The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1886-06-04
THE FATE OF MINE DlSc{pvERERs.
"A su2erstitious Belief on the Subject
with Some Foundation

Su2erstitious Belief on the Subject
with Some Foundation.
The superstitious belief is an old one,
that unless the discoverer of a camp meets
an untimely or bloody end, his find will
never amount to anything; and this seems
borne out by facts, since nearly all of the
discoyerers of the great gold mines in the
United States, with but few exceptions,
have, as the saying goes, died with their
boots on" OF thirty eight booming towns
in the early days, the .locators of twelve
were killed by bullet, three were buried in
their creations by cave-ins and the rest
drifted away with the tide of Immigration,
have become lost in oblivion or died and
were buried i'll paupers' graves.
George III. Fryer, from whom the cele-
brated Fryer Hill" of Leadville derives
its name, died at Denver not long ago
from an overdose of morphine admins
tered by his own hand. Two years pre-
= vious to his death he was worth million
or so; but he died pauper and almost
without friend Old Virginny, after
whom the consolidated Virginia" was
named, and who sold his claim for $25, q
pony and bottle of whisky, came to his
death by an overdose from a bucking
mule near Dayton, Nevada. Bill Bodie,
the discoyerer Of the great Standard mine
in Mono county. California, slept his life
away in snow storm while making his
way to the mines. Col. Story, who gave
his name to the county in Nevada, where
the Comstock is situated, was killed in
battle by the Pyramid Lake Indians.
Thomas Page Comstock died beggar in
strange land. "Old Pancake" as he was
known in the mining camps, committed
nT NJ G.,
1870, by shooting himself He was the
leader of the famous Big Horn expedition
that was sent out by Nevada capitalists
in search of the Lost Cabin mines, sup
posed to be somewhere among the Big
Horn mountains. Tie expedition was a
failure, and Comstock whether from dis
appointment or from some other cause
while camped near Bozeman, drove pis-
tol ball through his head and died in
stantly. He was buried there and his
grave is unmarked and unknown.
Near the wild spot where twelve years .
before the hidden treasure of Alder Gulch
was first revealed to him, William Fair
weather was laid down to rest. Like poor
"Old Pancake" this erratic soul stranded
on the shoals of dissipation, although each
in his day had turned a key-the one sill
yer, the other golden-which unlocked
millions for others but nothing for them
selves
William Farrell, who "struck" Meadow
Lake, died a victim to remorse in one of
the leading hospitals of San Francisco,
haunted by the spirits of 1000 delHded
pioneers and prospectors passing and re-
passing his dying bed" The locator of
the famous Homestake, in the Black hills,
is said to have afterward turned road
agent Times going hard with him, he
attempted to stop a stage loaded and pre-
pared for just such emergencies, and he
was planted alongside the road by the
tender-hearted express agents whom he
attempted 60 rob and kill.
Homer, of the Homer district, followed
in the suicidal tracks of Comstock. After
squandering small fortune he shot his
brains out on the streets of San Francisco:
Doughnut Bill "Old Eureke" Kelse Aus
tin, Lloyd Magruder, Nine-Mile Clark,
George Hankinson, Henry Plummer and
scores of others died violent deaths in one
way or another, and reaped nothing from
the rich finds each had made in his day
Doughnut Bill was planted in the Lone
Mountain cemetery in Utah in 1868; a
lone grave under a white pine tree in a
frontier mining town of California tells
where poor "Old Eureka" sleeps his last
sleep; kelse Austin was killed and bnr.ed
in Elcho county, Nevada, fifteen years
ago.-St. Louis Globe-Democrat.