Show Gem and Other Gems Gem or The Gem as it is called is a thriving little bud of a town three years old and while the average inhabitant wears no precious stones yet the surrounding sur-rounding hills yield from their burglarproof burglar-proof vaults tho wherewithals that make one man sparkle with diamonds and tho less fortunate regale himself in rags Tho towu proper commences at the Granite mill and extends up Cafion creek to the Black Bear mine a distance of about a mile and has a population of about seven hundred souls composed of woodchoppers miners mill men hotel and storekeepers with a population of saloonkeepers equal to tho general requirements of the people There are eight saloons seven general boarding houses and restaurants and one imposing hotel Tnere are two fruit and furnishing stores and one general merchan dising store but another is in course of erection and will be completed inside of two weeks This store will bo run under the management of White Bender Co and is a solid building of brick and stone and is calculated to be fireproof in every way and will be when completed the only structure of the kind in town A now Miners union hall is about to be built and will be a structure of GO feet in length by 80 in width with a ceiling ceing 16 feet high This organization has a strong membership in these parts and all contribute liberally to the hospital now being erected at Wai lace and to be in charge of the Sisters of Charity This hospital I shall speak of in a future letter and at greater length The intention of the members is to build a structure that will be in years to come a monument alike to the living and dead a home of comfort for the maimed the sick and tho crippled A place where the dying miner after spending the bright years of youth delving in the deep recesses of these rockbound hills can lay his weary head on the downy pillow and while surrounded surround-ed by loving hands can with calm complacency ep placency await the beckening of the angels who are supposed to carry tho spirit to a brighter and more hospitable shore There are a great many old Utah men in the camp They are from Park City Bing ham Silver Reef and other Utah camps James Murphy and his good wife old resi dents of Bingham add Wood river are here and are doing a good business keeping boarding house Mike Godifry formerly a Utah man conducts two prominent business busi-ness houses one in Burke and the other hero Hugh McGeo is also in business and keeps 0 general supply of firstclass goods Jim Stafford the old veteran prospector has just returned after prospecting during the summer months in North Idaho ana British Columbia he also took a trip through the Okonogan country Ho says he saw many large bodies of low grade ore but the country is so difficult to get into and the mines so isolated from any shipping point that it would be impossible to make thorn pay at present and this will be so until the railroads roads pan the spice as they have done in I the Occur d Aleno country where they have two railroads and a service of four trains a day By the way the name Ocanogan calls to my irind an argument arlument that I heard t the other day between an Irishman and an Irish Canadian The Cannuck claimed the proper name was Ocanogan and the thoroughbred from St Patricks camping ground claimed and maintained that the name was OCanigan and that tho Canadians or Fish eaters as he called them were ashamed of the Irish name ana therefore doctored the spelling After four rounds friends separated them and the orthography and orthoepy of the word is still unsettled until the combatants meet again Gem is surrounded by some of tho best mines on Ca on creek The Gem mine owned and operated by Finch Camp bell is tne nearest location to the business part of the town being distant about three hundred yards Tho mine works quite a large force of men and is opened by a series of tunnels and has a gravity tramway tram-way that carried the ore from the mine to the mill a short distance below the mine where it is concentrated nea concontratld Tho mill is i ain firstclass one and is well equipped a-in every way for successful concentrating and saving all the ore The daily output of this mill is about twenty tons The mine is sometimes call ed the Milwaukee probably Milwaukee parties are or have been interested in the property Mr Campbell of the firm beI understand is an old Utah and Colorado miner and he and his partutr Mr Finch have been so successful here that they have built for themselves more than local reputation as mining and successful business 1 busi-ness men Going east from the Gem is the Frisco and Black Bear Tho Frisco is working about one hundred and twentyfive men in J and around the mine and mill and sends out regular daily ore shipments The Black Bear Is working about fifteen men and doing nothing but development work The unfortunate accident which hap pened at this mine a short time ago seems to have cast a gloom over it for a time but I tho four men who met their death by suffl cation in tho tunnel have been laid to rest and the sound of the explosion of the murderous powder that caused their death has died away and the company is again preparing for active work Another sad accident occurred here at ho Union mine two days ago whereby Martin Quinn an old Wood River miner met his death by falling down a raise a distance of ninety feet He was taken to the Sisters hospital but never regained consciousness until death came to his re ief twentyfour hours after the accident Tho Custer mino is owned by Porter Brothers well known Salt Lake men This Sal mining property is a tuated on what is called the i Nino Mills side and is about three miles from Gem The Custer employs about one hundred men and has a well de wel veloped and permanent mine and a good mill whose daily in I daiy output concentrat will average about twenty tons The Granite mill is situated about one half mile below the town and is connected by wire on bucket tramway with the mine two miles distant The output from tho mill is about twenty tons per day lay Pat Flynn an old timer at the Flagstaff FlaRstaf smelter in the early 70s is in company with his brother and others the owner of a valuable group of claims consisting of nine and they are situated on the main mineral belt viz On the divide between Gem and Mullan on the Gem side the group adjoins the Badger land Black Bear going east over tho mountain the various claims cover the ground until reaching the west end line of the Morning mine and two of the mines the Moulton and Senator Sena-tor just onto the end linos of the Grance ana Evening Startwo good mines There are good surface showing in three of these claims namely Bullion Iron Silver and Mountain Viow A tunnel is now being run to cut the Iron Silver at right angles with the ledge This tunnel is now in 175 feet and has every indication of reaching the vein in fifteen or twenty feet This property prop-erty has so far only been scratched over but from its general surroundings it is one of the most promising groups in the Cceur d Alene country S S |