Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-02-20
THE DEVILS GOLD.
The Story of the Biggest Lump of the Metal
Ever Found in America.


How many know, asks the Washington
Post. where the largest single lump of ma
tive gold ever seen In America was found?
In California? No In Colorado? No.
In the Black Hills, Ceur d Alene, Nevada.
New Mexico? No. In old Mexico, Peru,
Bolivia, in Potosi, the Caliao of Venezuela?
No. Where then? In North Carolina.
And its story is as weird and fateful as the
Rhinegold'S.
A poor and ignorant Irishman, living In
the mountains solitary and lonely, propped
open his door with lump of metal. He
had found it sticking out from water
washed gully and carried it home as
curiosity. Though no larger than a small
cymlling, 1t was weighty lug for mile.
1t was dull yellow, irregular in shape,
and pieces of stone were embedded In it.
For over two years a fortune lay upon the
floor of his howell while he toiled early and
late, making little whisky and digging
ginseng root to earn scanty living. A
companion mountaineer, who had known
more of the outside world, thought this
strange stone might be sold at Asheyille as
a curiosity for lot of mOney-S10 per.
haps. This was in the flush DAYS before
the war. He had some quartz crystal
IL. n
third mOuntaineer was called in consulta-
ton. Ten dollars was a lot of money.
The third man had been a traveller, regu-
lar globe trotter He went to Ashevile
four times year, and he had been to
Washington.
Walking around the lump, he gazed at
it from every side, touched It with his toe,
spat on it, and breathed heavily.
CHIT 1x,1,+b ,,,,+bi,,' L
pile" said he. Hit air nuthin' but
brass, er hit air. He looked around
on the other two with queer expression
''goold."
EFF hit air brass he drew clasp knife
and scraped the dull metal till new sur
face glittered-''v inegarll rust hit. Eff
hit air goold hit won t.
He poured some vinegar from jug
which was brought him upon the fresh
facing of the lump. The three men hung
over it intently. Five, ten, fifteen minutes
passed, and still the metal shone clear and
untarnished.
''Hit's goold!"
''And I've heered goold was with more n
5000 pound, said the second.
''What a - fool I've been" groaned
the owner of the cabin ''For two years
L
of kckin' under my feet. "
Il claims third, - broke in the assayer.
d never a knowed what it was but for
me-
can third for me, said the other.
The owner of the gold gave sullen as
sent. They obtained a pair of steelyard
and weighed the gold. 1t turned the scale
at over 100 pounds avoirdupois, and they
roughly estimated it to be worth S25, 900
over $4,000 apiece That night all three
sat up and watched the treasure, unable to
sleep from excitement and thoroughly sus-
picious of each other. The next day they
rolled it securely in a cloth and started for
Asheville afoot, with the gold slung to a
pole, and carried between the two.
It was the devils gold At the first
stopping place the Irishmanss and the second
mountaineer, conspired to kill the third and
he was shot dead from behind. Hastily
throwing his body into a clump of bushes,
the murderers faced each other in the road.
Suspicion reused In each breast saw treach
cry in the others glance.
Here, said one, forcing an uneasy
laugh, there's only one way to settle this.
Let's divide the gold and each go his
way"
agreed, " said the other.
The lump was laid in the roadway and
chopped in two with a hatchet.
''Take your choice, said one. AS the
other bent to lift his half his companion
split the head of the stopping man with
mis- Ratchet. The gold was his. With
blind faulty he dragged the second victim
to the side of the road, lifted the blood
stained treasure and went on. At Ashe
vile he took it to the bank and had it
shipped to the United States mint In
less than a week, and before any return
could be made from the mint the bodies
of the murdered men had been discovered,
and the crime traced directly home. The
miserable wretch was placed in jail, and
there he died within a year. The witch
gold fortune never crossed his hands, re-
naming, believe, in the Federal treasury
for lack of ownership.
The region where the lump was found
has been secured foot by foot but not an
other lump like that has ever been discov-
cred in that or any other section In Ameri-
ca. It is said that few weeks ago an
English company, which is working the
Nacoochee mine in Georgia, took out a
nugget weighing |, 300 pennyweights, yet
the North Carolina lump weighed over
1 800 ounces.