Show WASHINGTON COUNTY The year of 1S99 has seen wonderful changes In Welscr wonderful strides throughout Washington county From Welser to Warren the great Inland empire em-pire has ullncsscd tho dawn of that era of development and investment which Is I to make it the greatest mining timbering and agricultural district in the Northwest The determined fight which has been waged for years against the building of a railway up the Welser river to open this grand section and the Seven Devils copper fields and which caused numberless num-berless fraudulent counter schemes which have been written up In The Tribune to be advanced and some of which at times appeared to gain a temporary tem-porary supremacy has this year been gloriously won and the Pacific Idaho Northern railway Is an accomplished I fact trains now being run for a distance dis-tance of forty miles Into the rich region re-gion above mentioned and the money being icady for the continuation of the road In the spring the stern advance of winter alone causing work to slacken slack-en The successful launching of this great project has been accomplished by one man Mr Lewis C Hall the noted lumberman of Bay City Mich Wciser Middle valley Sulubrla valley Indian valley Council valley Meadows Seven Devils and other localities which makeup make-up the gems of mountain and valley resources I re-sources of Washington county have all felt the beneficial Influences resulting from the construction of the road in increased in-creased population elevated values and general activity In Salubrla valley a now town called Cambridge has sprung up on the line of the road where the Heath mining district will make its railway point until a branch Inbuilt l In from the main line Cambridge was started In November and already has many businesshouses lots are selllng rapidly and by the 1st of May the place will have 500 inhabitants The impetus given Weiser as the gateway and com merclal headquarters I for this great tributary territory has been most flattering flat-tering Twenty brick buslncsshousts and ninety residences have been built this year involving an expenditure of over 150000 and the resident population popula-tion has Increased from 100U on the 1st of last January to 2500 today Inside of two yeas the Pacific Idaho Northern North-ern will have made connection over the Little Salmon route with some northern north-ern road at Grangevllle or Lewiston The subsequent extension from Welser south to California Is a matter of almost al-most absolute certainty With the natural location Welser has that will mean a great city at the confluence of the Wflser and Snake rivers Ituate laS l-as she Is In the geographical center of tho territory that will be opened up by I the new system and having ns she will two transcontinental lines of railway It will aHo be a town of large smelters drawing from Baker City and other eastern Oregon points Owyhcc Wood River Boise qountry and the vast mineral min-eral belt Immediately north and extending ex-tending to Buffalo Hump and Thunder mountain MINERAL The old silver camp of Mineral thirty miles from Welser has seen considerable considera-ble life this SCHHOII Mr Stratton a prominent mining man of Portland Or secured a number of the leading silver properties and with cheaper transportation and means of treating the ore he haul acquired considerable success Thu smeller burned down during the season but hn > been rebuilt lire brick being brought from Liverpool and all Is In good shape for next season sea-son A numlMir of metx will work In the mines nil winter THE HEATH DISTRICT An almost exclusive production of 1SJ9 line ben the rapidlygrowing fn mou Heath copper district fifty miles from Wclsor nnd eighteen mile from Cambridge dopyar ba been known for years to exist there but not until I this year under the cncrKrllr push of local people and several prominent Salt Lake mining men did development demonstrate that it was a district of great ore bodies permanent veins that will rival the famous Seven Devils district dis-trict The values too have been found to run as high as 75 per cent copper I Tho mining industry of and particularly particu-larly the copper mining in this seqtlon of Idaho has assumed such proportions as to attract the attention of men of I capital both in the mining centers of the West and the far East Early this spring prospectors began to outfit themselves and pack their mules to explore ex-plore the Seven Devils and Heath districts I dis-tricts having a lookout also for the Buffalo Hump and Thunder mountains l When they came upon the Heath district dis-trict they found some old claims which were being held by old residents of that section who had hoped to secure gold and sliver mines Their faith was not so strong upon the point of there being large deposits of copper but that these claims could be bonded for a small sum therefore most of the old claimants claim-ants bonded their properties to the visitors Very little development work had then been done but to tho expert who had had experience with copper properties the formations told them a story of what was treasured up For I miles along there were cropplngs giving giv-ing high percentages of copper and carrying car-rying gold and silver These were isSuing Is-suing from a formation of dolomite I lime and porphyry Veins nearly two hundred feet wide and extending many thousand feet In length were discovered discov-ered Among the first to begin developments develop-ments were the officials of the Pacific t Idaho Northern railway who bonded what is now known as the Railroad mine and began running1 a tunnel They have now succeeded in penetrating a vein which Is a high grade of copper ore and which will be given to the market mar-ket as soon as the railway facilities will permit which will not exceed three months Upon the heels of this move came the bonding of the Conglomerate group which was accomplished by Messrs HIT I H-IT Green and S B Moore Mr Green was acting in connection with several mining men from Utah among whom I were Messrs McVIcker Tackling and J B Thompson oC Salt Lake Mr Moore for himself George Hartley and Ed I murifr T Olson of Wciser An agreement I agree-ment was onlcrad Into by the parties concerned for the Incorporation of these claims which were ten In number A treasury stock was to be placed with a sufficient fund to drive a 300foot tunnel tun-nel Already the rails car and equipments equip-ments arc on the ground the intention being to accomplish thc work by tho first of the year fIepert eye of H D Andrews who is acting for Mr A W McCune was next turned to this district Mr Andrews An-drews bonded the Ruth property which Is known as the Abbey and began I be-gan work at once upon his tunnel r which 1ms already penetrated the vein nearly two hundred feeL A lead of rich I copper has been found here which has convinced the operators that the old l Ruth property will become a great cop mine I per SEVEN DEVILS So much has been said of the various properties in this district during the past thai it Is unnecessary to mention them In detail Railway prospects have caused a vast amount of valuable de vclopment this season at least 200 men having been at work on various properties proper-ties and the value of the copper bodies has been demonstrated beyond cavil Many large deals have been effected by which men of means have secured control con-trol of dozens of the leading properties and next season will see the camp become be-come a great producer Much machinery machin-ery has been taken in and placed on va rloua mines The Boston Seven Devils Copper company as an adjunct to its notable operations has taken in a diamond drill with which It is successfully suc-cessfully prospecting Its properties to great depth On the Blue Jacket a tunnel tun-nel has been run GOO feet acquiring a depth of 100 feet and from this tunnel this season fifteen carloads of fine copper I cop-per ore have been hauled by wagon to Wciser and shipped East to the Nichol chemical works at New York The returns re-turns have been over S100 per ton A ast amount of shipping ore is now plied up at the mouth of the tunnel to be hauled to the end of the Pacific Idaho Northern railway as soon as the I l snow road is good Development and progress at Warren Rapid River Florence and other localities locali-ties have been keeping with the balance bal-ance of the country R B LOCKWOOD dn9JA utunioooouio 13 StIll |