In writing to a friend in this
city [Hamilton] Mr. David D. Young, formerly of the Great Western Railway,
gives the following interesting information: --
"To form some idea how
fortunes are picked up in Manitoba, I will tell you a case that I am fully
acquainted with.
"Mr. Sam VanBuskirk, a young
man from the Township of Townsend, who used to attend school in the same
schoolhouse I taught in twenty-three years ago, took up a homestead and
preemption two and a half miles west of my place a little over a year ago.
"This place was to all
appearances too wet for first class agricultural purposes and had been
neglected by land hunters. Everyone laughed at Sam for taking it up, but
he discovered some curious mineral springs thereon and with spade and pick
he began digging, and soon brought to light an iron mine about 100 acres
in extent, also large quantities of yellow ochre, fire brick, and bath
brick clay.
"The iron is termed bog ore,
and I believe, very valuable, about 500 lbs. to the ton. What makes
matters better, it is easily mined, lying only from two to eight feet
below the surface. The Souris [sic] coal fields are not far off.
"No one can begrudge Sam his
luck, for he is a fine fellow. His mine is only ten miles southwest of
Brandon."
