By way of rusticating, we took a horseback ride up the valley. Passing through Phoenix, its former dilapidated appearance presented some cheering signs of rising from the ashes; as we noticed a commodious building going up and a brick store repairing and fitting up. We learned that the building is to be used for a flouring mill under the auspices of Mr. Wimer, who owns and has in operation in the place one of the best flouring establishments in the valley; whose energy and enterprise goes far towards keeping the business of the place up.
"Notes by the Way," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, April 29, 1871, page 2

P. Dunn
Elizabeth Hill
    Filed and recorded Feby. 23rd, 1872.

March 15th 1883

HISTORICAL HACK

THE WIMER MINE.

WIMER BROS. & CO.'S MINE.

Wimer Mine Incorporated.

Wimer Mine Incorporated.

    Roswell Wimer, of Salem, is here on a visit with relatives.
"Woodville Items," Medford Mail, August 8, 1902, page 3


Editor Courier--
    In your last issue speaking of platinum in the mines of this portion of the country you say:
    "For a number of years past the placer miner of the western Josephine districts have been finding a quantity of an unknown metal in their sluices at cleanup time. The metal was mixed with the black sand and the miners, being ignorant of its identity and value, threw it from their sluices."
    For 22 years we have been finding considerable quantities of platinum in our annual cleanups and that without making any special effort to catch it, and all of that time we knew that it was platinum. Until recent years there was no market for it. About 18 years ago we sent about nine ounces of it to San Francisco, never receiving a cent for it. They did not consider the matter of sufficient importance to report to us what they did with it. Twenty years ago the Joe Smith Gulch yielded nice lots of it, but as you say, we threw it away. We knew what it was, however.
    Very respectfully,
Rogue River Courier, Grants Pass, January 15, 1903, page 2


    Geo. W. Wimer, Sr., has sold his interest in the Deep Gravel placer at Waldo to A. E. Reames. Mr. Wimer intends to remove from Waldo soon and will hold an auction sale of his household goods on August 22.
"The Local Happenings," Rogue River Courier, Grants Pass, August 6, 1903, page 3


    The tubular elevator for the Deep Gravel hydraulic mines at Waldo has been set and is at work, says manager W. J. Wimer.
"Oregon," Mining and Scientific Press, San Francisco, February 13, 1904, pages 120-121


    The placer mining is confined principally to two large elevator properties immediately adjoining Waldo. The one is known as the Simmons, Logan & Cameron, and the other as the Deep Gravel mine. Both have installed hydraulic elevators of the Hendy type, which are working very successfully, and represent two mines that are numbered among the best hydraulic properties in the West. The former is managed by Mr. James Logan, and the latter, which is owned by A. E. Reames and W. J. Wimer, is managed by Mr. Wimer. The latter is equipped with two large ditches. two and four miles long, respectively, furnishing a pressure of 190 feet to a No. 2 Hendy elevator. The peculiar topography of this mine has necessitated the cutting of a long race, 7,000 feet long, and in some places sixty feet deep, including also a tunnel of 300 feet. This race constitutes a very important part of the present process of hydraulic elevation, which was introduced into operation only during the past year. This method of working the mine, however, has proven a success beyond all doubt, and the Deep Gravel mine will shortly be one of the most lucrative placer mines in the state. A cut of their hydraulic elevator in operation is given below.
Mineral Wealth, Redding, August 1, 1904, pages 40-41


    The Wimer and Simmons mines of Waldo, the Royal Group and Galice Consolidated of Galice, the Sterling and Vance of Forest Creek, and the Columbia and Lewis of Grave Creek, all with their magnificent equipments--their miles and miles of ditches and flumes, thousands of feet of pipe line, their sluices and races, their lighting plants for night work, their powerful batteries of giants, their hydraulic elevators and general hydraulic equipment and buildings as well as their vast acreage of placer ground--at once places them among the very largest and richest of the placer mines of the world. But they are multitudinous, and the imagination is dwarfed in an attempt to comprehend the scope and number of all, great, so very great that, as stated, no attempt can be made here to describe them.
Mineral Wealth, Redding, January 1, 1905, page 8


    W. J. Wimer, of the Deep Gravel mine, near Waldo, has just finished another cleanup after a short run. The results were very gratifying to the management, and verifies the presumption that they have entered the old channel, and that the channel contains excellent pay. They are working their flat ground very successfully with a Hendy elevator under a 41½-foot lift.
Mineral Wealth, Redding, March 1, 1905, page 8


    A jar of gold dust and nuggets was brought in by Manager W. J. Wimer from the Wimer hydraulic mines of Waldo a few days ago. This old Southern Josephine placer has been working continually all winter despite the lack of rain. Mr. Wimer states that they have done very well considering the unusual conditions, and have moved a vast amount of gravel.
Mineral Wealth, Redding, April 1, 1905, page 9


    W. J. Wimer, manager of the Deep Gravel Mining Company of Waldo, was in Grants Pass last Friday and Saturday. At this mine, which is one of the big placer mines of Southern Oregon, is accomplished a feat in lifting gravel not equaled in any other mine on the Pacific Coast, for the gravel is shot up a height of 41½ feet to the sluice that carries away the debris from the mine, and this is done with a head of water of only 192 feet. Mr. Wimer stated that they had a fine run this season, but would shut down during the summer months to make some Improvements and to do some prospecting.
    So far as known, the Deep Gravel mine is one of the richest in the United States in platinum, which is found in minute particles along with the placer gold, and Mr. Wimer has been making thorough investigation of methods for saving the platinum, and he has succeeded so well that he now has 1½ ounces of this rare metal, which is worth more than gold, for it sells for $21 an ounce. Mr. Wimer thinks that there is an extensive deposit of platinum in Oregon and that the placer miners for years past have been losing thousands of dollars worth of this valuable mineral each season by not knowing how to save it. Mr. Wimer has invented a method whereby he is able to save every particle from his sluice boxes, and he has generously consented to prepare an article for the Courier giving the details of his procedure that the miners of Southern Oregon may save what would likely be a good profit to their mining operations did they know how to recognize platinum and how to save it.
Rogue River Courier, Grants Pass, April 28, 1905, page 2


    Editor Courier: Reference to me writing an article on platinum, I will say that your local in the last issue of the Courier reminds me of my promise. What I did say was this, that by recent investigation I have discovered that by our old method of cleaning up our sluice boxes we were losing at least six-sevenths of the platinum, perhaps more, surely not less than that proportion, saving only the very heaviest of it; that a monthly cleanup of about a dozen boxes by taking the black sand up with the amalgam and panning in tub saved 1¾ ounces of platinum, whereas by the old method I would have got but ¼ of an ounce. This gave me 1½ ounces of platinum for my extra trouble.
    Platinum is flat and thin and some of it very light; though heavy, its very shape makes it elusive in running water. To get it all out of the flume one must take up all of the heavy black sand; the shovel must fit close to the bottom of the flume, must be sharp and must be held tight to the bottom and then if great care is not used the platinum will boil over the shovel, and it being the color of water it cannot be seen as it goes over. The old-fashioned way of holding the shovel in the current of water until the amalgam is clean sends all of the platinum over the shovel excepting that which is under the amalgam. Then again the method of panning in the race forfeits the larger portion of what platinum you have recovered from the flume. Panning in a tub hard enough to free the amalgam of black sand sends over the pan into the tub, unobserved with the black sand, nearly all of the platinum. After the amalgam has been panned over, take the sand from the tub and pan it very slowly, keeping a sharp lookout for particles of platinum, retaining the platinum in the pan. Pan down to about a half of a teacup full of detritus, then put this in a blow pan and dry on stove; when thoroughly dry blow the waste matter from the platinum as you would blow black sand from gold. By being careful one can save all of it. It is tedious but it pays. I now have on hand seven ounces of platinum and expect to get as much more in the final cleanup. When we consider that there were but one hundred and ten (110) ounces of platinum reported mined in the United States in 1904, this is not a bad showing for one mine.
    A gentleman well versed in mining lore and strictly reliable informs me that sodium amalgam will amalgamate platinum and that it will amalgamate all kinds of metal but must be used in a rusty pan. It is said to injure the fingers and that it will dissolve in water after it has done its work. This is worth trying, as it is a cheap chemical and is kept at drug stores.
Rogue River Courier, Grants Pass, May 5, 1905, page 4


    A California company has a drill prospecting the Wimer mine, at Waldo.
"Oregon," Mining and Scientific Press, San Francisco, August 12, 1905, page 115


    Col. T. Waln-Morgan Draper has interested San Francisco capitalists to Southern Oregon dredging possibilities, resulting in the bonding of the Deep Gravel Mining Company's property near Waldo. The bonded figure is $100,000. This property has been worked with a hydraulic elevator by W. J. Wimer, a large stockholder and superintendent of the mine producing in the past year about $30,000. The ground is ideal for dredging and very extensive. One Keystone prospecting drill has been used for the past two weeks in testing the deep gravel ground and two more will be added to the prospecting equipment. It is not unlikely that the Logan, Cameron & Simmons mine, adjoining and also worked with a hydraulic elevator, will also be secured. The character of the two properties is identical. The prospecting is conducted under the capable direction of E. B. Frost.
Mineral Wealth, Redding, August 15, 1905, page 8


    Au unofficial report of the production of platinum from the placer mines of Southern Oregon this year puts the figures at 50 ounces. This may seem small, but when it is considered that the entire output of the United States last year, according to the report of the United States Geological Survey, was about 110 ounces, the figures assume an entirely different aspect. About one third of the total amount saved in Southern Oregon came from the Deep Gravel hydraulic mines of Waldo district, where Manager Wimer made an especial effort to save the metal.
    No serious attempt has ever been made to save the platinum sands of the old channel placer deposits of Southern Oregon. Miners have known of it for many years, but have had no inclination to save the stuff because of the tediousness of the work. But those who, this season and last, took the trouble to save the platinum have met with very flattering success, and encouragement is given others to follow their example.
    The method Manager Wimer of the Deep Gravel mines pursued was that of simple panning over vats or tubs of still water. Previously, undercurrents, special sluices and various devices have been tried, but were not a success, or required so much time and attention that the busy placer miner, absorbed in saving the gold, was required to give them up. The plan of Mr. Wimer, and [by] which he was able to save some 18 ounces of platinum at one cleanup, is that of leaving the metal alone till the sluices are cleaned, and gather up at that time with the gold.
    By the customary method of scooping the black sand and gold into piles on the sluice floor, at cleanup, and in running water, means a total loss of the platinum. The flaky particles, closely adhered to the black sand, are easily disturbed, and are washed away by the running water as soon as the miner begins scooping up the mass of metal and debris that has settled between the riffles.
    The method of saving, therefore, becomes the simple method of allowing no water to run in the sluices when cleaning up, but to scoop up the whole mass and pan out over vats or tubs. The first panning is for the gold, allowing the black sand and platinum to boil over. But instead of being washed away, they settle to the bottom of the vat, and are later scooped up The second panning separates the platinum from the black sand. This requires very careful panning, but is easily accomplished if the miner allows ample margin of patience and time.
Mineral Wealth, Redding, January 1, 1906, pages 1-3


    In 1883 the O.&C.R.R. Co. began to build rapidly from Roseburg to Ashland, and late in that year or very early in '84 it arrived at Grants Pass and located the present townsite, which is one mile south of the old overland stage station of that name kept so long by the late Eb Dimick and where J. C. Campbell conducted a stock of general merchandise.
    The first glimpse I got of the town was in May, '84, on my way from Portland in the company of a young lady cousin. We got off there at 10 a.m. for breakfast, the train having been delayed several hours in the Cow Creek canyon by a caved-in tunnel. There was an apology for a hotel where the old Commercial afterward stood, At that time the block bounded by Fifth and Sixth, Front and H streets was covered with houses, cheaply built, tents and tall, swinging bull pine trees. The landlady had bread on the table which no human being could eat if he was where he could run from it. We were fearfully hungry, but we could not eat this petrified mummy. So after eating a dollar's worth of other food I asked the waiter if she wouldn't please take that bread away and get some that was better; she blushed and said she would do her best. She went out the back door, which was in plain sight, and went among those tents and trees to borrow bread. In 15 minutes she came back with the same bread, saying it was impossible to do better, but that as soon as they could bake she would have some good bread.
    The rickety railroad from Roseburg to Grants Pass was built upon stilts and was a sight to look upon. I imagined that the little engines and cars looked tired and was half tempted to suggest that we let them rest while the landlady baked the promised bread. There being no conveyance from Grants Pass to Waldo, we were compelled to go to Waldo via Medford and Jacksonville.
    Soon the town began to grow, and among the pioneers were Campbell & Tuffs, George W. Riddle and J. W. [sic] Howard, general merchandise, Mr. Howard being first. Mrs. C. M. Stone, drugs, came early also. Mrs. McKnight, millinery; Pigney & Cook, blacksmiths; G. Davis, shoe and boot repairing; Geo. Gliessman, bakery; James Jordan, Commercial Hotel; J. R. Jennings, Pioneer Hotel; C. L. Gray and M. V. Loving, jewelers; J. M. Chiles and J. B. Marshall & Son, grocers; Edwin Smith, A. J. Sedge and G. C. Farr, house builders, Geo. W. Merrill, real estate; Robert Przy, barber; Green & Son, gunsmiths; J. B. Huth and L. L. Jennings, saloons; Spears & Freasure, J. S. Flannary and J. B. Schaffer, painters; Volney Colvig and C. K. Chanslor, notaries; Soloman & Ahlf, butchers; Sam White, S. U. Mitchell and Davis Brower, attorneys at law; D. W. Keith, ferry; O. H. Starr, tinner; C. W. Beacom, dentist; Hott & Hardin, brick burners; Drs. W. F. Kremer and F. W. Van Dyke, whose card in the Courier says "German and English spoken." Dr. W. H. Flanagan was also here early. L. S. Smith, livery stable; C. F. Meserve, meat market.
    For the year ending December 31, '86, the Courier summary shows the erection of 60 residences and four improvements; 33 business structures, which includes Rogue River bridge costing complete $9750; S.P.D.&L. [Sugar Pine Door & Lumber] Co.'s factory, $32,500; county jail, $1000; Courier's first building $400, it was on Front Street, three doors from Palace Hotel, west; M.E. church, $1200; Bagley Hotel (now Western, built where the First National Bank now is) $4000 and court house, $2800.
    Prof. Benson was principal of the school and was assisted by Miss Gertie Pollock. The Courier of April 23, '86, says of the schools: "Whole number of organized districts, 23; number of male school children, 558, females, 536; total of pupils enrolled during year ending March 1, '86, 727; average wages paid teachers, males $39.75; females $24.50. (The county tax rolls that year showed $14,000.) Annual apportionment, April 6, '86, Grants Pass had 185 school children and drew $142.50. Total amount of school money distributed during the year in the county, $1647. A. J. Chapman, superintendent.
    I am of the opinion that an artesian flow of water can be got by boring for it in the Grants Pass basin; if this could be realized, Grants Pass would experience a growth utterly impossible without it. The Courier of Jan. 21, '87, says: "Messrs. Stricker & Newrath informs us they have bored a well at their brewery on Gilbert Creek 30 feet deep which when the driving cap is removed throws a stream of soft, sparkling water the size of the pipe. I went to examine for myself and witnessed the fact that the flow was good and strong on the basement floor, but the water pipe was extended to the upper floor, when the flow of water ceased. The Herald-Disseminator, commenting on this, said: "This water is said to be of a very superior quality, cold, pure and sparkling like newly opened champagne. The water is quite strongly impregnated with carbolic acid and therefore is to be highly valued for its medicinal and curative properties." I know also that Mr. Hardin dug a well at his brick yard on the north side and that he dug as deep as possible in the evening before quitting. During the night the hardpan he was in gave way and in the morning his well was full of water. When I went to California in '88 I carefully looked up the artesian flow of water in that state. I bought a book and sent it to George B. Curry, then the editor of the Courier, requesting him to take up and discuss the book's contents in the Courier, which showed that the conditions in Grants Pass were identical. He not only ignored the subject but kept the book, making no reply to me personally when I met him. In California they have artesian flow where the elevation is surrounded by mountains or hill ranges and underlaid with stratums of hardpan which confines the water that follows the bedrock down from the hills and gives pressure. These are the conditions at Grants Pass.
Rogue River Courier, Grants Pass, February 23, 1906, page 1


    W. J. Wimer, the well-known miner of Waldo, passed through Grants Pass Tuesday en route to Wimer, a village on Evans Creek seven miles from Woodville, where was he invited to be one of the speakers at the celebration at that place on the Fourth.
    The post office of Wimer was named for Mr. Wimer, an honor that was given him for the assistance he gave in getting the office established. At that time, which was about 30 years ago, Mr. Wimer resided in Grants Pass and was publisher of the Courier. The settlers up Evans Creek had tried to get a post office but the then Woodville postmaster prevented their securing it. Mr. Wimer took up the matter and through Congressman Hermann's influence the department granted the application. Simon Simpkins, miner of that locality, was made postmaster and kept it at his house for several years until a store was established, when the office was moved to it.
Rogue River Courier, Grants Pass, July 6, 1906, page 4


    W. J. Wimer, manager of the Deep Gravel Mines, one of the big placers near Waldo, was in Grants Pass Monday. Mr. Wimer stated they finished their cleanup two weeks ago and it yielded sufficient gold, which with what they heretofore secured, to make their season's run quite profitable.
    Manager Wimer has begun work putting the mine in shape for next season's work. He now has a force of men moving the elevator that lifts the tailings to the large race that carries them to the dump. As it is from 60 to 70 feet to bedrock and this elevator is one of the most powerful in a mine in Southern Oregon, but so successfully does it do its work that it keeps the mine clear and the boulders and gravel are shot out of it by the terrific force of the water as though mere paper balls. Owing to this mine being located on the low bottom adjacent to the Illinois River the handling of the tailings by gravity could not be accomplished, so it was necessary to install a powerful hydraulic elevator. Heretofore the entire banks have been cut down by the giants in the mine, necessitating the lifting of vast quantities of earth and gravel to race to carry it to the dump. Where they will pipe this next year the upper 30 feet of the bank will be above the race so that it would be possible to use a surface pipe and cut off the top section of bank and drive it direct to dump. That would leave only 20 to 40 feet of the lower section to be handled by the elevator. Mr. Wimer has not decided on the installation of a surface pipe to lessen the work for the elevation but may do so. The Deep Gravel mine has one of the largest and most constant water supplies or any placer in Southern Oregon. Two large ditches bring in the water from the Illinois River, and as this stream heads in the Siskiyou Mountains the snow keeps up a steady flow of water until late in the season.
Rogue River Courier, Grants Pass, July 27, 1906, page 1


    Mrs. W. J. Wimer, who has been at Ashland, where Mary is attending school, spent a few days last week with her husband at the Deep Gravel Mining Company.
"Waldo," Rogue River Courier, Grants Pass, January 11, 1907, page 8


    More than 20 ounces of pure flake platinum were recently sorted and saved from the gold amalgam during the cleanup of the Deep Gravel hydraulic mines, of Waldo district. These mines, under the management of W. J. Wimer, are becoming famous as producers of platinum, notwithstanding their being among the very oldest placer gold properties in Oregon, having been operated for a half century. Mr. Wimer discovered a few years ago that the black sands of his diggings were rich in platinum, and he set about devising some means of saving these very elusive values during the regular work of mining for gold. Undercurrents, special sluices and other methods were tried, also the settling vat system, and panning the residue over tubs and vessels of still water. By giving the problem much study and attention, he has improved the methods and hit upon a means whereby nearly all of the platinum values of the diggings can be saved without interfering with the placer gold operations. For this purpose the Deep Gravel Mining Company is now having installed one of the largest and most complete platinum mining and saving plants ever built on any American property. The plant consists of many special appliances and is being set up by an expert from the Joshua Hendy Machine Works, of San Francisco, which company manufactured it. As platinum is now worth $34 an ounce, placer miners find it highly profitable to devote a little of their time and attention toward saving it.
Northwest Mining Journal, May 1907, page 69


    W. J. Wimer, Grants Pass, Oregon
"Oregon's Photographers," Oregon Journal, Portland, September 8, 1907, page 14


    Few Oregon pioneers have had a more varied experience, and few have done more for their particular localities than has W. J. Wimer of Josephine County. Mr. Wimer has served as revenue inspector, has been farmer, stockraiser, merchant, Indian fighter, editor, postmaster and miner. He has been identified with Josephine County since its organization, and bears the honor of being one of the strong supporters of its principal city.
    Grants Pass, Or., March 16.--W. J. Wimer was born in Iowa, September 8, 1848, and crossed the plains by ox team in 1863. He first located in Yamhill country, where he was appointed United States revenue inspector, in which capacity he served for several years. He moved to Southern Oregon in the late '60s. He was appointed postmaster for the pioneer mining town of Waldo in 1877, served 10 years and resigned. Mr. Wimer has been a resident of Waldo practically all of the time since, the exception being a few years in which he was editor of the Courier, of Grants Pass, when that town was in swaddling clothes.
    Mr. Wimer is the only man left of the original company organized to operate the big hydraulic placer mines of which he is and has been manager. This company was organized in 1878. Though Mr. Wimer made a snug fortune in the mercantile business and in mining during his years of hard work in Josephine County, he spent it nearly all in bettering his locality, for building roads and making other improvements for the public good.
    Mr. Wimer was a prime mover in building a wagon road from Waldo and Kerby over the Siskiyou Mountains to Crescent City, Cal., to give better transportation facilities to the pioneer mining camps, in 1882. The Oregon & California railroad had been built as far as Roseburg, from Portland, and there seemed but little hope of it getting further. So the wagon road was built. Wimer & Sons put $14,000 into its construction. In return for this the county gave them $3000 in scrip. The road was a marvel and yet remains one of the very best mountain highways in the Pacific country. It was first used as a toll road, and promised well, as the toll receipts the first year amounted to $3000. Then the railroad pushed on south from Roseburg and the wagon road over the Siskiyous became a bad business venture.
    To complete the wagon road over the mountains to the coast, Mr. Wimer offered to donate all of it that his firm had built on the Oregon side of the summit. The offer was accepted. And thus was built the "Grants Pass-Crescent City stage road," one of the longest stage lines remaining in operation in America.
    Mr. Wimer backed the Grants Pass Courier, the county's first paper, in 1886. In order to "keep it going," he was obliged to become editor and manager of the publication. Thus he became early associated with the new town of Grants Pass, which had sprung up on the railroad. The county seat was moved over Hays Hill, and Grants Pass became the metropolis and trade center, not only for Josephine, but for a large portion of Jackson County, as well.
    The pioneer firm of Wimer & Sons, which consisted of Jacob Wimer, the father, and W. J. and George W. Wimer, the two sons, operated two stores at Waldo. These were later consolidated. The firm also operated a flouring mill and fine farm at Murphy, on Applegate River, and opened a branch store there. The firm spent $150,000 improving and equipping the Deep Gravel hydraulic mine. The mine was then, and remains, one of the largest and best-equipped hydraulic properties in America. Mr. Wimer found that a great amount of real values were being lost by carelessness. He discovered, also, that much platinum was being lost by throwing away the black sands of the diggings. He found a means of saving these values without interfering with placer gold operations, and now his mine produces one-third of all the platinum mined in this country.
    Mr. Wimer is and always has been a firm believer in the "gospel of work." He has worked and toiled untiringly and unselfishly, always with an open hand and free heart for the common good.
Oregon Daily Journal, Portland, March 16, 1910, page 6

[William] J. WIMER.

BELIEVES MINING WILL BE COUNTY'S LEADING INDUSTRY
(Written by Request.)

W. J. WIMER.

REGULATION OF THE POLITICAL CRIMINAL

(By W. J. Wimer.)

NECESSITY OF ALLOWING SALE SALMON TROUT.

W. J. WIMER.

Believes Canneries Kill Steelheads

"W. J. WIMER."

W. J. WIMER, PIONEER, DIED MONDAY NIGHT

Joe Deans Both Had Early Day Kin in County

Grandfather Early Owner of Courier