Arizona weekly citizen., 1895-07-13
THE ''PEGLEG- MINE.
Lost For Fifty-Nine Ysars-A Won derfu1 Find For Which S2.OO0-
 GOO Has Been Refused.

was wandering along the railroad track last Right when I came upon three old prospectors sitting on pile of old ties. "Yes," said one, ''it is true the old 'Pegleg' mine, twenty miles from
 here. is found at last. Go to back to '36 when 'Pegleg' Smith and bis little band crossed the Colorado river at Yuma, went down to where Hall Han lon now lives, took the old Indian trail across the desert for Los Angeles, and you will find that it led to Soda Springs,
 thence to Volcano Springs where it di-
 vided, one branch going south of Salton
 Lake while the other bore of to the north and east through the foothills,
 where there was more grass or feed, and
 now and then tanks or pools of water, and you will find that the McHaney
 boys have found and are working the old 'Pegleg' gold mine.
 ''The human bones found near the camp no doubt are those of one Of the parties that left Los Angeles in 49 to find the spot where the untold millions were buried beneath the wierd hIlls of the desert wastes. Take 'Pegleg's' story as told to the late Dr. DeCourse of Yuma, and the course which the doctor had marked out to follow m his search .or the mine, and you will see that ii would have taken him directly into the oaofinn he MoII e ,ol- out their Sl000 per day. When you look at the surroundings, the bills, the lake, the mountains and the distances to Yuma and west to the divide, you find that in every detail this new discovery corrobcrBtes every thing sad by 'Pegleg' and his associates. Dr. DeCourse was only boy, or rather young man in hia teens, when he met 'Pegleg' iu Los An geles and listened to his strange but in- terestiug story, but hs was so impressed witk the earnestness of the old pioneer, that he believed it and all ths more So when 'Pegleg' exhibited the pieces of black rock loaded down with gold.
 Right there was the conclusive proof that 'Pegleg' had at least found the gold and more-there was the black iron rock, united with the gold. What could be plainer? pr. DeOourse took in every word, convinced that the finder was in earnest and that everything was as he represented 1t.
 Nearly six decades have gone into the past. Scores of lives have been sacrificed. The desert waste, the torrid neat, the unknown expanse of sand and the willy Indian h ve all claimed and taken thelr shares of human life in the mad and wild rush to find this treasure house of gold. The old shaft, dug by no one knows Sho, the bleach ing bones of a half score or more, and the great pile of rocks and float lat now make up the treasure house in part, have all been seen and passed over hun dreds of times in the past few years, ano yet DO one ever thought that there was the old 'Pegleg' gold mine, and yet it is true. Even McHaney himself says that he has ridden by there hundreds of times and never dreamed of the wealth that lay scattered even over the surface of the ground, and the mine would prob ably have remained there for another decade had not his sharp eye detected the glimmer of the color in the sun light of that rough day when he foupr the mine. He stopped, looked yes, 1t was gold. It must b- agarI' got otf his horse, picke" 9onu' eb di, ne anu 'here ee VsS', standing where old