Although many of the diggings yielded from six to ten dollars per day, many of the operators feared the ravages of a severe winter and fully realized the animus of the merchants at Oro Fino, who refused to sell their goods, believing that starvation would ultimately face the miners and that they could then secure any price they might see fit to demand. In November of the year noted, the prices at Oro Fino were quoted as follows on certain of the necessaries of life: flour, $25 per 100 pounds; beef, 30 cents per pound; coffee, not to be had; candles, not for sale; and bacon and beans, exceedingly scarce. That the prospectors and miners should seek to hibernate nearer civilization and take refuge in Walla Walla was but natural under the circumstances.
During the rush to the mining districts, both in 1861 and 1862, Walla Walla was the scene of the greatest activity; streets were crowded; the merchants were doing a thriving business, and pack trains moved in a seemingly endless procession toward the gold fields. The excitement was fed by the glowing reports that came from the mining districts, and the natural result was to augment the flood of gold-seekers pouring into the mining districts in the spring of 1862, as will be noted later on. As an example of the alluring reports circulated in the latter part of 1861, we may appropriately quote from the Washington Statesman of that period. From an editorial in said publication we make the following extract:
"S. F. Ledyard arrived last evening from the Salmon River mines, and from him it is learned that some six hundred miners would winter there; that some two hundred had gone to the south side of the river, where two streams head that empty into the Salmon, some thirty miles southeast of present mining camp. Coarse gold is found, and as high as one hundred dollars per day to the man has been taken out. The big mining claim of the old locality belongs to Mr. Weiser, of Oregon, from where $2,680 were taken on the 20th, with two rockers. On the 21st, $3,360 were taken out with the same machines. Other claims were paying from two to five pounds per day. Flour has fallen to 50 cents per pound, and beef, at from 15 to 25 cents, is to be had in abundance. Most of the mines supplied until first of June. Mr. L. met between Slate Creek and Walla Walla, en route for the mines, 394 packs and 250 head of beef cattle."
In the issue of the Statesman for December 13, 1861, appears the following interesting information concerning the mines and the inducements there offered:
"The tide of emigration to Salmon River flows steadily onward. During the week past, not less than two hundred and twenty-five pack animals, heavily laden with provisions, have left this city for the mines. If the mines are one-half so rich as they are said to be, we may safely calculate that many of these trains will return as heavily laden with gold dust as they now are with provisions.
"The late news from Salmon River seems to have given the gold fever to everybody in this immediate neighborhood. A number of persons from Florence City have arrived in this place during the week, and all bring the most extravagant reports as to the richness of the mines. A report, in relation to a rich strike made by Mr. Bridges of Oregon City, seems to come well authenticated. The first day he worked on his claim (near Baboon gulch) he took out fifty-seven ounces; the second day he took out 157 ounces; third day, 214 ounces, and the fourth day, 200 ounces in two hours. One gentleman informs us that diggings have been found on the bars of Salmon River which yield from twenty-five cents to two dollars and fifty cents to the pan, and that on claims in the Salmon River, diggings have been found where "ounces" won't describe them, and where they say the gulches are full of gold. The discoverer of Baboon gulch arrived in this city yesterday, bringing with him sixty pounds of gold dust, and Mr. Jacob Weiser is on his way with a mule loaded with gold dust."
Within the year more than one and one-half millions of dollars in gold dust had been shipped from the mining districts—a circumstance which of itself was enough to create a widespread and infectious gold-fever. Anticipating the rush for the mines in the year 1862, a great deal of livestock had been brought to the Walla Walla country in the latter part of 1861, while the demands for food products led many ranchers to make provisions for raising greatly increased crops of grain and other produce to meet the demands of the coming season.
The winter of 1861-2 was one of utmost severity, and its rigors entailed a gigantic loss to residents throughout the eastern portion of Washington Territory—a section practically isolated from all other portions of the world for many weeks. It has been said that this "was the severest winter known to the whites on the Pacific Coast." The stock in the Walla Walla country perished by the thousands, the animals being unable to secure feed and thus absolutely starving to death. From December to March the entire country here was effectually hedged in by the vast quantities of snow and the severely cold weather. Not until March 22d do we find the statement in the local newspaper that warm rains had set in and that the snow had commenced to disappear. One result is shown in the further remark that "Occasionally the sun shines out, when the sunny side of the street is lined with men." The loss of stock in this section during that memorable winter was estimated at fully one million dollars, hay having reached the phenomenal price of $125 per ton, while flour commanded $25 per barrel in Walla Walla. It may not be malapropos to quote a list of prices which obtained in the Oro Fino mining region in December, 1861: bacon, fifty to sixty cents per pound; flour, twenty-five to thirty dollars per 100 weight; beans, twenty-five to thirty cents per pound; rice, forty to fifty cents per pound; butter, seventy-five cents to one dollar; sugar, forty to fifty cents; candles, eighty cents to one dollar per pound; tea, one dollar and a quarter to one and a half per pound; tobacco, one dollar to one and a half; coffee, 50 cents.
In view of subsequent gold excitements in Alaska, how familiarly will read the following statements from the Washington Statesman of March 22, 1862: "From persons who have arrived here from The Dalles during the week, we learn that there were some four thousand miners in Portland fifteen days ago, awaiting the opening of navigation to the upper country. Hundreds were arriving by every steamer, and the town was literally filled to overflowing." Under date of April 5th, the same paper gives the following pertinent information: "From one hundred and thirty to one hundred and forty passengers, on their way to the mines, come up to Wallula on every steamer, and the majority of them foot it through to this place (Walla Walla)." By the last of May it was estimated by some that between twenty-five and thirty thousand persons had reached or were en route to the mining regions east of the Cascades, but conservative men now in Walla Walla regard that a great overestimate. The merchants of Walla Walla profited largely through the patronage of the ever advancing column of prospectors and miners, but the farmers did not fare so well, owing to the extreme devastations of the severe winter just passed. Enough has been said to indicate the causes which led to the rapid settlement and development of Eastern Washington and Oregon—an advancement that might have taken many years to accomplish had it not been for the discovery of gold in so romantic a manner. The yield of gold reported through regular channels for the year 1862 aggregated fully seven million dollars, and it is certain that several millions were also sent out through mediums which gave no record.
