The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1872-12-06
From the Kansas City Times, 2llh.l
A WESTERN RBMINISCENCB
The True Story Of the First Dis.
cOVery of the Pike'sP Peak
Gold Region.

y u II
: Gold Region.
y Legend Of the Early Settl,
r ment of Kansas City.
d The Lost Trapper Starving Ami
Countless Wealth.
= The honor and glory of the fir
\ discovery OF the gold regions at IL
/ eastern base Of the Rocky Mountains
!. COMMONLY known as the pike
Peak Gold DiggiBgs," has bee
n claimed and awarded to sever.
' parties, snd credited enormously t
those restless, hardy pioneers whC
/ in 1883 and 1859, made the existenc
! of gold st Pixies Peak and Cherr
. Creek known to the world.
r THE TRUE STORY
t Of the gold discovery has never bt
tore been written, nor sre ther
, many persons now living who ar
! cOnverssnt with the following inc
, dents which are closely connecte
with the history of Kansas and Co
oradO. Kansas City has been from
very early day, nearly half centur
ago, the headquarters tor the Frenc
and Canadian hunters aud noun
tsineers who rambied out into tn
plains and mountsins, folloWin,
closely behind the Jesuit missiona
ries, and made their living in tn
mountains and upon The streaml
coursing down from the Black Hilil
to the silssouri. At this early day
the Choute us we're located in the
bottoms east of the city and west o.
the Kaw bluffs, up the Ksw River.
They carried on e very extensive
fur trade at this point with all the
hunters, trappers, and Indians in The
country to the west OF this point
During the winter most of these
French and Canadian hunters made
this place their home, and in the
spring started out into the mountains
A number of them afierWsrd made
this place their permanent home, snd
may be found amongst our Oldest
snd best respected families. These
hardy, wandering pioneers were
generally devOut Catholics, and at
tended mass WITH great regularity.
TIE OLD FIENCHMAN's DILEMMA.
About twenty-five years ago Faith
er Donnelly. the present beloved pas
tor of the Church OF st. Msry's, on
Broadway, was preparing for morn
ing exercises in the log church which
stood where Pennsylvania avenue
crosses Eleventh street, whep his at
tentiOu was attracted, and be was
somewhat surprised to hear loud and
boisterous laughing and talking just
outside the church. Father D0nnel-
ly observed q crowd Cf mountsineers
and trappers seated in the shade OF
the building, taunting snd plaguing
an old Frenchman, then nearly CT
about one hundred years OF age
This old man is remembered by
Messrs. p. NJ: Chouteau, Peter Re-
ward, Charles Dripps, and Others, Sc
quaint, simple Old man, who had
spent the better portion of century
III the West, and who became and
was at the time OF his death q protege
OF old Mrs. ChOutesu. He never un-
derstood the English language sutfi
ciently well To speak it, and was,
when discovered, thst fine Sabbath
morning., e quarter Of century ago,
endeavoring to make his tormentors
understand In bis Canadian patOis,
something about scourging be had
received, and assuring them, as well
as possible, of a rich gold region in
the West. The worthy father inquir-
ed OF one of the hunters, a Monsieur
TougeGu, why the men were slways
pIsguing the old man about a whip
ping and about gold, when the fol-
lowing story of the first gold disocY-
cry in 1912 was told:
THE TRAPPERs OF 1912.
In the earliest exploration of the
Rocky Mountains the hunters were
surprise, to discover among the Ute
Iadiars golden bullets ard goldtn
trinkets, formed out of rough golden
nuggets. Fort Hall, then in posses
sion of the British, was the objective
point where many Of the mountain
trappers received their supplies and
disposed OF the peltries during the
summer season. The only trail then
used in crossing the mOuutsins was
through the SweetEster Valley and
South Pass
Late in the autumn of 1912 par
ty OF hunters, commanded by q cap
tain, were making their way through
the mountains to the coast, when 3
snow began 10 fsll in the snowy
range, and warned them TO hasten on
their way if they did not wish 10 be
caught in the winters storms which
prevail in those elevated regions
two-thirds OF the year. The silent
warnings given by the silvery white
blankets which were being laid upon
the peaks abo the black pine belts
was not lost upon the Tslcnful noun
taineeTs
THE FLIGHT BEFORE THE STORM.
Finding it would be impossible to
get out of the mountains and across
the plains as fsst as desirable, the
trappers and hunters decided to turn
soulhward and mske all haste to ards
Taos, Mexico they left the Sweet
water q short distance above It's
mouth, crossed the Elk Hills, the
Medicine Bow, and struck down
through the foot hills west Of Den
YER They we're in great haste and
did not stop, lest by delay they
might be overtaken by the Wintel
storms ere they reached the miidel
climate Of New Mexico
One morning one OF the hunters
announced his intention of remaining
behind TO perform some tritilng re
pairs to his moccasins and legglngs-
He bsde the party not TO delay FOL
him, but to push onward towards
Tsos. while be would take their
trail and soon overtake them. Thi:
was agreed to by the Captain, and
the old FrenchmaH was lett in one o'
those pleasant, quiet valleys IN the
heat Of the mOunLains-
| THE FIRST DISCOVERY OF GOLD.
{ The old hunter was left to himself
aod in few minutes found himself II
solitude. He performed the task h'
had delayed to accomplish, and pick
ed up his rifle and blanket and start
ed out 10 tske the trail. He discoy
cred that owing to the rocky nstur,
of the ground that the maccosil
tracks OF the hunters had tailed 4
leave even the iaintest trail. Not .
all at fsUl., or even for q momen
alarmed a. the prospect before him
the old man cast his eye upward, an
finding the sun at meridian, starte'
forth, taking as nearly SO possible
soulheasterly direction. He wander
ed all that day a1d the following da.
in the mszy range Of bills ane roman
tic valleys al The base OF Plke'
z Peak.
Toward the afternoon OF the sec
ond day be found hiuselfin barren
lonely, sandy gulch or canon Wher
the waters II ON tie mountain peak
I'D toreed their way through tb