Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1893-10-20
THIRSTING FOR GOLD.
Desert Success Forty Miles
From Water.
How a Msrcopa County Sheriff
Found Bigger Pay Than Pol
Itics Even Promises.

The man who struggles for fortune in
a desert, forty miles from water, will
not want for congratulating admirers
when he attains success. Such man
is "Bud" Gray, ex-sherif of Msricopa
county. When he surrendered his Of
flee nearly three years ago he proceeded
to certain gold mining claims in Cali
fornia, forty miles from Ehren berg, on
the Colorado river, and forty miles from
Dandy, the nearest station on the At
lantic & Pacific railroad, and each place
the nearest water supply points in dry
timeA
Bud had mined before this to the ex-
tent OF $1,000 paid, laid out and ex-
pended. as the lawyers say, without one
dollar of return, up on Cave Creek.
But he had learned something about
hitting a drill and letting off blasts.
And so he went to work, out on the
California deserts. where in connection
with Lum Gray, E. II. Hitler and ]. E.
Teeter he owns eleven full claims, COOK
1900 feet each, or 220 acres in all.
Much of the mining consisted in get
ting water. Forty miles is long way
to haul it and when you have practi-
cally to make the water the distance
seems longer still. Bud had to catch
the Colorado river water in barrels and
letits heavy mud content settles. Then
he loaded the clear liquid in kegs on
burros and started to camp. Burros
can travel two days without water and
ex-Sheriff Gray was supplied with
enough to drink at Blythe's ranch and
at Salton, of which more anon.
So he got his water, and while it
lasted punched his drills and went
down into the earth, with gold on every
side. There are shafts 20, so and IS
feet deep, with other developments.
showing an undoubted bonanza. Seven
tons of ore shipped away gave 5000 per
ton. Eleven tons assorted on the dump
are as good. Experts Tom and Will
Parrish, after horned in many places.
say $3.50 free milling ore is quite usual.
If it is worth only $25 per ton, unas-
sorted, it is good enough, for the veins
are at least two feet wide, 220 acres in
extent and able to stand without tim
bering. Yes, Bud Gray and his part
ners have good thing and they will
develope extensively this winter.
Water is only five miles away now,
with we'll much nearer and amply
serviceable at last accounts. Bud has
made fair road to Salton, which is 25
miles from Dandy on the Atlantic &
Pacific railroad. To Salton steam
wagon road has been built from the
railroad for the purpose of hauling salt,
which is found 10 or Is feet below the
surface in a crys talized mass, Is feet
thick. 1t is taken out in huge cubes,
bigger than bank safe. A large store
is established at Salton, which, by the
way, is many miles north of the Salton
lake of overflow renown in 1891.
Florence Blythe's ancestor, Thomas
E. Blythe, started Al 900 acre ranch
on the Colorado river, its irrigatine
source, and spent $16O,000 upon it
Fruits and grains grow luxuriantly
there. Active horticultural operations
are delayed. however, pending litiga.
tion over the estate. But those in charge
welcome any dusty traveller, and hithel
Bud Gray was wont to HE when he got
tired of uncovering gold ore all by him
self twenty-five or thirty miles away.