The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-07-21

awful Colorado and MOiave deserts had 70
be crossed in wagons or on foot by the
multitudes OF fortune seekers from Call
fornia. Desert sand storms were encOun-
tered, and for days travellers TO Tomb
stone endured a temperature Of over 100
degrees in the shade Many a man died
on the hot, sandy plains. Miners on their
way 20 the new camp from the east and
south t0iled across the Arizona alkah
plains. through immense cactus areas, and
risked their lives in the then hostile land
Of the Apache Indians. But hardships,
pain. suffering. and risk Of life were all
secondary 10 an early arrival in Tomb
stone and the location Of a mining claim
When Tombstone was reached there
were new privations and more physical
distress for the greater number, espec-
tally Tor those who had fastened from Of
fees, stores, shops, clcrkships, and even
the pastors study. over One-half Of the
men in camp had very little money, or
none at all, and knew no way Of earning
it except by the hardest kind Of manual
labor, 10 which they were unused. II cost
81 a night to sleep in a dirty, rough pine
bunk. Water sold at twenty cents gal
Ion, small dish of beans at fifty cents,
tallow candles at two bits twenty-five
cents) common overalis at s. each, smok-
ed hams at Sl2 each, and COW hide boots
were disposed of as fast as they could be
hauled to camp across the desert from
Los Angeles and Yuma for SIS a pair. 1t
was a ground hog case with these commo-
dities for the first ten months of Tomb
stone-take them at the prices asked or
go without. In 1881 all the Tombstone
mines that paid well were in the hands
of a few persons, and the population Of
the place had gone down to 5000 In 1882
the mines, with two exceptions, began to
peter out and the population dropped to
5000 Since then it has gone down slowly
10 less than ] 900 souls.
In the last ten years there have been
four or five stampedes to mining camps
in the southwest. In the middle of the
winter Of 1890 California, as far north as
San Francisco, and Arizona, as far east as
Prescott and Phoenix, were stirred as they
had not been for several years by the
news that rich placer mines had been found
by Mexicans in Lower California, seventy
miles south of San Diego. That was one
of the most spontaneous stampedes known
in this region. Samples of the pay dirt
were sent to San Diego to be assayed one
Sunday afternoon. The assayer found it
would run over $500 to the ton. Somehow
the secret got out and was telegraphed up
the Pacific coast. The telegraph operators
in San Diego spent the next two days and
nights in sending and receiving messages
about the new diggings.
Before Thursday morning 5000 or 1000
men and youths were on their way by
cars, wagons, horses, cOasting vessels, and
foot to san Diego and Lower California.
The hardware stores in Los Angeles and
San Diego and in every village for 100
miles around sold every pickaxe. shovel,
tin dripping pan, wash dish, and milk and
bread pan they had on hand to persons
who equipped themselves for placer mining
and started in a day for the mines. For
a week little but the discovery of gold in
Lower California and the prospect Of an
other 1S49 gold boom on the Pacific coast
was talked in a good part of California.
Then. when the week was over and the
first persons who had been down to the
mines returned to San Diego declaring
the stories of wealth there to be lies and
the excitement over the discoveries to have
been manufactured for a purpose; the old
miners went home and philosophlcally
said, Il might have told you so all the
time"
The last of the big stampedes to mining
camps in the southwest was that to the
Harqua Hala diggings in the spring of
1891. The mines were found in the north
western part of Arizona, close to the Colo
RADIO river, and the boundary lines be-
tween Arizona. California and Nevada.
For several months in the winter of 1890
81 there came almost every week news of
the big prospects that a half dozen miners,
who had been moving from one camp to
dAOLtltl al the ltilllOlltS anu III l1tAlCO
for nearly a generation, had at last come
across at Harqua Hala. Along in March
and April quantities of gold dust and mug
gets from the mines came into the hands
of bankers in San Bernardino and Los An
geles. The newspapers published reports
as to the prospects at Harqua Hala, and in
a week or two there was another general
rush for the diggings. The railroads did a
land office business for several weeks in
carrying men as far as the Colorado river.
From there the travellers TO Harqua Hala
packed themselves on little river steam
boats at eXorbitant rates Of travel. Hun
dreds of miners who had hardly a dollar
tramped over the mountains $50 and POO
miles to the mines. Some men in their
anxiety to get to Harqua Hala with their
camp outfits and personal belongings
packed them in barrels and rolled the bar
rels over 100 miles to the camp. Several
persons starved to death in the stampede
In forty days the population of Harqua
Hala grew from 50 to over 1000. As is gen
orally the case, the few good mines there
were taken up before the news of the find
went abroad, and there was nothing for
the deluded miners to do when they got to
Harqua Hala but sit about camp and
watch their more lucky associates dig out
the rock. Prices for all kinds of food went
to the top mark with rapidity. After a few
weeks idleness, the mining population at
Harqua Hala dwindled away at the rate
of 100 or more day. A large part of them
are now searching among the mountains,
through the canons, on the desert, and in
the foothills for prospects of their own A
good. active mined will locate half
dozen mining claims In a year, but less
than 10 per cent. of these are ever work
ed