The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1922-06-15

address by Alfred J. Dunn at the
banquet in honor of the North Idaho
Chamber of Commerce in Wallace on
Friday June 81.
A discussion of the resources of
Shoshone county necessarily means a
discussion of the mineral resources of
the Coeur dAlene district. for. al
though this county has another re-
source of great present and potential
value, timber, the fact remains that it
is mining that first placed Shoshone
county on the map. it is mining that
for almost forty years has sustained
prosperous and progressive popula-
ton, and it is mining to which we
look with confidence for another forty
years of even greater prosperity and
progress. SO preponderating is the
mining industry in ShOshOne county
as compared with any other that
when we speak of the Occur d'Alene
mining district we mean practically
Shoshone county, for while it is true
that there are sections of the county
in which there are no productive
mines, it is equally true that there is
hardly section that is not mineral !
in character and which does not /
promise eventually to reward the I'M |
firing efforts of the prospector. Ma !
ture which so often places her rich
mineral treasures in forbidden sur !
roundings-in the barren wastes of
the desert, on the inaccessible slopes
of mountains far above timberlne, in
the frozen fastness of the Arctic, or
in the jungle of the tropic-seems to
have combined all her elements fav-
orable to man in his constant, eager
and unrelenting quest for the hidden
treasures in the mountains of the
Occur d'Alenes Timber in abund-
ance first for the cabin of the pros
pector and later for the mine; water
in every canyon and gulch mountain
slopes upon which the trail of the
pioneer has been replaced by broad
highways reaching the
highest mines and unfolding scenes
If unrivaled beauty and grandeur;
md a climate without the rigors of
!
ieat. Here the strenuous life Of the
miner (and by miner is meant all ]
hose who are connected or depend l.
mt upon this masterful Industry is j
by conditions which permit q
physical and mental relaxation. en- L
ourage building and identifying t
modern homes, promote civic pride II
nd public health, and create an at T.
nOsphere of culture and refinement
arely found in the So called mining u
amps" of the west. X
But because the people of the Occur "
'Alene district have advanced be-
ond the primitive and unrestrained
onditiOns which have given a halo of
)mance to the mining camp in the
ID west it must not be assumed that
'mance has vanished from the
oeur d'Alenes. that the thrill of a =,
ew strike no longer stirs the popu- =,
&c, and that the glamour of great
ealth wrested from the depths of
lie earth has lost its magnetic pow ~
The same adventurous spirit -
ough manifesting itself in a differ
It form, that brought the restless "
ldseekers to Prichard creek in 1883 -
ID 1884 still exists and is even more 49,,
tive. The difference is in method. VI
t the incentive to effort and the -
ril of success is the same. The ~
'neers Of Prichard creek sought "l'
Id. free and undefiled, in the bed
the creeks and side gulches. as w
ID as coin Of the realm and with w
treatment costs, and the easily -
luired wealth was lavishly spent my
hout regard for the morrow. II