The Mining Promoter Who Told Would-Be Miners to Stay Home

SPOKANE, May 29.—Col. W. Thomas Hart, whose name has become familiar to the public on account of his extensive operations in the new Slate Creek mining district, came down from Montana last night on his way to the mines, and is registered at the Spokane. Col. Hart is an exceedingly modest, unassuming man, which may be judged from the fact that he even requested the Spokesman-Review reporter to say nothing about his presence in the city.

“But, colonel,” persisted the reporter, “your name is synonymous with the development of the Slate Creek mines, and you are therefore a subject of public interest.”

“Yes, I have attained some prominence on account of my operations there, and I am sorry it is so. I went in there quietly and hoped to carry on the work without attracting unusual attention. We have been doing some work, it is true, but it is not of nearly so much importance as the public seems to think.”

“It is true, is it not, that you have bonded a dozen or more claims, and have fifty or seventy men at work building a road?”

“Oh, yes, I bonded some claims, and have been building a trail, as there was no way to get supplies in there. But the building of the trail was not such a stupendous undertaking, and it did not cost such a pile of money.”

“You are going to develop the claims, are you not?”

“Yes, we are going to do development work.”

“And build mills or reduction works?”

“No, no, nothing of that kind—not this summer, at least. We don’t really know what we’ve got there yet, and that’s what we’re doing in there now—trying to find out.”

“It’s a good camp, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it’s a promising camp.”

After continued and persistent questioning, during which Col. Hart insisted that his operations were of no consequence, and that the camp had not yet been sufficiently tested to determine what it amounted to, he said, in substance:

“Really, I think it best that the papers say as little as possible until it is determined what it amounts to. You can readily see the awkward position I would be placed in in an interview. If I say the camp doesn’t amount to anything, people will think it is a good thing, and that I am trying to corral it all for myself. If I represent it as a good camp and people go in there on my say-so, and the camp turns out to be of no account, there you are again. I have always discouraged people from going in there. I knew there was nothing for them to do when they got there, as there was no work for them and the snow was too deep for prospecting. Men would push in over the trail we were building at the imminent risk of their lives, and when we put up notices warning them of danger ahead on account of blasting and the condition of the trail, they only pressed on the harder, because they thought there must be something good in there that we were trying to deprive them of.

“We have completed the trail and the men have been discharged. Perhaps a third of them have been set to work developing claims. We shall continue this development. We have not yet done enough to really tell what we have there. We are going ahead in an honest effort to find out. The outlook is favorable, and the true merits of the camp will be known in time. The premature publication of flattering reports of new camps before their true merit is known always does harm. They often cause a stampede, and in the end prove a detriment to the country and the mining industry.”