Historical Gazette, Cracker Creek Mining District
Historical Gazette, Cracker Creek Mining District
Rich Strike Made in the Gibraltar
Owned by Paul Poindexter and Claud Basche
Located by the North Pole Mine
Now being Sacked for Shipment
Millsite on Cracker Creek
On September 8, 1900 a wonderfully rich ore deposit was uncovered in the Gibraltar about 150 feet from the mouth of the tunnel. This mine is located near the North Pole in the Cracker Creek district and is owned by Claud Basche and Paul Poindexter.
Poindexter was out at the property Sunday and brought in a sack full of the rock. It resembles the rich ore found in the Golconda which has made that mine famous.
Ruins of Golconda shaftIt is almost black in color and is studded with free gold, many of the specimens carrying perhaps 10 percent of the precious metal. A hatful has been assayed and the certificate shows $160,000 to the ton. How much there is of it is, of course, not known. Poindexter says it is scattered across the entire five feet in the face of the tunnel. Where the ledge has been cross cut it averages about 19 feet in width. The rock has carried only fair values up to this point, $18 to $20 with the exception of at one place, where $260 assays were obtained. Barren rock has been encountered just before this last rich strike was made.
Four men are now at work taking out an sacking this precious ore, which will be shipped to a San Francisco smelter for treatment. If a few tons of it is secured, there will be a celebration in this town at no distant day. The gentlemen have decided to take the advice of J.H. Robbins and keep their shirt- waist on until the money is in his bank. The Sumpter Miner
We learned what has happened to the Cracker Creek mining district in more recent history who emailed us in 1996 about the Cracker Creek Gold Mining Company. We went to his web site [now not functioning at the link we had] and read the whole scoop. The "Rock Worth $160,000," story, we were told, was nothing but a bombast by the editor of the Sumpter Miner whose job it was to pump up the town and encourage people to come to the area. So what's new?
