Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1859-08-19
Later from Pixies Peak.
The Dark Side of the Picture.

O~IH cHNS " WS L Gufcs
The following from the Rockford Daily Reg
lister, was addressed to L. B. Clark, brother Of
the miner who writes it, a respectable gentle
man of Rockford
Rocky MOUNTAIN VALLEY, July "a, 1859.
DEAR BROTHER y ours of June Gath, was
received July 18th, and you may be sure l was
glad to hear from home, as my last from there
was dated May 9TH. From what l can learn
Horace Greeley has set the Eastern world in q
great excitement with his glowing accounts Of
the gold discoveries in the mountains, and re-
port says, there are now 10000 emigrants on
the way hither, who would have been home
had it not been for said report. Now [ will
tell you what [ know of the mines and what |
think l know. The Gregory diggings bad but
just been opened and they were yielding from
10 cents to 81 per pan. \ large emigration
had just landed, and the sight of gold, since
their expectations had been bIested at Cherry
Greek, produced a tremendous excitement
every man felt himself worth thousands, be-
cause, forsooth, he was in the land of gold, and
nothing to do Lat to dig it out.
The miners, and IN fact every one here. with
a very few exceptions, are the greatest liars /
ever sax. Greeley was here then a few days
AMI swallowed everything that was told him.
That there is gold here, and in large quanti-
ties l do not derry but that one in five hun
dred is doing better than a common day labor
er in the States is untrue. Some say one in a
thousand is a fair average.
There are three kinds of diggins here, viz
lead, gulch and bar. The leads are in the
rocks on the mountains. They are found by
the " Blossom Rock" as it is called or burn
cd stone on the surface, occasioned, as is sup
posed, by internal heat or volcanic action of
some earlier day, which opened the rock, form
ing q scam now full of dirt or rotten stone. in
which the gold is found. Gregory's lead has
only the -four gold, and they are or were the
richest found. These leads commence at the
foot Of the m5,,ntain and run in a northeast
lrn and southwestern direction. The dirt has
to be washed, which requires L?nsidcEab.e wa
ter, and all the water is produced Of SNOW as
it nelts, and that is nearly used up. Besides
this, for some cause, these leads have nearly
ceased to be profitable, or, as they say, lose
the pay dirt"
Some have dug eighteen to twenty feet in
solid rock and have rot found the object of
their search. Claims that once sold for 500
600 Gun now be bought for 81 900! A COM
pany from Cleveland, Ohio, camped near us
and purchased one of these claims, paying down
all they had, even to guns and most of their
provisions.
They worked it nearly four weeks without
one cent of pay dirt, when one of their COM
pany was nearly killed by the unexpected OK
plosion of Il blast. What will become of them
God only knows.
Wages here are only 80 so per day, and it
costs at least 81 per day for board, and work
is very scarce at that. Gulch diggings are
those located in sloughs at the foot of the
mountains. They cannot be worked when the
water is high, and when it is dry they have
more. They have paid well when they could
be worked.
The bar diggings arc on the banks of creeks
and are nearly forsaken at present. 1t requires
two or three months to open a lead, and it may
pay when opened, but no certainty of it
There are a great many sick in the mountains
five died yesterday, and four the day previ-
Gus, in our vicinity, of the mountain fever
our company have been sick, all of us. during
the past two weeks.
Taking all things in consideration, we have
concluded it would be wisdom in us to !" make
tracks for America /! Hundreds are leaving
every day, and as many more coming in.
We shall start tomorrow, oxen permitting,
for home, and hope to reach Council Bluffs in
five weeks. X y
l have a great many things to write you, |
but shall forbear, as | shall soon have a better
way Of communicating thought.
Your brother. II. G. CLARK