Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1883-05-10
A Deserted Village.


The name first given to this settle
ment was Excelsior. In August, 1868,
Henry Hartley, John Simons and Henry
Fentel made the location under the title
of Excelsior Company. The first move.
ment toward further settlement was
during the summer of 1865, and came
from Virginia City, in the State of Ne
vada. Faint rumOrs had been carried
to that place of ERICH prospects being
struck on the SUBMITS of the SierraS,
and of vast lodges showing anywhere on
the surface free gold.
From June until late in the fall of
1865, hundreds came in, an eager and
excited crowd, over the roads from
Washoe to Nevada County. Placer,
Sierra, in fact all the counties in this
section of California joined the excite
ment. In the month of July. a public.
meeting. the first ever held in Excelsior,
was called at the site of the present
town of Meadow Lake, and boundaries
laid out and the town named Meadow
Lake. For short time previous to this
it had acquired the title of Summit City,
but that was dropped and the present
one substituted. No time was lost in
the work of prospecting. Stakes
with notices clothed the whole
region, and every mass of
rocks were claimed and located. 1t is
estimated that during the summer of
1865, 1900 locations were made. In
July, 1865, the town was laid out with
spacious streets eighty feet wide, blocks
were divided into lots, alleyways sixteen
feet wide laid out through every
block, and grand, spacious plaza
around that, was some day to give
beauty to the town. When the fall of
1865 closed, not less than $50 houses
had been erected, and more were in
course of construction. From June to
October this year it is estimated that
not less than 5000 people visited here,
bringing more or less money, thus Gre
ating for it a transient season of pros
perity unparalleled in this section. The
winter proved to be an unusually severe
one. March, April and May, 1866, are
remembered for their unprecedented
severity. With May, however, the tide
of travel again turned this way, and
1000 people, at least, arrived. All was
activity and excitement. Prices ran up
to exorbitant figures. For lot sixty
by eighty feet on any of the principal
streets, as high as $1,000 was asked
and paid. The possessor of few cor
ner lots considered himself million
aire, and talked of his coming thous-
sands with perfect assurance. A stock
board was established, and an air OF
metrOpolitanism crept over the town.
Eight mills costing over $500, 900 had
been erected; when came the collapse.
The richness of the ore had been fully
demonstrated, the sizes and permanency
of the lodges assured, but it was discov-
cred that by no known process could
the ores be worked profitably, or as to
save a large enough per cent. of the
metal contained in the rock, SO Obsti-
nate was the quartz that nothing could
be done with it. AS soon as this fact
became established, the miners began
to melt away, the business men one by
one departed, and Meadow Lake was
and still remains deserted. Spasmodic
attempts have been made since to work
the rock, but no one has as yet sue
ceeded. Many of the abandoned houses
were crushed by the weight Of the fall
ing SHOWS, and on the 27th of Septem-
Der, 1873, fire broke out which con-
sumed the whole town. There are a
few men who still cling to the place and
keep their claims good by doing the re-
quired work, waiting for the time when
some scientific Gabriel shall sound the
resurrection of Meadow Lake to a new
life born of a process yet undiscovered
-I1uchee (Cdl. Republican.
The subscriptions raised in Great
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