Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1882-09-20
THE LARGEST NUGGET.

A California Miners Story-.-A Nugget That
Weighed Two Hundred and Thirte en- Pounds.
An interesting Story for the GubIe.
In the early times in California. SAYS a
writer in the Downieville Messenger,
claims were small and road agents
numerous, and men, if they found mug
get of extraordinary size, were afraid
their ground might be jumped or them
selves robbed and perhaps murdered GO
ing below, and thus kept the largest gold
finds a secret until they could get out of
the mountains and the state. The fol-
lowing facts, that have never before been
IN print, [ came across IN most singular
way, and I can rely on the word of the
narrator. In 1851 and 1852 I mined
with man from Massachusetts named
John Dage on several flats and places
around Downieviiie and the Middle Yuba,
In 1853 | lost sight of him, but heard he
had gone east. In 1858 [ went with the
rush to British Columbia, and worked
out a good claim, and then took trip to
Australia. In going from Sydney up to
the mines we camped on a creek by the
roadside where a great many teams
stopped on their up and down trip, as
long way apart. The great teams and
American wagons arrived along toward
evening on the creek in perfect stream.
As we were eating supper we heard a
Transfers voice that [ thought was ia
mlliar, and, driving into camp, I strolled
among the teams, and almost the first
man l met was nay old DownievilIe part
ner. He was most glad to see me, and
l being SO recently from Downieville, he
requested me to call after he had fed his
animals and eaten his own meal to talk
over old times in California. He owned
the whole outfit that he was driving
was treighted up, buying hides, talIow,
and other colonial products on his own
account for back freight. He had mar
RED In the country, and was doing a
profitable business with his team.
After talking of old times here in Cali
fornia, the whereabouts of old friends
and acquaintance, he said: "By-the-
by, George, you never knew why or how
/ left California so suddenly?" I an
swered "No;" but he had not slipped
from my memory, but many men in the
mines like ourselves were missed, and
often turned up thousands of miles
away. He said: 81 can give you the
eventful story now.
"Well, when we worked together in
the summer of so on the Middle Yuba.
/ heard you tell of the rich claim and
coarse gold you found on State Castle
Ravine, on the South Fork, one mile
above DoYnieville. Myself and Bill
Hopkins, together with German part
ner, went quietly to work there in the
summer of '53, and occupied an old
cabin that had been deserted and the
ground abandoned. 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 day 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 before
we stripped further ahead. 1t was Sat-
urday, about noon. The ground con-
tinued still to pay, and we were down in
soft slate crevice, when I struck the
pick into bright lump of gold that
seemed to run into the solid gravel. I
tried to pry it out but it was too firmly
imbedded. Then J. worked carefully
aroun it, and it appeared to grow
larger as I dug the gravel away. We
placed one on the lookout to see that no
one surprised US, and I tell you we were
excited; and after some time I 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 bot
tom of the crevice. The quartz at
tached to it was crystallized, and would
not exceed three pounds in weight We
got it in the cabin as quick as possible,
In sack, and placed it under one of the
hunks, intending to examine it more
thoroughly at night.
We strayed away from town on
Saturday and Sunday, and brought it
out at night to feast our eyes upon it
again, and each guessed it would weigh
at least 200 pounds. We concluded not
to take it to town TO weigh, but divide it
some way; for if it were known there
would be intense excitement. We had
gold scales, but they would only weigh
one and half pounds. After some
time spent IL consultation, Bill Hastings
suggested a rough pair of original
scales; we piled on rock and iron
weighed by the gold scales till we got
the balance, and the nugget brought
down 231 pounds, gold weight. We
burned the quartz, and thoroughly
picked il out with the point of knife;
The pure gold then brought down 227
pounds, and the grand specimen looked
more beautiful than ever. Ii we had
taken it to Longton's express Office there
would have been the widest excitement.
On Monday we cleaned up the remainder