After all these years I carry a significant list of family surnames in my mind. Whether researching a document online, or perusing a book from my shelf, I tend to always check for those names. I could be researching family and history unrelated to my own, yet I’ll always hit “ctrl+F” while online or check the index in books to see if those family surnames appear.
What I’ve found is that there is a surprisingly high rate of success in finding tidbits of information about my own family if the other research I am doing is at least geographically related to where my family had been. The other factor leading to that success is a topic I’ve mentioned before; that the relatively low population over a large geographic area led to more frequent intertwining of that population, and hence, more connections to other pioneering families.
And so, it was one day, while researching for another project, that I checked an index for those surnames of mine, and found a reference to Jim Fisk Creek. The creek is located on the south side of the Wallowa Mts., just west of the mining town of Cornucopia. And looking at a map of the creek I found a marker for the Jim Fisk Mine, just to the northwest of Cornucopia.
The only Jim Fisk I knew of was James Howard Fisk (1884-1947), my great grandfather. How was it that in all the research into my own family I had no idea about the mine or the creek? I began researching my grandfather anew, found another reference for the creek being named for him, and naturally, wondered why?
I wondered what grandfather had done, what was so significant that both the creek and the mine would have been named for him? There had to be a story and I am determined to find it. And so the search began, and led me to research all things Cornucopia.
Of all the gold mining that took place in the late 1800’s there are few as significant as the gold discovered in the Cornucopia mine complex. Between 1880 and 1946 approx. $20 million in gold and silver were extracted from 36 miles of tunnels that were gouged into the steep mountains above Fisk and Pine Creek, giving rise to the town of Cornucopia.
But for the wealth of information that can be found from mining records located in Baker City and online, numerous books on the subject, first-hand accounts that have been written, and diaries, I have yet to find a single mention of Jim Fisk relating to the creek or the mine. From Canyon City to Sumpter, from Echo to Enterprise, from Boise to Wallowa, my grandfather moved with work, and was definitely near Cornucopia when the mines were booming, and the mining town of Cornucopia rose above Pine Creek.
It feels like my grandfather is a ghost, in the background of photos of miners and the town, carrying a pole down to the creek to fish. I know he was there. His son, my beloved great Uncle Howard was born there. Yet as often happens to those of us who do family research, we can be surrounded by a wealth of information, yet find nothing.
As much as it feels like I have failed to answer the original question about my grandfather, I have discovered so much more. In my searches I ran across a recent article in the Baker City Herald, March 4, 2023, titled, “Golden Cornucopia: Documentary Explores History of Baker County’s Richest Mining District.” John Webb (Copia Film) , who is currently producing the documentary (hopefully soon to be featured on this website), had followed a similar path as I in learning about the history of Oregon, of mines, and of family.
In the article there is a collection of photos, and one that caught my eye, not because it was a fine old photograph, but because of the name of the small boy in the picture, a name that tickled that list of surnames I keep in my head.
Jesse Brown. A house buried under the staggering snowfall of those high, steep mountains of Oregon. A feeling that reached out to me from that photo. This is family, I said to myself.
Part II coming soon…
