The Loomis Mining Boom
New York capital eyes the Palmer Mountain mines as experts arrive to begin large-scale tunnel operations.
Henry Bahrs, a longtime Okanogan mining promoter, has returned from the east to manage a new project for Charles H. Brooks, a New York mining operator. Brooks has bonded the Gerhard group and secured other claims on the west slope of Palmer Mountain. Unlike previous haphazard attempts at mining in the region, Brooks intends to use modern, systematic methods, including driving a major working tunnel to access deep mineral ledges. Brooks, who has successfully operated mines in Mexico and the U.S., is expected to arrive in June to commence full-scale operations.
“One producing and paying mine would do more to draw attention to the mineral deposits of this section and induce investment than all the representations that could be made by press or promoter.”
The transition from small-scale 'prospector' mining to industrial-scale corporate extraction defined the Okanogan economy in the early 20th century. Today, the ghost towns and tunnel ruins near Loomis serve as permanent reminders of the boom-and-bust cycle that followed these cycles of outside investment.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.