the small
est return from samples taken at
random was $50 and that there is
surface ore of a value of more
than $1,000, 900 in sight and can be
quarried like building stone.
Bourne's story folliws:
THE Lost Sheepherder's mine was
talked of and generally counted
upon for 80 years prior to my dis
covery. / heard about it myself
and looked upon the story as one
of those yarns that a mining man
gets accustomed to hearing. That
such a mine existed I was not so
sure, but l knew if it did exist it
could not possibly be as rich as
the stories indicated. In the fall of
last year / decided to leave Ely and
lido a little prospecting. l had no
particular point in Nevada in view,
but just struck out of the hills in
the general direction of the country
where the lost mine was supposed to
be. / came in through what Is
known as Duck Valley by the way
of Three Creek.
81 followed along the contact for
so miles before l reached the lost
mine. The surface indications look
ed very Encouraging, an d l had a
notion that it might be possible to
discover the much discussed prop
erty, if, indeed, there were such.
Nine miles from where the best
showings are today I found gold.
| All this time l had been panning
along the creek with varied sue
cess. However, when / did dis
cover the yellow metal the rest was
easy, as every place along the out
groupings that / sampled showed
gold.
lone day while prospecting along
the country l came across the
skeleton of a human being and
nearby a shovel handle. thought
then that l had surely discovered
the lost mine, and that the charred
bones before me were those of the
lost sheepherder, whose reports
were so vague but who brought out
80 tho Gnaof n rinO rnak
that the natives had ever seen.
1.-THE property was discovered by
me on November II, 1908, and the
first any n besides myself knew
about it was on October IA, this year
when l went to Bruneau and told
the people what was up there. /
knew then l had the ore and l was
satisfied that it was the greatest
bonanza ever unearthed in the west.
To tell one what is there is useless,
for the average man would not be-
lieve it, SO great is the whole thing.
1.-THE extent of the vein of out
groupings is not yet known. l know
that for 1,4O0 feet ! have followed
it and at no place was 1t less than
40 feet in width and some places
much wider. / have not been able
to find the foot or hanging wall and
one of the most remarkable features
about it is that you can not dig into
the hill at any one place and not
find pay dirt. l feel that l am
about as conservative as any of the
men who have seen the district.
They all say it is almost too big to
grasp. / know it is big, and when
we start treating the ore the world
will know.
81 have been with the best
samplers and engineers who 1ocked
to the country when the reports were
| circulated and we sampled every
place along the ou~tcroppings. We
sampled in places where we believ-
ed positively that there was no min
eral and the lowest assay we could
get was $85.
I'VE got 10 figuring before / left
and we just said, for example, that
the ore would run only $40 to the
ton on the average. At that figure
it is many times higher, we know
there Is now in actual sight and with
little mining $1,750,O00; in fact, to
speak co~nservatively, there are mil
lions of dollars in sight.
There are 800 men there
and l look to see thousands in the
camp early next spring. Log houses
and tents are springing up every
where and there is more excitement
than ] have ever seen or heard of.