The Colville examiner. [volume] (Colville, Wash.) 1907-1948, 1920-03-27

he so-called forerunnerS of modern
I. progress demanding its repeal to be
rellaced by laws intending to place
mineral lands on the auction block.
No law has yet been devised that can
I. fulfill the purpose of the statute Of
May 10, 1872, which is based on the
first law of property, towit, treasure
trove. When this law is repealed the
prospector will cease to search for
the mct"l stores of the land and an
industrial fundamental will be de
stroyed, unless perehance. he would
perform in the role of wage toilcr.
Some twenty years ago the Wash
ington legislature, at the instance Of
spectators, secured the passage of
law requiring all locators of mineral
lands to Immediately perform 500
worth of assessment work, which
nn@ant that If he was too poor to do
I j he might turn the lions share
over to some pirate speculator who
would help him comply with the law.
The prospector decided that it was
not enough to discover a gold mine
Rather than be penalized for his
pains, he covered his find, tore down
his location notice and left the state
While mining has never recovered
from the shock, it seems hopeless to
secure its repeal.
Coincident with the passage Of
the statute of May 10, 1872, came
the completion of the first transcon-
tinental railway. Quartz mining i'm
mediately took the stage-eXit the
placer. Machinery for development
and facilities for transportation were
available for the ores. Gold was first
in the plan Of development, but sill
yer copper, lead, zinc, antimony and
many other metals came in for
share Of attention as the demand
grew and the industry expanded.
The first quartz lode in what was
then Stevens county if not the first
in the state of Washington, was 10
Gated under the name of the Similka-
meen at point lin what is now
Okanogan county, two and onc-half
miles south OF the forty-ninth degree
of north latitude and on the north
side of the Similkameen river at
what was known as the Angle camp
and was named the Aurora. The
date of discovery, as shown by the
notice of location, was July 2, 1878,
but the notice was not finally re-
corded with the county auditor until
October 4th following. In the mean
time the reported find of gold bear
ing quartz in such close proximity
to Rich Bar on the Similkamecn
river, which had produced "a million
dollars in placer gold up to that
time, must have created great
excitement, for it is said within three
days the rocky area for several
miles along the river was checkered
with mining claims. In the same vi
cinity on July 5, j. o. Jackson, j. w.
Crouch, H. F. (Okanogan) Smith,
Charles Snyder and b. l.. Johnson
located the Similkameen lode, and on
the same day another location was
made in Angle camp under the name
of Similkameen by numerous party
of men who denominated their organ
ization the Colville Company. The
names appearing on the recorded no
tice of this discovery were w. V.
Brown, w. p. Winans, Henry Well
ington, Capt. Evan Miles, DR.. A, W.
Wiggins, Francis Wolff, S. f. Sher-
wood, W. Barry, Thomas Earl, A.
Thorp, J. C. Haynes, Harry f.
Young and Guy Haines.
The claim that did much toward
extending the fame of the camp was
the second location made under the
name of "Similkameen lode" The
territorial officials at Olympia had
the prospectors by furnishing them
with grub stakes" for their peri
lous expeditions, and the prospectors
returned the favor by locating their
benefactors with them on many dis
coveries. The names of the owners
on this notice were designated col
lectively as the Olympia Company.
They are here given in the order
named on the record:
"No. l, J. A. Gallagher, 200 feet"
"2, S. Garfield, 200 feet" Garfield
was delegate to congress from 1867
to 1869.
"No. 3, Daniel Braly, 100 feet"
Braley was county auditor of Stevens
county at the time.
mo. d, J. C. Haynes, 200 feet"
The name of Haynes was stricken,
evidently because he was British
subject, being judge of the provin-
cial court at Osooyoos, b. G.
mo. 3, M. Thomas, 200 feet"
"No. 5, Elwood Evans, 100 feet"
Evans was secretary of the territory
1862-67.
"No. S, Frank Tarbell, 100 feet"
Tarbell was territorial treasurer
1880
General Milroy, 100 feet" Prob
,hI,, ;au+ rol WI Milrov who