Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1864-03-17
DoDGEyILLE WISCONSIN, THURSDAY, MARCH H. 1864.

II 1/e 1iOO-fs s5ffy va" HittE
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| / suppose the. upper end of the claim
must t.liesomewhere in the vicinity of the
north polr.s Itathas sometimes been a
question in my mini whether the sides
run back in parallel lines as is generally
supposed, or whether they converge to-
wards the pole, like degrees of oflongltude,
certainly if they do not converge they
must overlap each other as they approach
the poles and tits possible that when, l
get to work on the upper end Of my
claim. some great dispute may arise in
the matter, to be settled, Of course, By
that august tribunal miners meeting.
The crowd which came in here in the
spring, not finding all they had hoped
| for, were eager, to a wonderful extent,
for making new discoveries This fact
may be accounted Tor in part, by the
peculiar character Of those who rushed
in hither, they were evidently an excita-
bic class. They were made up of old
40 Californians. who had made and lost
a half a. dozen fortunes, Of prospectors by
profession who can never wait to work
out claim, but are always son the pros
pect," of men who did not make their
piles, by nearly being q little too late
into Orc Fino and Florence, and, Of des-
! perate characters, who for sundry reasons
/ prefer wild mountain life, before any
other. The streets OF Placeryille and Of
Bannock, now rapidly growing in i'm
portance as towns, were daily thronged,
and on Sundays overwhelmed with men,
anxiously ENDURING Of one another, as in
the days Of Old Athens, 'if there was
anything new vague rumor would
often run through the crowd of a '.big
prospect" being found somewhere in the
mountains, and though the ruror could
! betraced to no reliable or definite source,
1 still hundreds stood ready to pack their
4 ponies or take their load on theiF back
and put out, for new diggings. In the
month Of May had the pleasure OF going
out on one Of these excitcmsnts, and
though it resulted as most such excite
ments have in total failure, the strange
novelty ofthe thing fully compensated for
the time aud labor it cost It was in
search of a discovery said to have been
made on Wood River, or South Boise,
or somewhere else, no one knew exact
oly where. and was led by parties Who
professed to have made the discovery.
We started out as we supposed, in com
paratiyc secrecy, little company Of ten
or twelve, but the excitement opened
like wild fire, and crowds came rushing
on our track, .overtaking US in such
swarms, that on the fourth night out we
calnped with a party estimated at three
hundred men, end still coming. I do
not propose to enter into the details
Of the matter, but it was sight worthy
Of an artist, to see that crowd half crazy
in their thirst fer gold, rushing along
mountain trails, climbing through snow
drifts, scaling rocky precipices, foraing
streams, and bridging mountain torrents,
in their wild stampede for the new dis
covcry Forty horses. with their pack
loads, it was said, sled off the trail, and
were lost on the rocks, and in the rivers
below. 1t is doubtful whether the flight
of the Tartar Tribe from Moscow to the
Chinese Wall could compare with one of
these mad excitements for gold. This
fexcitementwas caused by discovery
Of gold on South Boise, which is rich
withiits lodges osqaartz. 9l
In June, another great excitement
arose concerning a discovery on the
OWyhee, the miners poured out again
by thousands, and within month,
ninety-nine hundredths' of them returned
no richer than they went out, still it is
now believed that quartz mines Of gold
and silver exist there Gas in South
I Boise, ingreat richness In Septem-
Der and October, another great outpour-
/ ing took place for mines on the head
waters of Snake River, but from that
locality no very definite news has re-
turned, thousands came back who could
not find the mines. Still it is generally
believed that good camp exists some
I wfcre in the mountains, and many will
i probably 60 there in the spring.