Daily press and Dakotaian. [volume] (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1875-1880, 1877-07-31
Che Daily 9ress and 1akotaian
YANKTON DAKOTA
Tuesday Evening, July 81, 1877.
A LUCKY GOLD MINER.
Out Thirty Thousand Dollars and
Sells His Claim.
rrlom tho Placer CA Herald

Sells His Claim.
Irromi The Placer ,Cal} Herald
The richest strike made 10 lhe couatn
Tor many Seafs. and rs rich. perhaps, as gas
ever made, we here have the pleasure OF
recording. a. o. Bell. commonly called
Pike Bell, who with his family has lived
many years on Bald Hill a few miles north
of Auburn, as many know, is a dauntless
prospector. Though occaionally making q
strike of some considerable importance in
the past, he mas managed, like most modern
prospectogs, TO keep poor. Last winter, in
particular, he was ia very straitened cir
cumstances, and having no money, and the
merchants refusing to credit him, he offered
his only horse, worth about $50, for $40,
that he might buy bread for his children,
and, falling in his efforts TO sacrifice his
horse, he pawned a ring from his wife's
finger to obtain the necessaries of life. Day
by day he continued his searches for the
glittering treasure, and whether the passing
day had revealed a color or not, his spirits
were jubilant, apparently kept up by the
hope that seemed never to desert him, of
doing better on the morrow. At last the
lucky day came.
1t was about three weeks ago when, hunt
ing around over the hills, he struck his pick
into a little mound, which resembled some
what in appearance an ant-hill, and to his
delight he unearthed some pieces of decom-
posed quartz, attached to which were some
colors of gold. Encouraged at the prospec',
he began to sink his new lead, and was re-
warded by finding more or less gold at every
stage of descent, Last Saturday he had
reached a depth of about thirty feet, and had
taken out in sinking that far, rock estimated
to be worth about $1,000. The rock
being extremely rotten, or what is called by
quartz miners decomposed, he had with
little effort pounded out in mortar enough
to pay expenses as he progressed. He had
hired men to assist him in working the mine
and on last Monday morning they went tc
work as usual. The gouge as We
call it, as it is too rotten to be
properly called a ledge, was dis
covered by moor to have become suddenly
richer. In the afternoon chunks of almost
pure gold were taken out, and the decom
posed stuff that filed the inteGstices be
tween the rocks was so rich in gold tba'
Pike began to wash it out with a pan
From three panfuls washed Monday after
noon he obtained gold estimated to bC
worth between $4,000 and $1,000.
That evening he came into town, an(
giving us d nll OF Wnal ne naQ got, invited
US to go and see 1t. On Tuesday afternoon
in company with Sheriff McCormic, W,
visited the NINE. We found Bell with
pan of gold in his hands worth from 81, 90,
to $500, which he assured us all cam
from one pan of DIRT. But" said he, q
you don't believe it, | will wasl
another pan and show you We tolC
him to wash. The pan was sent down in
to the shaft and soon returned filled with
mass of muddy, rocky stuff that sparklet
all over with pieces of gold. This wa
washed out and found TO contain fully a
much of the precious metal, if not more
than the one he had just finished pannin
when we arrived. On Wednesday evenin.
Mr.. Bell Git is Mr." now-it was Pike be
fore) informed us that he had taken GU
$4,000 in three pans that day that he ha
taken out, all told, up to that time, betwee
$50 600 and $4,000, and that he had a
offer and was about to sell for $4,000
When asked his notion for selling, b
would get away with about $4,000, an
that was money enough for him.