Part 15 (1/2)

[Sidenote: Large copper vein in Stevens County.]

The same gentleman, who is a resident of the Okinagane region, reports a remarkable lode of copper ore running due south across Stevens County, from the Canada line to the Columbia River. It shows a plain outcrop for about forty miles. The vein carries both native and gray copper and a small percentage of silver.

[Sidenote: Precious metals on Methow River.]

Reports, apparently authentic, are made of numerous other veins of metal in the same region, particularly in the valley of the Methow River and the valley of the Okinagane River. The Colville region, beginning fifty miles north of Spokane Falls, is well known as a rich mining centre.

What I know of these regions I learned from the oral or written testimony of men who had seen what they described, and some of them residents of the localities.

The basin of the Methow River has been but little prospected, and although I gathered many favorable items concerning the mineral deposits there, I met but one man who had personally examined the country, and he confirmed the favorable reports. He said the ores were similar to those on the Okinagane, but were more abundant.

[Sidenote: The rich mines of Okinagane.]

The Okinagane country is well known, hundreds of men having been at work there last summer, and some of its mines, particularly the Ruby and Arlington, having become notable for their richness. Among my informants are Mr. Burch and Mr. Thomas Lothian, who both reside on the Okinagane River; and also Mr. J. E. Clayton, mining engineer, who made a professional report on the country, which was printed in the Spokane Falls _Review_.

The mining district is on Conconnully Creek (misnamed Salmon River), which enters Okinagane River from the northwest, about twenty miles from its mouth. There are two wagon roads to the Conconnully, one from Spokane Falls, with a branch from Sprague, distance 150 miles, on which stages ran last summer. Another road starts from Ellensburg on the Yakima, and is 195 miles long. With an expenditure of a few thousand dollars on the channel of the Okinagane, the mouth of the Conconnully could be reached from the Columbia by light-draught steamers, from which a railway fifteen miles long would reach the mines. Mr. Burch says that he and his father sounded the river, and also the Columbia, and that steamers can start at Rock Island Rapids and go to the mouth of the Conconnully, and, in flush water, can ascend the creek. Mr. Clayton makes the same statement as to the river. The country rocks in the mining districts are of the same character as those a.s.sociated with the iron ore on Mount Logan and the Denny Mountain--hard metamorphic and plutonic rocks.

The princ.i.p.al mineral lode is described by Mr. Clayton as ”composed of true quartz gangue carrying the silver ore in disseminated grains of black sulphurets of silver, with some copper-silver glance, and a brittle sulphuret, resembling tennant.i.te, giving a dark, red, powdery streak, approaching the characteristics of dark antimonial ruby silver.

In addition to this is found galena and zinc-blende.”

a.s.says made by Mr. Wm. H. Fuller, of Spokane Falls, gave for first-cla.s.s ore from this lode: Silver, $186.45, and gold, $4.50 = $190.95 value per ton. Second-cla.s.s ore a.s.sayed $34.16 silver and 45 cents gold. Mr.

Slater thinks that one-third of the vein will yield first-cla.s.s ore. It is a rich vein, averaging eight feet so far as opened. There are two or three lodes in the district. Years will be required to ascertain their limits. But all the indications point to large mining operations in the Okinagane country as soon as the transportation can be supplied.

My chief authority for the following statements concerning the Colville region is Mr. Kearney, one of the firm of Kearney Brothers, owners of the two largest mines of that country, namely, the Old Dominion and the Daisy. I incorporate some statements also from two articles published in the Spokane Falls _Review_, one by W. E. Sullivan, and the other by J.

B. Slater.

[Sidenote: The mines in the Colville region.]

The Colville region is the east end of Stevens County, the part lying east of the Columbia River and north of Spokane Falls. Its chief town (500 inhabitants) is called Colville, from the fort of that name which was situated there. It is ninety-one miles north of Spokane Falls.

Between the two points there is almost a continuous valley of great productiveness. The mineral region begins at Chewelah, fifty miles north of Spokane Falls, and continues at least forty miles north of Colville.

Granite, porphyry, and limestone are found here, as in the other metalliferous regions. In some cases the ores are in slate and quartz; in others, in granite and porphyry; in still others, limestone. Some of the ores are iron carbonates, carrying silver, gold, and lead in paying quant.i.ties. In other cases, as at the Old Dominion mines, the ore exists in the form of a chloride and black sulphate in limestone walls.

Rich mines of argentiferous galena were discovered last summer three or four miles east of Chewelah, and vigorously developed at numerous points. Seven miles west of Chewelah shafts were sunk on a rich vein, three feet wide, of gray copper and silver chloride. The Eagle Mine was the first discovery, and is the most noted. It is black metal, containing galena, silver, and gold. Altogether, there are said to be two hundred mining claims, more or less developed, in the district around Chewelah.

[Sidenote: The Old Dominion Mine.]

The mines in the Colville district are very numerous. The Old Dominion Mine is six miles east of the town. It is on an 8-foot fissure vein, which a.s.says 150 ounces silver, 25 per cent. galena, and $7.00 gold to the ton of ore. There are ten mines in the Old Dominion group; and Mr.

Slater states that the $80,000 worth of silver reported as the product of Was.h.i.+ngton Territory in 1886, all went from the Old Dominion group.

[Sidenote: The Daisy Mine.]

The Daisy Mine is twenty-four miles southward from Colville. The vein here is 25 feet wide, with a streak of ore in it 18 inches wide, which widens to 11 feet 8 inches at the bottom of the shaft. This shaft is 127 feet deep. Seventy-five feet from the top of the shaft, a tunnel has been run off horizontally in five feet of ore. The a.s.say reported for the Daisy ore gives silver 50 ounces, gold $2.00, lead 30 per cent., and iron 25 per cent. It is self-fluxing.

[Sidenote: Young America Company.]

Sixteen miles and a half northward from Colville, near the Columbia River, a rich discovery of silver-lead ore has been made by the Young America Consolidated Company. The vein averages five feet, runs northeast and southwest, and has been shafted through ore to the depth of 180 feet. A test showed 90 ounces of silver and 40 per cent. of lead.