Omaha daily bee., 1888-03-25

trusted to the open, Hulburt struck
boldly out over the prairie, n headed
as near as he could Judge, for the Platte
crossing OF the great transcontinental
route to California. After eighteen
days he did reach the North Platte
river, ninety miles above Fort Laramie,
at Reshaw's bridge, and found himself
on the old trail which he had passed
over, fifteen days before, on his way to
California. Here he met the first
white people he had seen for nearly
two years, except OF course, his slain
comrades. The country was then on fire
over the news from Alder gulch. Rich
diggings had been reported on Grass
hopper creek and Alder in Montana,
and the trend of the gold hunters was
now toward the northwe est instead Of
the setting sun, as was the case in 1S49.
Hulburt met a big stampede coming up
the Platte bound for Montan. Without
going back to tn e state or sending any
word to his friends, he joined this party
OF Eel Dorado hunters, and was soon en-
route to the very country he had so
anxiously been fleeing from during the
previous thirty days. Going along, he
told the story of his own wonderful ex-
periences to others, which resulted in a
split in the crowd, with him heading
n new stampede, in which he came lea
getting killed for his pains, To show
the size OF this division, it is only neces-
sary to state that Hulburt had no
less than 140 wagons at his heels, with
something like $50 men, women and
children, and all of these crazy people
going off on a mad, wild chase after the
goose that had laid the golden egg for
Hulburt in the first instance. Sufficient
is it to say hat they never found the
bird.
nuLBURT's CLOSE CALL.
Hulburt proved a very bad pilot, and
after leading his party everywhere
without success til winter came on. he
finally and reluctantly confessed that
he was lost, and his famous cabin mine
along with him. This man, whose
word had been law in camp for SO many
days, was now an outcast and in danger
of death by violence. Men and women
Lynch him; he has lied to us; lynch
himln
Preparations were made for an i'm
promptu necktic party, and Hulburt
was just about to be strung up, when
the individual IN hat crazy mob, who
had a spark of humanity left in him,
stepped over to the doomed mans side
and drew his revolver. That was
enough. Sullen with rage, but cowed
by n mans bravery, the lynching bee
was postponed and poor wretched HUI
on the w%ar-path about this
time, which made it a very
unhealthy country for white
peoples; %whereupon the Lost Cabin
stampeders fastened westward and
scattered through the gulches in and
around Virginia City. Hulburt was
last seen in Virginia City in the fall of
"a, since when the world has lost track
of him, although it still remembered his
famous though mythical lead. Hun
dreds saw the gold which Hulburt
brought back with him from the Big
Horn country, and since then q sort of
Lost Cabin mine really exists. Bart
Beckley, a Colorado miner and chum OF
Jack Mcdonald, spent a year of his life
searching the Big Horn, Castle and
Emigrant mountains for this wonderful
| lead, but at last he, like the rest, be-
came disheartened and gave it up,
although his belief in the existence of
the mine was stronger at the close of
unsuccessful search than when he began
it. Jack Mcdonald spent many years
in the mountain mining camps, during
a twelve-month of which he was lost to
all save himself, somewhere on the
southern rlope of the Big Horn range.
Suddenly Jack turned up all hustle and
excitement leaving hurriedly for Colo
RADIO, but there he was taken sick and
died in a cabin on Buckskin creek,
where the city of Leadville now stands.
Before he breathed his last he called
his friend and ~''pard"-Bart Beckley-
to his side, and told him of a lead in far
away Montana that he believed to be
very rich.
BART BEGKLEY's BONANZA.
Years rolled On and Beckley, turning
the story over and over in his mind fin
ally decided to make an attempt to find
this famous mine of McDonald's. He
drifted thither among the mountains Of
the northwest, found himeslf first in the
Black Hills, then in the Wood River
country, and finally in the New World
mining district, near the Big Horn. He
recognized Cloud peak, the lofttiest pile
in the country, and strange to say from
the a%ccurate description given him by
his friend, he was enabled to find Nc
Donald's lead, which was half way up
the side of the very mountain he was
then exploring. But, alas, the dying
man was either deceived of else distance
lent enchantment to the view, for the
supposed gold had turned out to be only
copper, which would not have paid the
cost of mining it at that lofty attitude
and in such rugged country. Beckley
confidently thought he was on the trace
of the Lost Cabin mine, but his prac-
ticed eye told him at a glance that only
copper lay before him, and he gave uI
the chase, returning to Colorado much
disheartened and thoroughly disguised,
Not long after Beckley's failure an
other prospector from the southern
mines, named Joe Sweeney. suddenly
appeared in the Big Horn mountains
and spent days and days hunting for
the lead that seemed to battle all efforts
at discovery. He finally stumbled upon
a vein far up near the head Of the Big.
Horn canyon, which he firmly believed
to be an %outcropping Of the amous lode
if not the mother treasure herself. The
news was telegraped by the Associated
press giving an account of the discov,
cry, saying that the Lost Claim lead
was found at last" The discovery was
twenty-five miles long, $40 feet wide
and where cut by the stream which
crossed it, showed a perpendicular
depth of sixty feet. Pieces of it were
knocked off and sent to McVicker, O
Salt Lake, for assay, and in two weeks
report came back showing 4l.55 pei
cent of copper, with a trace OF silver