Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1894-05-28

that fifty years ago. They fought
their way across continents, suffered
hardships, faced starvation and even
death that they might reach the
Rockies where they could pick up
gold as you would pick up apples un-
der a tree. Did they do it? Read his
tory. Men thought to pick up gold
forty years ago. Even when I was
! child the Rockies was an Ell Dorado
to thousands. People talked it, pa
| pers quoted it, and young men, mid
| die aged men and old men believed
in it. They rushed to find it at Pixies
Peak Years later they hurried into
Ask of the remainder who still sur
vive. Gold was not fruit. 1t did
not grow upon trees. They found it
a heavy metal sunk low in the earth,
wegded in crevasses, mixed with
rocks and lodged in almost inaccessi-
BILE places. Men found that out, too.
He who picked up rich nugget was
termed ''lucky;" for, while he was
lucky, hundreds had searched life
time and found - nothing. It took
gold to find gold; gold, and labor;
labor, and patience; patience, and
skill; skill, and every other quality
that went with it. Every dollar OF
gold taken out Of the Rocky Noun
tains has coat two dollars to secure it.
Gold! gold gold!
What will not men do for gold?
Stand in some canyon and look np,
up, up at the dizzy heights before yot
and you see holes. To an Fastener
they look like woodchuck holes with
the earth and rocks piled up in front
Of them in the same manner. You
see them everywhere. From the bot
tom of the lowest gulch to the crest
Of the tallest peak among the SHOWS.
The mountains are honeycombed with
them. What are they for? Men have
dug them there for--gold. No matter
how steep the rock-how inaccessible
the cliff-men have been there. They
have picked, and shoveled, and dug,
and tugged, and swore, for = gold.
They have dragged great timbers,
boilers, all kinds of mach inery and
and tools up those terrible heights
for-gold. Long bitches trail around
the sides of the mountains; bitches
starting miles away at some stream
in gulch above; bitches built Of
earth, and rocks, and timber, and
boards, and trees; bitches that span
dark gorges and pass far under great
overhanging rocks; bitches that will
not be impeded or hinderd in their
circuitous course. What are they
for? They have been built to carry
water to men high, up on the noun
tain side that they might wash for
gold. Not all miners resort to water.
The most are worked by sinking shafts
and tunnels, through which the ore is
borne from it's natural bed and carted
to the mills below. I climbed up to
these mines. The openings to some
were round, and some We're square.
They were not ten feet across. Some
went into the mountain direct, and
some went straight down. They
followed the lode; no matter at what
angle-they followed the fssure- vein.
If it widened down in the earth, the
hole widened; if the vein narrowed,
the hole narrowed. To handle as lit
tie waste rock as possible was a saw
ing in expense. 1t mattered not how
far those lodes extended, men follow
ed them. They were after-gold. |
looked into one mine that went
straight down six hundred feet 9th
ers have gone deeper. Some of the
mines were open, some covered with
loose boards, and some with build
ings. Some were worked with a crude
windlass and hand drills, and some by
steam with all the modern improve
ments. Hundreds, representing gil
gantic failures, were not worked at
all. The mountains are full of desert
ed mines. Isaw them in every direc-
ton; deserted, open, dangerous-lone
monuments to mans disappointment,
and representing years of hard and
wasted toll.
Gold! gold! gold!
walked down to creek in a can
yon. The waters were thick, muddy,
and of grayish hue; waters that
once were clear as crystal and filed
with mountain trout. Why were the
waters in that condition? I rode far
up the creek. Not one mile, but five,
fifteen, twenty; the whole length of
the canyon. The whole distance I
passed men who were too eager to
look up. Some were working with
picks; some with shovels; some with