Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1882-10-26
A Great Ca,ifornia NUGGET.

A Great California Nugget.
In the early times in California claims
were small and road agents numerous,
and men, if they found a nugget of ex-
traordinary size, were afraid their
ground might be jumped or themselves
robbed and perhaps murdered going be-
low, and thus kept the largest gold finds
secret until they could get out of the
mountains and the state. The following
facts, that have never before been in
print, came across in most singular
way, and / can rely on the word of the
narrator:
In 1851 and 1852 mined with a man
from Massachusetts named John Dage
on several flats and places around Dow
melville and the Middle Yuba. In 1853
| lost sight of him, but heard he had
gone East. In 1853 l went with the rush
to British Columbia and worked out
good claim and then took trip to Aus
tralia. In going from Sydney up to the
mines we camped on a creek by the
roadside, where 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 perfect stream.
AS we were eating supper We heard a
Transfers voice that thought was ia
mlllar, and driving into camp, strolled
among the teams, and almost the first
man l met was my old Downieville 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 ft-out that he was driving
was freighted up, carrying his hides, tai
low and other colonial products on his
own account for back freight. He had
married in the country, and was doing
profitable business with his team
After talking about old times in Cali
fornia, the whereabouts of old friends
and acquaintance, he said: ''By the-by,
George, you never knew why or how
"No;" but he had not slipped from nv
memory, but many men in the mines
like ourselves were missed, and often
turned up thousand of miles away. He
said: II can give you the eventful story
now" -....
swell, when we worked together in
in the summer of '52 ON the Middle Yuba
heard you say of the rich claim and
coarse gold you found on slate castle ra-
vine on the South Fork, one mile above
Downieville. Myself and Bill Hopkins,
together with German partner, went
quietly to work in the summer of '53,
and occupied an old cabin that had been
deserted and the ground abandoned.
We stripped the claim in another di-
rection, and came across the lead con-
tanning 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 Saturday,
about noon. The ground continued still
to ply, and we were down in a soft slate
crevice, when | struck the pick into g.
bright lump of gold that seem. d to run
in the solid gravel. | tried to pry it out,
l worked carefully around it, and it APP
peared to grow larger as dug the gravel
away. We placed one on the lookout to
see that no one surprised US, and l tell
you we were startled; and after some
time [ got it loose, and by hard lifting,
AMI there it lay, almost pure gold,
nearly the shape of heart, and it fitted
exactly the bottom of the crevice The
quartz attached to it was crystalized,
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.
ave stayed away from town on Satur
day and Sunday, and brought it out at
night to feast our eyes upon il again, and
each guessed it would weigh at least 800
pounds. We concluded not to take it to
town to weigh, but divide it some way;
for if it were known there would be in
tense excitement. We had gold scales,
but they would only weigh one and q
half pounds. After some time spent in
consultation, Bill Hastings suggested
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 23l pounds, gold
thoroughly picked it out with the point of
knife;, the pure gold then brought
down 227 pounds, and the grand speci-
men looked more beautiful than ever.
If we had taken it to the London express
Office there would have been the widest
excitement. On Monday we cleaned up,
the remaindep Of the crevice, and it, paid
well but to us the pay now seemed
small in comparison. Now each, had
enough. We had at least $50, 600 to di--
vide, enough to make all three comfort
ably rich. No. doubt we could have
made more by exhibiting it, but We could
not run the. risk. We came to the con-
elusion to cut it mp, divide it, roll each
ones, share UP in his own blankets, and
start for the steamer to Panama and the
Atlantic states Invent to town on Nom
day evening, got sharp cold chisel
made to cut up and divide the prize in,
equal shares, and it took us about alt
night to cut and weigh it with our rude
appliances.
"Itseems like vandalism to destroy the.
grandeur OF such precious specimen of
natures work. At the first blow of the
ehisel it sank deep into the pure yellow
meta, it was SO soft and yielding. Be-
fore daylight we had completed our,
singular dividend. We caved down the.
bank near the mouth of the drift, took .
brief sleep, got breakfast, rolled up our
blankets and passed through town ear
R, not caring to bid any one goodbye,
and then no explanations were required.
We left the cabin and everything for
the first lucky one to possess. There
were plenty more gold, no doubt, for
the ground we left contained big pay;
but We had $4,000 or 1900 each, and
were satisfied with, our good fortune.
We tried to appear IKE three prospect.
ers, carrying our blankets, and passed
Goodyear hill and the dreaded Niger
tent then the beat Of the roal-agents(,
and hurried to San Francisco, arrived in
time to board the next steamer and
landed safely In New York. have
many time regretted the way we de-
stroyed that natural gold specimen,
perhaps the largest ever found in the
world, in ancient or modern times"
When returned to DOwnievilie after
fourteen years absence, visited old