The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1915-04-23
A PLACER GOLD FURRY

that placer mining on the COlumb1;
river is being revived and again at
tracing wide attention, made NOR,
sensational with the assistance o
daily papers. Working the bars ant
banks of the Columbia for gold is ;
kind of counterirritaLt for hard times
and like hard times strikes the coun
try periodically. The black san(
along the Columbia river, from Priests
rapids northward, and probably from
even a point lower down on the river
IS impregnated with fine particles o
gold, so fine that no process has al
yet been discovered that will save the
minute flour scales in sufficient quan.
| titles to pay operating expenses ON g
| large scale. The st,atta of sand and
gravel containing this gold is plainl,
marked and preceptible to the eye al
low water. Any one who will take
the trouble to do so will note mar
row ribbon of distinctly yellowish
tinge along the river shores wherever
the banks are washed down. Take a
pan OF this dirt from anywhere along
this streak, wash it out, if you know
how, until nothing is left except a
slight coating of black sand-and it
Will be there-give the pan a slight
twist and you can distinctly see a
string of specks of gold. with occas-
ionally one of goodly size.
From time running back beyond
the memory of man white men and
Cinnamon have panned and craddled
for gold along the Columbia. The
white man as rule soon gives it up
as an Improbable job, as he can not
make ordinary wages. The Chinaman
is more tenacious, more persistent
and is satisfied with smaller gain
On what he would consider pay dirt a
white miner would starve. For years
and years an old Chinaman worked a
crude rocker up and down the river
from the mouth of Foster creek. That
he Ne extracting gold, and was satis-
fled with what he was getting was evil
dent from the fact that he stuck to
the work. But how much he took out
no man ever really knew. He lived
alone, worked alone, and kept his bus
mess wholly to himself. He had a
crude outfit, worked the cradle with
one hand while dipping water from the
river in tin can fastened to stick
When asked how much he made day
he would reply: Maybe sometime
four bittee; some time six bittee;
some time little more" He was the
the gold hunting Sphinx of the Column
bia river.
Reading the vivid accounts of this
revived placer excitement carries
memory back over twenty years ago.
Just another such furor broke out at
that time. We were at Waterville and
fabulous stories of rich finds climbed
up the bluffs from the nearby river,
growing in vividness with every foot
of the accent. 1t was about the time
that the Cleveland administration was
doing to us what the Wilson admins
tration is doing to us today, and a
prospect of getting little ready cash
with no more eXertion than was nee
essary to pick it out of the ground
appealed to a number of us, who were
long Oh daily demands and short on
the means to meet those demands. A
party of Waterville citizens, of which
we were one, lost no time hiking to
the new and rich discoveries. Armed
with pans and provisions for a stay as
long as the gold held out thar crowd
descended upon the Columbia river,
buOyed up with visions of flour sacks
full of gold. We worked the banks
and staked out the river frontage from
Orondo to He'll Gate, and lying olt
under the stars planned the spending
o. the fortune that we thought was
within our grasp. Alack and alas, like
other fortunes that we have missH
this one passed away as a vapor. We
PUT in hours and hours of hill climb
ilg and tramping worked long and
diligently, gathered an assortment o.
aches and creaks in our backs and
limbs packing dirt and twisting a pan
while knee deep in the chilly fluid OF
the Columbia. Anywhere we search
eG, under boulder, at roots of trees,
or in the yellow marked bank of the
river, we could find and wash out
colors, fine pin points of the coveted
dross, but work as we could it was
impossible to save enough to pay the
price of the bacon required to feed
the distorted appetites created by the
excessive exercise. After several
days the dream of riches passed away
and that disappointed crowd trickled
back to their several homes.
At that time scores of excited mel
| were engaged in the same roseate
chase, and much money was invested