Mohave County miner., 1899-06-17
Stumbled Upon a Gold Mine.

Charlie and Lee Carr have made
their fortunes. They are two young
cattlemen in Custer county, in the
Southern Black Hills, who heretofore
have lived uneventful lives, but by
good stroke of fortune they are now no
longer hunting lost cattle or stray
horses in the deep ravines of their ma
tive hills. On May 18th the brothers
we're out on their daily round looking
for lost cattle. They had been over
the same ground good many times
before and had even prospected with
pick and hammer the adjoining cliffs
for indications of ore, but their mining
attempts had thus far been of no avail.
They had looked very thoroughly for
their lost cattle along Lightning creek,
and had about given up the hunt when
they came to the mouth of Narrow
Neck Gulch, small tributary of Light
ming creek. Lee, the oder of the two
boys was in the lead, thinking that the
cattle might have strayed up the mar
row gulch to the right, turned his horse
in that direction and the BROKERS pro-
ceeded up Narrow Neck Gulch.
They had not proceeded far when
Lee saw a small boulder lying at the
base of a cliff which showed indica-
tions of being highly mineralized. He
stopped his pony and dismounting
picked the stone up and gave it a
causual examination. Satisfying him
self that il contained no gold he threw
down the stone and remounted his
horse.
What was it, Lee?" Charlie asked.
"Only piece of iron-stained quartz"
was the answer.
"Iron-stained quartz is not found in
this gulch without meaning something.
Let me see the rock"
So Charlie dismounted and, picking
up the little boulder which his brother
Lee had just thrown away, he hurled
it with considerable force against the
rocks at the side of the ravine. The
rock broke in two, and with shout of
surprise both brothers picked up the
fragments. The round boulder had
been split evenly into halves, aud there
on each piece were many glittering
specks of gold. There was no more
cattle hunting that day. They natur-
ally looked up the side of the noun.
tain to see whence the little boulder
had come.
They climed the steep hill to point
about fifty feet above the creek level
and almost Immediately found ledge
of free gold. Clearing away the loose
dirt and broken pieces of rock with
their cattle whips, they got down to
the quartz vein, finding several mug,
gets of gold producing through the
hard rock. They traced the outcrop.
pings along the mountain ridge far
enough to convince them that it was
extensive, and then mounted theil
horses and returned home. The fol,
lowing morning, having taken theil
father, G. F. Carr, into their secret
they returned to their find and pro
ceeded to stake out ground. Their Sc
cret was their own until eleven claims
had been staked and recorded, ant
then the little town of Custer, with it,
surrounding settlements of camps
was startled with the news of the dis
covery.
The brothers soon had hole dowI
several feet on the vein, and they wer
almost crazed with joy at what the.
found There were nuggets Of gold a
large as hickory nuts and large piece
of rock seemed to be literally file,
with gold. One piece as large az din
ner plate was edged with nuggets a
large as lima beans. Several hundre,
dollars worth of gold was taken out i
short time.
The news of the discovery 500