Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1894-07-25
MONSTER LUMP OF GOLD.
How America's Largest Nugget was Dis
cnYered.

Cal, lives a man who bears the dis
t1nctlon of having picked up the largest
gold and quartz nugget ever discovered
in the gold fields of America, and Sec
ond only to the famous king of Water
Moon Nuggets" found in Australia
forty years ago. The mans name is
Oliver Martin, and he lived and delved
among the mines of California from the
time that gold was discovered at SUIT
ter's mill until he was compelled to re-
tire through physical inability to any
longer swing the pick and WELD the
shovel
He is now past his eighty-fifth birth
day, but he appears to enjoy life, and
promises to live many years longer.
Rheumatism, however, has weakened
his legs, and his active career is at an
end. Through his discoveries in the
gold fields he has become immensely
rich, and he has preserved large num-
Der of valuable nuggets that he proud
ly exhibits to visitors.
The famous nugget that he picked up
weighed one hundred and fifty-one
pounds and six ounces-seventv-on
pounds and fourteen ounces less than
the king of Water Moon Nuggets"
Martin found the prize in Tuolumne
county near Camp Corona, in 1850. At
that time he was a poor man, owning
nothing but his camping outfit and the
tools he worked with
Martin went to California in 40 from
small town in New Hampshire In
1850 he fell In with an ex-editor from
Maine, named Flower. They agreed to
work together. Week after week thew
worked with no luck. One night late
in September the men retired at an
early hour, and, as the work of the dav
had been hard and tiresome, thew were
soon sound asleep. During the night a
terrific thunderstorm came up-one of
the sudden and fearful storms peculiar
to the mountain region of northern
California. The first intimation of the
storm thatsMartin had was when awak-
ened by Flower, who gave his
hair yank and yelled to him
to get out, for the water was
flooding the sshanty. Half awake,
Martin sprang out of the berth and
landed on the floor up to his waist in
water. The night was fearfully dark,
and bewildered by the roar of the
thunder and the dazzling flashes of
lightning, the men kept together and
felt their way as rapidly as possible out
OF the cabin, and began to climb the
side of the ravine. The water was ris.
ing rapidly, and it was only by the
hardest work that they managed to
keep ahead of it. AS they advanced the
ground became sleeper, and they were
finally compelled to get down on their
hands and knees and crawl
The men must have been about half
way up the side of the gulch when
there came a sudden increase in the
storm. The roar of the water in the
canyon grew louder and the men felt
the water rising around them. Grasp
ing each other by the hand the men
made desperate dash for higher
ground. AT that moment they were
lifted by the rushing food and hurled
forward down the canyon.
The men chung together desperately.
Martin remembers having struck some
thing; then all was blank. He was
probably dashed against rock, for
when he returned to consciousness sew
eral hours later his head was cut and
bleeding and enc shoulder badly
crushed. He was lying fixed in the
branches of tree that been partly
torn up by the flood The storm had
passed. The sun was shining and the
water was rapidly lowering. and in a
few hours there was but small thread
OF stream where the food had ragged.
Martin still held to Flowers coat
The water had been unable to break
the hold that his strong fingers had
taken. Flower was dead His head
had been crushed by coming in contact
with some hard substance
More dead than alive, Martin crawled
out Of the tree, and managed after
awhile to get the body of his compan-
ion to the ground. He was fearfullv
weak, and was obliged to rest a few
hours before attending to the burial of
Flower. He had nothing with which
to dig grave. While casting about
for some means of covering up the re.
mains of MS friend, his eye fell upon
the hole in the ground under the roots
of the tree that had been partially
blown down.
INTO TINS cavity he got Flowers re-
mains, and with sticks and leaves he
covered them. Then he began to fill
the cavity with soil. While working
in the dirt that had been loosened by
the tearing up Of the roots of the tree,
he came across the famous nugget that
gave him a start on the road to pros
perity
The only thing left to Martin to do
was to make his way as rapidly as pos
sible to the nearest mining camp. He
concealed the precious nugget under
covering of leaves and dirt, and started
to crawl across the mountains
Three days later he was discovered
by party of prospectors lying sense
less in a gulch. He was cared for. and
after hard fight of several weeks he re-
covered sufficiently to conduct the
prospectors who had cared for him to
the spot where he had found the one