1911-1920 - Small archive of materials related to the Silver King Mine

"Wish you would send me $5 or $10 . . . as my old 30-30 is Broke and I want to get it fixed . . . as there is a cooger hanging around. . .."
Elkhorn, Oregon (now a dead post office), 1920.
This lot of consists multiple items:
One canceled check from the Silver King Mining Company,
One application and contract to purchase Silber King Mining Company stock,
Two Silver King Mining Company employment agreements accepting shares of capital stock in lieu of wages,
Two letters on Silver King Mining Company letterhead regarding "grub" needed at the mine,
One note on plain paper enclosed in a Silver King Mining Company envelope, and
One (truncated) file copy of a letter regarding the transfer of a stock certificate. The items are in nice shape.
Two of the covers are postmarked with Doane Type 2, No. 1, "railroad track" cancels. Doane Cancels were the Post Office Department's first attempt to improve postmark legibility by issuing rubber handstamps. The name honors Edith R. Doane a Postal Historian who became interested in these early 20th Century Handstamps in the 1950's. They were used at smaller 4th class post offices where receipts did not exceed $500 in a year. Type 2 Doane Cancels have 2 sets of railroad track type bars with a number in them. They were issued from Sep. 29, 1903 until Jun. 30, 1905. The "1" inside the bars meant the Elkhorn Postmaster annual compensation less than $100.

The contents of two letters suggest that one supervisor and four miners worked the mine and are rather eye-opening with regard to life at site:
"Have recd some of the grub. Wish you would send me $5 or $10 . . . as my old 30-30 is Broke and I want to get it fixed . . . as there is a cooger hanging around. . .. have got to get some nails to do some fixing up things and have borrowed money to by Postage Stamps and tobacco. I hear there has been $150,000 put up to sink on the Silver king, how is it. There was a party here from Portland who tells me that . . . there was some machinery bought for the Silver King. What is it. . .. I have rcd. 100 lbs of flower and the bacon, coffee, one case - tomatoes - and one case milk, beans, and if you have sent anything more I have not recd it old man shire said that was ll that was there - I am out of lard and sugar."
The mine was located in the Lester Mining District on the western slope of the Cascades about 24 miles from the summit of Mt. Jefferson and ten miles from Gates and 17 miles from a railway station at Lyons. The complex consisted of 12 contiguous claims with a total of 240 acres. The "Queen Vein," reached by tunnel contained the best-developed and richest ore. Although only traces of gold, lead, and zinc were present, assays showed in places it contained up to almost 41 ounces of silver per ton. Although no official production numbers were recorded, the mine is remembered for providing a large amount of silver for the relative short time it was operated. It is still accessible and safe to explore as the Bureau of Land Management has left it open and ungated.

A nice grouping of documents from a short-lived, but productive, Oregon silver mine made more interesting by the use of relatively scarce postal handstamps on the company's outgoing mail. (Inventory #: 009370)