Important from Kootenay and the "Big Bend": 0051.0015

            From a private letter just received by a gentleman in this city, under date Fort Colville, June 6th, we extract the following:

            “First rate diggings have been discovered on the Upper Columbia river, in British Columbia, near the “Rapides des Morts”.  The water is awfully high, but those who are mining are taking out fair pay – from $5 to $12 per diem to the hand.  There will be a great rush there from the Colville valley and Walla Walla in the course of three or four weeks.  The diggings, so far, are bar diggings, but miners are going up every day for the purpose of prospecting the creeks.  A man has just arrived from Dewdney’s camp, on the Kootenay Lake; he reports a route there impracticable, and Dewdney will be compelled to follow one of the routes originally proposed by McDonald.  The route he followed was good to Kootenay Lake, but there they met with mountains covered with snow, which he could not avoid * * *  I start in half an hour for Wild Horse Creek, or as they call it here, “Stud Horse Creek” – 400 miles yet to go.  Trains are going in every day.  I shall be there by the 20th instant.   *   *   *   *   *

                                                                        Town of Colville

P.S. – I have just opened this letter.  The diggings on the Upper Columbia prospect 25 cents to the pan, and on the creeks as high as $1 to the pan.  Some new strikes have also been made on Wild Horse Creek.”

            We may state with respect to the author of the letter from which the above extracts are made, that he is both reliable and likely to be well informed upon the subject of which he writes.  We have also learned through private sources that a party of men who left Yale in the spring, intending to go to Kootenay via Kamloops, upon reaching the Columbia river received such good accounts of the diggings in the Big Bend country as induced them to alter their previous plans and elect to try their fortunes there.

0051.0015: Important from Kootenay and the "Big Bend"

Newspaper article with a letter from Fort Colville reporting on first rate diggings on upper Columbia River. Also mentions progress of Dewdney and the Dewdney Trail.

Medium:  Newspaper - Text
Date:  July 1, 1865
Pages:  3
Publisher:  Victoria Daily Colonist
Collection:  Columbia Basin Institute (0051)

Keywords:

Rapides des Morts

Subjects:

People arrow Dewdneyarrow
People arrow McDonaldarrow
Industry arrow Mining arrow Gold Mining arrow Big Bend Countryarrow
Industry arrow Mining arrow Gold Mining arrow Wild Horse Creekarrow
Transportation arrow Pack Trainsarrow
Cities arrow Colville WAarrow
Cities arrow Walla Walla WAarrow
Cities arrow Wild Horsearrow
Cities arrow Yalearrow
Physical Features arrow Anomalies arrow Death Rapidsarrow
Physical Features arrow Rivers arrow Columbia Riverarrow
Physical Features arrow Lakes arrow Kootenay Lakearrow

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