The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-10-09
Inning RUSH ABOUT DUE.
a sTAMREDB LOOKED ron IN THH
WEST NEtr YEAR

Ofaat AHlninE Excitements in Ysars Ending
with = Nine-SuHerinGs and Dangers Of
the hunt for Gold-Rumors Tha start
Observation-Disclosures Generally SMALL.
what Caused the Rush to BTIlings Ledge.
lou ANoErBs, Cal, Oct. 1.-THE next big
mining camp stampede In the United States
Yin be due about next May" said Dol. Edward
A. Graves the other day. Since the finding
II gold By Marshall on the American River I'm
California there have been great gold or sll-
yer mining exoitements regularly every dec
ode. Thus. there wRs the unprecedented
yush OF 10000 men to California in 1549. In
1850 there was the Fraser River gold excite
mant that attracted 10000 Americans. In
1850 the bonanza lodges In the Comstock lode
ot Virginia City, New. set the whole world
crazy. In 1870 the American miners were al
most equally divided between the silver mines
ut Leadville and the free-milling gold mines
ut Tombstone. AriB. In 1889 the newly found
HaruuA HalA gold mines on the Colorado River
N the silver mines at Chihuahua, Mexico.
stirred thousands OF old-time prospeotors and
miners as nothing else had done in several
years. The Western miners have come to
have q firm faith that there is bound to be q
great rush to new diggings every year that has
. o. at the end OF Its date. In my travels
among the California, Arizona and Colorado
camps lately l have been asked dozens Of
times where / believed the prospectors would
strike It 30 as to have the expected mining
stampede next year. / confess myself to the
belief that W shall hear OF q great gold strike
somewhere in the West in $780,"
So long as men seek riches in mining pre-
eious metals there will be periodical rushes to
newly found diggings. Every one In the
NUouk ~h0 has followad cold or ailvar mining
has been In some stampede. and every COM
munity out here has some grizzled old men
who have been in dozens Of stampedes all the
way from Mexico to Alaska and from the Con-
tinental Divide to the Pacific. II the new
should come tomorrow that Jack So-and-so
had found in q previously undiscovered dis
trfet ore that ran from $50 to 5000 to the ton
every one Of the old prospectors and miners
would be moved to rush to the diGgings with
out delay and stake out a claim.
The most senseless stampede that old
miners recall was the one to q camp known as
the Rocky Belle. It was sixty miles northwest
from Prescott. The time was December.
1876. No less a person than John W. Mackay.
che bonanza mining king Of the Comstock lode.
was deceived by the news from the Rocky
Belle and spent several thousand dollars In
sending expert miners post haste across the
mountains and valleys to see what the chances
for new mines were. The supposed digginRs
were at an altitude OF about 1000 feet and
among the bleak and barren mountains Of
northern Arizona. The report OF the extraor-
binary gold finds made by Henry Binford
seemed Incredible to experienced gold seekers.
but when samples Of the ore were seen by
miners in Tucson. Albuquerque and Los An
Eeles they proved sufficient to satisfy the most
0keptioal. A week moro and 1000 miners
from every part Of Arizona and southern Cali
3ornia were moving day and night. scarcely
stopping for food and sleep. toward the Rocky
Belle camp. Hundreds Of men travelled 700
and 800 miles on foot and with mules and dom
keys to the new diggings and nearly all trav-
0lled across desert and mountain for q dis
tance Of $50 or 800 miles. As the multitude
journeyed Oh the report OF the richness Of
Henry Binford's find grew until 1t seemed as
II waRonloads Of rich gold ore awaited the
travellers. Merchants and professional men
In Maricopah and Tucson and that part Of
southern Arizona became imbued with the
spirit Of the miners. and turning their business
over to others, Joined in the movement on
Rocky Belle; The hardships that the fortune
Pc fully Known. 4 4 large HUMBER Of men COM
i trepi Sst Io 81 Their me T TiVes an 6diidR Tx a sPo ST she send and
foe and many q man WAS made an invalid for
life because Of exposure to the biting cold DUR
ipe the stampede. A severe blizzard ragged in
OAO " no q WlllO IlC II
party Of loo men from New Mexico four men
thought that fully twenty more died in the
same way In the mountains at that time.
r.s When q Il last last t the R sesR th Belle tSs disg nns go were ere
u ! ms held Sssif BY H HSpi9 S siiGS'Pf and Sac Els fr aR sfs
aggerated beyond ali reason. Binford's v
mine petered out q year o., two later. and he
got only a few thousand dollars from 1t. The
specimens OF ore shown in Tucson and Los
Angeles were the choicest from the mine, and
nO 1lo a6trq IN Fhs sd PaShH%p 81 e fs7 Rs a R bfeo s nahed
Stevens wrote to a friend In Phoenix that he
had found 2 claim that beat anything IN min
ing this side OF the Comstock lode In Nevada,
te he had pounded out from $40 to 500 worth
100 miles northwest from Kingman. near the
since famous Harqua Hala mining region. and
other men to strike It rich up there. ofcourse.
eneh news could not be kept quiet. 1t trav-
e eiled NTH n th %iE sait RiSes spS Ss1le thr sSS over syeF r.
Of Arizona was deeply stirred BY the reports.
gate, OF, the richness Of the mines that Ste
VEINS, had found. A thousand or more miners
loot across the Country for stey'ens's Camp
without delay; 1t WAS a hot. dry summer
enSuT a seuf OF q e tempern torser, msna th1rs sb and
11O' in the shade. A dozen men died from
by the privations of that stampede across the
desert of Arizona. Having arrived at the
Stevens camp. the excited men realized that
there were claims worth working for about
100 mems Several hundred claims were staked
out in less than q day: but in a fortnight the
lamp population fell from 1000 to less than
400. In, about q month more 100 persons
were left to do all the mining. TIT camp was
abandoned entirely ten years ago..
1.-The tombstone stampede came In 1870 and
coast caught the. fever, and as week after
week samples OF the Tombstone rock were
circulated. thousands started for Tombstone.
aundreds OF young, men IN the older States
Dorado, and started across the continent
With little or no preparation; In less, than
getting several thousand dollars q day from
their mines there were 5000 persons in the
camp. and several months later Tombstone
had q population OF 10000 men and 200 wo-
men; For seven months the daily OUTPUT Of
dozen men went there nearly penniless and
came, away worth half a million OF dollars in
less than a year. and six or seven men struck
Il rich and sold out for q million dollars each.