Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1897-08-13
treasure that lay IN its bowels rested

treasure that lay in its bowels rested
secure under the protecting "iron-hat,"
Yet through all those long years a man
was growing up In the distant east
who had been selected by fate as the
inheritor Of the treasure hidden in the
great Red Mountain.
Born in Suffolk county, New York
state,E. S. Topping was by turns sailor,
miner, hunter, prospector, Indian fight
er, and scout. Topping saw western
life in all its aspects, until finally he
drifted to West. Kootenay. Soon, al
though an alien, he found himself re-
ccrder and constable-in fact, "the
government of that lonely region.
Prospectors wer" then beginning to
stray into southern British Columbia
from Idaho and Montana, and such
human driftwood formed the bulk Of
Topping's subjects. They were little
rough, OF course, but bad men" were
scarce, and the few that did wander
into West Koctenay invariably showed
the most profound respect for the old
Indian fighter, and took the first OPP
portunity to remove themselves from
his jurisdiction. 1t is a leaven of just
such men as he that made life possible
in the mining regious Of the west:
without them rapine and murde?
would have stalked unchecked from
the Missouri to the coast.
Topping had now found quiet an.
chorage after his adventurous youth,
and seemed likely to pass his later days
as many other mountain men had done,
in an uneventful fashion. When a man
is fond OF the wilderness and finds him
self beside waters teemng with fish,
ard prairies alive with fowl. and where
vension may be had for the pressing
Of trigger, he is likely to be too con-
tented to make any very strenuous
efforts to change his lot.
But that was six years ago. Read,
and let me tell you how Topping fares
today.
One evening in the fall OF 1890 he
was startled by violent rapping on
the split cedar door OF his cabin. He
lifted the latch and Joe Bourgeois and
his "pard' Morris stumbled into the
little shanty, and dumped the bags Of
ore samples they had been laden with
on the rough floor. Dead beat and half
frozen, they were yet full of enthusi-
assn over wonderful body of sulphide
ore which their trial shoots had dis
closed at the bottom of an old trial
Shaft high on the tanks of Red Noun
tain. They had staked out five claims.
they said, and would give one to Top
ping If he would pay the recorders
fees on the lot. This he agreed to do,
and in due course became the owner
OF what seemed the poorest prospect,
1t is now the famous lie Roi mine. One
OF the locations is the War Eagle, and
another the Center Star, each valua-
BILE propert.'. but inferior to the LIE Roi
From that day Trail Greek. Topping's
abode. began to be famous
Events move fast in the west. Ton
ping was almost alone at Trail in 1890
today there ar, hotels, stores, smelt
er, railroad station, and steamboat
wharfs, while perched on the shoulder
OF the mountain near the lie Roi has
sprung up the bustling town of Ross
land, numbering already 10000, and in
creasing in population at the rate of
5000 year.
Topping Of course sold out long ago
He need worry himself no more about
ways and means, but can buy all the
Winchesters, boats, and pack animals
he may desire, ana still have an amplc
Income ieft-and what more can
frontiersman and old Indian fighter
ask? The veteran is great favoritc
with his fellow citizens.
And the nameless wanderer who
sunk the shallow pit in the iron hat
back in the ffties? What grudge had
the blind goddess against him? A shot
or two more and he might have been
rich and famous. But the big air COM
pressors do not pant and groan in his
service; thousand feet below the sun
light men are toi)ing, but not for him:
the dump sparkles with fifty dollar ore.
but the proceeds will not be credited
to his account. What is writ is writ,
aid in the Book of Destiny there is no
turning back to correct errors-but if
the bare, bleached bones on the aka
Ii desert could again be clothed with
flesh and revisit Red Mountain, they
would weep to see how near the pion-
eer Of 80 came to finding his Ell Dor
ado.