The silver lance., 1897-12-10
Paragraphs Of Pioneers.

deOfgo Young, than whom no miner III
Gunnison county is better known, is one
Of the old-time California pioneers, who
gathered his first knowledge Of hunting
for the precious metals in the placers
where mining was first an attractive pur-
suit in the United States. He was born
in Buffalo, New York, and spent his boy
hood years in northern Indiana, until the
spring Of SO, and then but mere lad,
turned his steps toward the tabled land
of the setting sun.-A land, the name Of
which had come to be regarded through
out the world as synomous with wealth,
vast wealth for whoever chose to jour
ney thither to take from natures great
repositories, and free as Gods sunlight.
Thus it happened that the youthful
George Young took passage on the good
ship George Law" in the port Of New
York, for Aspinwall, Isthmus of Panama
and thence up the coast to San Francisco
on the Golden Gate" Both of these
ships were afterwards victims Of the waves
they rode SO gracefully.
When he reached California the young
man did his first placer mining on Rab-
bit Creek, at Glbsonville, where he was
employed running a tunnel into a noun
tain of gravel, every foot Of which had to
be timbered. The dirt brought out dur
ing the winter months washed out over
fifteen thousand dollars OF gold dust for
the owners of the property. Part Of the
same winter he worked iu partnership
with shrewd Welshman, who had To-
Gated some good placer ground, and the
two cleaned up about SEQ day. In one
instance he washed bucket of DIRT that
yielded s175 in coarse gold dust. Anoth-
er time he was gwen permission to take
out all he could for himself by "crevic-
ing" in the walls Of an abandoned drift.
"Crevicing' consisted IN using a silver
tipped iron spoon, which when dipped in
quicksilver and pushed into crevice
and then carefully removed, would bring
out all the particles Of gold which it
came in contact with, the gold adhering
to the quicksilver. In this manner he
succeeded in adding 5000 to his bank
account in two weeks.
Later MIR. Young went north into the
mining regions of British Columbia, on
the Frazier and Caribou rivers, where
he spent one winter, amid hardships and
privations equal to the Klondike. We
shall tell more of this in another article
in the near future.
In 1867 Mr.. Young returned to "the
states" to visit friends and scenes OF
former years, and came back over the
same route travelled on his westward
trip. when about midway between
San Francisco" he said, II was shown
the masts of vessel extending above
the water, and was told that it was the
wreck OF the Golden Gate"
In '56 the George Law" was con-
demned as unseaworthy, but the owners
changed its name, calling it the Central
America" In ST it foundered in gale
while on trip north-bound, with load
Of passengers, among whom were a mum.
Der of miners with whom Mr.. Young had
worked at Gibsonville, and sach of them
carried from s6.OOO to $4,000. The ship
went down in sight of another vessel, but
the storm was SO terrific that the boats
were all sunk except one before the
friendly ship could be reached, and the
captain went down with his ship while
waiting for the life-boats to return.