Show THE UNDERWOOD PLACERS oregon diggings which yield fortunes in the yellow metal the herald of halfway oregon describes a rich placer mine near that place as follows negotiations for the famous underwood placer mines in the cornucopia mining district have at last been brought to a successful termination and the new owners made their first authentic statement to a representative of the pine valley herald tuesday A good deal of mystery has been caused by the reluctance of the purchasers to divulge any information whatever until the deal was consummated and their plans thoroughly matured the new owners consist of a group of prominent men and capitalists of walla bialla walla headed by R smith who went up to the mine tuesday morning to take charge of the property the price paid for this fine placer property is not given out authentically but mr smith admitted that it was within the very close neighborhood of experts examine since first having their attention drawn to this wonderful property and while the negotiations were pending the mine has been thoroughly examined by several experts of national reputation and pronounced to be the most promising placer strike of recent years in the country one small mine car of gravel taken from bed rock while the experts were there ran in gold that is at the rate of considerably over per yard from a hand sample of gravel taken at random from the roof of the drift one of the engineers washed 8 in gold this from seven or eight pounds of gravel the thorough sampling of the tunnel by the two experts at different times and unknown to each other gave the value of the gravel already blocked out in the short tunnel as and respectively assays essays high the assay value of the gravel in the roof of the tunnel six feet above bedrock shows an average value of 10 a yard for a width of channel of over 60 feet in ill a raise being put up for an air shaft from the end of the tunnel the ground has an average value of per yard clear to the grass roots so far the work has been almost entirely development work although the former owners have taken out an immense amount of money since last april while developing the property the gold is almost entirely coarse gold and nuggets nuggets weighing as high as 36 have been found and the bulk of the gold recovered consists of nuggets of from a few cents in value to one or two dollars the gold is what is known as glacial gold and is badly worn and much discolored but of an exceptionally high purity and value per ounce will be operated in discussing the plans of the company mr smith says that the mine will be opened up and operated on a large scale by hydraulic giants just as soon as the company can install tle the necessary machinery and ditches in all my experience in placer mining which includes a first hand knowledge of every important placer mining district in north america said mr smith 1 I have never encountered a situation where all the conditions for the operation of a successful placer mine were so ideal the phenomenal value of the gravel the abundance of the water and unlimited supply of timber the ideal drainage and the nearness of transportation make this a most remarkable property and if it were located in some inaccessible portion of alaska this mine with its present showing would easily sell for a million dollars being located where it is and now that we have completed the purchase it is not for sale at any price in regard to the other claims for pine creek mr smith pronounced them as excellent prospects and the showings as very promising of course in these days a mining man mail must see the actual value blocked out on at least three sides before he is willing to pay tile the price of a real mine for a prospect no matter how promising he said however I 1 regard pine creek as being the most promising placer field that I 1 know of anywhere at the present time V |