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column those were the days
rod molzahn
Mining for gold in the Wenatchee Valley As the West was settled, the
extraction of minerals from the newly claimed earth was always an early activity. North Central Washington experienced that same trend. By 1860 white and Chinese placer miners were panning gold along the west bank of the Columbia and up all of its tributaries. Chinese miners built the five-mile long “China Ditch” on the lower Methow River. They used the ditch for 10 years, diverting river water into sluice boxes all along the length of the ditch. By the mid 1880s hard-rock mining had begun in a number of locations around the Methow including John Stone’s claim near Twisp. Stone sold the mine for a red shirt and a bottle of whiskey. Soon known as the “Red Shirt Mine” it became one of the most productive in the area. The mountains around Republic, in the northeast corner of the state, continue to be mined for a variety of minerals and a rich gold strike near Colville in the early 1860s raised the population in eastern Washington to nearly triple the number west of the Cascades. It was 1858 when Mortimer
Ladders built by Chinese in the late 1860s helped them dig gold deposits from the rocky cliffs up the Squilchuck. Photos by Rod Molzahn
Robinson found gold in the gravel of Peshastin Creek. Panning and sluicing along the creek quickly grew as word spread. Samuel Culver filed the first hard-rock claim in the Blewett
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area in 1874. Within three years there were 10 mines and a stamp mill that could crush eight tons of ore every 24 hours. The Wenatchee Valley has produced wealth from the
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| September 2011
ground since placer miners began arriving in the late 1850s. Ten years later Chinese miners followed the gold up Squilchuck Creek and located exposed deposits in the rocky cliffs at the east end of a ridge that would, in a hundred years, become known as “D” reef. The Chinese built a system of wooden ladders and platforms to reach the higher cliff levels. Chunks of ore were dug from the crevices and dropped down to waiting miners who crushed them and panned the ore in the creek. It was the first hard-rock mining in the valley. They used the same technique in cliffs south of the Rock Island Rapids and below the Chelan Falls. In 1884 the cliffs were acquired by Frank Morris who began the first tunneling into the ridge. After 10 years of digging Morris closed the mine. Over the next 40 years several individuals, partnerships and companies mined the property. There would be flurries of activity for a few years then quiet until someone new bought the land and went to work. In 1948, a group of Wenatchee developers hired Ed Lovitt, a