El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-08-13

/, found a piece of gold that weighed
n pounds. Numerous large nuggets
e the metal were found thereafter,
= various sizes and values. The Who'll
5 surface of the ground along the creek
O bank for nearly a mile was rich
e gold. In 1881 quartz veins were di.
: covered which yielded large quantitie
: of gold From 1903 till 1885 1I5 pound
f of gold were found on one spot. |
1910 the output of the god mines i
Cabarrus county, North Carolina, wa
/ estimated at $1,000. Reed pro6ted b.
2 his discoveries aud died about the yea
1913 a wealthy man.
AS might have been expected, tn
| discovery of gold excited so much at
| ten ton that exploration was begun
, extensively. The gold was traced
southwark as far as the borders Of the
Cherokee territory in Northern Geor
, gia. In Rowan county, North Caro-
, lima, mining operations were com
menced at Gold Hill in September
1912 Some very rich veins were
opened From January, 1913, to July
1851. gold 10 the value of SSO1 $50 was
found at this spot.
For awhile, as has always been the
case during the prevalence of gold
fever. gold was discovered everywhere.
Reports of rich finds came from South
Carolina, Georgia, Virgi mia, Maryland,
|-Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York,
| Massachusetts, Vermont, Lower Can
ada and other parts of the continent.
| In Georgia, especially, great excite
ment prevailed for some time. The
richest finds were reported from the
| Cherokee reservation. PrOspectOrS
! began 10 encrOach upon the domain of
the red men. Protests naturally
followed, and Georgia sent a large
police force to keep back the invaders,
| u Il
dissipated men from all quarters of
the country flocked in, prOwled about
| The woods, set up log huts and shanty
groceries on all the streams, and even
| federal troops were powerless to keep
| the lawless bOrdeS west of the Chesta-
tee. These days are known as the
period of the lntrusiOn"-One of the
two dates from which the mountain
GERS reckon all events, the other being
"'tbe late war" Finding that no pro-
lection of the Indians by police meas
ures WIS feasible, the state in 1880
adopted the Indians, reservation and
all, and constituted the region coun-
ty. Then the mineral lands were di
vided up into 10 acre lots, and put up
at lottery by the state. 1t soon came
to be found here, as elsewhere, that
9 odd was not to be picked up in Jumps
every day. The worthless, lazy and
invaders gradually drifted away,
while only the small minority of new
corners remained. The population.
like the dirt, was slowly PANIED out.
and the current of events carried the
drOss away.
In Habersham county, Georgia,
gold was discovered in 1881 by a man
name d Wilpero, who observing the re-
semblance of the surface'and of the fol-
iage and the streams of the region
with the gold section of North Carroll
ma, dug for the precious metal and
found it in considerable quantities,
In Virginia, god was mined for
many years. The largest masses of
the metal were found in or near
rivulets or runs of water. On brook
at the Whitehall mine go of the
value OF SO, 900 was found in the course
of few days in space of about 20
feet square
The gold fever in the south had al
most died out, when from the farihest
quarter of the United States, the re-
Gently acquired California, came the
news of good finds far more remark
able and productive than those here
tofore made.
Not that gold was new. to California.
For three centuries there had been
wild talk about fabulous mineral
wealth in the region of the Serras. ID
the POS and ';50's of this century small
nuggets of gold had been repeatedly
obtained from the Indians. One day,
d laborer in the employ of the Russ an
American company in California came
to the commandment with the story that
he had seen gold in the bed of stream
and advised that a party be sent to ex-
anime it. The man was told to mind |
his own business. Although such ru-
mors of the existence of gold in Cali
iornia had occasionally been heard, |
still they had never been verified or |
traced to any reliable source and they |
were regarded as We now regard the |
abu' Gus stories of the golden sands of |
Gold Lake or those of Silver Planches. |
which are said to exist in the inacces- |
sible deserts of Arizona.
But when, towards the summer of |
1913, bags and bottles full of gold were |
displayed at San Francisco, at Sonoma
ard Monterey, the people realized the |
fact that California was rich of gold |
that the precious metal was not difficult |
TO obtain and that gold mining, under |
all conditions, must be profitable. The |
news spread, gold fever broke out
anew, and from east, north and south |
bands of gold hunters headed towards |
he WHY discovered Ell Dorado.
The first California gold was found |
at COloma, near the site OF the present
city of Sacramento: its discovery was |
by &C .ident: its discOverer swas James |
w. Marshal: the man on whose lands |
it was found, John Augustus Suffer- |
The lives of these two men are so re- |
marka BILE thai it may be of interest to
present brief biographical account.
John Augustus Suffer was born in
KaDderp, in the Grandduchy of Ba-
den, in Germany, on February Is, 1SO3
of Swiss parentage. Having graduat-
ed at the military college at Berne. he |
entered the French service as an officer I
of the Swiss guard, and served in
lS23-24 through the Spanish campaign.
Ia 1884 he emigrated to this country
and settled in ST. Louis, remaining
here for several years Afterward he
carried on prof table trade with the
Indians and trappers of the west,
whose accounts of California induced
him in 1888 to cross the Rocky Noun
tains. He went first to Oregon, de-
scended the Columbia river to Fort
Vancouver, and thence sailed to the
Hawaiian Islands, where he purchased