The Colville examiner. [volume] (Colville, Wash.) 1907-1948, 1922-02-25
J.B. Slater Writes
About California
Mining and Oil Among the
Natural Resources
Found There

octagon shaped fifty dollar slugs
were minted from the gold taken
from the gulches of California, to
be the legal tender of the country,
there was little within the confines
of the Golden state to sharpen the
interest of those seeking fortune in
the new land outside the mining
camps far out in the slopes of the
high mountain interior; but these
mining camps, most of them, now
live in the literature of Mark Twain,
Bret Harte, Joaquin Miller and
many others who played upon the
heart strings of the adventurous
pathfinders. 1t was here that the
genius of these celebrated authors
found inspiration which gave them
the enduring fame that wove it's
magic graces of this far land into
the hearts of the world. Had they
struggled in other fields and under
other conditions, doubtless their place
in literature would have been an un-
printed page.
Yet, one may go into the depths
of these mountain Businesses and
find still domiciled in their original
cabins on the crooked streets which
follow the creeks, where gold came
in daily fortunes to them in these
hills, few of the first prospectors
to WELD the pick and the shovel in
the virgin gravel along the streams.
They fourished in their day in the
splendor of wealth that sprang from
the very roots of the grass; but the
riot waning of opulence that followed
reduced them to the financial and
social level of a deserted village.
They mine little by day taking
meager recompense from the old
sluices where they are privileged to
work, and at night revel in the
! glories of the past while they gaze
into the blazing fireplace where hope
rises and falls on the tide of life
accordingly as the day has prospered
them and their imaginations link
their present to the past. They love
to have you for their company and
it is a rare pleasure to sit in the eve
ming by the glow of their freside and
lend a sympathetic ear to these hap
py spirited men who made California
famous when people now enjoying
the fruits of the labors of these pio-
neers were yet unborn.
Mining in California today is not
in the class of the operations of the
'49er plus the 20 years that followed.
Since farming here has become
necessary and predominating indus
try and commerce has grown great
in the roadsteads of the sea, the
placer mines have become of second
consideration because, it is claimed,
the loosing of the gravel in the
streams fills the navigable river and
harbor areas with silt, causing over
flow in flood time and filling up of
the river bays thus menacing water
traffic in a manner far outweighing
the value of precious metals that
might be produced by placer mining.
For this reason, the state legislature
has, by statute, prohibited placer op-
erations where the streams contami-
mated by the tailings reach navigable
waters. However, lode mining is
carried on without these restrictions
and from this source all the precious
metals are literally represented in the
products of the state. 1t is only
necessary to refer to the metallurgi-
cal reports from which the enquirer
may readily determine, even now, the
importance of mining in California
to the worlds output.
California claims to lead any of
the oil producing states in its annual
output of petroleum; but there is
more coal under development in Ste
vens county than has ever been
found in this state. California is
fortunate in its fuel supply, however,
producing its own oil and drawing
on the Australian fields for its sup
ply of coal which is carried here in
ships at a rate far under the freight
tariffs by rail from the American in
terror. Had the California country,
under it's present tremendous sys-
tenn of development, persisted, as it
promised in the beginning, to erect
and maintain an Independent govern
ment, we may readily understand
what an important place it would
have made for itself as a world
power.
The Sierra Nevada mountains
have ever been the source of
steady stream of gold, and every