Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1855-05-24
From the California Chronicle, March 7.
MONSTER GOLD BUOLDER WORTH
a.. .OOO 0On

MONSTER GOLD BUOLDER WORTH
$4,000, 900.
The following letter has been handed to us
for publication with the assurance that it is au-
thentic. A grocer at North Beach offered, on
Saturday before last, his stock of goods for sale
with the expressed intention of going to Kern
River. lie went of, with several friends, in a
great blustcr, on the America, the next morning.
Our informant bought the stock of goods, took
possession of the grocery, and found in the back
room quantity of deserted clothes and papers,
among Others this letter, which had no post
mark, but apparently had been carried for some
time in pocket. If the letter be true, the
great boulder will no doubt become famous the
void over.
lJoNEs' CAMP, KERN RIVER,
! Feb l4th, 1855.
Dear BOb:-Sell out your grocery and come
down here right straight. Come as soon as you
can. Every day gone is the half fortune
Don't forget to bring good supply of stone
chisels and drills, couple of hammers and of
kegs of powder, but I'm id afraid shall
starve to death before you come.
This is the way of it. Four weeks ago left
Fort Miller to see the Kern River country, and
with little thought of mining Well, came,
and saw that the miners were doing pretty
well, but | found no claim rich enough to suit
me. was making ready to leave two weeks
before Monday, and on Sunday Iwcnt out hunt
ing On the edge of little stream styled Pol
ulume Greek, I shot hare, and he managed to
run Oft. was out of caps and could not shoot
him again. He was in full sight all the time,
and followed him through the oak opening,
and the greater part of the time he was little
more than ten feet ahead of me. Just at the
foot of the mountain succeeded, after many at
tempts, in hitting him with a club. was thor
oughly tired, and laid down in the shade of
large rock. After got rested, was SO hungry
that kiudled Il fire, dressed my hare, and fixed
him up before tho fire to roast.
While it was there doing good, sat down
and began to pick at the rock with my butcher
knife. picked away for some minntcs, hardly
looking at the rock, when all at once observed
Z a little gold in it. jumped up, and by Jupi-
ter I tho whole bo;llder-about ten feet high
and wide, and twice as long-was lousy with
gold In one side there was place about two
feet square, where the quartz was richer than
any ever saw in the San Francisco assay Office.
l picked out $40 with my knife in half an hour
| danced like crazy man; and il had not
been afraid, would have yelled worse than
thousand Indians at war dance. can liken
my feelings to anything ever felt on earth. At
first felt scared at the thought of how rich
would be, and my heart rose In my throat then
l felt as though had been chased hard by the
devil, and had managed to get inside of Heav-
ems gate just as Satan was about to catch me
by the coat tail. 1t was not long before got
over my happy spell. I had no money; no
tools; provisions were high l had no friends,
and no acquaintance. ate my hare, and
staid at the rock thinking, till it was too late
to 60 home. Igot - cold; laid down and
I tried to sleep, but could not; got up and
walked back and forth, thinking all night. II
was terrible, miserable night.
8 In the morning, when the sun shone upor
f the rock, | was happy again. estimate
its value at not less than $2,000,0O0, possibly
f $S,OOO,O 900, or $40, 600, 600 it might be /! Now
, Bob, don't laugh at me. Twas desperately wild
with joy. I, who had been dreamer and a
poor devil SO long, was to be rich to be king
to be able to carry into execution the darling
schemes which have so often brought the ridi
! cule of the stick-i .the-muds upon me! Ant
Q last of all to be able to go home and claim Ro
q setta, under the hard conditions claimed b,
&. your father.
Towards noon got hungry. Iwont up tn
side of the mountain to some pine trees, in th'
r sides of which tho squirrels had placed acorn
in holes made by woodpeckers in search o
t worms. dug out q lot of tho acorns, carriet
: them down to the creek, ate them with fine pep
: per-grass growing alongside Of a spring.
y went back to the rock and staid there till thre
d o'clock, studying what to do. could not re
g solve. then went to my camp about eigh
Q miles off. The folks wanted to know what wa
l. the matter. said had wounded buck an
9 got lost in chasing him. / bought some provis
= ions, another revolver, pick and shovel an
Q pan, and went back. About fifty yards fror
n the rock was q trail, upon which the mine,
d passed every day and was afraid to work i
,e the day. AT night went to work and cut o
v a corner of the rock, but I soon broke the pic
r SO that it was useless. could find no CHS,
,r or hammer, People got suspicious Of me. Se'
ns eIal followed me. Ono man found me sittin
it down not hundred yards from the rock. Igc
m scared. carried water in my bucket the whol
as two miles from the stream and made mut
a. with which washed over the whole rock.
ut doing this had to get twenty-seven buckets (
of water, and just that job alone compelled me
Z. walk one hundred and eight miles, and was
in whole week about it, doing greater portion
d. the work at night, and sleeping in the day tim
YER I am nearly starved out watching the roc
I went to mining at Jones camp for q few day
te. and now am waiting with the greatest imp
IN tience for you to come, with every preparati'
ire necessary for breaking up the boulder. Aft
I've we get it into pieces we can melt sufficient in
es, crucibles to pay all our expenses and buy