The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1877-05-10
GOLD HUNTING.


hunting for gold, and also his opinion
of the Black Hills mania:
In the fall of 1860 party of gentle
men in Chicago were discussing the
probable productiveness of the placer
mining districts of Colorado. One of
them was a learned professor, who
thought that these free gold diggings
would amount to very little, and that
the gold-bearing rock was so charged
with sulphur it would be almost impos-
sible to separate the gold. caa5 !
This erudite chap went on to say fur
Their, that the great ''gold diggings' of
this continent remained to be discovered
As there were in the Eastern hemi-
sphere the Australian and an Asiatic
gold field, one in the north portion, the
other in the south, so there was some
where in the northern portion of this
continent gold-bearing section. to
balance the California diggings. The
relative richness would be in the
proportion of the height of the noun
tains-not the isolated peaks, but the
general ranges. When gold was first
discovered in the vicinity of Pixies Peak,
he had thought the long sought-for re-
gion had been found. But, upon, a
careful examination of this section, he
was satisfied that the search must be con
tinued In his Judgment the place TO
prospect was either in the Black Hills
or at the head-waters of the Yellowstone,
with the choice greatly in favor of the
latter, as there were in circulation stories
of wonderful finds made by white trap
hot nr.Ix al "a
stories of the mineral wealth OF the
Black Hills came direct from the In
dams, and were coupled with legends of
mysterious noises and strange sights.
Moreover, the Black Hills were held by
hostile tribes who were jealous of any
trespass upon them. Having apparent
ly satisfied his hearers of the soundness
of his reasoning, the professor offered to
organize party to explore this famous
Yellowstone regiOn-to start out i'll the
spring of 1861.
This expedition the undersigned was
invited to join, and accordingly he APP
peared at Chicago in April, 1861, armed
and equipped with all the deadly weap-
ons that his New York experience taught
him were required for fighting Indians
and digging gold. BY this time the troops
were being withdrawn from the frontier
to be used Gor sixty days only to put
down the rebellion, and any Journey
across the Continent, off the beaten lines
of travel, was esteemed very unhealthy.
Travel in the beaten lines was unpleas-
ant, at least. This was what we were
told in Chicago. Well, the Professor
had other engagements, and there was
no party ready just then to explore the
Yellowstone and gather up the loose
gold supposed to be waiting to be
writer was in quandary. TO return
East with weapons untarnished by rust,
and blue flannel shirt unworn, would
never do. To have fine rifle and shoot
no buffalo was discreditable. SO, join
ing party, he started from st. Louis
for Atkinson in the steamer War Eagle
fare, l think, So. The proprietors of
the steamer lost money, am sure, on
their passengers, as they boarded them
for the eight or nine days they con-
sumed in making the trip. But sup
pose they made money on the powder
they, stole from the United, States Arsen-
al at Jefferson City. They gathered, 7
think, $500 kegs, and stuffed them into
the hold of the steamer, the men march
ing in line with the kegs upon their
shoulders past the open doors of the
boiler furnaces. "a '1s5T f-4 sf
1t would take week to write of the
queer things that occurred. onv this trip
and the queer people we met While
the steamer lay at Jefferson City we
amused ourselves by going up to the
capital at midnight, waiting till each
sentinel had reached the end of his beat,
creeping over the wall between them,
and crawling up to the legislative halls,
where the patriotic members were hold
ing secret session. Why we did this |
don't know; we might have been shot
for our pains. The steamers cook was
the most interesting man of the lot, as
he could tell horrible stories of life on
the Plains, having been one of lot of
teamsters who were out with Gen. AL
bert Sydney Johnston on his expedition
to subjugate the Mormons Many of
these transfers were imprisoned, and
some of them We're murdered. This man
and two others escaped from prison and
walked back across the Plains to the
nearest United States fort They started
without arms and subsisted chiefly upon
strips of hides torn from the dried car
casses of buffalo found on, the plains.
To hear this fellows opinion of Brigham
Young's ability was positively refresh
ing. He said: "Old Brig has more
brains in his head than all the officers of
the riggler army have in their heads
When Gen. Johnston's army was en-
tirely without salt, he sent them wagon
load as present. This Johnston re-
fused to use for fear it was poisoned,
and the Mormon dumped it out upon the