Local writer digs into history of Mount Baker miners

| JOSIE LIMING THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

• READ THE BOOK
  
  “The Lone Jack” by Mike Impero is available at Village Books and Henderson Books in Bellingham, at Baker Bear Grocery on Mount Baker Highway, at Maple Fuels in Maple Falls, and at the Graham Store in Glacier.

“So many people kept encouraging me to write a book, I decided I would,” Impero said.

The result, “The Lone Jack: King of the Mount Baker Mining District,” was self-published in November.

Impero and Susie, his wife of 46 years, have deep county roots. They are members of Mount Baker High School’s class of 1959 and have two children and five grandchildren.

Question: Is your book the first of its type?

Answer: It’s the first book to focus on the Lone Jack. I was first inspired more than 40 years ago when I read “Chechaco and Sourdough” (1963) by Percival R. Jeffcott. To the best of my knowledge, that was the first book on Whatcom County gold mining, and it included a chapter on the Lone Jack.

The book that truly inspired my interest in local history was “The Trail Through the Woods: A History of Western Whatcom County” (1982) by Frances Bruce Todd.

Q: Your book is attractive and comprehensive, with many informative graphics. Did you have a lot of help?

A: Susie edited the manuscript — she knows words — and John Munro proofread it. A local graphic designer, Chris Rousseau, did a great job with the photos and illustrations. I actually got help from more people than you could possibly mention, and I’m grateful to all of them.

I included facsimile maps from 1899, 1907 and 1923 in a packet in the back of the book. To the best of my knowledge, nobody here had seen the 1899 map until a guy in California sent me a big box of material, a real treasure trove.

Q: You must have been inspired by the east county “characters” you met in your youth.

A: That’s for sure. I was raised in Maple Falls when it was a pretty rural area. I met lots of people with great stories of the early days of mining in Whatcom County. My father was a logger in the Mount Baker National Forest, and I would get to know a lot of colorful old-timers through him.

Q: Is the Lone Jack still operating?

A: There were three veins: the Lone Jack, the Lulu and the Whist. The Whist is still being mined, when the price of gold makes it worthwhile, by Diversified Development Co. In 2007, it operated from mid-August to mid-October, the only months when snow did not interfere.

Q: Was the Lone Jack profitable?

A: Oh, yes. In 1902, they took out $30,000 a month in gold – that’s about $1.2 million today.

Q: What’s the background on the mine?

A: In the days when Glacier seemed like the end of the world, the Lone Jack was discovered in 1897 by Jack Post. He and his partners, Russ Lambert and Luman Van Valkenburg, briefly operated the mine and soon sold it after it opened. Russ was the father of Sid Lambert, the legendary Nooksack Valley football coach.

Several companies mined the area and each eventually failed in the old days. It was just an incredibly difficult area to mine. It’s really hard today to comprehend how primitive everything was. It was the roughest country you could imagine. A major fire in 1907 destroyed the stamp mill, which was at 3,600 feet. The Lone Jack was at 6,300 feet.

Q: And there was even a murder.

A: Right, an Italian murdered a Swede in the Lulu. The Swede’s body was weighted with ropes and tossed into water, and it didn’t rise until the ropes rotted. And one of my elementary school teachers, Clarence Keplinger, was killed by an avalanche in the area in 1969.

Q: How much research did you have to do?

A: A lot. I started serious research about 5½ years ago. It was so much fun, looking through endless newspapers, books, and government reports in libraries, museums and archives. It really helped that I’m so familiar with the area. I’ve visited every spot mentioned in my book.

Q: Can the public visit the private mine areas?

A: People should not try without permission. People need to remember these are private lands, and they should respect all signs.