Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1896-01-02
NUMBER 27.


Creek, and but one on the east side OF
the river, until you get within four
miles of Fredericktown. So, you see,
there were but FIVE people living in all
of that scope of the country.
In one of my hunts-ard it was In
the winter-I called at one of those
houses on Brewers Creek. There
met man who had come from the
gold mines in Georgia, and had work
ed in the gold mines of South Caro-
lima. While was there | was shown
some gold dust. or rather amalgam.
This man had been prospecting along
the mountain sides of the st. Francis
river, and had found rock that con-
tanned gold, and as result he had
ball of gold about the size of a musket
ball. He said, ssThere is gold in
abundance, but it will take money to
get it out of the rock" did not ask
him just where it was located, for l
saw he was rather shy of telling; but
he said so much 1 knew it must be in
some of the river bluffs. not far from
where the Washatow emptied into the
st. Francis.
At that same time there lived on the
east side of the river an old French
man, by the name of Beaver, and
right here will tell how he came by
| the name of Beaver. Back in the days
when this country was occupied by the
Indians, family of French came to
live or make a home on the St. Fran
els river, near the old road that led to
Mine La Motto, for the purpose of
hunting and trapping, for the river
was full of beaver, otter, and other
fur-bearing animals. In some way
this family became offensive to the In
dians, and they killed him and all of
his family, as they supposed. But
when some whites came the next day,
they found small boy hid under a
pile of beaver skins. As the boy was
too young to know who his parents
| were, they called him Beaver, and
Beaver was his name when I was ac-
quainted with him. But this old man
told me the Indians had silver mine
white man knew where it was. .But, "
he said, mot far from the mine is a
painted rock, and the mine is under
the bank of the river. A cave opens
under the rock. At no time, except
when the water is very low. can the
mouth of the cave be seen. At all
times, except when the water was very
low, the Indians had to dive and come
up inside of the cave" But / could
never find the painted rock. think
I did not go far enough up the river.
/ think it must be up toward Liberty
vile.
In those days, all of the old first
settlers held to these traditions, that
had been handed down from one set
tier to another. It was always very
interesting to me to hear them tell
about the vast bodies of silver and
lead and copper that existed in the
mountains in this part of Missouri, and
how the mining was done. In my
first acquaintance with Mine La Motto
all the mining was what was called
surface mining. A man would take a
long pole like fish-gig, with an ,auger
on the end of the pole. and bore down
in the clay. When he struck sheet
of blue mineral, as the lead ore was
called, he would bore through the
mineral and knew just how thick the
sheet was. Sometimes the sheet would
not be more than an inch thick; some
times it would be several inches thick.
Perhaps there would be several layers,
one above another, with clay between.
When the miner was satisfied it was
rich enough to work. he would begin
at the side of his claim, and load all
the dirt on the cart and haul it to some
waste place and dump it. As they
came to the lead they would lay it to
one side, and so on until the whole
claim was cleaned out. 1t looked queer
to see streaks of bright lead ore on all
sides of the excavation. How differ
ent the old way of smelling the ore
then to what it is to-day.
The Indians, whenever they wanted
lead, would dig the ore and hunt a
dead tree that was hollow, with hole
at the bottom. A tree to suit should
be about two feet in diameter and fif.
teen to twenty feet high. Then cut an
Indian ladder-that is, large sap
ping with thesside limbs cut off about
a foot long to put the feet on as they
climb. This sappling or ladder is sci
up against the tree. Then the cavity
is filled with dry wood with the lead
and ore mixed in with the wood. from
top to bottom. Then fire is put to the
wood at the bottom of the tree. and as
the fire comes roaring up through the