The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-07-15

out; my God, captain, you are sitting
| on a gold mine!" and such proved to be
the case, and these two men, who were
out hunting Indians, stumbled into
wealth.
This reminded another that: GIN the
summer of 1864 a prospector with the
! euphonious name of Chris Reyes, who
had been prospecting in Montana till
everything but his faith in his own luck
was gone, came one day to Fort Benton
with bag full of quartz, in which gold
| was stuck like plums in pudding, which
he said he had found in the Bear Paw
mountains. A party was made up to go
| with him to what he described as gulch
full OF gold, but they were massacred by
| the Indians, and Keyes and his secret
| was lost to the world.
Items of thousands of dollars and years
OF time have been spent searching the
| Bear Paw Mountains for keyes' lost mine,
and some day it will be found-stumbled
on as it was by its original first discov-
erer."
You've all heard of Alder Gulch
mine, said a man who had been quietly
smoking up to this time. "Well, you
| know 1t is the richest ind that has as
vet been made in Western Montana, and
its discovery was an accident as much as
| the find of the hero OF Dows Flat that
Bret Harte tells about.
| early in the sixties Bill Fairweather
and some friends started out to prospect
the Big Horn Range, but were driven out
OF their course by, the Grow Indians.
| Dlsheartened and hungry, they were
working their way back to Bannock
City, the nearest settlement, when they
| went into camp on Alder Creek While
the others were cooking the last of their
grub, Fairweather, from force of habit,
| began panning out the dirt in the creek.
The very first dishful showed about So.
That was the simple beginning of it. A
camp was started, town sprang up; and
as all know, about $50 900, 900 in gold has
been taken from the mines of Alder
| Greek.
THE FOUNDING OF HELENA.
Talk about brains and foresight, they
are all very well, and l believe in giving
them credit, but as a rule, they don't de-
| serve it. Take Helena it's a second case
of Alder Gulch. The Last Chance Gulch
was discovered by chance, and the capital
Of Montana was founded. Let me see
yes, that was in '64 Four miners,
Cowan, Crab, Miller and Stanley, STAN
peded from Alder Gulch and pushed
north. They met jim Coleman coming
from the KOotenai country with bad
news. The four prospectOrs struck Off in
another direction, without any destina-
ton in view, and after a weeks wander
ing they decided to try their fortunes on
a stream which they called Last Chance
Creek
"They found gold in encouraging guam
titles; the country was full of game; they
stuck to it, and the result was one of the
richest finds in the world, and the found
ing of the capital of a great state. Luckl
Well, should say it was luck"
"Do you know said yet another, that
the famous Comstock lode that made so
many men in Nevada and out of it i'm
mensely wealthy was originally a gold
minel" Some knew this and others did
not.
Well" he continued, sit is fact.
There was gold on the surface, but as
they went down the gold petered out, and
| Comstock and his partners, Peter o Riley
and Pat Mclaughlin. were about to
| abandon it, when it struck them to have
an analysis made of the strange deposit
they had come on. This was done, and
the silver was discovered-by chance, but
all the same 1866, 900, 600 was taken from
thai mine"
"Talking about luck, :" said a man from
| Las Vegas, reminds me of the case of
Adams. l believe he was related to the
| great New England family; at any rate,
| his front name was John Quincy. One
day while prospecting his magnifying
glass was so HING that it focused the
suns rays on his haversack and set it on
fire. AS the haversack held about a
dozen pounds of powder, Adams dropped
1t mighty spry, and lit out in hurry. 1t
fell into a crevice-that was down in the
Sandia mountains-and after the eXplos-
ion he went back from curiosity, to see
the rock shattered in every direction.
He found to his delight vein of white
quartz, with fecks of gold in it. He sold
a tenth interest within a month for
$4,000, but it was worth a hundred times
that. That. gentlemen, was the way in
which was discovered what Adams who
was dead broke, called The Nick of
| lime mine"
THAT reminds me of the Christmas
| Gift mine in California" said the first
speaker. "Sam Snow was out deer hunt
ing in the Sierras with party from
Frisco and on their way back to camp on
| Christmas eve the others missed Snow.
| They found that Snow and his horse had
tumbled into canyon. While they were
getting the man and his horse out, Snow,
who had been prospector, filled his
pockets with some Of the detached
stones. They proved to be rich in gold,
and the fortunes of the hunter and his
| friends were made by mishap which
they deplored at the time"
| MANY other cases equally interesting
were cited to show that the element of
| luck was the principal factor In the dis
coverv Of rich mines, but all were agreed
| that it was energy and brains that subse-
| ouently gave them their chief value.
/