Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1889-04-11
a RICH SECRET.
A Gold Mine Found Often, but
Always Lost Again.


The present rush to the gold fields of
Lower California is not the first attempt
to wrest its rich secret from that region.
The stories old miners tell of the finds
which have been made in the peninsula,
and how every attempt to work them
has been baffied, are almost enough to
cause superstitious person to feel that
some mocking intelligence must preside
over those placers and lodges of yellow
metal, which takes delight in thwarting
its pursuers, eluding them, leading
them astray, and visiting vengeance
upon them.
AS long ago as the winter of 1851, says
a letter to the New York Sun, party of
four men, q. +. 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 n color IN
nearly every canon they visited. But it
was in tho 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 10 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
and 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 frljoles
and tortillas and iamales. 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 III
their second search. They walked about
until they We're footsore, prospecting IN
every direction, but the wealth they had
been counting on so confideatially SEEM
ed to have fed. 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, 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 burros
were loaded with five orsix sacks of raw
hide filed with pieces Of ore and loose
gold mixed with sand. With much GEES
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
mine until he chose 10 take him there.
That he decided not to do until he could
take his specimens to San Francisco and
have them assayed. So he shipped his
rawhide sacks us freight and started
for the bay.
Smith and Tebbetts waited and waited,
bu, heard nothing from him. At last
they sent man to the city TO inquire
what had become of him.
IL was found that Don Pedro had
reached San Francisco in very poor
health, and had died soon after his ar
rival. Not n 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
the mine was hopelessly lost
The secret of Baja California was still
safe.
4 year afterward a man named Char
ey Pond, who had been prospecting in
lie same range in which Don Pedro was
supposed to have discovered his mine,
md which the party mentioned above
rad travelled over, brought TO Tebbitts,
Vt San Diego, some specimens of gold he
lad found in that region. Tebbitts
,ailed for New York with the specimens
having arranged that each was TO have
/ half interest in the mine. The ore was /
lssayed and found to be wonderfully /
'ich. A Wall street broker offered
arge sum for an interest, and wanted to I
end ont mining expert at once. But /
rebbitts thought he would rather see |
he place himself before making any /
bargain, and returned to the coast. 4
There with Pond and another man he /
vent to inspect the place.
But Pond could not retrace his steps.
They wandered about in the mountains
or weeks, but could not find the rich
deposit whence Pond had taken his spe-
linens. At last, furnished, footsore and
worm out, they gave it up.
The mine was lost again.
In 1860 man digging for founda-
ion in San Francisco, unearthed some
Id rawhide sacks filed with ore, sand,
nuggets and grains and flakes of gold.
IN examination they proved to be the
ost treasure of the dead Don Pedro.
With true Mexican cunning and dis
rust he had buried them in the sand
ills and had died without revealing his
ecret.
The ore was assaved and found to be
rich. The man who dug
hem up was referred to Mr.. Tebbitts, of
IAN Diego, and at once visited him. The
excitement his story raised in Southern
Jalifornia was almost equal to that of the
,oom days Of later years The man who