Thursday, June 14, 2012

Northwest Oregon’s Lost Mining Districts


Even with all the historical data out there that is available to miners and prospectors, in the guise of mineral resource bulletins, books, old mining magazines, newspaper clippings and other references, there is still a lot that we don’t know about Oregon’s gold mining history and there are still quite a few places where gold was recovered in the past that most modern prospectors don’t know about.
Chena Creek District:
One of those areas is the little known Chena Creek District which was active around the period of 1900. Located in Eastern Clackamas County, this old mining area is said to be the northern most area of the Cascades Mountain range to contain gold. During its height in the mid 1890’s, about a hundred claims were located in the area, mostly concentrated on Cheeney Creek (formerly called “Chena” Creek) and the Salmon River (reffered to in those days as a “creek”). By 1903, only about twenty of these claims were actually active, as the road situation into that area was quite bad and most of the effort seemed to be focused on improving roads.
The only major mine in the area was that of Northern Light Mining and Milling Company based out out of Portland. Their mine was said to be located upon Huckleberry Mountain, near the mouth of the Salmon River where it enters the Sandy River (and is probably the source of what little gold can be found in that river). Development of the Northern Light, sometimes reffered to as the Cheeney Creek Prospect, consisted of an 87 foot shaft and 400 foot foot long tunnel. The equipment was powered by water. In addition to gold, the deposit also contained silver, copper and lead.
This old mining district is located due south of Mountain Air Park near the town of Welches on Highway 26. Most of the area is inside the Mount Hood National Forest and under the management of USFS and appears to have been completely withdrawn from mineral entry (ie. no claim filing). Due to the recent closure of nearly 2000 miles of roads and trails to vehicles inside the Mount Hood National Forest, I imagine that access could be an issue in this area.
Rock Creek District:
Not to be confused with the mining district of the same name in Baker County, this little known mining district was actually located in Eastern Clatsop County. As any experienced prospector can attest, this rugged coastal forest is hardly an ideal geological setting for gold country, but apparently, nobody ever told that to the early settlers in that area who decided to look for the illusive yellow metal anyway.
On May 25th, 1885, J.M. Weed filed a placer claim on Rock Creek called the “Gertrude”. Subsequent claims were located not only along Rock Creek in Clatsop County, but even extended all the way to the mouth of the Nehalam River, near the town of Vernonia in Columbia County. Weed Creek, a small tributary of the North Fork of Rock Creek, is named for J.M. Weed and was probably the location of his claim.
By July of 1889, so much gold mining was going on this area that the Rock Creek Mining District was formed. Bill H. Braden was elected not only the Secretary, but also the President of the district. Some of the claims filed in the district during the early years included the “Protector”, “Defender”, “Elkhorn”, “Bonanza”, “Mountain” “Last Chance” and the “Rolling”.
By 1894, the whole thing suddenly petered out. Nothing more was heard about the area and in fact, the reality that gold was ever discovered in that area was removed entirely to the old history books.
Unfortunately, most of Rock Creek is now located amongst private timber lands, while the majority is under management of the State of Oregon as the Tillamook State Forest and is therefore, not open to filing claims.
Gold Creek District:
Some miles west of the Rock Creek District is the old Gold Creek Mining District which is also located in Clatsop County.
It was here along the Nehalem River in Cruiser’s Gulch, that in 1901, a man named Sebastian Glaser filed a number of lode claims about two miles from the small town of Elsie. The site of his discovery lies in 4 North, 8 West and right on the line between Sections 1 and 2.
No other records for this mining district exist.
Though the name “Gold Creek” came to be attached to the locality of Glaser’s discovery, it should be noted that the current name of this waterway is George Creek.

Gold Dust: Stories of Oregon's Mining Years by Kerby Jackson
This article originally appeared in "Gold Dust: Stories of Oregon's Mining Years" by Kerby Jackson
Available from Amazon.com

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Gold on Humbug Creek


Humbug Creek is a little known area to gold prospectors in Oregon, but in its day, it was the center of a major gold rush in Jackson County.
Today, one can access this great old gold creek by following Oregon State Highway 238 (The Williams Highway) and following Humbug Creek Road which is located just due east of the community of Applegate, Oregon. (Take note that much of this area is now private property and care should be taken to respect the rights of the property owners along the creek).
Like most creeks in Jackson County, gold was discovered relatively early on in and around Humbug Creek. In fact, enough gold was found by early miners that during the late 1850’s, a small mining camp sprung up along its banks and by March of 1860, the Humbug Mining District was established, using the following camp laws (mostly adopted from those used over the state border in Yreka, California): 

The Mining Laws Of Humbug Creek
Article 1st
Size of Claims
Each man shall hold a claim 100 yards square by preemption and as much by purchase as he represents.
Article 2nd
Priority of Water Rights
The oldest claim shall have the first right to the water but shall run no water by unnecessarily to keep others from using it.
Article 3rd
Necessary Work to Hold Claim
No claim shall be considered forfeited if worked one day in every five during the time there is a good ground sluice head in the creek.
Article 4th
Restriction on Dams, Etc.
No person or company shall put a dam, reservoir or any obstruction in the creek, provided it is a damage to those above said obstruction.
Article 5th
Flood-gate for Dams to Be Kept Open
Any person or company putting in a reservoir shall have a flood gate five feet in breadth and three feet hight [sic] which shall be kept open as long as there is a good sluice head in the creek for washing up.
Article 6th
Recorder; Fee; When Claim Must Be Recorded
There shall be a recorder elected and he shall be allowed One dollar per claim for recording. Any person leaving the Creek to be gone two months shall have their claims recorded.
Article 7th
Judicial Power
Any person or persons violating any of these resolutions or by-laws shall abide the decision of a miners’ meeting.
Article 8th
Chinese Excluded
No Chinaman shall be allowed to purchase or hold any claim on this Creek.
Article 9th
Adoption of Resolutions
Resolved, the foregoing articles shall come into effect as Laws of this Creek on or after and from the twentieth day of March A. D. 1860.
J. F. Headrick, Chairman,
V. P. Comstock,
Jas. W. Mee,
E. Thompson,
Committee on Resolutions
Francis Sackett, Secretary
John Goff, Recorder.
This document was filed and recorded with the Jackson County Clerk in Jacksonville on March 24th, 1860.

Several notable mines were located in this district, including:

The Wright Mine (Lat. 42.25537, Long. -123.1442) which was a medium sized underground prospect that was active until it was shut down in 1942 by Government Limitation Order 208. In addition to gold, the Wright also yielded silver, zinc and lead.
The Nonesuch (Lat. 42.25037, Long. -123.1394) , which was also a medium sized underground mine. In addition to gold, silver was also mined in the Nonesuch. Like the Wright, it was shut down in 1942.
The Scott (Lat. 42.26117, -123.13), also a prospect of medium size, but unlike the above two, the Scott was a surface mine. Most of its activity was in the 1930’s.
The Victor (Lat. 42.27097, -123.1517), which was a well known and very profitable operation dating from before 1940. Like the Scott, the Victor was a surface mine.
The Broken Heart (Lat. 42.27007, Long. -123.1283), another medium sized underground producer.
The Ace of Hearts (Lat. 42.27757,  Long. -123.1203), which was a medium sized underground operation yielding gold and silver.
The Oregon Belle (Lat. 42.28817, Long. -123.1006), which is a rather famous mine and a fine producer of lode gold. Located due east of Humbug Creek.
The Sundown (Lat. 42.28317, Long. -123.1047),  yet another surface mine, located due south of the Oregon Belle. Also east of Humbug Creek.
The Grange Gulch (Lat. 42.25227, Long. -123.1208), which yielded gold and silver until 1942.
Finally are the Humbug Creek Placers (Lat. 42.26707, Long. -123.1389) which between the 1860’s and the 1940’s had many names, including the Benson Placer, the Johnston Placer, Exter, Pittock and the Kubli Ranch. This last name is attributed to Kaspar Kubli, a very early pioneer in the Applegate Valley. This last operation ran a drag line dredge up Humbug Creek.



Gold Dust: Stories of Oregon's Mining Years by Kerby Jackson
This article originally appeared in "Gold Dust: Stories of Oregon's Mining Years" by Kerby Jackson
Available from Amazon.com

Monday, June 11, 2012

A Rich Strike at Rich Gulch


Following the first discovery of gold in Oregon on Josephine Creek, in late December of 1851 or early January of 1852, packers John R. Poole and James Cluggage who owned a company called Jackass Freight, were packing supplies from the Willamette Valley to Sacramento, California. The two men decided to camp near the present site of Jacksonville, Oregon. Needing water for their animals, the two men headed up the gulch (a tributary of Daisy Creek) and choosing a likely looking place, began digging a hole in the hope that it would fill with enough water to give their mules a drink. Having moved a little bit of material, they spotted pieces of color in the hole that were large enough to be visible to the eye. The two men had accidentally stumbled into one of the largest gold strikes in Oregon history.
Cluggage and Poole
Cluggage and Poole 
They called their find Rich Gulch and soon extended their search to nearby Jackson Creek, where they found extensive amounts of course placer gold throughout its gravels. With great foresight, the two men filed on the land adjoining their find, laid out a town site and both became wealthy, influential men in the brand new community of Table Rock City, Oregon Territory. Today, we know the town that they founded by its current name: Jacksonville.
Rich Gulch
Rich Gulch, January 2010
Miners flocked into the area and Jacksonville promptly grew into the largest community north of San Francisco, its size soon exceeding that of Oregon’s Territorial Capital of Salem. Jacksonville was named the county seat of Jackson County. Major gold strikes were made throughout the area surrounding Jacksonville, most notably on Jackson and Daisy Creeks and thousands of ounces of gold, in both nugget and dust form flowed into town, bringing instant wealth to both miners and merchants alike. One resident who became very wealthy indeed was local banker C.C. Beekman, who’s Beekman Bank held the distinction of being the only bank in United States that charged its clients for the privilege of banking and did not pay interest on accounts. It is said, that during their time, Beekman’s scales weighed over ten million dollars worth of gold.
At today’s gold prices, this would be nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars worth of gold!

102_26211
Plaque at Rich Gulch


Gold Dust: Stories of Oregon's Mining Years by Kerby Jackson
This article originally appeared in "Gold Dust: Stories of Oregon's Mining Years" by Kerby Jackson
Available from Amazon.com

Friday, June 8, 2012

Sneak Peek ... Boom & Bust: Gold Mining in the Granite Hill Mining District, Josephine County, Oregon

A sneak peek into one of the projects that I'm currently working on. Hopefully available by Fall of 2012:



Boom and Bust

Gold Mining in the Granite Hill Mining District
Josephine County, Oregon

Kerby Jackson



Introduction

The Granite Hill Mining District, also known to history as Boardman's Diggings and the Louse Creek District, is the smallest mining district in South Western Oregon. Located in Josephine County, the district starts in the west at the confluence of Louse Creek and Morris Creek and then extends to the headwaters of the North and South Forks of Louse Creek. All total, Granite Hill takes in a total of only about 10 square miles, roughly equating to some 3200 acres of ground lying somewhat to the north east of the City of Grants Pass, Oregon. It is bounded to the north by the Jump Off Joe Creek District (once known as Wines Camp, named for the notorious murdering miner, Henry Wines), to the east by the Evans Creek District in Jackson County and the south and the west, by the Grants Pass District.

Yet despite its small size, Granite Hill represents one of the richest mining districts anywhere on the West Coast. By today's prices, millions of dollars worth of gold, both lode and placer, were taken out of this small area during the course of only a few years time, mainly by the American Gold Fields Company of Chicago, Illinois, who in May of 1902 took over ownership of a group of lode claims owned by the Booth Brothers.
Over the next few years, the Granite Hill Mine, which included the patented Granite Hill, Red Jacket, Jumbo and High Tariff claims, as well as unpatented claims such as the Ida and the Terry, became the site of a flurry of development.

In December of 1903, the richest gold strike that Southern Oregon had ever seen was made at the Granite Hill Mine, with the discovery of an ore body that was so rich that news of the discovery was reported from coast to coast, including the gold fields of the Yukon, and the financial centers of Boston and New York. In fact, the strike was so rich that for the first time in the history of Southern Oregon's mining industry, a mine was actually placed under high security and armed guards were employed.

Following the strike at the Granite Hill, extensive capital and manpower came flowing into the district. The Granite Hill Group became more than just a mine and soon evolved into a community of nearly 200 people, populated by mine workers and their families, as well as those who serve the needs of miners.

A positive side effect of the rich strike was a renewed interest in Southern Oregon's mines that resulted in an influx of people and capital into the area. Long neglected mines were re-opened, while new ore processing mills sprung up throughout the Rogue River Valley. Sudden prosperity came to the sleepy town of Grants Pass, Oregon which suddenly experienced a boom as a result which led to a population increase of nearly 20% in a few short years. Granite Hill forever put the town “on the map”.

Among those who came to join in on the strike was a beautiful young woman who gave up a promising career as an actress with the popular Anna Held Company and traded her life on the stage to run the hydraulic giant at the isolated Forest Queen Mine where she was a full partner with her father and brother.

Yet the sudden prosperity at Granite Hill was short lived. Inside of only a few short years, two shocking, well publicized murders wracked the small mining community, while the lower levels of the Granite Hill Mine itself were filled with groundwater that seeped into the mine faster than it could be pumped out.

Meanwhile, two shocking murders and their subsequent merry-go-round trials once again brought national attention on the Granite Hill Mine, reminding the entire nation that the gold rich hills of Southern Oregon were still a wild and woolly place, especially since the accused, in both cases, were so young.

By the 1920's the Granite Hill District had fallen into decline as a mining center until the pieces were finally picked up again by Charles and Ida Archerd when they re-opened the Ida Mine. Despite their best efforts, the couple found that the running of a gold mine was not such an easy undertaking, especially when they were forced to deal with the United States Government.

Copyright Kerby Jackson 2012
ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED

ISBN-13: 978-1477480106
ISBN-10: 1477480102 

The Troubled Land ... an excerpt


Chapter 1

Ken Payne saw the buzzards wheeling overhead and had heard the low hum of the busy flies before he saw the men.

There were six of them dressed in typical rider's garb still slightly dusted with alkali dirt and they were hanging from the lowest branches of a gnarled oak tree that stood alone at the bottom of a dusty wash. Though it was difficult to judge how long they had been there, the flies had already begun to gather in large numbers to lay their maggot laden eggs in their wide open dead eyes and a slightly ripe stench had already begun to fill the air.

Payne stood slightly in his stirrups to survey his surroundings and then slowly stepped down from his saddle with the ease of an experienced rider. Once on the ground, he withdrew a small bag of makings from his shirt pocket and promptly rolled and lit a cigarette, his half lidded eyes never leaving the men as he did so. He took a drag from the cigarette and then after exhaling a puff of sweet smoke, stepped toward the corpses for a closer look.

The men hung from the lowest branches in three groups of two per bough. The blue tinged tongue of the one nearest to him hung swollen from the gash of his mouth, the men having succumbed to death from slow strangulation. One of them had even slipped his hand in between the rope and his neck in a futile effort to try to stop the inevitable.

Payne had seen lots of death in his time and he had even dealt in more than his fair share of it before packing his gun belt away into his saddlebags, but the sight of this sort of a slow hanging still put a twisting knot in his guts just as it always had since he had seen his first hanging as a small boy.

"Wonder what you boys did to deserve a fate like this?" he asked aloud as if the six men might still be capable of answering him.

Payne surveyed his surroundings again with a pair of sideways glances, but there was nothing else around him but the six men in the tree.

"Well, I reckon I'll cut you boys down and give you a burial," he told them. "It's the only thing I can do for you."

Payne turned on the heel of his scuffed boot to go back to his horse, when a sick sounding, low guttural sound came from behind him. He immediately froze is in his tracks and held his breath. His first instinct was to reach for the .45 that should have been on his right hip in a well worn holster, but he had hung up his gun a year ago and it was not there to grab. He wondered how fast he could make it to the Winchester in the scabbard on his saddle, but he knew it would be a futile attempt.

The sound came again, followed by the distinct, low creak from one of the taut ropes hanging from the tree.

Slowly Payne turned around and faced the six corpses again. They were all still save the one with his fingers intertwined between his neck and the noose, whose body gently revolved in a slow circle. That was when he saw the tips of the man's free fingers articulate weakly. The man's eyes quickly flashed open and he emitted a weak gurgle of mostly garbled words.

"Cut... Please .... cut me down."

Payne could not believe that the man was still alive, but in a flash, he had drawn a knife from the inside of his boot and was at the man's side to help him. With one hand he had a hold of his legs and lifted him up to slacken the rope, while with the other he severed the stiff rope that was around his neck. Immediately the weakened man collapsed in a limp pile upon him, his dead weight bringing both of them to the dusty ground below. The man let out a low moan, but it was at least proof that he was still alive.

Once he collected himself and was certain that the man was breathing easily, Payne stood up, walked to his horse and returned to the man with his canteen. Once at his side again, he knelt down and removed the plug from the canteen. He poured a bit of water into the palm of his hand, lifted the man's head and let the water trickle onto the man's lips until finally the man showed an inclination to drink. He then did so greedily until Payne withdrew the mouth of the canteen.

"Easy there, friend," he told him. "Not too much. You need to drink it slow."

For a long while, Payne knelt there beside him until the man had drifted off into sleep.

While the man slept, Payne built up a small fire, set a pot of coffee and then undertook the grisly job of cutting the other men down.

One by one, he took them down and then drug them a short distance away from the tree and over the small hilltop where he had dug a wide, but shallow grave for them.

Before planting each one of them into the thin, dry soil, he dug through their pockets. Between them all they had little in the way of personal effects, only the sort of things that ranch hands might carry: some coins, a deck of cards between them, a Bannock arrowhead that one of them must have picked up somewhere, a gold pocket watch, a few bags of tobacco with papers, a few cartridges and a crumpled up letter that had probably been read and refolded too many times for its own good. He tossed the playing cards and the tobacco into the grave; no sense in one of the men's grieving wives or mothers knowing about their sinful vices if he could help it. The rest he wrapped up into a handkerchief that one of the men had worn and he placed it into one of his saddle bags. Then one by one he placed them in the grave as gently as he could and pushed the dusty soil over them.

When he was through, he stood back and looked at his completed work. It was a damn sorry excuse for a grave, Payne thought, and he was sure that the next coyote or wolf that came by would dig it up because it was so shallow, but it was the best that he could do with the tin cup that he had used to carve it out. Payne felt like he should say a few words over them, but he did not even know the names of the men he had just buried and he was not a religious man, so the sort of words that he felt should be said just would not come from his lips.

"This is all I can do for you boys," he told them. "I reckon I'll be lucky if someone does the same for me when my time comes. Well, maybe I'll be seein' you. Adios."

Payne tipped his hat to them and walked back to the fire.
The sleeping man instantly stirred as Payne came near and sat up as if in a daze. He gave a hoarse uncontrolled series of coughs, seemed to gather his composure and finally looked up at Payne.

"You the man who cut me down?" he asked in a gravelly voice.

Payne nodded.

"Well, you saved my life then, Mister. I'm much obliged."

"I just hope I didn't cut you down so that they can hang you again," Payne told him. He figured him for a rustler, but Payne could not very well have left him hanging there.

He knelt down on his haunches and poured two cups of coffee. He handed one to the other man who immediately breathed in its hot vapors. "Never thought I'd smell coffee again," he told him with a smile. "It's one of about a hundred things I thought about while I was hanging there."

He seemed to drift off as if in a dreamy state for a moment and for the first time, Payne noted how young he was. He could not have been more than 16 or 17 years old.

"What about the others?" he suddenly asked.

"I buried them up the hill here," Payne told him.

The boy's complexion suddenly grew pale.

"All of them?"

"Five men," Payne told him.

The boy nodded and took a drink of his coffee.

"It's hard to believe," he said suddenly. "It all happened so fast. One minute things was like they always were. We were ridin'. And then, well, it's just too real. There were riders all over us."

"What's it all about?"

Payne figured that the kid and his friends had probably been caught up in rustling cattle. Ranchers had been forming stock associations all over Oregon and their vigilantes had been riding down rustlers and horse thieves by the dozens throughout the region. They had been so fierce that even the McCartys had been keeping a low profile while it blew over.

"I really don't know," the boy started to tell him. "I ride for the Running V ..."

"Never heard of it," Payne interrupted.

"We're just a little outfit, but the boss, Mr. Voorhies, he ain't so interested in bein' a great big outfit like the P Ranch or anyone like that. We only got about twelve hundred head, but they're all good ones of the boss' own breeding. He says he wants quality over quantity and I reckon he knows what he's doing. But, we've been havin' lots of trouble the last few months. And we ain't the only ones. A couple of other outfits have been havin' problems too."

"What sort of trouble?"

"People keep seein' a group of riders comin' into their range some nights. They don't barely make a sound because they have the hooves of their horses muffled and all the men wear masks. They've been rimrockin' groups of cattle belonging to every outfit, shootin' riders who make the mistake of workin' alone and we reckon they've killed a couple of men who've disappeared over the last month."

"And that's who strung you up?"

"Yep. The boys and I were riding on our east range looking for about fifty head of missing yearlings. We found them all busted up in a canyon and they'd been rim rocked by someone and were too far gone to salvage anything. So we headed home to tell the boss, and well, the next thing we know, we saw those riders a comin' at us. There were fifteen or twenty of them all with hoods over their heads and before we knew it, they were swarmin' all over us like like a bunch of angry bees. We took cover in the rocks and we got at least one or two of them with our Winchesters, but there were just too many of them to fend off for long and they knew it too.

We had our backs against an outcrop of rock, so the only way out of there was to go through them or to come out feet first. After about an hour they told us to surrender and since we ain't gettin' paid fighting wages, we decided to do it. It might have been a cowardly thing, but we didn't have much else in the way of choices and for that matter, we still didn't know what they wanted. We should have stayed back and fought it out with them, because you know what happened next. They marched us all off to the tree and strung us up one by one."

Payne sat there sipping his coffee in silence and trying to contemplate the story the boy had just told him. He had never heard a story like it before and he didn't think the boy would have made it up. Riders in hoods riding muffled horses, rim rocking cattle and viscously killing range riders. Having once hired his gun hand out to anyone willing to pay a good wage, Payne had dealt with more than his fair share of cattle rustlers. As viscous and uncaring as some of them could be, he had never run across any that would destroy fine stock once they obtained it, let alone any that would intentionally seek out and kill riders.

"Where's this Running V at?" he finally asked.

"About half a day to the south west. Maybe further. I don't rightly know how far they brought us before they hung us and I don't know this side of the country so well. We're well off our own range."

"Well, I reckon I'll take you back to your ranch when you feel up to it," Payne told him. "We can ride double, I suppose."

"I'm much obliged to you Mister," the boy told him. "My name is Billy Howard and I reckon I   owe you my life. I'd like to know the name of the man who saved me."

"My name is Smith and it's nothin'," Payne lied. "Any man would have done the same. I just happened by."

"Nah, it ain't so. Most fellas wouldn't have seen it as bein' any of their business to stop to bury a group of men hangin'. Anyone else would have just rode on after havin' a look. But you cut me down and I'm much obliged for it, Smith. I'd like to call you my friend. I thought I was goin' to die up there on that tree. I dunno if you've ever looked death in the face like that, but I'll tell you what, I did lots of thinkin' while I was up there hangin' from that branch..."

Billy's voice trailed off and he looked down into the camp fire in deep thought.

"You ever felt that, before?"

Payne thought back on the many times that he had faced death looking over the barrel of his .45. He had killed a few dozen men in his day, looking them in the eye as each one had screamed out in agony when his own lead had hit them and shattered their bones and had ruptured their hearts. Not all of them had deserved death, but he had dealt it to them anyway, cutting them down in the prime of their lives like a newly sharpened scythe takes the head off of a stalk of ripe wheat. And each time he had stood over them with the smoking gun in his hand, he was always reminded that had they been a little faster or had a little more sand than him, that it may have been him lying on the ground instead of them. Every night those men would come back to him to invade his dreams with their pale white, agonized faces, their putrid flesh starting to hang off their bones. Though he had hung up his gun, the men still came to him each night in his sleep, bent over and whispering death into his ear with their rotten breath and reminding him that he would eventually join them.

Billy looked up from the camp fire in time to see the hollow look of torment in Payne's eyes and pushed the discussion no further.

Finally Payne looked up at him as if he was going to answer the question.

"Let's ride," Billy told him.

Without another word between them, they kicked out the fire and saddled up double and headed off to the south west.


The Troubled Land by Kerby Jackson
Available at Amazon.com

Great Gobs of Gold Abound in Southern Oregon


The largest gold nugget ever found in Oregon was discovered on the East Fork of Althouse Creek in the Illinois Valley in 1859. Its discover, a small Irish miner by the name of Mattie Collins found the whopper in the face of the stream bank under a large stump located about twelve feet about the normal waterline. Dubbed the “Collins Nugget”, it weighed in at a whopping seventeen pounds!
After Mattie Collins found the nugget, he lived in constant fear of being killed and robbed until he hired a fellow countryman of his by the name of Dorsey to help him transport the nugget out of the Althouse. With the nugget hidden in a sack on Dorsey’s back and Collins taking up the rear armed with a double barreled shotgun, the two men trekked down the old Althouse Trail (which still exists in places to this day, and upon which this writer has walked) and spirited the hunk of yellow metal out of the district under the cover of night. Every twenty or so feet, the two men would stop and peer into the darkness, mistaking every other stump or some other object for a highwayman, until finally, certain that it was a trick of the eye, Collins would tell Dorsey to go forward. Local legend has it that after selling the big yellow marvel to the smelter at Jacksonville for $3500, that awash in wealth, Mattie Collins celebrated his discovery until he drank himself to death.
Today, the Collins Nugget would be valued at about $375,000, though a gold nugget of this size and notoriety would certainly carry a hearty premium.
Other notable large nuggets found in Southern Oregon include:
The Vaun Nugget which was discovered on Slug Bar, near Browntown, also on Althouse Creek. Weight: Approximately 40 ounces.
The Oscar Creek Nugget, discovered in 1892 by Boardman Darneille. It weighed over 18 ounces. Three additional large nuggets were discovered on Oscar Creek around the same time, weighing respectively 12 ounces, 6.25 ounces and 5.75 ounces.
The Klippel Nugget, found in 1904 on McDowell Gulch, weighing approximately 25 ounces.
The Burns Nugget, discovered on Brimstone Gulch at the Stovepipe mine near the site of Leland in 1934, weighed 34.47 ounces.
Also in 1934, Ed Prefontaine discovered a piece of quartz float on Foots Creek that contained 13.63 ounces of gold.
Several large nuggets, one weighing almost 15 pounds were also taken from Sucker Creek which is due east of Althouse.
Numerous discoveries of rich gold “pockets” which Southern Oregon is famous for have dotted the mining maps of this area, not limited to the fabulous Gold Hill Pocket discovered in 1860 by Thomas Chavner and partners which some say contained over 250,000 ounces of gold, the famous Revenue Pocket (2500 ounces) discovered on Kane Creek by Enos Rhoten, the SteamBoat Pocket in the Upper Applegate drainage and the famous Briggs Strike of 1904, as well as a rich discovery by Orval Robertson and Ted McQueen at the Bunker Hill Mine on Silver Creek exceeding some 5000 ounces in 1926. One piece of nearly solid gold ore from the Bunker Hill was so heavy that when it fell from the side of the tunnel, it broke the leg of a miner named Bill Mitchell who was operating a drill. The piece of ore was only a foot long, 6 inches wide and 3 inches thick, but it contained nearly 20 pounds of free milling gold. There was so much gold in this vein of ore that Mitchell called it the “Ham and Eggs Vein”, because of the amount of ham and egg breakfasts he had been able to buy with his share of the gold.
As recently as a half decade ago, a couple of pound sized nuggets were taken from a small tributary of the Applegate River, proof that the “big ones” are still out there if you are willing to work hard to find them.
The crew at the famous Bunker Hill Mine on Silver Creek show off a two week clean up. The man at far right is pioneer Galice area miner, John Robertson. Photo courtesy of Sharon Crawford, who is the grand daughter of Orval Robertson, who discovered the Bunker Hill with his partner Ted McQueen in 1926.



Gold Dust: Stories of Oregon's Mining Years by Kerby Jackson
This article originally appeared in "Gold Dust: Stories of Oregon's Mining Years" by Kerby Jackson
Available from Amazon.com