The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1898-01-14
there is gold by the ton there if only
h III tho ,rprav 70 dior IT Ontsr'

the hills that poor jim 1iaiClh H"''
gone clean daft" His family. however
shared Hardin .rfuith in Two-bit' and
finally, one day in February, 1896, the
old mans elder son, James D. iIardin'
Jr.. met in Deadwood a man from Chi
lcago, named Edward RotherWeI, who
had been commissioned By Philip d.
Armour to examine some fuller's eartH
properties in Deadwood. When Acth-
orwell finished the work which toCh
him o Deadwood he was induced by tAc
younger Hardin to visit Two-Bit Cullen.
Rotherwell knew something about
mining, and. having met cd man har
din. became convinced tina mar
was honest and was not era. or. II ne
was. young Hardin, who haN .2 1aith
in the Gulch that his father had, was
NOT cn,y net crazy, but was an unusual
" leyci-heaGed man. RotherWeii e.
amined the surface Indications Thica
old Jim Hardin pointed cut to him.
and was favorably impressed by theT1.
Then. too, he believed in the EardinF.
and the upshot of it all was that he
promised to see what could be done
about raising some money for the Cd
man in Chicago.
This was no easy task. Chicago men
with money were not exchanging 1t fcr
an cd Back Hills miners god bricks
even if he had been abe to impress
Rotherwe.l with his honesty AID s:1-
cerity. Finally Rotherwell succeeded
in interesting young Chicago nan b
the name Of Delaney. Delaney ha@
plenty Of money, most OF which be has
made himself, and he was highly
esteemed by many Of ChicaSo's best
known business men. Delaney TislteU
Two-Bit Guich with a mining expert
who was favorably impressed with VIVA
he saw. With the experts report De
laney returned to Chicago AID toIo
some of his friends that he was going
to invest some money in mining proper
ties in Two-Bit Gulch. Philip d. Ar
mour, L. Z. Letter and two CT three
other Chicago millionaires consented
to put in as much as Delaney, which
was not so much but that each one Of
tIlC Gil NOuiQ ~ lOSN 1t Il = W.
Bit gave back nothing.
Young Hardin was sent for to come
to Chicago and was tod what Delaney
had done. The son of the old miner
could hardly believe his ears. The only
thing he seemed to realize was the fab
ulous fortune that was all but within
his fathers grasp. The possibility that
no gold might be found never occurred
to him for a moment. This impressed
itself upon those who had consented 10
invest some money in the scheme ana
they resolved to go ahead, come what
might.
That was in the early part of the pres
ent year. Soon after that the machinery
necessary to carry On quartz mining
was ordered and shipped to Two-Bit.
When the first machinery arrived Old
man Hardin nearly did go crazy with
Joy. That for which he had waited and
worked and stuck to the Gulch a..
through the years was about to become
fact instead of an old mans dream.
When the machinery was all on the
spot, the question to be determined
was where the first shaft should be
sunk. Old Jim knew, he said, exactly
where to begin, but before he would
tell he wanted to have look It every
man who was to engage in The work.
When asked what that was for. he said:
I've stood guard over this property
fer 20 years. Men have come and gone.
but I've stayed on, and now that some
things going to happen, I want to
know that everybody around here is OF
the square. can tell the men want
is soon as | see them"
Accordingly all the miners ard ali
he bosses had to be inspected by Old
Jim. All but two passed muster, and
hey had been employed to superintend
parts of the work. The old man would
not have them under any consider
alton, and two others Of his own
selection were substituted. The wis
lom OF his judgment may have been
proved by the fact that one CT these
is now in a western reniten-
fiary serving term for robbery.
When the mining crew was finally Sc
lected Old Man Hardin indicated the
place where the work was to be begun
Ind the first shaft was'sunk on April Is.
1897. Some one recalled that work had
oeen begun on the thirteenth Of the
month and remarked that Jim Hardin's
Usual luck would follow the develop
nent of the mine. To this Hardin's only
'eply was:
There never was q fine field CT corn
hat crows didn't croak over. Never
mind the day of the month. Two-Bit
will prove that there's luck in the thir-
cen yet"
Two months later, on June IS. 'spea-
ut rock was struck and the first pos
tive indication of ore was found. On i
September IS the following dispatch
vas sent by James D. Hardin. Jr., to
Mr.. Delaney in Chicago: >,
"Rich ore struck. Assay, 81 to ton.
Vein now more than 20 feet thick"
On October 13 samples of the Gre
AIKEN from the mine were sent to Tor
ey q Eaton, assayers and metallur-
sists, of Sterling, N. j., whose New
fork Office is at "a Cortlandt street.
Two days later they sent back the re-
ult OF their assay, as follows:
Sample of ore marked No 1 pyrites,
contains 1.50 ounces of gold. which as
'ayed $31 per ton. Of silver there was
trace"
Tw'-Bit Gulch is no longer despised
oy the miners of the Black Hills. Two
IF fhnSp who Left thoir eln; ,.,. IL