Minnesota Gold!

The announcement in yesterday’s Pioneer that gold has been discovered in St. Louis county, this State, created a flutter in our financial market second to no excitement ever witnessed in St. Paul. Half breed scrip suddenly jumped from $3.25 to $12.00 per acre, and at sunset there was none to be had even at that price. 

The fact that gold bearing quartz can be obtained almost at our doors netting thirty dollars per ton, will immediately turn the tide of California emigration to Minnesota. In the former State quartz is considered profitable for crushing when worth from eight to ten dollars per ton, while the Josephine ledge in Mariposa has worked thousands of tons at a good profit that were worth by six dollars per ton, and a majority of the best paying mines on the entire Pacific coast, have averaged less than $25.00 per ton. 

Quartz from the Minnesota mines was sent to New York and to Philadelphia at about the same time. The Assayer of the Philadelphia Mint reports that the quartz is worth $30.05. The Government Assayast of New York, Prof. Kent – second to no authority in America – says that the quartz is worth $31 per ton.

The next question that arise in the minds of capitalists, are – how far is the mine from Lake Superior, and what are the facilities for getting the quartz into DuLuth, at the terminus of the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad?

We are happy to be able to state that the vein is but a few miles from DuLuth, and that a charter was obtained thirteen months ago for a railroad from DuLuth to Lake Vermillion, by gentlemen of this city, who secretly posted themselves relative to the value and location of the mines, and as once located their line in the immediate vicinity of the richest veins. 

In order that the Pioneer shall be first in placing all valuable information relative to this great discovery before the public, we this day dispatch a special reporter to the ground, with instruction to give us at the earliest possible moment a full description of these valuable mines. We are happy to state that for this special and important duty we have secured the able services of Ossian E. Dodge, Esq., of this city, who has just returned from visiting nearly all of the mines in California, and is author of the Spectacle sketches lately published in the Press.