, 1886-06-15
THE GOLDEN cusNY SACK.
Legend of the Moss Grown Record and
the Rotting Cabin.

the Rotting Cabin.
AS the western sun threw around n
halo OF departing glory On an evening in
September, 1869, there came into the
little station Of st. Mary, in the Sweet
water valley and on the old overland route,
a dusty, tired, ragged tramp. But closer
inspection would have satisfied any one
that such tramps as he are seldom seen.
Over his dropping and weary shoulders
was strung a gunny sack, through the
open meshes of which came a golden
CLEAN. 1t contained numberless nuggets
of various sizes, but all of virgin richness.
Entering the little station the gold weary
tramp sought the only lodging house and
slept with his precious sack as a pillow.
In the morning he took the cast bound
stage and he and his wealth disappeared
in a cloud Of dust, gold tinted with the
rising sun, like the vision of a dream. In
the succeeding spring there came into st.
Mary from the east . well appointed
though small train of pack mules. In
the leader of the party of three who
drove the train, the st. Mary men recog-
nized the man of the golden gunny sack.
The party camped near the station and
the next morning in the glow of a sunrise
that seemed to beckon them on to the
golden fields went across the uplands lead
ing to the great water shed of the Green,
the Snake and the Wind rivers, and from
amid whose mountain peaks the gold la
den wanderer of the previous fall had
come.
Mortal eyes never again beheld the par
ty. The shadows of the lofty mountains
were to them the shades of eternity.
Their" fate has been long a fruitful subject
around the camp fire OF the miner, trapper
and prospector-the theme of tradition
and conjecture. The standard mystery
has at length been solved. and the fate of
the man of the golden gunny sack and his
companions is no longer a secret.
A party Of hunters following their cal
ling amid the peaks of the great water
shed this spring, found at the head of a
gulch, jutting up against the base OF a
lofty mountain, a cabin decayed and fal
len in. In the hunks which still chung
bones of three human beings. The floor
of the cabin was covered with long, mat
ted grass, and half concealed were scat
tered through it mining tools and cooking
utensils, rusty with the touch of
dme. and cankercd with mildew.
Rotting fragments of blankets still
enveloped the skeletons, and strewn
around were tattered articles Of clothing.
While gazing on this eloquent comment
airy on the vanity of human life and hopes,
one Of the party trod On an object con
cealed beneath the tangled grass of the
cabin floor. Examination revealed a
broad, fiat, smooth stone, beneath whose
damp MOSES could be family traced writ
ten characters. The tablet was hastily
cleansed, and the record stood out bold
and clear. 1t had evidently been craven
by one of the skeleton hands lying in one
OF yonder hunks, and this is what the
legend of the moss grown tablet, frag-
mentary but succinct, told: $50. Three
miners. Buried here by a snowslide.
Winter quarters. Mine ten miles due
south. Much gold buried there. Provisions
all gone. Expect to die. All from New
York. Names are La Here the record
abruptly terminated. Called away from
his work the engraver of his own obituary
never resumed it, and the misery and
weakness of the last dread struggle with
starvation and cold was never chronicled.
Reverently gathering the bones of the
unfortunate and long forgotten miners in
one heap the hunters inferred them in a
deep grave over which dropped the long
grasses which had grown into life beneath
the feshless skeletons. As a headstone
was placed the tablet deeply craven with
the record of a tragic fate. There is little
cause to doubt that these remains are
those of the hero Of the golden gunny
sack and his companions. Guiding the
party to the rich diggings he had discov-
cred, he and his friends had gathered gold
all during the summer and when the
storms OF winter had come, they had
sought the gulch in which their remains
were found, as a safe refuge from the
storms of the season, intending to resume
work in the spring,
As soon as the hunters had paid the
last sad rites to the long neglected dead,
they struck due south and began the
search for the rich diggings and the buried
treasure They have hitherto searched I'm