Show IN THE EARLY DAYS i Some Reminiscences of Pioneer Life in IdahoCity A VERY PECULIAR GRAND JURY The Wealth That Has Been Ghen to the World How Bogus Gold Dust Was Made IDAHO CITY Idaho December 12Idaho City today is only a dim shadow of its former for-mer self There are perhaps one thousand thou-sand inhabitants in the city proper while in the entire basin there are not more than two thousand souls all told The bustle and activity of former times has departed de-parted as the vast placer beds have been stripped of their precious treasures The inhabitants of the town are mostly old timers however and have faith in the future of the country as a quartz mining district and there is every reason to believe be-lieve that their hopes will soon be realized and Idaho City will flourish again as in the olden time Of the 20000 people who were attracted to this place in 1862 and 1863 there are but few now living in Boise basin while of the pioneers of 1SG2 there are but six here now to tell the tale of the first discovery dis-covery of the greatest placer mining district dis-trict in all the northwest During the years of 6 and 6 Wells Fargo Co shipped in gold dust from this place 33 000000 while it is estimated that fully three times this amount was taken out of the camp by private conveyance A company com-pany of Boston capitalists have bought up the entire creek bed which is seven miles in length and a quarter of a mile in breadth and early next spring they will commence the erection of a bedrock flume the entire length of the creek working over the tailings which are known to contain con-tain millions of dollars in gold and coI mercury Much of the ground under these vast deposits of tailings was never worked and it is estimated by experts that at lease 150000000 can be saved from these old tailings The bed rock is a beautiful and perfect stratification called by the miner hard pan which undoubtedly formed during the glacial period petrified oak is found in places whole trees beine found intact There is not an oak tree within 5000 miles of those deposits growing today On the west side of the hill diggings years after the surface had been mine gold in paying quantities was found belov this hard pan on the true bedrock and drifting has been profitably carried on In the I gulches however true bedrock has never I been 3 found There is no doubt of the existence of gold in paying quantities should bedrock ever be found There is an extensive quartz mining district surrounding sur-rounding the basin the source from whence came all this placer gold Many of these quartz ledges are undeveloped aud only await the advent of capital to open them up and pour their hidden treasures into the marts of trade SOME WELLKNOWN MINES The Gold Hill mine at Quartzburg has shipped 3000000 in bullion since Ibl53 and is considered a good property now there being thousands of tons ol quartz in sight The Banner mine situated thirty miles north of Idaho City is a large dividend payer and there are several smaller mines in this locality which are paying handsomely hand-somely Idaho City has a bright future as a mining centre but new blood must be infused into her veins before she can attain at-tain to that prominence as a mining town which her present prospects warrant Of the pioneers of Ib62 your correspondent found but sixDr Noble Joseph Branstat ter Jess Bradford J J Frank W H Fincher and Nathan West These are the pioneers who made the trails fought the Indians and framed the laws for the protection I protec-tion of the influx of miners of 1SC3 In July 1862 a party of twelve prospectors started from Aubnrn Oregon to the famous fa-mous Florence diggings This party consisting of Joseph Branstetter John Grimes and ten companions crossed Snake river near the mouth of Moors creek and took a northeasterly direction through the mountains for Florence without trail or guide On Grimes creek a tributary of Boise river a prospect hole was sunk and to the surprise of the prospectors gold in paying quantities was found Elated at their success this party located claims and immediately prepared for active mining At this time however there were bands of renegade Indians in these mountains who were willing and ready to dispute the rights of this territory with the prospectors prospect-ors and John Grimes f l a yictim to their deady aim I On the morning of the 9th of August 1SG2 as Mr Grimes was shaving a rifle ball whizzed past his head and imbedded itself in the tree upon which the glass was hung The startled prospectors rallied their forces and gave the Indians chase and Grimes was shot and killed from ambush am-bush After hurriedlyItmrying their dead comrade a council of war was held and it was decided as their numbers were small and that of the enem unknown a retreat would be prudent Accordingly they retraced re-traced their steps crossed Snake river into Oregon and pushed on to Walla Walla Wash where they arrived in the summer The news of the discovery of gold on the tributaries of Boise river was soon carried to the mining camps of Oregon and Washington and a party was organized at Walla Walla numbering num-bering ninetythree men including some who had been members of the Grimes party and they arrivediUt Grimes creek on the 10th of October 1SG3 On the ISth of the same month a party under Captain Bledsoe numbering seventythree men arrived ar-rived in the Basin from Florence Another An-other party of 200 men landed in the camp on the 29th of October and on the BOth a miners meeting was called and local laws were adopted THE CITY BUILDING UP Company after company arrived during the fall of 1SG2 and the winter of 1863 and by June of the latter year at least 10000 miners were wielding tho pick and shovel taking out thousands of ounces of bright yellow gold while perhaps 5000 traders and gamblers were located in the town Wages were from tO to L per day and all who wished to labor were furnished with remunerative employment Towns sprang up as if by magic and Bannock now Idaho City Buena Vista Hoggum Placerville Center vie Moorstown and Pioneer were flourishing canvas towlTs At the election held in the fall of 1SG3 there were over ten thousand votes cast The tinhorn gambler was unknown in those days but the bully desperado were to be found in ali these towns and a man foif breakfast and sometimes two was the diet of the early mm ng days of Boise basin Tall roads were built and the road between Umatilla landing on the Columbia river and the mine was lined with a moving mass of pack mules teams and footmen all pushing push-ing cargerly forward to thai new and now famous El Dorrdo of the northwest Bogus dust began to make its appear ance in alarming quantities in W and it was evident that it could be manufactured to resemble the genuine article and could only be detected by the application of acid tests The manufacturers of this counterfeit counter-feit were fully up to the times and by galvanizing gal-vanizing the bogus with the genuine article were successful in passing hundreds of ounces on the unsuspecting The only method of testing after galvanizing was to pound the dust in aj hand mortar thus breaking the outside coating and applying acid This dust was manufactured by a company composed some of the best citizens copper and zinc being ground in a and mixed The grand jury finally took the matter in hand resolved to punish pun-ish the guilty counterfeiters if found Accordingly Ac-cordingly seventeen of the solid men of the community were sworn in as jurors and the investigation began in earnest The first witness called was asked i he knew any of the parties engaged in this nefarious and unlawlul business J The witness answered in the affirmative but declined to give the names of the parties You must give us the names or be com mitted for contempt said the foreman sternly Then i I must answer said the witness wit-ness I will say upon my oath without giving names there are fourteen members of the bogus dust comoany in this room acting as grand jurors I is useless to remarkthat tbe witness was excused and the grand jury adjourned sine die g |