(IDAHO) Correspondence of an Idaho gold miner

Sale 2533 - Lot 121

Price Realized: $ 594

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600

(IDAHO.) Correspondence of an Idaho gold miner. 11 letters to or regarding John A. Dimick of Helena, Seven Devils, and Council Valley, ID; generally minor wear. Vp, 1891-97

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These letters are addressed to an Idaho miner regarding various claims. They are sent from colleagues in Oregon, Colorado, and one from Weiser, ID. Friend S.K. Bradford wrote from Baker City, OR with terse but horrifying mining news from Cracker Creek: "North Pole at Cracker is the only mine working. Cyanide. Foreman died, sup't took his place & in five days dead. Kidneys gone and both lungs gone. . . . Sent my horses to Snake River at 7 Devils Crossing. Will try last mine tomorrow and then if I can't find work, will go to Colo." (19 October 1895). A pair of letters from S. Bourne of Portland, OR in May 1897 apparently begins a new venture, confirming news that "you accept my proposition and that you expect to leave for the mines as soon as you get your supplies ready. . . . Trusting that you may strike the extension of the Placer basin and that it may prove a bonanza. . . . Many thanks for your kind offer to deed or locate me in for the extension of the Compromise claim." One of these letters has Dimick's pencil sketch plat on verso, showing the bounds of the Gold King and Compromise claims.