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Chronicling America
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Newspaper The Sumpter Miner (Sumpter, Or.) 1899-1905

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About The Sumpter Miner (Sumpter, Or.) 1899-1905

The motto of the Sumpter Miner, adopted four years after the newspaper’s launch in 1899, sums up its short-lived raison d’être: “Eastern investors in Oregon mines pay for and read it.” The weekly newspaper covered the spectacular boom and bust of this central Oregon town in the years between 1899 and 1905.

The 12-page Miner was robust with local coverage, although it served more as a cheerleader for mining interests than an objective lens on the community. The Miner was, essentially, a trade publication. Its first edition, issued September 13, 1899, recounts how out-of-state “men of money” and English capitalists were showing interest in local investments and reported that the town’s first bank was preparing to open. Months later, advertisers were boasting that Sumpter was the “Johannesburg of America.” The ads noted that the town had 30 fire hydrants, four saw mills, one steam laundry, four dry goods stores, three jewelers, 16 saloons and “a number of secret societies.” (Sumpter also had a red light district and a Chinatown.) The abundance of advertisers helped support two newspapers; the other local weekly was the Blue Mountain American.

In 1900–the peak year of gold mining at Sumpter–$8.9 million in ore was extracted from 35 area mines. Articles in the Miner painted an optimistic portrait of the town, naming those who struck it rich and quoting outsiders who praised the city: the area was “favorably compared with California mines” and “destined to attract attention of the world.” In the Talk of the Town column, men were associated with the names of the mines they worked, such as Red Boy and North Pole, rather than their hometowns. Rarely did the newspaper mention mining accidents.

In the Miner’s final years, reports began to hint at declining revenues. Some mine owners had taken to hiring mediums to tell them where to dig tunnels. Advertisements were smaller and appeared to be responding to criticism: “An investment, not a speculation,” one read. “This is not one of those so call get rich quick schemes,” insisted another. Several mines announced they were closing for the winter, or for repairs. One simply could not attract a buyer. A rumor circulated that the Miner’s publisher, James. W. Connella, had broadcast the existence of a new claim worth $160,000 in an attempt to lure prospectors back to the shrinking town. Without mining, it was obvious the Sumpter Miner would cease to exist.

In the familiar pattern of boom-and-bust in many Western towns, all of this proved futile. As the Sumpter mines tapped out and investors pulled out, Connella announced to his readers that he would be changing the newspaper’s name to the Inland Empire Miner and moving its headquarters to Baker City, a larger town 30 miles away. Connella wanted a more central location with quicker mail facilities, he wrote, but above all, he hoped to “rid the Miner of the heavy handicap of being considered merely a ‘local’ paper, which drawback to recruiting general business, it has been impossible to overcome here.”

Provided By: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Sumpter Miner (Sumpter, Or.) 1899-1905

Dates of Publication

  • 1899-1905

Created / Published

  • Sumpter, Or. : C.H. Marsh & J.W. Connella, 1899-1905.

Headings

  • -  Mineral industries--Oregon--Newspapers
  • -  Sumpter (Or.)--Newspapers
  • -  Mineral industries
  • -  Oregon
  • -  Oregon--Sumpter
  • -  United States--Oregon--Baker--Sumpter

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 1, no. 1 (Sept. 13, 1899)-v. 6, no. 33 (Apr. 12, 1905).
  • -  Also issued on microfilm from University of Oregon.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format as part of the Historic Oregon Newspaper online collection.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format as part of the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Inland empire miner (DLC)sn 96088471 (OCoLC)36384300

Medium

  • 6 volumes

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn96088466

OCLC Number

  • 36384292

ISSN Number

  • 2333-1488

Succeeding Titles

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

The Sumpter Miner Sumpter, Or. -1905. (Sumpter, OR), Jan. 1 1899. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn96088466/.

APA citation style:

(1899, January 1) The Sumpter Miner Sumpter, Or. -1905. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn96088466/.

MLA citation style:

The Sumpter Miner Sumpter, Or. -1905. (Sumpter, OR) 1 Jan. 1899. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn96088466/.