The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-03-06
R0MANCES MINERS TELL.
CREEDE'S FIND THAT BROUGHT
HIM MILLIONS AND DEATH.

Candle FIame-Mine Found by
Boys Dream-White and His Lost
Mine of Fabulous Richness.
From the New York Sun.
Los Angeles, Cal, Feb. 12.-The signs and
omens that have led to the finding Of rich
bodies of gold and silver ores constituted
one topic discussed by miners at the re-
cent golden jubilee in San Francisco. Col.
Edward w. Potter of Stanislaus county,
California, told the following story of how
Nat c. Creole, who discovered the marvel
lous silver mines at Creole, CO.., came to
find the ore which led to his becoming. sew
eral times millionaire in two years.
Il knew Creole for fifteen years." said
Col. Potter. He was perfect prospector
patient, hopeful, and restless, and eager
when he got on the scent of piece of pay
float rock. He was a very ignorant man,
as the recent revelations as TO his business
and family affairs in the Los Angeles
courts have shown. For seventeen years he
prospected without finding enough gold or
silver to buy a cheap suit of clothes. He
worked over the Rocky mountains from
Las Vegas, N. NJ. to Leadville, climbed
through canons and scaled rocky walls.
He lived a life so grim and hard that 1
doubt if 1 would endure it all, even if l
knew what prize awaited me. In the
spring of 1890 Creole said he was going to
prospect through the San Juan district. A
lot of prospeotors who were sitting about
an adobe saloon when Creole announced
his intention just laughed at him.
"'Why, don't you know, man." said
they, that hundreds of fellows have tried
for ore in that district. There amt enough
metal there to coin a dollar
but Creole was stubborn, and he'd new
er let on that he knew less about prospect
ing in Colorado than any one else. He
tried to get saloon. keeper at Rock Rip
to grubstake him for the summer with
about $40 worth of beans. pork, and such
like, but the saloon keeper was too cute
to put his money into such a wild-goose
chase among the San Juan mountains. 1t
was two weeks later, in May, 1890 that
| Creole was going to give the hunt up and
go down into the Chochiti gold district near
Santa Fe, New Mexico. In fact, he told
a prospector who was on his way south
ward to Santa Fe that he would be along
in a few weeks That very day Creole
went to hunt game on what was known
as Mammoth mountain. He often told of
the circumstances. He was looking up the
| mountain sides for wild doves, having
abount abandoned his tedious lonely
! Il
| saw a chunk of dark rock the size of
mans head, lying about ten feet above him
among a mass of drift stones. He looked
the chunk over, and saw it was rich sill
yer ore. He tied his burro hid his gun,
and began climbing the mountain side to
! find the parent rock from which it had
been broken.
1T was very warm day, and the sun
beat down fiercely on his head and back.
! He perspired, climbed, and searched all
| day long, never stopping for bite at noon.
! At sunset he was about to stop the search
for the day, when he looked up to see how
much further he would have to climb to
the top, and there, close at hand, was a
| huge boulder of projecting silicate. 1t
was the parent of the float he had sought
| all day long Creede could scarcely keep
| from yelling like a boy. He knew his for
| tune had been found. In the subsequent
week he searched over and over the Mann
| moth mountain, never letting a soul know
| that he had found even float When he
| had located the dimensions Of the vein of
silver ore he located the Mammoth and
| the Ethel mines. BY July the active work
| of developing these mines began, and by
| August the mining world was crazy. There
were 5000 people in Creole in six months.
| From July, 1890 to September, 1891,
! Creede's profits were s., 100000 But sue
| cess killed him. He would have lived to
| be an old man had he remained a poor,
half starved prospector. He lost his rea-
son and shot himself in Los Angeles"
Il was most skeptical of miners super
stitions for the first few years L was en-
gagged in gold mining in Inyo county, CAL
( ifornia," said Norton Cole, one of the
wealthy miners of this state but I
know of a circumstance that long ago
| destroyed my skepticism of signs and
| omens among miners. The body of ore
! that made the Mary mine in Inyo county
| the wealth maker it has been was located
| by very absurd omen. The Mary had
been running for several years in free
milling ore worth about $22 a ton. 1t was
| pinching out, and the company of Salt
Lake men had their feelers out for buyers
| before the whole thing pinched out en-
tIrely That was about 1882. Half the
| gang in the mine was discharged. Among
| the half dozen men kept employed in the
mine was a German, and German miners
| know all the superstitions Of American
miners, besides a big volume of their own.
Three men were repairing the track of
the scantling railroad that led out of the
tunnel to the dumps. 1t was dark in
! where they were, and each man had a
candle on a board near his hand. Sud-
denly the German stopped and gazed
| earnestly at the three candles.
whats up said one of the men.
Lookout at dose candles. Dey vas
speaking Something's replied the German
with his eyes on the tiny flames.
1.-THE men saw that the wick Is each
candle had become bent like a fish hook,
! and the flames were shooting slightly all
in one direction. Not one person in twen-
! ty would have noticed it.
"If one candle shoots flame like as dot
It means Something's sure pop. I'll bet, by
! jimmy, 1T means Something's rich In dere
\ now.
"The German insisted that at the point
in the side Of the tunnel toward which the
candle flame shot there was gold. Day af-
ter day he talked it over. At last he got
permission to do some excavatng In the
hard quartz on his own account He had
not blasted three feet before color ore was
| found. He was wild at his success, and in