Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1886-1927, 1909-07-30
WALDO.

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Waldo vicinity has about 800 acres
OF the richest placer ground on this
coast, free from big rocks and with
soft. decomposed bedrock admirably
adapted to dredging, The gold is
flaky and the pay even throughout ,
all of the gravel. The gold goes as
high in fineness as 953, ranging
from 935 and yields close around
$19 per OF at the U. s. mint in San
Francisco. Waldo is isolated and its
rich mineral deposits practically un-
known to capitalists.
The leading placer mines have
been developed and worked up to
present conditions without capital
they have yielded every dollar that
has been spent on them, and with the
appliances at hand it has been i'm
possible to work the big beds of pay
gravel in them; the high and shallow
bedrock alone has been worked and
this does not represent the main and
richest deposit.
1t IS wonderful what has been
done in this camp without the use
Of outside capital There ought to
be in operation in this immense gold
belt from six to eight three thousand
yard dredges, and not until the white
ships enter this inviting field will this
camp make its proper showing in the
production Of the worlds treasure.
One prominent operator ventures the
assertion that with present methods
Of placer operations in the large
mines the annual expense in each
mine outside Of the dredge plant It.
self Is as great as the expense Of
operating a 300-yard dredge and that
/ it requires from six to nine years to
work off as many yards Of gravel as
the dredge would work in one year
He also thinks that whereas the pres
ent method represents a loss Of at
least fifty per cent of the value
against perhaps ten per cent lost by
the drodgor
Waldo has a body Of ground adapt
ed to dredging (and which can never
be worked out by present methods
extensive enough to keep six 5000
yard dredges at work for fifty years.
This ground is deep and 1t viii cost
big money to equip It, but the natur-
al conditions are all favorable: plcn-
ty Of timber, good working weather
the year around and the evenness Of
the pay and extent Of it insures sue
cess, Along the main channels the
pay is more even from the grass
roots down than it is in the higher
ground, such as has been worked in
the past
test work done at the Lewis and
test work done at the Louis and
Clark fair in Portland, the richest de
posit of platinum and other fine met
ais TO be found in the United States
and Waldo received at that fair the
only medal for platinum ever issued
In the United States.
Here is a fairly good description
of the Waldo mine: At the end of the
upper tunnel there Is an upraised
shaft showing 70 feet high of bronze
copper At the top OF this shaft Il
gallery Of tunnels runs to the right
and left, showing 100 feet In width,
of solid bronze copper. A shaft at
the end of this main tunnel, 90 feet
deeper than the floor, there is ore
all the way down, and still continu-
ing as a greater depth Is reached.
There are ii men now employed in
side and outside Of the mine. There
Is fully 5000 tons Of copper ore on
the dump.
We have extensive iron ore de-
posits, some of which assay ninety
per cent iron Our rich copper
speaks FOR Itself, also our timber,
building stone, lime etc. We have
extensive rich red hill lands adapted