The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1898-12-02

veteran Prcspectors Predict Biz
strnipede In 100 - Comes
Every Ten Years.

| next Mny, said Col. EDWARD A. 6ravfs
the other day -''Since thoafinding Of
gold by Marshall on the American
river, in California, there have been
great gold or silver mining excite
ments regularly every decade. Thus,
there was the unprecedented rush of
150 1000 men to California In 1S49. In
1859 there was the Fraser river gold ex-
citement, that attracted 10000 Ameri-
cans. In 1859 the bonanza lodges in
the Comstock lode at Virginia City,
New, set the whole world crazy. In
1879 the american miners were almost
equally divided between the silver
mines at Leadyille and the free-milling
gold mines at Tombstone, A. I. In
1889 the newly-found Harqua Hala
gold mines on the Colorado river, and
the silver mines at Chihuaha, Mexico,
stirred thousands of old-time prospec-
tors and miners as nothing else had
done in several years. The western
miners baye come to have firm faith
that there is bound to be great rush
to new dlggings every year that has a
at the end of its date. In my travels
among the California, Arizona, and
Colorado camps lately I have been
asked dozens of times where / believe
the prospectors would strike it so as
to have the expected mining stampede
next year. confess myself to the
belief that we shall hear of great
gold strike somewhere in the west in
1S99.'
The most senseless stampede that cid
miners recall was the one to camp
known as the Rocky Belle. 1t was go
miles northwest from Prescott. The
time was December, 1876. No less
person than John w. Mackay, the bo-
nanza mining king of the Comstock
lode, was deceived by the news from
the Rocky Belle, and spent several
thousand dollars in sending expert
miners posthaste across the mountains
and valleys to see what the chances
/ for new mines were Hundreds of men
travelled 700 and 500 miles on foot and
with mules and donkeys to thenew dig
gings, and nearly all travelled across
desert and mountains for distance
of 250 or 300 miles. A large number of
men coming out of the warm, balmy
air of the semi-tropics lost their lives
amid the snowbanks and ice, and many
a man was made an invalid for life be-
cause of exposure to the biting cold
during the stampede. A severe-'bliz-
zard ragged in the mountains for sew
eral days while the miners were slow
ly trudglng through them. In one
party of 100 men from New Mexico four
men were frozen to death one morn
ing, and 1t is thought that fully 20 more
died in the same way in the mountains
at that time.
When at last the Rocky Belle dig
gings were reached it was soon seen
that there was no ore in the district
worth digging except in the claims
held by Henry Binford and his friends,
and that the report of their find had
been exaggerated beyond all reason.
Binford's own mine petered out year
or two Later, and he got only few
thousand dollars from 1t.
Along in the summer of 1878 miner
named Stevens wrote to a friend in
Phoenix that he had found a claim
that beat anything in mining this side
of the CumstOck lode in Nevada, and
that witt, a common mortar and pestle
he had pounded out from $40 to 500
worth OF gold dust day. The claim
O,,4h
Kingman, near the since famous Har-
qua Hala mining region, and there was
a chance, so Stevens wrote, for other
men to strike it rich up there. OF
course, such news could not be kept
quiet. II travelled with miraculous
speed through every camp in the Salt
River valley and over to Prescott. In
less than two weeks all that part of
Arizona was deeply stirred by the re-
ports, which no one seemedtto have
time to investigate, of the richness of
the mines that Stevens had found. A
thousand or more miners caught The
fever so badly thar they started on
foot across the country for Stevens
camp without delay. 1t was hot, dry
summer, and the journey entailed tor
turing thirst and endurance of tenn
perature usually about 110 degrees in
the shade. "A dozen men died from
fever under that awful sky. and as
many more miners never recovered
from disorders caused by the priva
ions of that stampede across the
desert of Arizona. Having arrived at
the Stevens camp, the excited men
realized that therewere claims worth
working for about 100 men. Several