The Lost Doukobor Mine

Argentite aka Acanthite
Photo by Rob Lavinsky

In autumn of 1929 lightning struck in Gold Creek Basin and started a forest fire in the area behind Hubbard Ridge, to the north of Flagstaff Mountain.  Although the fire was in Washington State the nearest crew for fighting the fire was a crew of twenty-five Doukobors from Rossland, British Columbia.  The Doukobors were a religious sect that migrated from Russia mainly during 1899 that were mainly farmers, but many of the men worked on the railroad while their women did the actual farming.

While the Doukobors were fighting the fire it jumped their fireguard and engulfed their camp in flames.  The firefighters ran for their lives.  Once the fire was finally extinguished they conducted a headcount and discovered two of their crew was missing.  The next morning the missing men rejoined their crew.

The Doukobors told the rest of their crew how they had managed to keep ahead of the flames.  During the night they took shelter at the base of a landslide where they discovered a vein of galena, an ore of lead and silver.  The men took samples of this ore that they brought back with them.  One of the workmen named Ray Wiley recalled later, “It was fine grained argentite – high grade silver ore.

The ore was sent to the CM&S Company’s assay office in Trail, British Columbia where it was assayed at over 1,000 ounces of silver per ton, thus it was bonanza ore.  Later in 1930 the Doukobors in company with some geologists returned looking for the rich vein of galena at the foot of a landslide.  They were unable to find a trace of the silver ledge, nor even the landslide.

Since that time many other prospectors have searched in Gold Creek Basin for the lost Doukobor Mine, but all their attempts to find the galena bearing ledge have failed.

Peter Janni’s Silver Chimney

Tetrahedrite
Photo by Rob Lavinsky

This story sounds almost like it is untrue, but if you’ve ever worked for an old country contractor you know you can’t tell them anything.  The principal character in this tale was a one Peter Janni that was born in Italy in 1874 that eventually came to America to work on the railroad.  Eventually he fetched up in Northport, Washington where he proceeded to buy a limestone quarry just south of the town.  Janni sold limestone all over the state of Washington out of his quarry.

This quarry is located in the tetrahedrite zone in northern Stevens County.  The ore deposits are found in vugs and a structure called a chimney where narrow veins of galena bearing large percentages of silver are sometimes found.  In 1953 the quarry workers at Janni’s quarry found such a chimney that measured roughly 5 x 6 feet on the second level of the quarry.

The workers followed the chimney down and shipped almost forty tons of ore to the lead refinery owned by the CM&S Company in Trail, British Columbia.  Once they had reached down the chimney for fifteen feet Janni came over to where they were working and told the men to, “Cover the damn thing up.”  The men pleaded with Janni to let them continue following the chimney, but Janni refused telling them, “Maybe someday we will dig her up again.”

Nobody has any idea what got into Janni’s head that day, but according to some old timers still living in Northport this rich chimney is still in the quarry where it is it is buried under tons of limestone still on the second level.