-Discovery there of gold 60 years ago caused the Indian hostilities of 1855 — deposits were not very rich, and after white miners left Chinese came in
An even 60 years after the discovery of placer gold in the sands of the Columbia river eager searchers are again at work on the old bars. Moderately good returns are reported from the mouth of Stranger Creek near Inchelium on the Colville Reservation. The Entiat-Orondo district is excited over finding of supposedly rich ground. The entire shore line between Orondo and Brays has been staked and a number of outfits are at work.
History holds out no expectation that large deposits will be uncovered. Even if the theory is correct that high water in the Columbia has been renewing gold supply on bars worked out a half century ago, it is not likely that the redeposits equal the original accumulations, and these were never extensive.
The limited deposits uncovered in 1855 returned no large fortunes. They were in the nature of "float," and while their discovery lured miners into the interior and thus led to finding of the immensely richer camps of northern Idaho and British Columbia, they were more productive of tragedy and disappointment than of immediate fortune to the men that worked them.
WHO FIRST FOUND GOLD AN UNANSWERED RIDDLE
William J. Trimble, a former member of the faculty of Lewis and Clark High School, who chose as his thesis submitted to the University of Wisconsin for the degree of philosophy, "The Mining Advance into the Inland Empire," gave up as a riddle the question of who first discovered gold in this region. "Various roamers through the wilderness — explorers, French-Canadians, mountain men — with interest sharpened by the discoveries in California, had happened on gold in diverse localities, but their discoveries had brought no results."
It is pretty well established that the presence of find gold in the sands of the Columbia River was known to the fur traders prior to the discovery in California, but the Hudson's Bay Company deemed it better policy to discourage mining by its employees and to guard its information from outside dissemination.
STRIKE NEAR COLVILLE CAUSED THE FIRST RUSH
Clinton A. Snowden, author of a painstaking, creditable and elaborate history of Washington, is more explicit. "Soon after the Walla Walla council (of 1853) was dissolved a report spread through the country that gold had been discovered near Fort Colville. In the preceding March four French-Canadians, who had served their time with the Hudson's Bay company, while prospecting along the banks of the upper Columbia, near the confluence of the Pend Oreille, found sufficient color to fill them with the hope that they had found gold in paying quantity. News of their find soon reached the settlements, and was received with the greatest interest.
"As but little could be learned about the extent of the new mining region or the nature of the deposits found. Colonel J. Patton Anderson, recently elected delegate to the congress, set off for Colville in search of information. Wells Fargo & Co. also sent an agent to examine the country and make report. But few waited for the information they would bring back.
MANY CAME FROM PUGET SOUNDS AND OREGON
"By the middle of July all the roads and trails leading toward the northeast had been found by the hopeful gold hunters. Those from the Sound crossed the mountains by the Snoqualmie and Naches passes, while those from the Cowlitz and the Willamette generally went up the Columbia to the Dalles, and thence crossed into the Yakima valley. Later many went by way of Fort Walla Walla, where they left their boats and struck over the sagebrush plains for Fort Colville."
This invasion alarmed the Indians and caused the widespread outbreak of 1855. Many prospectors were murdered, how many was never determined. The Oregon newspapers estimated the number of victims from 50 to 70, but these estimates were probably excessive, for Edward Eldridge, who, with two companies had gone afoot from the Dalles to Colville, read a list of 50 on his return to Oregon and found his own name included.
Those who escaped the hostile Indians returned to the safety of the western settlements, and placer mining in the Inland Empire was entirely abandoned by Americans, though it was carried on fitfully by French-Canadians and halfbreeds.
CHINESE MOVED IN WHEN WHITES MOVED OUT
After the subjugation of the interior tribes by General Wright in 1858 miners reentered the country and the Columbia and its numerous tributaries were thoroughly prospected by a keen-eyed host of avid gold hunters. Little that was worth working escaped them.
After they had stripped the cream of the deposits along the Columbia they extended their quest into Idaho, British Columbia and Montana, and their abandoned diggings were taken by Chinese miners. These, by their greater patience and ability to live on returns that were considered contemptible by white miners, continued to wash over the old bars through the 60s, 70s and well into the 80s.
Between them they have left little that is worth taking. In hard times, an experienced placer miner can make small wages, but the cleanups are pitifully small in comparison with the intoxicating returns of such famous old camps as Orofino, Florence, Elk City, Pierce City, Wild Horse and Cariboo.
