The news., 1882-10-24
THE LARGEST NUGGETS.
A California Gold Miners story.

A California Gold Miners Story.
In the early times of California says
a writer in the Downieville Messenger,
claims were small and road agents
numerous, and men, if they found a
nugget Of extraordinary size, were
afraid their ground might be jumped
or themselves robbed and perhaps mur-
dered going below, and thus kept the
largest gold finds secret until they
could get out of the mountain and the
State. The following facts, that have
never before been in print, I came
across in most singular way, and
can rely on the word Of the narrator
In 1851 and 1852 I mined with man
from Massachusetts named John
Dodge on several flats and places
around Downieville and Middle Yuba
In 1853 | lost sight Of him, but heard
he had gone East. In 1858 I went
with the rush to British Columbia,
and worked on good claim, and then
took a trip to Australia. In going
from Sydney up to the mines we
camped on creek by the roadside,
where a great many teams stopped on
their up. and down trips, as water
supply in that dry climate was long
way apart. The great teams and
American wagons arrived along toward
evening on the creek in a perfect
stream.
Al we were eating supper we heard
teamster's voice that I thought was
familiar, and driving into camp 1
strolled among the teams, and almost
the first man | met was my old Dow
melville partner. he was glad to see
me, and | being SO recently FROM
Downieville, he requested me to call
and eat his own meal, to talk over old
times in California. He owned the
whole ft.out that he was driving
was freighted up, buying hides, tallow
and other colonial products, on his own
account for back freight. He was
married in the country and was doing
profitable business with his team.
After talking of old times here in
California, the whereabouts Of old
friends and acquaintances, he said !:
"By-the-bye, George, you never knew
why or how left California so sud-
denlyT' I answered "No;" but he had
not slipped from my memory, but
many men in she mines like ourselves
were missed, and often turned up
thousands of miles away. He said,
81 can give you the eventful story
now"
10 eWell, when we worked together in
the summer Of 80 on the Middle
lYpba | heard you tell of the rich
claim and coarse gold you found on
Slate Castle ravine on the south fork,
one mile above Downieville. Myself
and Bill Hopkins, together with
q German partner, went quietly
there in the summer Of '53 and
occupied an old cabin that had been
deserted and the ground aban-
dcned. We stripped the claim in
another direction, and came across the
lead containing coarse gold, as you
had described, and made for two weeks
per man from one to three ounces.
The ground was getting deeper and
heavy to strip, and l started small
drift to see how wide the lead was be-
fore We stripped further ahead. 1t
was Saturday, about noon. The ground
continued still to pay, and we were
down in a soft slate crevice, when l
struck the pick into bright lump Of
gold that seemed to run into the solid
gravel. | tried to pry it out, but it
was too firmly imbedded. Then | dug
carefully around it, and it appeared
to grow larger as | dug the gravel
away. We placed one on the lockout
to see that no one surprised US, and I
tell you we were excited; and after
some time | got it loose, and by hard
lifting, and there it lay, almost pure
gold, nearly the shape of a heart, and
it fitted exactly the bottom of the
erevice. The quartz that was attached
to 1t was crystallized, and would not
exceed three pounds in weight. We
got it in the cabin as quick as possible
in q sack. and placed it under one of