Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1880-07-16
The Pixies Peak Gold Excitement.


MEANWHILE, the story of the new
discoveries of gold in Pixies Peak tor
all the mountain region was known by
that name, though the Peak itself was
seventy-five miles from the diggings)
hastened eastward, gathering marvels
as it ran, and was attested by sundry
goose-guills full of dust Just following
the financial distresses of '57, thousands
of men were ready for any thing, and
the spring of 1859 witnessed the begin.
ming of such an emigration across the
plains as had only been equaled by the
widest hours of the rush to California q
decade before. Council Bluffs, Atchi-
son, Kansas City and all the other out
posts of. civilization became filled with
excited crowds hastily preparing for
the two-months' journey across the
| plains, and an almost continuous pro-
cession of wagons of every description
! filed out from their streets to undergo
the hardships and perils of that eager
race to be first at the gold-felds. He
who could not pay for the swift stage
! became driver or escort of a freight
wagon, or followed along with his
| ambulance; while thousands rode on
horseback, or walked, trundling their
luggage in hand. cart or wheelbarrow,
or slung upon their backs. Those were
the storied days when the motto "Pike's
| Peak or Bust :" was inscribed on many
a wagon-sheet by jubilant owners, and
those also the days when tho same
wagons, hopelessly begged in some
treacherous fording of the Arkansas, or
broken down among the rocks of a stony
bit of butte-road, were grimly labeled,
"Busted, by Thunderl"
The vanguard of this exodus reached
the Platte in April, and it is estimated
that nearly Il hundred thousand persons
followed during the summer. We are
told that they were in the main from the
better classes of men at home, but that
nineteen-twentieths were entirely ignor-
ant of gold-mining. Thousands were
disappointed, of course, and a thin re-
turning stream met but failed TO dis
courage the new comers, who pressed
across the weary, bone-marked plains,
sure that their lot would be an excep-
ton to all the misfortunes described.
As soon as the SHOWS were sufficiently
melted, the Russells and others pushed
into the mountains, reasoning that if
these outer streams contained sedi-
ment of drifted gold, the source of the
riches must yet remain in the rocks
whence the waters came. One party, un-
der the leadership of j. H. Gregory,
started up Clear Greek, to point just
above where Black Hawk now is, and
began prospecting in the gulch. He
climbed the hill," says written ac.
count of the incident, where he be.
lieved the wash or gold-dirt would nat.
urally come from, scraped away the
grass and leaves and filled his gold pan
with dirt, and took it down to the gulch
Upon panning (washing) it down, there
was about four dollars worth of gold
in it! He dropped his pan and imme
diately summoned all the gods of the
universe to witness his astonishing tri
umph. That night he could not sleep y
Whether any immortals obeyed the
summons the record fails to inform us
but it is certain that it was very few
days only before the rugged trails, slip
perry with ice and gagged with snow
became thronged with eager, though
disheartened emigrants, fired with new
hope. Almost simultaneously, discov
cries of rich bars and veins were made
at Idaho Springs, Boulder, Golden, ant
elSeWneTe, anu Une mountains, 1rOn
Estes Park to the Sangre de Cristo, be
gan to be overrun with prospectors
while gold and silver ledges and placer!
were discovered so rapidly that no onC
could keep track of them, and thousands
of claims were taken up on both side
and among the very SUBMITS of the
Snowy Range, under laws and regula
tions framed by the miners themselves
Valleys hitherto undisturbed, except BY
the light tread of the moccasin and tn,
hardly timid game it followed; cliff
that had echoed to no other sound thar
the noise of the elements or the voice
of bird and beast, now resounded witt
human energy and were despoiled b,
the ruthless shovel and AK. The sage
brush yielded place to wagon-tracks
and the splendid spruces were felled t,
lie docile in the walls of log cities tha
sprang into shape with the startlet
swiftness and decision of magic.-ErneS
hagerSoH, IN Scri6ner'S Magazine.