The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-01-07

When he, struck the ground he was
 dead. The only one I ever saw since
 I've been here. They're kinder yellow
 on the back and very large, and rare, too." And thus the resident went on, finally changing his talk to mining
 really to keep his companions atten-
 tion from the scenery on the right
 which was now unfolding itself rapidly
 Yer see this road was put in here by
 the Armstrong mine; they came around
 the brow of Pine hill there and down
 along the side of this here hill; the
 mine was down below us about half
 mile on the side hill. They couldn't
 build road down there so they
 strapped the machinery on to sleds and
 the men hauled it down Well, the
 mine didn't pay, and you can imagine
 it wouldn't be easy to get the machine ry back up the hill, so there it lays.
 Just so over this whole country the
 hills are full of boilers and engines and
 quartz crushers put in on speculation;
 mines didn't pay anybody but the pro-
 jectors, and it would cost more'n the
 machinery was worth to move it, so
 there it stands and rusts. Just mon
 ument to the money that has been lost
 in mining speculation. I tell you when
 you put any money up on quartz you
 be sure it ain't pink quartz. Pick
 quartz with bluish or kinder lavender
 tint and you may stand some show
 There's another big failure here, the
 Rattlesnake, about a mile from here.
 That was pink quartz just like the
 Armstrong They just blew in the
 money there, None carried off a cent
 though Some funny things happen in
 mining" They were now seated, for
 the tourist was getting winded by his
 exercise in rarified atmosphere. The
 resident was grateful for the trees
 which now bordered the road and hid
 the view which he was waiting to
 spring on his companion in all it's glory.
 "Now there was fellow blazed out a
 claim over there on the side of Ewen
 Ravine hill That's Ewen Ravine
 and we call that hill there Ewen Ra-
 vine hill. Nobody knows why; same all
 around here; nobody knows who named
 things. The men who built the camps
 and named them and named the hills
 and the creeks and the ravines are all
 gone now, and there ain't much of any
 legends connected with 'em. As was
 saying, this fellow took up this claim
 over on the side of that hill"
 | "I should call it a mountain" re- marked the tourist devoutly. He was now beginning to be impressed.
 "Well, we call 1t hill, and this fel- low didn't pay much attention to his claim" as If there had been no inter ruption, "and a couple of jumpers come on it an worked about week before any one knew anything about it. They put down a shaft about ten or fifteen | feet I guess, and blamed if they didn't | strike pocket fifteen hundred dollars or whereabouts. We'll, sir, the original owner was wild, but he didn't have to drive the jumpers off; they left of their | own accord There was a tragedy con nected with one of em. I'll tell you | about 1t some time; 1t aint very old, | either. They hadn't got through talk | ing about it when came here. Well, | the fellow that owned the mine went | right to work and started tunnel to | tap the bottom of the shaft, but it was no go; couldn't strike nothin'; been workin' all winter there and won't get | two bits out of it'
 What are those buildings down the |
  fore" observed the tourist.
 Were going down by there," replied his companion, "but I'll tell you about it now we're resting. That's the Phoenix mine, one of the prettfest little mines in the state. There's some little TO- nance connected with the discovery and subsequent development of that mine. Yer see when they put this road in it was done by the Armstrong peo- pie. Old man Mcdowell (hes a Scotchman) worked for the company; the old man came here in the fifties and mined all the time without much success; and the time I am speaking of mind you was early in the eighties. Well, he was working along with some other men grading this road and they dug right through the Phoenix ledge Of course it wasn't the Phoenix then When the old mans pick went into the ledge he saw a glitter, but he didn't say a word; he kept right on picking and ShoVeling as fast as he could to get that quartz out of there and spread over the { road and covered up with dirt. No body else saw it, and the next day the old man took day off and wrote a mo- tice and pasted it on a tree, blazed out ( his lines and went over to old Cannon's s l { and got his claim recorded. Then he took some specimens down to where his { sons lived. There's five of 'em, all over S six feet. They're in the cattle business down below here to place called Buff l falo Ranch. Well, there was a big row { when the Armstrong people saw that 6 notice. They began to set up howl. l The old man was working for them I when he struck it and they must have ' it. It belonged to them, and they were I goin' to put men to work on it at once I Before they got around to it though 2 a four horse team with a load of lum- i Der drove over this road, and with if t marched old Macs boys with axes and a saws and six-shooters and Winchester i rifles. They went to work, and when l. the Armstrong people passed they saw q em working with six-shooters in their belts putin up a cabin an couple of t em putin down shaft, they didn't c say anything and the boys didn't. The il boys hauled timbers for the old man md by and by the Armstrong busted t md all fear of interference was over; q fhn how off Iart 1..... |