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Show INTER-MOUNTAI- N The Clearwater Gold Belt. Correspondence Mining1 Review. Stewart, Ida., Feb. 14. The accompanying map shows a section of the State that is destined to bear an important part in the development of its mining industry. Oro Fino, Just north of this place, and Florence, at the southern end of the belt, were gold camps back in the sixties, and at the latter were found some of the richest placer diggings in the world. In fact, the entire western slope of the Bitter Root mountains has long been known to be especially at Elk City and Florence, where rich leads have been discovered. This section has been kept back by the fact that the Nez Perce Indian reservation barred the entrance for gold-bearin- g, half a hundred miles, and there is no other way into the country. Since the reservation was thrown open to settlement on the 18th of last November, a new era has been inaugurated. At the confluence of the South Fork with the main Clearwater, where once only a wandering trail led to the red mans lowly hut in the unbroken solitude, a thriving city is springing up, stores are being brought in, mills are being erected, and hereafter Stewart will demand recognition on the map of our country. This is, indeed, the gate city to the Bitter Root country. It is charmingly situated at the head of navigation on the Clearwater, in a narrow valley between canyon-lik- e slopes that rise two thousand feet above it. But Stewart realizes that prosperity depends largely upon the development MINING REVIEW of the surrounding mining country, and to this end is willing to lend every encouragement. In this connection an interesting study is afforded by the history of the early settlements. There is no fairer country in the world than Camas prairie, where the fertile soil is measured by the eye in a level stretch for twenty miles. Here timothy grows spontaneously, and thousands of acres of wheat are never harvested. This country is isolated from the rest of the world by mountain ranges and river canyons, and yet here lives a prosperous and happy people. They are even too far away to ship out their hogs that fatten on the standing grain in their wheat fields, and wheat at 25 cents a bushel will not even pay the cost of hauling it to the railroad. But these ranchers find a ready market for all they produce among the miners in the hills, and are making money. In the past it has been chiefly placer mining. Now 125 men are wintering in Florence, working leads, the first time that operations have been carried on there at this season for twenty years, and six quartz mills are ready to start crushing ore in the spring. Elk City can make almost as good a showing as Florence. The completion of the State "wagon road, which will probably be done next year, will also materially aid in the development of this country. At present the mail contracts from Weiser to Orangeville aggregate about eight thousand dollars annually, and for miles of the distance the twenty-fiv- e mail is carried on horseback over a trail. When this link in the road is 7 built, daily stages will be running from Weiser to Stewart to connect North and South Idaho. Besides, this road runs through a rich mining district, where even now supplies are packed in to the mills on Rapid river and in the Seven Devils. All this trade must pass through the new town of Stewart, and the place is preparing to meet it. In a few weeks a boat line will connect it with Lewismiles down the Clearwater. This boat line is an experiment, but Mr. Hallet of Juliaetta, one of the owners, is confident that it can be kept ton, seventy-fiv- e running most of the year. The successful navigation of the Clearwater will depend upon the appropriation from Congress to improve the river. In addition to its other resources, Stewart is situated near the edge of a timber belt of fir, cedar, pine and other woods, from which Idahos exhibit at the Worlds Fair was taken that gave her first premium. All this timber must pass down the Clearwater. The Clearwater at this point has a fall of about fifteen feet, and Clear creek, that empties into the river just above the town, takes a leap over the canyon wall of several hundred feet. Thus Stewart has a water power equal to that of Spokane. Moreover, the only practical route for a railroad into this country is through a pass in the Bitter Root range down the Cleanvater, and the only reason a road has not been built before was on account of the Indian reservation. Indeed, the future looks auspicious for the whole Clearwater country. |