The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-02-06
Said to Be Worth Hundreds OF
Thousands of Dollars.
LOST IN COLORADO RIVER.
A PARTY or PROSECUTORS PUSHED
IT OVER a PRECIPICE.
Romantic story Told by Miners
Upon Their Return From the
Grand Canyon of the Colorado
The Rivers Waters Now Flow
Smoothly over the Treasure.


do says the Phoenix, Ariz., cores
pendent of the ST Louis Globe-Demo-
crat, where they have been exploring
and prospecting for the past four
months. They put in most of their
time, it seems, toward the lower end of
the canyon, where the river forms the
boundary between this territory and
the state Of Nevada. They did not
succeed in finding the gold deposit
they had hoped for though they dis
covered a gigantic silver ledge, big
enough, so they say, to have made all
their fortunes had they discovered it
ten years ago. AS it is, with silver in
its present low spirits, they did not
even take the trouble to monument or
locate it, feeling confident that its iso-
lated situation would prevent its being
discovered by any one else Should a
brighter day at length dawn for the
white metal they will know just where
TO go for a mine.
Among the curious and noteworthy
episodes of their trip, the story Of their
encounter with huge nugget of gold,
as related by Jim Wagner is by no
means the least interesting. Jim says:
I'VE were about twelve miles up
stream from the opening of the canyon,
camped on one Of the high nesas eN-
tending northwest from the foot of the
mountains that form the wall of the
outer canyon TO the rim Of the inner
canyon, where they fall off in perpen-
dicular cliffs, whose elevation is 1000
or 1000 feet above the level of the
river. Of course we could not get
down to the river, for the wall was
fully 1,500 feet high where we were
camped, but we found a spring in one
of the deep, lateral gorges near by
and there being plenty of good pros
pecting ground in the vicinity we stop
ped there several weeks, living mostly
on Venison and bighOrn mutton.
"One morning all five of us were out
on the cliffs, near camp, looking down
on the river daShing through its bowl
der-strewn channels far below US
From where we stood the water scarce
ly seemed to be in motion, and all the
sound that reached us was soft muir
muir, as Of some far-off ocean beach !;
but we knew from the black rocks in
midstream and the white patches Of
foam constantly forming and vanish
ing that the roar and turmoil below
must be deafening to the ear One of
the boys pushed q boWlder over the
edge and it was grand to watch its
hurtling fight into the abyss. This
started all of us, and in a few mo-
ments we were scattered all along the
crest. straining and heaving at loose
powders and yelling like schoolboys
spied a good-sized one, few feet
from the edge.
1T seemed to be lying loose on the
base rock and should be an easy one to
start, as the surface of the rock sloped
off considerably, thus giving me a
down-hill push. But strain and tug as
I would, 1 could not even shake it. 1t
was evidently attached to the bed rock
| on which it appeared to lie. and, in
deed, it was much the same color, d
brownish elayey tint | called the
others to my assistance, and presently
four of us were eXertng our strength
in vain. We did succeed in shaking it,
and that was about all. 1t seems to
me now that, finding it so heavy, we
should naturally have stopped to eX-
anime it. But the excitement of the
sport and and our boyish flow of spirits
at the same time banished from our
minds everything except the desire to
| conquer so obdurate specimen OF in
animate nature.
"Finally | ran over to Doc, the ge-
ologist of our party, and borrowed the
pole-pick with which he picking about
among the rocks, and, inserting the
llong-pointed steel under the refractory
bowlder while the others braced them
selves for a mighty effort. | shouted,
| Now We raised it an inch and
| blocked it up. Then, taking a new
hold, with another effort we raised it
| still higher, until the center of gravity
resting on a more rounded portion of
| its surface. it began slowly to revolve
down the three or four feet Of slant
between it and the edge, gathering
momentum as it rolled.
| Gust then Doc called out: Hold
on. boys, / want to examine that
bowlder:' but we had already thrown
ourselves forward in a. vain attempt
to arrest it's motion, for, as it's under
side came into view, the scratches and
abrasions made by the tempered steel
of the pick glittered bright in the morn
| ing sun. and we knew that the bowldeI
that four strong men could not move
was a nugget Of solid gold. In our
mad excitement we almost forgot our
perilous position on the edge of that
beetling precipice as we frantically
struggled with the relentless monster
during those few seconds of it's start
! At the risk of our lives. we threw our
selves on our knees at the very brink
! of the gulf. clutching in despair at the
moving mass. with cries of "Stop it
the dizzy verge, it dropped out of sight
| Down on our faces we went, regardless
of the danger, and clinging there at the
edge. hanging. as it were, in space, we
Deered over and saw sight l shall
never forget. For one brief moment
we forgot our regret and rage to wonder
and admire. Like a plummet ou1
bowlder dropped for 300 feet, where il
lstruck a steeply sloping abutment OF
smooth solid rock, and, sliding with the
speed of locomotive to the lower
edge. a hundred feet or more. it left
behind it broad. glistning trail thai
elittered in the sunbeams a stream OF
molten gold. Bounding from the lower
edge of the abutment it received a
rotary motion, the side on which it ha6
slid rejecting the suns rays two OF
three times in a second, so rapid were
its revolutions. emitting a succession
OF brilliant flashes that dazzled oul
ewes
Failing thus rapidly for 1000 feet il
struck jutting cliff with report like
the explosion of a dynamite cartridge
and detaching from it mass of rock
about the size of an ordinary district
schoolhouse it bounded outward and
inward in beautiful curve an6
dropped like a meteor into. the BOILING
flood, but close behind it came the
avalanche of rocks that it had detached
and distanced in its more rapid flight
and then, for a few moments. the
whole channel was a perfect pandemo.
mum of splitting waterspouts and heav.
ing waves. while the angry roar of the
waters echoed and re-echoed along the
canyon walls.
"As we got on to our feet. looking
sheepishly at one another, Doc ha6
lust finished rapid calculation on !
leaf OF his, notebook. Gentlemen ssai6
he. that bowlder, as doubtless YOU. al
of you. know by this time, was a nug.
get Of solid gold, deposited on this bare