Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1889-05-09
A RICH SECRET.
A Gold Mine Found often, but
Always Lost Again.

Ine SUOTItS Oltt lillucIh ttIl VI liie Illus
which have been made in the peninsula,
and how every attempt to work them
has been ballied, are almost enough to
cause superstitious person to feel that
some hooking intelligence must preside
over those placers and lodges of yellow
metal, which takes delight in thwarting
its puisuers, eluding them, leading
them astray, and visiting vengeance
upon them.
As long ago as the winter of 1851, says
letter to the New York SIN, party of
four men, G. +. Tebbetts, Jacob Metz
ger, Geo. Waterhouse, and A. j. Smith,
left San Diego for Lower California,
filed with dazzling visions of pockets
and nuggets of gold. They had heard
from some of the wealthy Mexican dons
of that region that there was plenty of
gold in the San Rafael Mountains. They
prospected for weeks in the range Just
back of the San Rafael valley, which is
some thirty or forty miles north of the
Santa Clara fields, and found color in
nearly every canon they visited. But it
was in the winter, and the weather was
intensely cold and disagreeable. Ere
quent storms OF rain, snow, and sleet
made it impossible for them to continue
their search. SO they gave it up and
went to the Guadalupe ranch, a vast ex-
panse of fertile valley between the San
Rafael and the coast, below Zodos San
tos Bay, stocked with cattle and horses
aad rich in fields and vineyards, reigned
over by Don Juan Bandini. The hos
pitable don received the wornout miners,
and Toasted them upon beef and frijoles
and tortillas and tamales. While the
party tarried there Indians frequently
came with specimens of gold, but always
refused to tell where they found it.
At last the prospectors started out
again, but were wholly unsuccessful in
their second search They walked about
until they were footsore, prospecting in
every direction, but the wealth they had
been counting on so contidentially seem
ed to have fled. They could find color of
gold quite frequently, butnothing more.
At last, weary and disheartened, they
made their way back to San Diego.
A year or more later Tebbetts and
Smith fitted out an expert miner, a Mex
lean, named Don Pedro, with pack bur-
ros to explore the same section. He was
gone several months, but finally return
ed in high excitement. His bulros
We're loaded with five or six sacks of raw
hide filed with pieces of ore and loose
gold mixed with sand. With much ges-
ticulation and exclamation he declared
he had found the richest diggings ever
seen by mortal man. With shrewd fore
sight he had covered his tracks so care
fully that on other human being could
trace his wanderings and locate his
mime until he chose to take him there.
That he decidedno to do until he could
take his specimens to San Francisco and
have them assayed. So he shipped his
rawhide sacks as freight and started
for the bay.
Smith and Tebbetts waited and waited,
but heard nothing from him. At last
they sent II man to the city to inquire
what had become of him.
1t was found that Don Pedro had
reached San Francisco in very poor
health, and had died soon after his ar
rival. Not trace of the gold could be
found in any of the assayers' offices nor
where he had lived.
The man was dead the gold had dis
appeared, the mine was hopelessly lost.
The secret of Baja California was still
safe
A year afterward man named Char
ley Pond, who had been prospecting in
the same range in which Don Pedro was
supposed to have discovered his mine,
and which the party mentioned above
had travelled over, brought to Tebbitts,
at San Diego, some specimens of gold he
had found in that region. Tebbitts
salad f,,, Nax,- Vor. ,,r;+l, {ba .,,,ae;r,n,,e,
having arranged that each was to have
a half interest in the mine. The ore was
assayed and found to be wonderfully
rich. A Wall street broker offered
large sum for an interest, and wanted to
send out a mining expert at once. But
Tebbitts thought he would rather see
the place himself before making any
bargain, and returned to the coast.
There with Pond and another man he
went to inspect the place
But Pond could not retlace his steps.
They wandered about in the mountains
for weeks, but could not find the rich
deposit whence Pond had taken his spe-
cimens. AT last, famished, footsore and
worn out, they gave it up.
The mine was lost again.
In 1860 man digging for founda-
ton in San Francisco, unearthed some
old rawhide sacks filled with ore, sand,
nuggets and grains and flakes of gold.
On examination they proved to be the
lost treasure of the dead Don Pedro.
With true Mexican cunning and dis
trust he had buried them in the sand
hills and had died without revealing his
secret.
The ore was assaved and found n J,a