Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1890-04-25
NEVADA'S MULHATTON.
Old Dams Thrilling Story of His Ex-
perience in Binding Snow
Storm.
Abandoning a Dead COmrade, Horses
and Gold Dust, and Never Re-
turning for Them.

'''Old Dan was an eccentric character
No one knew his true name. He would
not divulge it even to his most intimate
friends. His signature to whatever it
CHANGED to be, note, bond, deed or letter,
was invariably Old Dan Under that
name he served one year as Mining Re-
corder of Red Cedar Mining District and
there are to-day within the archives of the
Secretary of the Interior at Washington
city abstracts and certificates bearing the
signature Old Dan. He was once a can
Young and rising lawyer defeated him on
the ground that Old Dan was not his true
name and therefore all his judicial acts
would be void The place of his nativity
was equally uncertain and obscure, and he
was equally as reticent about it. He
might have come from the pine wood. of
Maine or the hoop-pole and pumpkin
country of Indiana. He was cosmopolitan
in his manners and language. and in the
recital of his various adventures he spoke
in that earnest and sincere manner which
forced upon the listener the belief that
like Washington, he could not tell lie.
Il first met him early in the seventies
III = lClll, ClG q AOllSly ok41llS NlutlN SCpd-
rated by miles of desert from any other
habitation, where he was engaged in herd
ing a few head of gentle COWS. He indig-
nantly repelled the appeIlation of cowboy,
and claimed, like Gurth, to be only a COM
mon 'cowherd, not to Cedric, the Saxon,
but to a Mormon bishop. | was in the
mountains prospecting, my outfit consist
ing of two mules. one packed with grub.
blankets and tools, and the other | rode
One hot afternoon in June | approached
the spring, where | found Old Dan re-
cining in he shade of his cabin. | asked
of him the privilege of watering my cara
van from the spring and resting a while
in the shade before crossing to the oppo-
site range. This was readily granted. and
when | presented him with long plug of
smoking tobacco our friendship was ce-
mented and Old Dan became very comnuni
cative
In the coarse of our conversation | ask
ed him if he had ever engaged in mining.
Yes. he replied, once, in Contain. My
self and partner, Joe, went into camp when
it was first discovered. We were very
lucky. and in less than FIVE weeks we dug
out 340 pounds of good, clean gold dust:
but it did us no good. We could have
taken out a great deal more but winter was
and as there was no grub in
the camp we had to get out. So we put
our gold dust into good strong twenty
pound sacks. and loading it on three cayuse
horses. and having one each to ride we
struck out for WalIula.
The second day out Il fearful snow
storm struck us. The wind blew at the
rate of thousand miles minute, and the
snowfakes were as big as a bed spread.
Soon all trace of the trail was Obliterated,
and we realized that we were lost and
wandered saimlessly in the binding storm.
JOe's feet and limbs began to freeze, the
horses on which we had the heaviest load
of gold dust stepped between two falling
leSa and broke Il leg, and we made camp
shot the horse to relieve him of his suf-
ferings, and attempted to build a fire
But 1t was no use. 1t was impossible to
start fire III that whirling, twisting,
driving snow. for nothing would burn.
All that afternoon and night we huddled
around the dead horse in the vain en-
deavOr to keep warm with the scanty
blankets we Lad. The next morning the
storm broke away to some extent, but Joe's
feet and legs were frozen as stiff and solid
as icicles. ! would have given half of
our dust to have been in place of safety
we had to make the best Of it and try to
keep out of the cold. got the horses to-
gether and packed them the best | could
tied poor frozen Joe on to his saddle
horse by means of straps and bands torn
from our blankets. One hundred pounds
of gold dust we had to leave as our horses
could not pack it through the deep snow
AS night approached the storm became
more furious and violent than ever
was in advance of the train; Joe was
bringing up the rear.
i called halt in order to consult
Joe what was best to do, and what do you
think | discovered. Why, Joe was dead.
As dead, cold and stiff as a crowbar. A
mass of solid frozen flesh and bones, frozen
so hard and stiff that be still maintained
the upright position on his horse in which !
/ had placed and tied him In the morning
| lost no time In cutting Joe loose from
the saddle, and laid his icy form by the |
roots of tree. The snow was coming |
down thicker and faster than ever. Our |
horses punched themselves all up together. |
and in less than an hour were completely |
buried in the snow, and | would have |
shared the same fate had | not tramped |
the snow and kept on top. All night long |
| kept up this constant tramp, tramp. | |
tell you, it was worse than tramping |
through Georgia The next morning il |
cleared up, but the snow was forty feet |
deep. | realized it would be impossible to
get my horses out of that sea Of snow, and |
would be IN big luck if got myself out.
So | dug down to where the horses were
buried and succeeded in cutting open one |
of the sacks of gold dust and took out
few handfuis and put it in my shot pouch.
| also got a small piece of bacon and some |
crockers. With these started to find my
way out. After two weeks of incessant |
toll and struggles | reached a small settle
ment more dead than alive The people !
were good to NE. and | soon recovered !
strength sufficient to travel, and | made |
my way down the seacoast, where ! took
sailing vessel for Frisco, and from there /
came to Utah. where you now see me.
- old DAN having reflled his pipe be-
gan to puff away. In answer to ques-
ton of mine he replied:
No. | never went back to find our gold !
dust, or to see whether poor Joe had
thawed out or not | suppose it's all there /
yet, and some one will find it one of these |
days. No, | have not mined any since ! |
left Contain"
- Have you ever prospected any for
silver ore IN these mountains? | again !
asked. /
'' Yes: once. Two years ago l went
down into Death Valley to find the Brey-
fogie mine
. Did you find it,:
- Yes. | found it, and a big thing it is
Why. sir. it crops ont as high as this |
house and is over 800 feet wide. You can
trace these high groupings for mile right /
along through the level desert; and rich! |
you never saw ANYTHING like IT. The |
ledge is one solid mas Of horn silver. into |
which you can stick you knife as easy as |
you could into bar Of soft lead
= Did you locate it?' l mildly in /
quired.
81 No. sir; did not locate it. l was
not hunting for silver mines just at that |
time; it was water | wanted | had been |
without water eight days. and my tongue |
was protruding from my mouth two feet !
or more. No, young man, gold will not |
bring warmth and food in a snow-storm,
nor will silver bring water IN a desert. No |
more mining or prospecting for me.
San Francisco Call