ut who
hold their discoveries by patent away from improvement by
others.
West Oregon has never had a mining population, except so far as they became such temporarily through efforts to mend their fortunes in occasional rushes to placer diggings* The nearly impenetrable character of the forest on the western slope of the Cascades, hiding from observation by travellers, and even explorers, the character of the rocks, is also a potential reason why so little is known of the mining possibilities of the Wal- lam et Valley.
Quartz veins are found in rock—sandstone running into a smooth whetstone rock, with limestone and soapstone suggestions of a cretaceous origin—in Tillamook County. A few thousand dollars were spent in exploiting a claim on Trask River, which exhibited some good top rock that soon gave out. A working result of sixty-six dollars per ton was obtained from one location, but no development further has ever been made.
The most interesting recent discovery in mining is of a deposit of nickel near Riddle, in Douglas County. It is owned by a California company who purchased it from the Oregon owners for three hundred thousand dollars, and eastern capitalists are negotiating for it. It is claimed that the ore can be worked and refined at a profit of twenty-two dollars and fifty cents per ton.
Natural gas is a recent discovery, made in Linn and other counties, which is regarded as of great importance. The indications are confirmed by the very general presence of coal underlying the foot-hills in almost any part of West Oregon, especially along the lower Columbia and in the Coast Range. Iron most frequently is found near the coal-beds, a feature which promises well for the future manufacturing interests of the State. Columbia County, which faces on the Columbia River, possesses these features in a striking degree, and combined with
- An example of mining by unprofessional miners is this : William Ruble,
of Salem, a farmer, and well advanced in life, has been working a mine in Josephine County for the past seven years. His claim consists of three hundred and fifty acres of gravel, out of which, without much capital, he has managed to obtain twenty-five thousand dollars, and to get his ground into good working shape. He could sell it now for ten thousand dollars per acre, but it is worth more to hold
