News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-03-28

Frsetienal parts Of . year VIII bs CHARGED a. fel
THE LOST MINE.
MYSTERIOUS DEPOSITS OF SILL
YER IN INDIANA KNOBS.


YER IN INDIANA KNOBS.
The Rich Find of Captain Phelps,
a Famous Hunter-Guarded by a
Silent Chief with a Drawn Bow.
The name Indiana Knobs is applied
to range of hills that, rising from the
Ohio River near New Albany, sweep in
a wide semicircle through the counties
of Floyd, Clark, Scott, and Jefferson,
debouching upon the river at Madison,
thirty-five miles from New Albany. These
hills are not in a continuous range, but
In clusters, like links of broken chain.
Of irregular outlines, thickly wooded
and piled together in the greatest con-
fusion, they were, until the last decade,
awilderness whose wildness could hardly
be exceeded All the region inclosed
in the sweep of these hills is rather low,
and traveTsed by several beautiful
streams, with lovely winding valleys,
shut off by low hills from neighboring
valleys. The Knobs are the scene of
many quaint legends and traditions,
some of which have come down from the
Indian occupancy of the country.
One of the earliest settlers in this sec
ton was Nathan Phelps, retired steam
boat captain and pilot of the lower Mis-
sis5ippi. At the beginning of the pre-
sent century he established himself ON
the boundary line between the counties
of Clark and Washington, at the point
where the Territorial road, from Louis
vile to the settlements on White River,
crossed the range.
Captain Phelps was famous hunter,
and spent much of his time ranging
over the hills, which at that time
abounded with bear, deer, and all the
four-foOted and feathered game common
to the locality. He was accompanied by
a trapper friend named Brooks, and in
one of their rambling expeditions they
found In one of the widest receSSes of
that wild region an excavation, and near
it rude furnace of stone, which, from
the metallic dross, scattered about, they
supposed to have been used in the
smelling of silver ore.
Following the course of the excava-
tion they dug out and ran off much of
the precious metal, which, report SAYS,
was in the form of native silver; that is,
almost pure. Phelps and Brooks estab-
hshed a camp here, and gave them
selves up to the business of mining,
going home occasionally for supplies.
During one of Phelps absences for this
purpose poor Brooks was bitten by a
rattlesnake-they were very numerous
in the hill country-and he died alone
in the solitary mountain camp. As
Phelps had no near neighbors upon
whom he could call for assistance, or
perhaps did not desire that any one
should become acquainted with their
treasure house, he dug the grave I'M
aided, and laid his unfortunate compan-
ion to rest under the spreading pine that
had sheltered him while dying.
Just then occurred the Indian out
break known as the Pigeon Roost mas
sacre, and Phelps fed with his family
to the friendly shelter of the fort at
Louisville. While here waiting the adj |
justment of the Indian question, wearied |
IF the inactivity or the nonOtony of life !
u the fort, he took charge of vessel
md made several trips to New Orleans.
On one of these trips he was smitten
with yellow fever and died there. Dur |
ing his last illness he drew from memory |
a chart of the locality of the mine, de- !
string that it should be given to his son
when he grew to manhood. After the
W
outbreaks Mrs. Phelps returned to the
farm, and some of the citizens called
upon her and asked permission to see
the chart, for some inkling of its exis-
tance had got abroad. She showed them
the chart, but refused to allow it to be
copied, and never again permitted 1t to
be seen, saying she intended to be gov
erned by her husbands wishes in the
matter and save it for her son. In this
chart, which, in view of the circum-
stances under which it was drawn, may
not have been correct, the mine was To-
Gated four miles south of his house,
which would bring it in the vicinity Of
the Round Top, one of the loftiest hills
of the chain and the most regular in out
line.
Acting upon that theory the neigh
bors thoroughly explored the ravines in
the neighborhood of the Round Top and
made many excavations, but were never
able to discover a spot bearing resem-
blance to the locality described in the
chart Those who saw the chart were
only permitted hasty examination,
but all agreed that the mine was stu
ated in n ravine at whose mouth was the
figure of an Indian with drawn bow,
carved upon an oak, with the arrow
pointed in the direction of their eXcava-
ton.
When young Phelps grew to manhood
he sought diligently for the mysterious
mine, but without success. Again and
again, at intervals of several years, he
renewed the search, but all in van, and
for fifty years he has not been heard
of. The probability of their being sill
yer In the Knobs is strengthened by the
circumstance that, during the kHawk
war, some Indians who were encamped
in the vicinity of RockIsland, waiting the
signing of the treaty that should remove
them beyond the Mississippi, told some
of the citizen soldiers from this section
that there was silver in the Knobs.
These Indians were not from this section,
but were in communication with parties
who had hunted over the hills or made
their summer homes there. The precise
locality of the mine they did not state,
or they were, perhaps, ignorant of it.
There is much of wild beauty in these
hills, and he who has rambled one day
amid their glories has enjoyed a rare and
not soon forgotten pleasure. 1t is a re-
gion abounding in historic interest also.
The old stone fort on the Ohio is one of
the most remarkable defensive works ex
tant of the mound builders. 1t lies at the
mouth of Fourteen Mile Greek, near the
site of Ohio Falls, the ancient hamlet
founded by the explorer, Clark. Silver
Greek is historic stream also, since it
was along its banks the terrified settlers
fed ON that doleful August day in 1872,
when the Indians fell upon the neigh
boring hamlet of Pigeon Roost. Few
of the pioneers are left, but the old stone
fort still speaks eloquently of that mys-
terious vanished race, and the circling
hills remain, mute witnesses of all they
have looked upon.
A Fatality Pursues Imported Horses.