Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1895-04-07
NONDERFg,. ". y'UGlLD FIELD.
MDooS ,yGered in the Desert Filled
80 With Yellow Metal.
They Had Been Worked, Long Ago,
By Prehistoric Natives Whose
Ability Was Great Story Of a
Fairy Tale, and Which Led to the
Rich Discovery.

Rich Discovery.
San Diego, Cal, April Ga story
comes in from the desert of a gold find
which, if true, is one of the richest ev-
er made in California; if not true, it
demonstrates that on provocation this
country can produce a crop Of liars
that can hold over anything in Cool
gardle, Australia. The story in regard
to the discovery of the mines, admitted
as true by the recent locaters and 9TH
ers who know the circumstances, reads
like fairy tale This is the story as
told in the St Louis Globe-Democrat:
About months ago an old prospec-
tor, with four burros carrying his out
fit, came plodding into Indio, He
walked into Tingman's grocery store,
the only one in the place, and said
"Whatll you give me for that ere out
ft?" Over his shoulders and under
his arms he carried two army haver-
sacks, which seemed heavy enough to
weigh him down, and his pockets bulg-
ed with rocks or something else. Ting
man outfits prospectors, but his corral
was full of barros and his store room
with kits that only needed grub to
make them complete, so he was shy
about making the old man an offer.
What do you want to sell for?" he
asked. Going to quit prOspecting?'
yep" answered the old man. I'm
done prospectin' now ur hereafter.
Want TO buy that outfit? I'll sell the
whole business for 500" 1t was easily
worth 500 cash, and Tingham told
him so, advising him to so farther and
see what he could do, but the old fell
low was persistent, and finally the
trade was made. Then the old man
ordered something to eat.
While he was eating Tingman en-
gagged him in conversation with a view
to finding out what had disgusted him
with prospecting.
The old fellow dumped on Tingman's
counter
twenty bars of pure gold, evidently,
from their shape and appearance,
mined and amalgamated many years
ago. They were worth probably $1,000
bar, and Tingman's eyes fairly
bulged out of his head as he looked at
them. They were marked with
strange hieroglyphics, evidently 1ndi-
eating their firmness and weight, but
Tingman, who is
A SPANISH SCHOLAR,
and talks most of the dialects of the
Southern California Indians, could
make nothing Of them.
Il got these bars" said the old pros
pector, less than sixty miles from
] where we stand, in a canyon where
! there is ledges of millions of dollars
worth of gold. an it's stickin' up out
of the ground. My burrOs found it.
! You see. l was headin' this way from q
/ trip over to or Woman's Mountain an
/ the Palm Range. l was out of water
an pushed on a day an night, hopin'
| TO strike water at Granite Tanks, but
/ when l got there the they was as dry
| as a bone. an I couldn't strike even
/ moist sand by diggiu'. l tell you, it
| looked mighty scaly for the old man.
| Mind you. l hadn't had any water for
over twenty-four hours, an you know
what that means on the desert, an
I the burrOs hadn't had any fer two days
/ an nights, so, you see, 1t was gettln
| scaly.
We'll sir, them mules led me way
/ down into shut canyon, an there, at
/ the bottom, was a great big spring,
/ right in the rocks, OF the best kind OF
water. Well, sir, l Rugged them
burros. an fairly cried, an they acted
| like they appreciated it. We laid
around the spring an drunk little at
a time. until we got enough. Then l
/ grubbed, made camp an then started
/ ont to see where we was. AS l said, it
| is a shut up in canyon, an l reckon
| that | am the first white man that has
set foot in he place for years. I've
found utsince that Indians are afraid
of the place and won't go near in the
| daytime. and night you can't get them
/ 'em in gunshOt of the shadders u the
hills around it. Well, l went up the
/ old trail from the spring, and after
| had gone about half mile or mebbe
less. the trail petered out. Down near
the spring | had noticed several trails
leading off from the main one and TO-
ward the side hill through the bresh.
went back ter the spring and took
/ the main one of them branch trails.
II led up the side hill to the mouth
- tunnel or cave hid by bresh. Well,
! cut away the bresh an made 1t good
an light in there an stepped in. 1t
was a biggish sort of a room cut in the
hill an | seed right away that it had
been done by men. The floor was
covered with fine floor dust about
six inches deep.
Il took a stick an began to poke
around in the dust on the floor, an
about the first thing l struck was n
> nile of bones. I soon turned over two
THREE MEMS SKULLS.
an, foot bones: yes, sir. dern me, if
that floor wasn't jest Uttered with
dead mems bones; dead, l reckon,
.fora this country was ever heard Of.
noked around there, an | turned
ovar tbe curiestist things in the way
of u-eanons. tools. an Sich, that fell to
nieces when you handled them. l was
about 10 leave the place when | no.
ticed a little heap back in the corner
t,5,,.t touched. l went back, an
go they was some kind of a queer
sbaped retort, made OF some kind of
CLAW an. sir, dern me. II in each one
of 'e,nwasn't one of these bricks. As
CON as I hefted 'em l knOwed they
,,ora nure gold. You bet | hustled
5ovn TO camp, got my haversacks and
hacked the gold down to the spring
A.