A Short History of Mining around Oroville Washington

by Jim Creegan

Come See where mining began in Washington State. Oroville the site of the 2003 Dredge Earth First Rally and the upcoming 2004 NW Miners rally and Oroville Heritage Days.  From the first placer gold discovery on the Similkameen River in October 1859 to the first lode gold location being established on Palmer Mt. above the town of Loomis.

The placer strike was found by a company of soldiers from the 9th Infantry, lead by Capt. JJ Archer. They found extremely rich placers on a bar, which soon became known as Rich Bar. It is estimated that $300,000 in gold came from this area of the river, some nuggets in excess of two ounces. As the easy placers were being worked out the other great discoveries were being made elsewhere in the area, such as Granite Creek on the upper Similkameen. A man nicknamed "Last Chance Johnny" found a gold nugget gleaming up at him right on the surface of the streambed. Many rich lode deposits of free milling gold and exceedingly rich silver were discovered all through out the area. One mine on Palmer Mt. had a rich surface deposit that ran $3,900 to the ton. 

The local legend "Okanogan" Smith, the first European settler to the area in 1857, brought the fruit industry here with his fruit trees imported from Canada. Smith was quite the mining man as well. He located many lode claims between the town of Oroville and Mt. Chopaka on the east flank of the Cascades. This area is known as the 15 mile strip was part of Chief Moses' Indian Reservation but was thrown open to mineral entry by the government in 1883. Smith was very instrumental in this land transferring back into public domain. Smith also operated placers just north of the border and east of Oroville on Rock Creek, this area historically produced coarse gold. This creek was also the next in line to be stampeded by the miners from the Similkameen diggings.

A small creek on the US side that parallels Rock Creek is Mary Ann Creek, it sits west of the old historic mining town of Chesaw. This creek has a noted placer mining history , it was first worked by the Chinese and their workings can still be seen in many locations along the stream.

Oroville is a very unique place, in every direction you travel from the town there is some kind of mining or early pioneering sight or implement. History is well preserved here and the friendly people of the area love to talk to travelers and share their rich history with them.