The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-04-26
NOTABLE FINDS OF
CHUNKS OF GOLD
Big Nuggets That Have Been Picked Up
Ia California.
THE ROMANTIC SIDE OF MINING
Daniel Hill Found Two Fortunes
and squandcred Both--The Great
Martin Nugget and Its Strange Dis
covery--A Consumptive's Luck.
Other Instances of Fortunes sud-
den Visitation.


The Pomona, Cal, correspondent OF
the st. Louis Globe Democrat writes.
The wonderful revival in gold mining
throughout the world has caused much
discussion as to the largest gold mug
gets that have been picked up, and the
curious circumstances connected with
the discovery of some of the richest
deposits of the precious metal In Cali
fornia. The subject is full of romantic
interest, and the large fortunes that
have been stumbled upon in day by
some gold miners form a perennial
source of discussion among all classes
of people in the West. The recent
meeting of the Miners association in
San Francisco has been the means of
recalling a large number of facts con-
nected with the finding in California
of chunks of gold that have brought
their discoverers Good-sized fortunes.
Colonel Daniel Bailey, of Pomona wall
ley, who is probably the most expert
enced prospector and gold miner in CAL
ifornia today, has been constantly en-
gagged In seeking and locating mines
since 1856, and he says that the only
man he ever knew Of who found two
who died a poor, miserable pauper in
the Los Angeles county almshouse sew
eral years ago. In the summer Of 1866
Hill was working gold in the placer
digGings at the Ruby Belle mine, in
Plumas county, away up under the
shadow of Mount Shasta, when he
came across, buried in the gravel, q
chunk of gold and red-stained, water
marked hp,
hoof. He started off the very next day
for Sacramento, where he sold the find
at the ID. o. Mills bank for $4,000. In
less than a year Hill had spent every
dollar of this sum. He squandered over
$4,000 in one week in San Francisco.
When his money was gone he went
back to work again, and by hard work
made an average of a few dollars q
day for the next four or five years. But
one day in the fall of 1871, while he
and companions were camping in
lonely canyon in the region of Dutch
Flats, Nevada county he stumbled up
on another very large nugget. Hill
was looking over small discarded
placer mine,snd was running the coarse
gravel through his hands, while his
practiced eye searched for evidence of
yellow metal He stopped down to
wash his hands in the brook, when ly-
ing there in the running water was a
nugget of gold and white quartz similar
in size and shape to a babys head
How the chunk ever got there, and es-
pecially how hundreds of hungry gold.
seekers had tramped over that locality
for ten years previous and had never
got the nugget, is one of the faVorite
topics of speculation among old time
miners in the golden state. Hill sold
his find for S12,o00, and again abandoned
himself to long career of debauchery
and recklessness. His second fortunate
IND was spent as soon as was his first
and he became a drunkard. He never
found another nugget either large or
small, although he searched for years.
GREAT MARTIN NUGGET.
The largest nugget ever found in
this state was that known as the Oliver
Martin chunk. 1t weighed 151 pounds.
ounces The precious ore was mixed
with white quartz and it was sold after
| having been converted into bullion for
| $22,270. Hundreds of pictures have
been made of the golden mass, and all
the schoolboys in California are ex-
| pected to know the weight, size and
value of the famous nugget. There are
| bronze fac-similes of the chunk in
many mineral collections in museums
in Europe and America. The nugget
was found near Camp Corona, in Tuo-
lumne county, in central California.
The date of the finding was Nov. 49,
! 1854 Martin, a poor miner, who had
not even the proverbial dollar to his
name, and a companion named John
Flower, were tramping on their way
up country to new diggings. They
camped one night in a mountain can
yon, when a sudden and terrific rain
storm came up in the darkness The
water in the canyon stream suddenly
rose. The miners attempted to climb
the hill but the flood overlook them
and both were carried down stream
Flower was drowned, but Martin
though severely injured, escaped
While trying to bury his companion's
body by the roots of an upturned tree
Martin discovered the rich nugget that
| bears his name. He was too weak tC
move it. He attempted to reach some
neighboring miners, but tainted from
| exhaustion, and was found on the trail
by them. When able to walk some
weeks later, Martin took them to the
spot, and the nugget was removed
Martin made the nugget the basis of a
large fortune which he accumulated in
the next two decades.
In August 1869. w. A. Parish, A.
Wood, J. Winstead, F. N. L. Clevering
and Harry Warner were partners in
| the Monumental claim, near Sierra
Buttes, in Sierra country. In the last
week of that month they discovered a
| gold nugget which weighed 1888 ounces
troy. 1t was sold to r. b. " oodward
of San Francisco, who paid for it $1S,.
S45 for exhibition purposes. 1t was
afterward melted and about $165O(
realized from It.