St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-03-18

chart being the word ''gold,r ''gold,"
''gold,n repeated as often as space would
permit over all the country around and be-
tween lakes Ceur d'Alene and Pen dOreille.
Judge Smith, one Of the associate justices
of the supreme court of Idaho, then residing
at Lewiston, being something OF mechani-
cal genius, set to work engraving the map
Tor publication, and turned out very cred
| liable job, considering that he engraved on
soft pine instead of hard wood, and used
jackknife for want of engraving tools. Holes
were mortised for the insertion OF type where
names had to be given, the talismanie word
gold" with its multitudinous repetdons,
| involving nearly all the work in that direc-
ton.
The map thus engraved was published, oc-
cupying an entire page of the Radiator, and
the engraver and editor believed it was at
least approximately correct, and that the
gold locations were the most accurate part OF
it. But it afterwards turned out that the
map-maker had never been ten miles north
of Lewiston, and had consulted the old pub
lished maps for his general outlines, while
his fertile Imagination was equal to giving all
the details, gold, +" ''gold," ''goldp Included
The map, however, had 4 decisive effect-it
apparently removed the last doubt as to the
extent and richness of ''the new discovery"
The excitingly enthusiastic articles of the
Lewiston paper were quickly reproduced in
the newspapers all along the Columbia and
by the press of California. There came
''clincher'' in the shape of a letter published
in the Walla Walla Statesman by an impecun-
Jus individual named Wilson, giving his
name in full. Wilson was short of means to
90 to ''the new mines," and resorted TO
desperate game to get there.
Assuming that the map published in the
Pad; into. oorrant and the written reDOrtS
accompanying it, he declared positively in
his Statesman letter that he himself had got
twenty-five cents to the pan of gravel in the
C9ur d'Alene country the year before, and
| had been keeping quiet about 1t until ne
| could get in shape to 60 back and secure in
| terestS-that it was gold country OF i'm
mense extent, and that he could go right
back to his old prospect hole; that he was
personally well acquainted with all the inter
vening country, and promised that he would,
| if the business men of Walla Walla would
furnish him with tools and provisions, and
necessary sum of money, hire men and
make road straight from Walla Walla to
the mines. Walla Walla and Lewiston
were competitors in the mining trade, ane
Wilson'S offer was too tempting and plausi-
BILE to be declined
So he was out fitted, as desired, and struck
out with his road builders to the northward
through a country he knew as little about az
| he did about the interior of Africa. The
compass and the Radiator and map were his
| only guides. Who could longer doubt! The
''new FL Dorado" had been mapped almost
with the particularly of a township survey;
and man had publishedto the world that he
had explored it, and found rich deposits Of
gold there, and was now actually building
road into ''the new diggings.n The whole
| Pacific coast was precipitated into perfect
whirlwind of excitement By steamer and
stage, on horseback and on foot-from ali
the gold camps from Mariposa, in California,
| to Frazier River, in British Column bia-men
started for ''the Occur d'Alene country"
1t was estimated that %, 900 men were put in
motion by this humbug Fundamentally the
seemingly we'll authenticated reports of gold
discoveries in the Occur d'Aline mountains.
The Oregon Steam Navigation company
derived an immense revenue from the in
creased travel from San Francisco to Port
land and up the Columbia. Probably 10000
men reached the Occur d'Alene mountains
| of the great army that had started. Then
the tide was turned back-the great bubble
had burst. A little gold was found, but not
in sufficient quantities to warrant a stampede
Of rice-eating Cinnamon, Instead of run
ming his road into "a big gold basin," as he
promised TO do, Wilson following his COM
pass and map, came TO the roads end, and
nearly to his own, too, near the center OF
the southern shore of Occur d'Alene lake.
AS has been published in the GLOBE, party
of victims of his desperate hazard had the
rope ready to hang him. and he was only
saved by the interposition of priest.
| A large number of the stampeders went
on eastward several hundred miles further to
the then newly discovered mines in Mon
tana, and to the great majority of these the
| great humbug proved ga blessing in dis
| guisen after all, as they reached the western
base of the Rocky mountains about the time
of the discovery of some rich gulches, and
all did well and some made fortunes. Those
who returned were, naturally enough, dan
gerously desperate. Threats to burn Lewis
| ton and hang the editor Of its local paper
were boldly made, and for many days the
town was vigilantly patrolled by well armed
guards, the printing Office being doubly
guarded.
The primary cause of the unfortunate eI-
element, involving so many in loss and sur
fering, was the falsehood told by the two
| French miners. They did bring into Lewis
ton the first gold dust of the kind ever seen
there; but they got it a long distance from
the Occur d'Alene diggings, about twenty
five miles west from Helena, Montana-then
just being opened.
SO originated and ended one Of the great
est ''gold mining humbugs" known to gold
mining history; and it is a singular coinci-
dence that nineteen years later another gold
1 mining excitement should be raised over the
same territory. We hope the present excite
ment will not turn out as disastrously as did
the first and we do not believe it will But
a small portion of the aggregate extent Of
any gold country is rich The Occur d'Alene
district, filling in a gap in gold belt ex-
tending from Salmon river, in Idaho, to
Kortenai, in British Columbia, may prove
very rich, Notwithstanding it was the scene
of fruitless excitement nineteen years ago.
Fast Mail to California.
SAN FRANCIsCo, March 17.-General man