The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-29
FIRST KLONDIKE GOLD.
Perhaps the Brown County Field Ii
Part of the Alaskan Diggings.

Leroy Armstrong, In Chicago Tines
Herald.
DR.. Fassett writes from Bean Blossom,
Ind that great activity has marked the
recent operations in Brown countys gold
fields, and adds that at no time in the past
has such success rewarded the labors OF
miners Two men from Georgetown washed
out quite, a quantity along the banks OF
Salt creek, and party from Brownseowny
the county seat are going to organize .
put In new machinery for the rapid and
&c 7nomical separation of the gold from
dust and gravel. The gold beater at Bean
Blossom has more work than he can do,
and thinks of securing help from lndlanap-'
county. north of Weed Patch hill, SEEMS
to think, the day of jubilee has come.
Sounds like vagary, does 1t not? The.
idea of told in Indiana. and Bean Blos-;
som Salt creek Weed Patch hill-they q. n
be nothing but fanciful creations of somej
all mentioned in DR.. Fassetts letter; ards1
furthermore, they are all mentioned ir
Indianapolis, and is cut across from eGsts
to west by a range of hills, the only conf
Kentucky. Bean Blossom is the name Z 1 a
postoffice and town north of the Ridge,"t
and there is a gold heater with long-I
established business in the place. Salt creecs
does flow down the north country, near;
the foot Of the ridge, and Weed Patc~
hill is the highest peak in the range.
And there is gold in Brown county. Of
this there is no room for question More
than one state geologist Of Indiana las
with others, has recorded his opinion that
the gold came down from the north In the
glacial age and was deposited here to the
north of the Ridge in that period-perharS
centuries in charlottesville the glacier,
caught and lodged against the range OF
hills melted at the bottom and deposited
the soil it had dragged loose in the north
west country.
There is no easily discoverable gold south
of the ridge. There is none anywhere else
in Indiana, or any of the region round.
about. The glacier which hid ITS treasurss
q pai q
had lost its last yellow dust before it
reached the hills of Kentucky and Tenres-
see. OF course in every acre of ground tt
is proba0l some trace of gold may be-
found by chemistry. There is 4 trace OF
Brown county soil-north of he ,rldge-iS
really SO rich that man may readily earn
from 81 TO day mining.
In the light of the recent northern diacov~,
cries 1t Is curious to reflect that doubtless
the glacier which made this Salt creek Ge-l
posit must have .grpped In its icy hands
ly carried 1t from the tributaries of th@
Yukon 10 the tributaries of the WABASH
There is no gold-bearing quartz north Of
the ridge" nor anywhere nearer than Cola
orado. There is nothing but the scattered
flakes of free gold through the lark gfav~l
ely soil. But every woman and every girn
child In Brown county has a ring or al
brooch or a bracelet fashioned by the gold
beater at Bean Blossom and Of Brown
county gold.
All that Is the lighter marvel. The nota-i
ridge Expects a marvellous DISCOVERY t thap
the first thing in the chiId's consciousnesT
is the probably imminence. the ultimate
certainty. of finding the gold" Smare
youth may revise its views as TO the wis~l
dom Of ia Their, the business of laws, the ac-S
curacy of history and the very divinity oE
Christ. But the youth of Brown county,
knows there is gold in the hills. Hard lifa'
may teach skeptic doubt of better tines
of greater ease Some day" Of the railroad
so often promised often expected Inv
vain; but no adversely however long DRAWN
out, duh the expectations of that glori-i
Gus day when the gold shall be found NoE
found in these meager measures The peo<
pie believe there is a storehouse in the hills.
bulging to bursting with mysterious god.k
from which some truant flakes slip dowT
the streams. And some day the spring will
the people. And this is no new thing. Cold
was discovered here before Marshall found
knew 1t as early as 1885. as ne mentions ia
in his letters. And belief in a greater
treasure, still hidden has existed from the
first.
Belief in that glad day when the shabby
simplicity Of the present shall vanish in tho
unimagined splendor of the gold was the
basis for Elder Miller's famous sermon
long, long ago. II dreampt last night thar
l found the geld said Elder Miller. No
held the Iaagic of that. Il was walking
along a-past Weed Patch hill when / seem
the bottom, and heaped in there was a bank
OF gold-ahl And l looked again, and the
heaps groWed higher. and growed deeper
ahi--till | seen there was plenty FOR a
million of people And all the stingy little
fiecks you find on your farms and you find
in your streams and you find in your paths
come from the banks of gold in the rocks
over there--ah. And 1 dreampt l come 10 q
neighbor, and / said 10 him: I've found
the gold-aht And he said 10 me. Il m too
busy; don'r bother me- And l said TO an
other. I've found the gold and tha's banks
and banks of it, And he said, i find q
fake on my farm now and then, and don't
need no more-ah.' And l met woman,
and / says TO her, I've found the gold
an! Come on and take OF it till your house
is filled, and don't worry, for there's a.
plenty for all the rest of us-ahi Come on,
and git till you are rich. Come on, and gie
till you can build new house, and buy
new clothes for your children. and sit
down in the sunset of life and rest as YOU
never rested before-ahi Come on, ana
take gold from that cleft In the rock till
your poverty's gone, and your neighbours
poverty is gone, and we all put on new
splendor t0gether-ahH And the woman
says to me: i guess IL wait here where
bo and n,ebby some OF these rocks viii
split open. and I'll git gold higher
home-ahr "
1t was more than parable. 1t was a fash
of light through windows long familiar. It
was the language OF their life And the
awakening which followed Elder Miller'S
ailegory " as q spiritual Endorsement of the
material fact which life in Brown county
takes up at the cradle and carries faith
fully 10 the grave So l think the first OF
the Klondike gold was found on the slopes
of the Brown county hills.