The BC Adventure 23 -Start of Gold Fever

Vesuvius

February 27, 1922

It was work time for Mark today, and he and Cecil Springford spent the day killing 12 pigs for the Scotts. (I've enclosed a snap of him and his brother Eric.) It is nice for him to have something to take his mind off the up coming trip. I am sick of hearing about it. But I suppose it is of interest to you too.

March 18

I didn't finish this letter I started a week or so ago, but now I can add to it with some information about Mark's gold mining situation.

The Vancouver newspapers are full of information and advertising – hoping rich businessmen will put their money in the plan. I'll quote from the recent papers.
 

March 9. Late arrivals from Cedar Creek report R G. McLeod as offering $400, 000 for four leases above Discovery claim and two leases below, with prompt cash payments. The owners refused to consider the proposition at present. Mr. McLeod, after locating several leases, expects to return to Vancouver within the week. J. Starsky of the Prince of Wales Mining Company of Horsefly Creek has
just returned from there, after locating several more leases. Mr. Starsky expects to bring a Keystone drill to this property in the early spring. The men now working on the Cedar Creek leases are all afflicted with a mild form of "flu" and operations are more or less at a standstill.

March 15. R. G. MacLeod, a mining man of Vancouver, who led a party of prospectors into the Cedar Creek country nearly a month ago, is on his way back to the city owing to a mudslide on the P.G.E. railway ten miles south of Lillooet, 120 miles from Vancouver, which blocked the southbound train at that point this morning. Mr. MacLeod and members of his party are now travelling from Lillooet to Lytton by auto. It Is proposed to send a special train for the remainder of the passengers, who are at present on the train at East Lillooet. They will reach Vancouver Tuesday night.

Mr. MacLeod's great enthusiasm is over the rich gold fields of Cedar Creek and Quesnel Lake. He went in to make a thorough examination of the district and is now ready to stake his all on it. “It is one of the richest finds of gold ever made,” he said. “The people in the Immediate vicinity of this rich discovery have not yet realized that there is a real Eldorado in their midst. The truth is dawning on them one by one and every doubting Thomas is now staking claims end filing on the land.

“Even if the mines were to prove a failure, which should be no real disappointment on the part of the settlers and there is no better agricultural district in British Columbia than that around Quesnel Lake and Horsefly Lake and River. Quesnel Lake is about 100 miles long and Horsefly Lake thirty-one miles in length. There are as yet but few settlers in these districts and there is plenty of room for tens of thousands. If the sixteen men who on hearing of the reports of the gold discovery here last fall, left the Horsefly to take claims, only one man filed on a claim. He is now to receive $50,000 for it. The others hesitated, but they are returning now and staking claims.

“A mining claim in this district is a tiny-sized farm, being eighty acres in extent. A conservative estimate states that by July 1, 6000 people will be in camp on the shores of Quesnel Lake. Every preparation is being made for a large influx of people and no congestion is likely to result.

“The accessibility of this district is one of the attractive aspects of it. One real estate man from Victoria has taken up a whole town site in close proximity to the original discovery. In one direction from the first location the ground has been staked for twelve miles. This is in the form of a narrow slip along the depression where gold was first found.

“Old-timers told me that two and one-half million dollars was taken out of French Bar alone, 60 years ago, which is a short distance below Quesnel Dam, and one million dollars was spent putting in this dam so that the gold could be taken out of the river below. After building the dam they found that in a great many spots the river had already been worked out by the Chinese. The cause of
this depression is, in the opinion of the engineer who recently examined the country, a porphyry dyke, which carries big values in gold, having been ground down by glaciers, thereby leaving the depression, or the channel, with the gold scattered all over it right where it was ground out and not having traveled any distance or been carried from some great mother lode, as some people think most placer deposits have been.

“I took a party of eight men besides myself to locate for ourselves and Vancouver business men. We had no difficulty in following the channel and located it fully from where R. M. Campbell brought back the tale of the new strike.

“Look for a Big Stampede. The original vein made more than $3,000,000 and then mysteriously dropped out of sight in the Cedar Creek bed 60 years ago, and for which a steady and diligent search has been made by hundreds of pros.

“$500 Will Secure an Eighty - Acre Bench Placer Mining Lease in the Famous Cedar Creek District of Cariboo. This advertisement is intended to attract the attention of a few people who would like to better their circumstances and are willing to risk a small amount of money in order to do so. I don't mind straining a
point to help those who are willing to risk something to help themselves, but my experience has taught me that people who expect something for nothing usually get nothing.

“Now I have recently gained a lot of information about this Great Cedar Creek District, not from hearsay, but by personal investigation. I know what I saw there; I watched R. D. Fetherstonhaugh, one of the most noted Placer experts in this
country, pan and wash out and weigh the gold content of gravel that went from $20.00 per yard at the lowest, to $2.25 per pan or over $300.00 per yard on the original Discovery. Owing to the depth of snow, this expert could only examine the ground on the original discoveries for a distance of 105 feet wide and several hundred feet in length. Still he claims the two leases will produce around eight million dollars with the full expectation that the unexplored or unprospected area along the channel or depression will be just asgood.

“This old channel is plainly discernible for a good many miles and has been staked on the south side of Cedar Creek for quite a distance, but there is still good ground to be located, ground that is apt to be just as good as the original discovery claims.

“On my recent trip in there I located a number of leases for Vancouver business men and friends. I left two experienced men in this district to look up good ground in different localities and get these old channels located. When I left we had some very good ground in view that can be staked. I am forming a Syndicate of twenty people and I am going to locate a lease for each one, myself being one of the twenty. We are going to pool all interests so that each one of the twenty will share alike in case one of us misses the rich channel he will not be left out in the cold. We will share alike no matter whose claim is the richest. I think that is the fairest way to arrange it. Everyone of the twenty must sign our Syndicate Agreement, agreeing to pool each interest.

“Cedar Creek Channel is not the only one in that district. In fact, when I left, my men were going to examine and investigate several other depressions and old channels that were reported to be equally as rich as the Cedar Creek Channel. I will locate some of these leases on these different channels so that we will be practically certain of making a rich strike on at least some of our leases. If we only struck one out of twenty as rich as the Discovery you should make from one to two hundred thousand dollars out of your interest in the Syndicate. I do not think that it is possible for us to miss the rich channel in all of them, especially in view of the fact that my men are right on the ground and have been for a month investigating thoroughly.

“While up there on my recent trip I found five men (all old-timers and well informed in regard to the country) sick in bed with influenza in their cabin. I helped look after them and had one of my men look after them and carry medicine and supplies to them until they were on the road to recovery, consequently they were very grateful to me and loosened up freely with a lot of reliable information about different localities near there where they had found gold. This information was worth a lot to me and will be the means of practically assuring my success in locating good ground for you and others who wish to take advantage of my offer.

“When I left there my men were going out the next day with a particular friend of mine, one of the old-timers in that district, who was going to show them several places where he found good gold values but had never done sufficient work to get to bedrock. They were to be with him for about one week, then they were to hurry over to Beaver Lake to go out with another old-timer with whom I made friends and whose property I am securing options on to handle for him. My men were to examine his leases and get information and cover adjoining ground so that when I come back we will be able to locate it. So, taking all these things into consideration, you can rest assured that if you go into this proposition with me you will get good ground.

“I am not simply looking to get your money and stake you any old place. I can only make one location myself in each district and my location will be pooled along with you and the rest. My advice to you, if you really wish to make a big raise and acquire financial independence is to get five hundred dollars in some wad, even if you have to borrow it, and get in before it is too late. I honestly believe and know other well informed men who also believe that this field will prove to be the greatest gold discovery in the world.

“Come in and see me and talk it over with me, and I will show you maps and where the original discoveries were made, also my recent locations, and give you all particulars. Do not pass this up without investigating carefully. If you do I believe you will be passing up the best opportunity ever offered you.”

That's all I can fit in one letter, but I will continue telling you more about it in the next one.

I do think that Mark's oldest brother Duncan will be 40 this year. His birthday is on the 17^th.

Love

Gwenllian