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Now
a word about Sumpter
Sumpter's
epic begins with the discovery of gold by five men from the deep South and their
hand-hewn log cabin with stone fireplace and rock chimney construction in 1862.
They named it, "Fort Sumter" in commemoration of the 1861 shelling at the
National Garrison at Charleston, S.C. This historical cabin site is about a half
mile above Sumpter on the Granite Road. In 1883, the name was not acceptable to
the Postal Department, so "Fort" was dropped and a "P" added to the spelling.
Sumpter lay quietly until the Transcontinental
Railroad reached Baker City in 1884. The area began to "boom." The town of
Sumpter was platted in 1886, the same year the Statue of Liberty was dedicated
on Bedloe's Island in New York's harbor. As the town rushed ahead, Sumpter
became a "rip-roaring" place, like all mining towns of those early days. In
1896, the Sumpter Valley Railroad reached Sumpter, which added to the
already-growing community.
The real activity was in the 1899-1903, with the
opening of numerous hard-rock mines and the extensive area usage of hydraulic
placer mining. By then, Sumpter boasted a brickyard, a sawmill, a smelter,
electric lights, a fine gravity flow water system with reservoir (still in use
to this day) and a street paved with planks and miles of wooden sidewalks.
There were baseball and basketball teams, a racetrack, an undertaker, several
assayers, a brewery, a dairy, two cigar factories, and extensive China Town, a
hospital, sixteen saloons, livery stables, and blacksmith shops--also five
hotels, a clothing store, three general stores, a public school with 200
students, an opera house, two banks, four churches, a telephone system,
newspapers, and a fire department. By 1901, Sumpter had grown to more than
30,000 people and 81 business establishments.
By 1905 and '06, the mines began to lose yield and
close down. The area's population began to shrink as well. In 1913, with the
Columbia Mine still in operation, the dredging of the valley commenced. Sumpter
began to breathe life again. The Columbia Mine stopped operations in 1916,
leaving only the No. 1 and No. 2 gold dredges working the valley floor.
Sunday, August 13, 1917, began like any other day,
but by the day's end, this prosperous town was reduced to a pile of ashen
rubble, by a fire which consumed virtually the entire business district plus a
great number of private homes in a 12 block area. The hospital on the hill is
the only remaining original building still standing in Sumpter today.
The No. 2 dredge worked the valley floor, with its
3/4 " opening trommel screen looking for placer gold nuggets and coarse flakes,
roughly the size of coarse pepper until 1923. And No. 1 dredge worked the valley
floor in a serpentine pattern until 1924. The dredge that currently rests at the
edge of Sumpter today, was built for the Sumpter Valley Dredging Company in
1935. Because of World War II, it shut down operations from 1942-1945. It then
was re-opened under various owners until all the dredging of the Sumpter Valley
ceased in 1954. It recovered more than $4.5 millions in gold during its heyday.
This was at a time when gold was officially priced in the USA in a range of
$20.67 per ounce to its maximum of $35 per ounce until it was shut down in 1954.
It is said that over $10 millions in gold was recovered by the dredging of
Sumpter Valley alone.
History is still very visible here. Much remains
to intrigue the vision and thoughts of those who pass this way. While it has not
returned to its former levels of population, Sumpter is experiencing a mini-real
estate boom with much new construction and many stubborn miners still working
the area hills and streams in pursuit of ages old, golden dreams in 1999 and
beyond. Sumpter will cross into the new millennium with a hardy core of 177
winter residents who form the heart of this stubborn but still breathing small
American town.
*****************
Now, a few columns from the Sumpter Miner --1900 a turn of the
century local newspaper
Celebrated Geologist Visits Blue Mountains
Professor Waldemar Lindgren Reports on Gold Camps
Swedish born economic geologist is studying the
rocks and mountains of Northeast Oregon for the United States Geological Survey
The following story contains extracts from a
report being prepared by W.Lindgren for the U.S.G.S. to be published as soon as
he returns to the East. His field experience includes a visit to the famous
Mother Lode of CA and his reports are thought to be the best detailed of
anything available.
BONANZA MINE
"Though some gold-quartz veins are known from the
head of Gimlet Creek and other places on the divide toward Granite Creek and
Sumpter, the only place in which they appear strongly developed and in which
they have been mined with success is the Bonanza district.
"The Bonanza mine is situated about 10 mi west of
Sumpter on the headwaters of Burnt River, at an elevation of 5,140' The first
location is said to have been made in 1877 by a pioneer prospector named Jack
Haggard, who sold it in 1879 for $350 to Bonanza Mining Company. In 1892, the
mine was bought by Geiser Brothers for a reported sum of $3,000 and worked by
them until 1898, when it was then sold to the present owners, a Pittsburg, PA
corporation, for a price believed to have been $500,000. The production before
1892 was inconsiderable, though extending over a series of years. Geiser
Brothers are supposed to have taken out several hundred dollars. When sold,
$300,000 were believed to be in sight. Since 1898, at least an equal amount has
been extracted, making a total production well up toward the million dollar
mark.
"The developments consist of two tunnels, the
upper 1,400' long and 230' below the croppings, the lower, 1,600' long. The
latter is the main adit, 338' below the croppings, and the shaft is sunk in at
600' from the mouth to a depth of about 200'. Further sinking is being carried on
at the present time. In all, there are probably 10,000' of development work.
"The country rock is a fissile black clay slate,
striking nearly due east-west, and dipping 80 degrees South. A little above the
town of Geiser, at the mill, this slate is cut by a considerable belt of
serpentine. The same rock appears again below
Bonanza, toward the diggings of Winterville. To
the north and east, the serpentine and clay slate are covered by andesitic
lavas. The veins appear to be exclusively contained in clay slate. The Bonanza
vein, cropping on a hill 500' feet above the mill and about a half a mile
northeast of it, strikes North 50 degrees West and dips steeply southwest. It is
traceable on the surface for about 2,500 feet northwest of the main tunnel, but
is then covered by an extensive lava area.
"The outcrops are neither wide nor conspicuous,
and have been stopped to the surface in several places. The vein appears as one
to three feet of quartz between walls of decomposed slate. In depth it widens
enormously in places.
"Permission to visit the mine below tunnel level
was refused. The following data relating to the underground works were obtained
from several persons well acquainted with the mine, and are believed to be
mainly correct:
"The ore consists of quartz containing free gold
and sulphurets and has considerably similarity to that of the Red Boy mine. The
ore body as a whole forms a mass of clay slate traversed by quartz veins and
seams of all sizes. Something like 70% is free gold, though it is said that as
the depth is increased, more concentrates and less gold are obtained. The
concentrates are said to vary from $20 to $60 per ton, chiefly in gold. The
average ore is believed to run from $7 to $12 per ton, but lenses of ore 8-16"
wide have been mined which ran as high up as $1,400 per ton, and several hundred
tons are said to have yielded at a rate of $100 in free gold per ton.
($20.67 per ounce gold in 1900)
"It seemed as if the mine was worked out when the
owners were prevailed upon to crosscut at other places in this adit. These
crosscuts, from 30' to 120' long, into the footwall side, disclosed the presence
of a magnificent lenticular mass of gold ore of a maximum width of 40' and 800'
long."
*******************
Rock Worth $160,000
Rich Strike Made in the Gibraltar
Owned by Paul Poindexter and Claude Basche--Located
Near the North Pole Mine -- Now Being Sacked for Shipment.
On September 8, 1900 a wonderfully rich ore
deposit was uncovered in the Gibraltar, about 150' from the mouth of the tunnel.
The mine is located near the North Pole to the Cracker Creek District and is
owned by Claude Basche and Paul Poindexter.
Poindexter was out at the property Sunday, and
brought in a sack, full of the rock. It resembles the rich ore found in the
Golconda which has made that mine famous. It is almost black in color, and is
studded with free gold, many of the specimens carrying perhaps ten percent of
the precious metal. A hatful has been assayed and the certificate shows $160,000
to the ton. (This works out to 7,740 oz. to the assay ton or $2,012,000 @
$260 per oz gold in 1999)
How much there is of it is, of course, not known.
Poindexter says it is scattered across the entire 5' in the face of the tunnel.
Where the ledge has been crosscut, it averages about 19' in width. The rock has
carried only fair values up to this point, $18 or $20 dollars, with the
exception of at one place, where $260 assays were obtained. Barren rock has been
encountered just before this last rich strike was made.
Four men are now at work taking out and sacking
this precious ore, which will be shipped to a San Francisco smelter for
treatment. If a few tons of it is secured, there will be a celebration in this
town at no distant day. The gentlemen have decided to take the advice of J.H.
Robbins and keep their shirtwaists on until the money is in his bank.
THE SUMPTER MINER
*****************
GOLD MILLS EXPAND
Eighty More Stamps for the District
Contracts have been let for new mills to be
installed this fall with a total of 80 stamps. The mines whose owners make this
convincing show of their confidence in their properties are the King Solomon (10
stamps); the Columbia (20 stamps) the North Pole (10 stamps)--the last name is
building a tramway and enlarging the capacity of the cyanide plan--, and three
others whose names cannot now be made public, but which have contracted for one
20 and two 10 stamp mills.
There is a strong probability that a 20 and two
more 10's will go in before January 1, but the papers are not yet signed. This
will increase the capacity of the mills immediately by one-half in the mines
around Sumpter. The Golconda mine, as soon as its orders can be filled, will put
in a hoist of about equal capacity with that being installed at the Red Boy.
The thought of the improvement now going on and in
contemplation here, of which only a small part has yet been noticed, is
particularly gratifying to Sumpterites, as it puts forward for their town's
prosperity, a cash proof which cannot be gainsaid. Money never talks so loud, or
are its gentle but firm accents ever more welcome than when substantial
investments in mining properties tell that the days of speculation and boom are
over and that the camp has become a safe field for capital.
THE SUMPTER MINER
***************
To use
the internet to contact us:
click
on:
or
write:
Dan and
Nan Martin
Sumpter Pines R.V. Park - LLC
640 S. Sumpter Highway
PO Box 204
Sumpter, OR 97877
or
call:
541-894-2328
to receive more information
or to make your reservations.
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