The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1896-08-13
S9AMPBDES FOR GOLD
Some Of the Great RusheS Memorable
Ia The History Of The West.
The Discomfort OF GOLD MINERS
Accounts OF n Number OF the Wild
est Breaks For New Campo where
the Few Made sig Profits but the
sIany Lost Their All.

The extraordinary rush OF gold and
silver miners and prospectors to the new
digginas at Creole and Cripple Creek. in
Colorado, and the emigration Of hundreds
of old and young men from all the Paci-
fic coast states to the Yukon river in
Alaska this season have set many OF the
older residents OF the western states and
territories to recalling many similar
rushes for newly discovered mineral
riches in other years.
A host of men who have been engaged
in gold and silver mining in the west for
generation or more have been through
many periods Of wild excitement and
rushes for new diggings, says cores.
pondent of the Chicago Record. There
is hardly miner Of experience anywhere
in this region who has not joined in
stampedes from played out camp for the
district where the latest pay rock has
been found. The history OF the territor-
les is full of stories OF unrealized expecta.
tions among miners and OF sufferings and
privations endured in attempts to reach
distant mines from which reports OF
riches had gone forth.
From the discovery of the Bonnie Bell
gold mine on San Antonio creek, in Sep.
TENDER, 1874, until two years ago, there
have been frequent stampedes to new
diggings. The mining population has
picked up and migrated almost in week
from Gold Run to Benson; from Jones
Creek to Never Die; from Tombstone to
Sonora; from Kingman to Harqna Hala
and now, after years of bitter disappoint-
ments and two decades OF constant hard.
ship, there is not miner who would
not hesitate today to sell the proverbial
shirt on his back to join once more in a
rush to any locality, whether in the
desert or in the mountains, where pay
ore might be discovered.
Probably the widest and craziest STAN.
pede ever known in the southwest was
that rush to the Rocky Belle camp in
Northern Arizona, in the region OF the
Moqui Indian reservation, in December,
1876. The region is 5000 feet above the
sea, and lies among snow-clad mountains.
1t was an unusually cold winter when
the news went abroad that Hank Bin.
ford and his companion had struck q
whole mountain OF gold rock assaying
more than $4,000 to the ton. The report
seemed incredible at first, but when sam
pies Of the ore were seen by miners in
Tuscbn, Albuberque and Los Angeles,
they proved sufficient to satisfy the most
skeptical. A week more and more than
1000 miners from every part of Arizona
and Southern California were moving
night and day, scarcely stopping for food
and sleep, toward the Rocky Belle camp.
Hundreds of men travelled 700 and 800
miles on foot and with mules and dom
keys, to the new 6iggings, and nearly all
travelled across desert and mountain for
distance of $50 or 800 miles.
AS the multitude journeyed on the re.
port of the richness OF Hank Binford's
find grew until it seemed as il wagon.
loads of rich gold ore awaited the travel
ers. Merchants and professional men in
Maricopah.and Tucson. and that part Of
Southern Arizona became imbued with
the spirit Of the miners, and, turning
their business over to others, joined in
the movement on Rocky Belle.
The hardships that the fortune-seek-
ers suffered in the mountains will never
be known. A large number OF men com.
ing out OF the warm, bslmy air of the
semi-tropical valleys lost their lives amid
the snow-banks and the ice in the noun
tains, and many mau was made an in
valid for life because OF exposure to the
biting cold during the stampede. Sc
we're blizzard ragged in the mountains for
several days while the miners were slow
Iy trudging through them. In one party
Of 100 men New Mexico four men were
frozen to death one morning, and it is
thought that fully 90 more died in. the
same way in the mountains at that time.
To this day there are in California and
Arizona gray headed miners who lack a
finger, q toe or an ear lost in the terrible
cold of that stampede.
When at last the Rocky Belle diggings
were reached, 1t was soon seen that there
was no ore in the district worth the dig
ging except the claims held by Hank Bin
ford and bis friends, and that the reports
Of their find had been exaggerated beyond
all reason. Binford's own mine petered
out year or two later, and he only got a
few Thousand dollars from it. The speci-
mems OF ore shown in Tucson and Los
Angeles were the very choicest from the
mine and not hit-or-miss pick-ups, as
had been said OF them.
In the summmer Of 1873 a miner nam.
ed Stevens wrote to friend in Phoenix
that he had found claim to beat any.
thing in mining this side of the Comstock
lode in Nevada, and that with common
iron mortar and pestle ne had pounded
out from $40 to 800 worth of gold dust
in asday. The claim was located I2(
miles northwest from KIngman, near the
subsequently famous Harqua Hala min