The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-11-08
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Ophir mine was found" said Col.
James Dixon, as he sat in a circle Of
mining men from Randsburg at the
Palomares the other evening. The con-
versation had turned on the possibility
of finding in Alaska the gold ledge
from which the marVelOusly rich pla-
GERS along the Klondike creeks have
been fed. Dixon is known all over the
region as one of the half dozen per-
sons now alive who were on the scene
at the discovery of the richest body of
gold ore yet found in a single locality
in the United States. 1t was in the
vicinity of Gold Hill and Virginia City,
New, where the bonanza gold miners,
Flood, Fair, Mackay, O'Brien and
Sharon got their immense fortunes a
few years later.
L was a young man, just out from
England, when the Ophir was found"
continued Col. Dixon, and had been
working as a day laborer for mining
company in Placerville, Cal. I had a
cousin who was running q saloon at
Forest City, in Nevada, near the Cali
fornia state line. In June, 1859, went
over to see my cousin and get job
in the new diggings in Nevada. 1t
mountains, past Bonner lake, and for
two days I lay hid in a canyon on the
east slope Of the sierras for fear of
death at the hands of the Piute In
dams, who were the most murderous
of any savages we knew in the West in
those days | got my job and went to
work for a company in which William
Sharon, afterward a millionaire United
States senator, was president. 1 knew
intimately old COmstock, after whom
the wonderful ComstOck lode was nam
ed, and I was a witness to the first
diggings that led to finds of gold and
silver which have added some SITS, 0O0,-
600 to the wealth of the United States.
I remember Jim COmstOck as a pecu-
liar, rough plainsman and miner of
about fifty years of age. He was
known as old Comstock. l never knew
a man who could swear with the facil-
ity of ComstOck. He was a genius at
lnyenttng strings of picturesque oaths,
and the ease with which he could roll
them off his tongue at the least provo
cation was surprising, even among the
plOnclent bOrderland swearers.
"Comstock and six semi-partners,
Joe Winters. John E. Clark, Patrick
Mclaughlin, Peter Reilly, Emanuel
PenrOd, and Kentuck' Osborne. were
washing gold dust along with about
forty other men. from a dry wash
known as Mansanita creek, four miles
from Forest City, when | went over to
Nevada. They were making good
money, and felt like kings. Every one
envied them, when they would each
get an ounce or two of dust in a day.
At the time I went to Forest City it
l,t-
three associates had taken out of their
claim a two-gallon can of gold dust in
month, and we sat up nights discuss
ing the mine, which we thought was
about the richest sort Of digg-ings to be
mad since the Forty-nine days in Ell
dorado county. Old Comstock was i'm
mensely tickled at his rapid fortune
making, little dreaming that that very
locality would in q decade more yield
the greatest individual fortune in gold
and silver mining known in the history
OF the world. I remember hearing Joe
Winters say in my brothers saloon one
night:
Boys, we cleaned up ten pounds of
gold in our camp in the last two days.
IL won't be long before we can buy all
the mines in America at that rate
ION his way back from the saloon to
his camp that night he walked over
ore that five years later was worth
$4,000 ton, and in which he made his
fortune
4 remember we'll the day in that
summer of 1859 when old Comstock felt
so rich that he bought George Carriers
wife. l happened to be taking a Law
Off from work that day and was over
at Comstock's camp. Among his work.
men was young George Carter, who
had Just come across the plains from
Missouri with his wife in an OK team.
Carter was blue and discouraged at the
hard life he had had to lead away from
his old home. He had been married
only two years, and his wife was a
buXom brunette of about twenty-five
years. She was the only white woman
In all that region, and lots of men used
to come over to the camp on Sundays
to have look at a white woman.
Wen, the day l was loafing about
the Comstock camp old Comstock and
Garter had had a row about the wages
that were paid Carter. Comstock sat
smoking by his tent looking idly over
across the gulch at Carriers prairie
schooner, where Carter and his wife
lived. Suddenly he looked up and said:
George, you're Observation-Disclosures
hard up. Now, what will you take for
your wife cash DOWN."
l don't know; whatll you give?'
answered Carter.
uOu huOWt L We never had deal
1ngs with no woman for years and you
have, replied Comstock, putting
thoughtfully at his pipe
We'll, how about $1,0O0?'
Oh, that's too bIankety-blank much
for any woman" said Comstock
You're rich, and you tell me what
you'll give said Carter.
I've been thinking over 1t, and I'll
give you $500 spot gold
All right, said Carter getting I'D.
but you've got to throw in that mule
harness and your shotgun
The agreement was made then and
there. Comstock went over to see Mrs.
Carter, and she, knowing that old Com
stock had a good $4,000 in gold dust.
while her husband was not a dollar
ahead, fell in with the idea. Comstock
and Carter went over to the merchant
at Forest City, who was the best-edu-
Gated man there at that time. and he
drew up the terms of the sale of Mrs.
Garter along with the harness and
shotgun. George Carter got his money
and went back to work as a ndning
!aborer, and Mrs. Carter went ID 1.-Two
in Comstock's camp. Carter stayed
about Forest City for a few months.
spent all the money he got from the
sale of his wife, and wandered off to
Sacramento. Comstock married Mrs
Carter four or five years later, and the
last [ heard Of her she had an awful
row with Comstock and they were di-
Vorced. That was in 1868, when Com
stock was living in Grass Valley, Cal,
and was fairly well to do.