The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1913-05-09
sign of any kind invites investigation.


The mention of the Owasco mine
awakens memories of the past, carry
ing us back into ancient history O.
this property. Originally it was
known as the Okanogan Free Gold
and took it's name from the fact thai
much free gold Was found in the
quartz during the early prospecting
of the ground. Back in the past al
most as far as the memory of mar
runneth the claims located by Bot
Allison, an early resident of pleas.
ant memory, who was sheriff in those
days when the country was rough
rude and raw. 1t is not necessary to
| dwell upon what attracted his atten-
tion to the spot. Enough to say there
was, and is, great blow out of
quartz on the ground covered by the
on a professional tour of this section
and he set out the pegs that notified
the world at large he was a claimant
of the ground as locator. He worked
the property to some extent, that
work never reaching beyond the dig
nifty of prospecting, took out consider
able ore and ran it through an old
two-stamp MILL at that time located
in the rear of the old Washington
Commercial store, in the south part
OF the present town of Oroville, and
extracted sufficient gold by this slow
process as to give the holdings repu-
tatl0n that extended beyond local en-
vironments. Allison sold out to DR..
Paul Langhammer or to parties he
represented. DR.. Langhammer was a
mining expert, highly educated gent
leman, but of strange and erratic
ideas in some respects, that created
suspicion among the miners that he
was slightly nutty. AS an illustra-
tion of his singular impracticability
in some respects it is said that when
he put up mill at the old Wyandotte
mining venture that is now almost
forgotten, it became necessary to an
chor a guy wire attached to a huge
smoke stack. A large tree stood in
just the right position for attaching
the wire. He would not listen to
such suggestion. He said he would
show the inexperienced workmen how
to do it right. He had the tree cut
down, section buried in the ground,
providing what is known as dead
man. and had the wire attached to
this buried timber That is neither
here nor there, and is only thrown in
as a touch to the story showing up
the odd side of the doctor. Otherwise
he knew how to mine, or at least he
had that reputation. He equipped the
Okanogan Free Gold Mine with a 10
stamp mill, put up on plans permit
ting the addition at any time of two
more batteries of five stamps each.
Under his management the mine pa
dividend not large one, but a
dividend nevertheless, and the only
dividend so far as known ever paid
by quartz mine in this county The
doctor fell into trouble while working
the property. For reasons unknown
the first dividend was the last, debts
piled up and finally the property was
taken over by the Bank of Montreal,
which held an unsettled claim against
the company. DR.. Langhammer drift
ed from one camp to another, finally
putting an end to all his worries by
committing suicide at Rossland. The
Bank of Montreal continued to oper-
ate the mine through representatives
in charge, but failed to make it pay.
There is tradition floating around
that two of the persons in charge
under the regime OF the bank sud-
denly developed into investors of con-
siderable substance after leaving the
Okanogan country, making extensive
investments in the south, which natur-
ally lead to the suspicion that the
bank failed to receive from the plates
all the gold due it at the time of the
regular, or surreptitious, clean ups.
No one can vouch for this tale of
piracy, yet from the fact that long
experience had demonstrated that the
gold was in the ore, and the bank got
none of it it was easy for the i'm
agination to frame up a chornicle of
i'll gotten wealth. After remaining
idle for ten years or more the bank
disposed of the property to the pres
ent company. From the record of the
past the investment was a safe one,
and there is every reason to expect
that properly and honestly operated
the Okanogan Free Colds, under it's
new name of the Owasco Mining COM
pany, will at least provide a paying
mine for Okanogan county. The last
possessors have been slow in getting
started. Now that the start is made
it will not be long until the true val
| lie of he old mine will be demon
strated.