The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1917-09-06
SUNPTER; LIKE HEPP-
NER WILL RISE AGAIN
People, Not Buildings, Make Towns
and Sumpterites Are Kind
That "Come Back"

BY Fred Lockley in Oregon Journal.
Every business house in Sumpter,
as we'll as half hundred private res
licences, were destroyed by the fire
that recently swept over the city. The
property loss amountedsto 5000, 900.
Governor Withycombe has issued an
appeal to the citizens of the state to
send financial help, making the
checks payable to the Citizens Nation
al Bank Of Baker. 1t is hoped by the
Sumpter relief committee that the re-
sponse will be generous, for they es-
innate that unless at least $4,000 Of
relief funds are raised, there will be
many in actual want before winter
sets in.
: Sumpter is one of Oregon's most
interesting cities and though it has
been virtually wiped out by fire, the
new Sumpter that will rise from the
ashes of the city that was will be
better city than the one that has dis
appeared. Pessimists there are that
say this is the final chapter Of Sump-
ters history. They said the same
thing when Heppner was overwhelm-
ed by cloudburst and scores of it's
citizens were drowned and its build
ings demolished and washed away
AS | walked about the streets ankle
deep in mud and saw the wreckage
removed and the bodies of Heppners
citizens recovered, | looked forward
a few years to the day of new Hepp-
,ner. Today Heppner is more substan-
tial than ever. Can Sumpter, like
Heppner, come back? Did stricken
San Francisco quit when she was
overwhelmed by earthquake and fire?
1t is not buildings that make city.
1t is the character of the people of
the city that makes the city. 1t is the
unconquerable and indomnitable will
to rise superior to calamities and mis-
fortunes that make city. A city
whose citizens are not of this type
does not deserve to live. The same
sturdy and resolute men that helped
to build Sumpter will help to rebuild
the city. Sumpter came into being
because of the mineral wealth of the
district. The mineral wealth is still
there. The ceaseless clanking Of the
two gold dredges that are working
over the gravel beds of Powder river
and recovering rich values are still
to be heard.
| The old time hectic life of Sump-
4 ter has gone forever and it is just
as we'll, for it was passing phase
of the old west and it will never re-
turn, for the mining camp that de-
pends on wild cat mines, saloons and
the redlight district for its prosper
ity deserves to be wiped off the map
The old Sumpter, the Sumpter of
inflated values and plausible pro-
moters unloading barrels of gold
edged stock certificates on gullible
tenderfeet in mines that never ex-
listed, was but passing phase, just
as the ficticious values of fruit lands
was passing phase of the orchard
industry.
Sumpter dates back to the days of
the Civil War. When the firing on
Fort Sumpter was fresh in the pub
lie mind the mining camp of Sump-
ter was named. 1t was the discovery
of quartz values, rather than the pla-
Ger mines, that made Sumpter a city.
At about The time that the first log
cabin was built at Sumpter a miner
named Ruckles, in Baker county,
built dam, put in water wheel
and built the Ruckles quartz mill
near Baker City. This was in 1864
and the mill worked on the ore from
the Rockafellow lode, six miles north
east of Baker City.
In 1868 Ruckles sold his mill and
mine to j. w. Virtue, one of Baker
county's early sheriffs. Associated
with Mr.. Virtue was A. II. Brown.