The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-07-05
MYTHICAL GOLD MINES.
TREASURES FOR WHICH THERE
HAVE BEEN MANY SEEKERS.

and then lost by some fateful incident or
chain Of accidents, have long bothered
hundreds Of imaginative treasure seekers
in the Rockies and the Sierras. There
are three myths that are particularly
bOthersOme TO the old-time miners in
the far west; two concern the miners
Of South Dakota and Colorado. and the
third occupies the attention of the gold
hunters in Southern California.
Everybody in the Rocky mountain re-
gion has heard about Whites Cement
mine and the Lost Cabin" mine. In
1855 Kit Carson, James Kinney. and
half-breed BlackfOot came into Fort RAN
dali, on the Missouri river, with a bag
full Of nuggets and a story Of gold de-
pOsits of incredible richness on Cabin
creek, a branch of the north fork Of the
Cheyenne river, just west of what is now
the Montana boundary line. AS they were
old mountain men, and Carson had a
great reputation as a guide, everybody
went crazy. No white man was sup
posed to have been within 500 miles OF
the place. and, indeed. men were being
cut Off by Indians within five miles OF
the fort.
Carson and Kinney went on a weeks
drunk, and soon gambled away their
gold, but showed no disposition to take
party 10 the new Eldorado. The United
States officers at the fort discredited the
whole thing, and dissuaded the crowd
from following it up, but men started
out and none returned, and hundreds
tried it from time to time. The Indians.
no doubt, knew of the existence OF GOA
there, and, of course, wanted to keep
the whites out, and they did effectually
for thirty years. thousand lives and
a mountain of treasure were spent in
-r-Hw 81 H.. H.. to
believed by the old-timers to be a fraud
from the first. Neither Carson nor KIM
ney ever made any attempt to seek II
again, but both repeated their original
story from time to time. SO this Is about
the truth as to the Lost Cabin" bonan-
"a.
whites Cement" mine is more remark
| able as a narrative. White was a New
| Englander, 60 years old, who was IN Cal
| ifornia in 1872. As goldseeker he was
| known and talked about in every mining
camp on the coast, and stories were told
| of his phenomenal luck. He, no doubt,
/ made many fortunes, but was always
| poor and tramped about with a lean
/ mule and half-breed Indian boy, get
| ting supplies where he could. Many peo-
/ pie thought he was slightly demented,
| but all looked up to him, and he undoubt-
eddy knew more about the gold region
| than any man living. One day in 1858
White came into Horse Head Gulch from
| the region in Northern New Mexico, driv-
| ing his mule and looking utterly used
up. He got something to eat and then
| took out of his pack a number of pieces
| Of what looked like hard, white clay
glittering with specks of metal, but he
| said little and went off to an assayer, a
| German named Helyat. Before night 1t
was known in camp that Whites speci-
| mems showed 900 ounces of gold to the
| ton. In five minutes everybody went wild
| Nobody slept that night, but sat around
| the fires and talked cement" In the
morning a party, headed by Senator
hrof on T4rb0
was sleeping in one of the 'shacks." He
was told that he must pilot the men to
| his find; he could have the pick of the
| claims and help to work 1t, but go he
must and on his refusal, was warned
that his life would not be worth shucks
| If he stood off" the camp. Then he
consented.
A crazier mining camp was never known
and anybody who has ever seen a lot of
ragged, tired-out and anxious gold miners
set wild by belief that untold wealth is
about to be theirs, knows what a crazy
lot of treasure seekers means. Men in
Horse Gulch, who were a little credulous
and not DESTROYS of following White over
800 miles from camp, were offered $1,000
and 81 200 each for their camp outfits, con-
sisting of picks, shovels, kettles pans,
greasy old blankets, a bushel of beans and
two jackasses. But in two days there was
no outfit to be bought in the whole gulch
mining camp. Every one was on the go,
and wanted his own outfit. The trail led
down across the Rockies. 1t was a very
difficult journey, even for the old miners,
who seemed never to know what physical
fatigue meant. 1t led along rocky trails
up and down canyons and across noun
tain crests. The first day was a race
and two-thirds of the men broke down.
The Indian leaped ahead like a wolf, and
then White followed, his long, gray hair
flying in the wind. BY the end Of the sec
ond day the party was in the heart of the
mountains in desert where no human
being had ever been before Half of the
me- war hor
gard with fatigue and excitement White
was told that If he played false he was a
dead man, but he still pointed east The
weary party passed good indications that
showed color, but in that land of desola-
ton all the gold in America would NOT
have awaited a man.
on the evening of the third day White
said that the miners were near their Jour
ney's end, and o-morrow-and then he
waved his long arms and such veil went
up from the frenzied men that made the
pine-clad mountains shake. Every one Law
down expecting to arise millionaires, but
in the morning White was gone and had
left no trace. About one-half of the party.
after incredible suffering, got back to life
and civilization, and yet, despite their sto-
ry, 100 men started back over the trail
two days later. Three years after White
reappeared in Salt Lake City with his ce-
ment specimens as before, incredibly rich,
and again disappeared, and from that time
to this has never been heard Of but men
still wear out their lives in seeking his
lost cement mine"
The Peg Leg mine, in Southern Califor-
mia, is the most famous of the fabulously
rich mines west of the Rockies 1t has
been vainly hunted by treasure seekers
for more than two decades. A gold miner,
John G. Smith, who was known all over
the state as 'Peg-Leg Smith," because of
a wooden peg that he wore in place of a
limb of bone and muscle, which had been
amputated, came into Los Angeles one
day in July of 1871 with his camp outfit,
and his mules laden with several sacks of
gold ore. The rock was assayed by min
ing experts in the place, and the news
quickly spread that "Peg-Leg'' Smith
mad ore than ran all the way from $3.50 to
$500 a ton. OF course the whole country
in and about Los Angeles was soon wild
ly excited at the news of the find of a
mine that yielded such ore. Nothing like
it had even been found south of Amador
county "Peg-Leg'' Smith was a curious.
taciturn kind of fellow, and it was several
weeks before he could be induced to say
a word as to where he got his ore and the
quantity there was of such rock When at
last ne did say something about his dis
covered treasure he refused to give more
than vague idea of where his claim was
situated He said hOWeveY that n mo 9