The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-04-14
aEENSENADACRAZE
The Herald's Correspondent on
the Situation.
THE INTERNATIONAL COMPANY.
The Charge that it is Interested in Booming
the Gold Fields is Denied-Its
Peculiar Position.

fornia, Mex, April 2 Special CORES
ponSence of The HERALD. Probably no
spot on the earth's surface.-is attracting so
much attention at the present moment, as
this
LONELY CORNER OF OUR CONTINENT,
which until lately has been as complete a
terra incognita as the interior of Africa
Just now, from north and south and east
and west, people come tiocking here IN
crowds-lured by the new gold excitement
that bids fair to Guido those days OF ~,
yet famous in song and story. Your
scribe has joined the throng-not so nluch
on account of the gold craze, however, as to
get at the true status of the great colonial
ton movement-started IN New York
and now in the hands of the. EngGsh-con-
corning which we have heard so many con-
Hictipg reports during the last two years.
of that more anon day the gold fields are
the all-absOrbing topic.
The mission fathers, who came to Baja,
or Lower California, in the early days,
told wonderful stories of the surface gold
which they from time to time discovered.
Old miners, who drifted here in former
years. have again and again asserted that
all indications point Enthusiastically to far
g1ssLtSer mineral wealth in this long and
II low peninsula than in Alta or Upper
California. Maps are eXtant, published
long ago, which show in general way
where precious metal may be found, in a
direct line due east from Ensenada (the
future metropolis of the International
colonization company between San Diego
and the Colorado river.
Strange to say, however, nobody made
systematic search for the treasure which
many believed these rugged hills contained.
There have been other reasons for the long
neglect of these golden opportunities, than
the universal habit of the natives to post
pOne everything till manaua-the to
morrow that never comes. Until com
paratively recent period. this northern end
of the peninsula has been practically unin-
habited. and the adventurous traveller III its
painless Wilds-cOming by private yacht
or overland conveyance, must provide
FOOD, SHELTER AND PROTECTION
for himself. Besides, it requires consider
ablaucapital to work mines successfully:
andAChile the average Mexican is as poor as
he is lazy, his northern nelghbors have
found plenty of easier avenues nearer home
for the expenditure of their energies and
pesos.
But now, thanks to the international
company, who have cOlOnZed all this upper
half of the country, the golden predictions Of
the past seem likely to be fulfilled. The
new gold fields lie in what is known as the
Santa Clara district, about sixty miles from
San Diego, the last city on the American
side of the border and the same distance
from Ensenada, and twenty miles south of
the partially settled valley of San Rafael.
Beginning at the foot of that great noun
tain range which forms the backbone of
Lower California, the district runs in
northeasterly direction for fifty miles or
more, and fully one hundred miles to the
4
ca1Ons, or gulches, in whose lower levels
the placerS are found, while the quartz
tOdes, which are proving of far greater
VALUE, intersect the adjacent mountains in
all directions Indeed. the mineral belt
extends for several hundred miles-all the
way to Cape San Lucas, the extreme end
of the pcninsula-sOmetimes winding
Though the mountains like a cOrk-screw,
as Tin other places running straight as Il
d. Not only gold, but a wonderful
variety of minerals is found, including
silver, copper, iron, lead, salt borax,
magnesia, coal and oil. The Santa Clara
quartz1ledges (rose quartz, with an iron
stain, run parallel, about four hundred
wards apart bending off over the great
plain and over the oot-hills, toward the
older mining district of SOcOrro-nObody
knows for how many miles.
For many years bits of gold have been
picked mp here and there in that section,
by woodmen and wondering Indians: but
singularly enough, nobody pail much alton
ton to it. The ''IuIlneSS of time" for its
development did not arrive until the com
plete subsistence of the great gold fever
which broke out in upper California-iust
forty wear ago. 1t has always seemed in
the history of the world, that gold comes
somehow with the need of it. and that
discovery follows discovery at about
regular intervals. Though
r,D-ror T, ,rr1r rCN-s IN, chr =, ,,-r, III ,-rr,
are worn out and lost, and sunk in the seas,
and used up in the arts, the supply is never
exhausted. And the precious metal is al
ways precious: and though every noun
tain in the new world should be found to
hold an eXhaustless store, the supply would
never be in excess of the demand. The
tabled mines of Africa did not glut the
market ofssthOse days: nor did Hannibals
baSketS-full of golden rings gathered at
Canae. Though for a hundred years Spain
loaded her galleons with South American
gold, and Co1tez sent shiploads of it from
Mexico, it remained as valuable as ever
son both sides of the ocean. Australia
poured her yellow tide, like water, into
commerce. and England prOtited immensely
by the doublOons which Sir Francis Drake
brought home. Mexico-has always yielded
her full quota to the worlds supply Then
upper California came in with her Offering:
and later Montana and Colorado. The gol-
den springs of Africa are long since dry;
the fields of Australia are worked out;
California becomes an agricultural state,
and now this lOng-neglected and unknown
peninsula-which the United States did
not consider worth including in the pur-
chase which took from Mexico Texas and
upper California-cOmes to the front with a
fresh supply.
The latest discovery originated, as do
most things Of consequence, in the simplest
manner. A wagner driving over the
Mills on a business errand, CHANGED to look
behind him. and saw something shining in
the deep track which his heavy wheels
made in the earth, soaked by recent rains.
With Informed idea in his mind that
some predecessor in these lonely mountains
had lost something of value, he clambered
down from his load and went back to in
yestigate the find" He was somewhat
disappointed at finding it only a heavy
lump of some dull yellow substance; but he
pocketed it, and afterwards showed it to
his employer. The latter being better
posted as to the general aspect of minerals
carried it to an expert, who Immediately
pronounced it to be
A SPLENDID NUGGET OF PURE GOLD,
AnsYhich was found TO weigh little more
~enan ten ounces.
This discovery led to some hasty panning
by few natives of the vicinity, and in
every case with astonish n ely rich results
Naturally. these tried to keep the matter
secret that they might reap all the benefits
themselves. But gold, like mt I'd er, will
out" and in an incredibly short time the
news was flying over the country like wild
fire, and the great rush began.