Kootanais Mine Reports

KOOTANAIS MINES. –

            The Golden Age (Lewiston, I.T.) says: In our private correspondence from Boise we learn that the stampede for Kootanais is becoming general with the floating population in that region.  Our correspondent asserts that many are selling claims for $200 and $300, which will pay $50 per day to the hand, (when water can be had to work them), packing up and leaving for Kootanais.  This, we predicted, would be the case, as soon as the scarcity of water should become known in the Boise basin.  But the people then had become Boise crazy, and what might have been said to deter the rush would have had little or no effect.  We would now advise a little moderation with regard to Kootanais.  As yet, no big strikes have been made.  True, some large nuggets were found soon after opening the first claims; yet little is known of the wealth or extent of the Kootanais mines.  We have plenty of claims lying idle in Warren’s and Florence, with an abundance of water this season, which will pay from $12 to $30 per day.  Would it not be wise to give them at least a passing notice?

            A later date says: A large number of miners are in Lewiston loading for Kootanais.  Several parties have arrived during the last week giving the report about the same as heretofore published – good diggings, and prospects of being extensive.

            The Mountaineer says: Mr. Dan Butler, a well-known citizen of Wasco county, arrived from the Kootanais country, a few days since, bringing with him the most indubitable evidence of the existence of gold in that quarter.  He had a purse well filled with Kootanais dust, estimated to be worth $18 per ounce, all of which was the result of less than two months in the mines.  Mr. Butler informs us that there is about five hundred persons in the mines, and that this number is constantly gaining accession from the Stinking Water and other mining districts.  New discoveries were constantly being made.