The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1919-11-19
SNOW TWELVE FEET
DEEP At FLORENCE
FLORENCE MINING MAN RE-
PORTS HEAVIEST SNOW FALL
EVER KNOW THIS EARLY

F. S. Rice, who until three years
ago was treasurer of Idaho county for
a period of twelve years, is in the city
on business connected with his mining
interests at Florence He reports that
there has already been fall of twelve
feet of snow in the mountains at that
place, which has greately interfered
with the freighting in of supplies.
His company has recently complet-
ed mill, for crushing ore on their
property near the old Waverly mine,
of capacity to take care Of all the
ore that they will be able to mine. In
excavating for the plant ledge was
uncovered seven feet wide that
reaches back six hundred feet to their
tunnel and has an average depth
of seventeen feet This will supply
them with five times the amount of
ore they have been working on. All
the steam and water connections for
the plant have been installed and log
ging and mining timbers enough are
on hand for 1000 feet of under
underground work, ALSO material for
300 feet of tramway. Supplies for
feeding and clothing the men are on
hand sufficient to last until the first
of next August.
The formation on this property is
"a sort of grant fully forty per cent
of which consists of mica, with a
such that by hand work alone ten feet
mixture of lime and foldspar, and is
a day is easily made on the tunnel.
Mr.. Rice met with an accident in
these mountains sixteen years ago
while engaged in mining work where
by he lost both his legs, the right one !
at the knee and the left at the thigh,
but he manages with the aid of |,
crutches to get about with some cell
Gritty, and he maintains an optimistic |
outlook on life and an activity in |
business affairs that puts to shame /
many a man who has the use of his
limbs. He and fellow workman
were telling tree that kicked back
over the stump and in attempting to
save his friend he himself was
caught.
Mr.. Rice says he never before has
seen so much snow in the mountains
so early in the season
Florence is the center of the dis
trict in which the first great gold
discovery in northern Idaho was
made about 1859-60, and which re-
suited in agreat influx of gold seek
ers from all parts of the United
States and made the Florence mining
district the most notorious of the
west. Pierce City, named after
Captain E. D. Pierce, the discoverer
If placer gold in paying quantities,
Orofino, Elk City and Warrens, all {
ocated on land belonging to the Nez L
Perce Indians, sprang up in few
weeks in the spring of 1861 and mil {
ions of dollars in gold were taken
rom the district in a few years. By
he end of the summer of 1861 Oro-
'ino was ''city" of several hundred
inhabitants and many of the gold )
seekers had become immensely rich.
The district had been worked at in
ervals since the placer mines played
'ut and the quartz discoveries were !,
made and mining men insist the dis
rict will eventually become one of
he great producing districts of the ,,
vest. A few properties are still be- :
ng worked and every claim owner in
he district fully expects the district :
o become as great as the Coeur !,
'Alenes Gin the next few years" T