The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-01-30
find RICHEST MINES
TENDERFEET HAVE MOST OF THE
LUCK IN HUNTING
FOR GOLD
BIG FORTUNES OVERLOOKED
The Experts Pass Over Wealth,
While Men Who Know but Little
of the Art of Mining Locate Pay
Dirt-SOme Stories of Big For
tunes Won Without Experience
for q Guide.

|
for q Guide.
From the New York Sun.
| 1t is a curious fact that the discoveries of
rich gold and silver deposits in Colorado have
been made with few exceptions by men who
had little or no knowledge of mining min
eralogy. Rank tenderfeet have stumbled upon
fortunes which experienced prospectors had
| trodden upon for years and neglected In their
| wisdom
| The lucky strike over at the new Dawson
city illustrates the truth Of this statement.
ne ahe Da"sons came from erop-raising Kansas
aOout year ago and sank a shaft in search
or copper on one of the Greenhorn hills
named so by those who thought that none but
greenhorns would look for mineral there
They found nothing of value after going
down about 40 feet. and abandoned the hole
until last month, when they started to tun-
looked brighter and they decided to put up
CABIN. While excavating the side Of the hill
20 MAKE he room for 1t young Dawson Clipped
on bit of rock full Of free gold Following
up his find, Dawson discovered an unusually
large and rich vein. from which samples
were taken. One piece of ore assayed s.. S24
ana another gave the enormous value Of s16.-
AS to the ton. The discovery was a case of
luck, and nothing else
1t beats the deuce these lucky finds bv
people who hardly know enough to keen
away from a blast" growledican old-timer
who had come down from Cripple Greek to
get in on a good thing if possible Other
mining men agreed with him. and many in
stances were cited to prove that luck was
the most important thing to have in search
toned the Little Johnny, at Leadville In the
winter OF 1880 three lads, John Curran,
Thomas Kelly and James H. Donovan, left
Galena, ILL.,. and went to Leadville where
they dug away six feet of snow on Breeze
TO put up cabin. In this they froze and
starved all winter. Young Kelly died from
illness brought or
BY EXPOSURE AND PRIvATIoN
foil
whom the mine was named. Donovan is
still living. They knew nothing about min
ing, located their claim haphazard and vet
discovered one of the richest gold mines in
the world But Kelly's heirs are said to
nave sold their interest for only LOCO. and
van got is unknown.
august Rische and George T. Hook. who
6 1ana me famous Little Pittsburg, which
1hey worked at their trade most of the time
ana ',, only went prospecting when some one
gIuo-staked them 1t is fact that thew
$1,000 coo behind when Rische to satisfy bis
curiosity as to the character of the stuff ibev
nau Deen digging through for weeks. had an
assay made and learned of its great yaJ,1e
Inat certainly was good luck and not the
reward OF knowledge or experience
NOV no" much the Dillon brothers. Pat and
DICK, knew about mining metallurgv and
nn9Iinefalogy when they discovered the great
silver ore body of the Little Chief at Lead
VI xlil EN- IN the winter of 1879 no one seems
TO know. When they located their cia;m -
was regarded by the other miners as harran
ground and they were laughed at bv many
s VINO thought I that mining was an exact sci
ence; Judging from this, the billions did
not know much. They had an idea hovev
er, mat the experience of Rische and HOOK
WIN the Little Pittsburg could be repeated
SO lhey dug away and waited for their tnrn
70 laugh At comparatively shallow dentb
tne rich ore was struck in such an irnmepsa
p mat the billions and their partner,
aeter Flnnerty, speedily became weafthy |
men In less than two years the Di1ions
hau run through more than s6O0 GG0 tha
p pro OF the Little Chief and other claims
and were nearly broke Dick Dillon is nov,
working in Cripple Creek as a miner ar 20
a day. inei dt %
PAT DILLON KEPT HIS MONEY
better and made some good investnefs in
Srlpple creek, and is reported to be worth
Sioo'ooo. He lives on big ranch in Califor
MA. F1nnerty was the shrewdest of the tbrne
and mas accumulated $3.50 COO
me very best mines in the Crinn1a ro1
qls.rlct were discovered by Door men wbn
na9 luck and good muscles instead Of canitaI
silu sciehtlnc education. Winfield Scott
ence mine, had always been a carpenter AID
neser got rich following his trade. II was
T TrsaE year after the great rush to Cripple
the mine is located. He had seen tha les,o
nundred times before he located If and
oeners, with greater less experiences as
|
saho tunes, and passed it by lust as he had
no enc, not even Stratton. asserts that H.
discovery of the Independence was anvtbine
pvt pure luck He happened to he fortu r--ans
favorite at the time tune
oi rne experience Of Jimmy Doyle the million
dstr; mayor OF Victor. in the Grippe Creek
IN mfne-hnding in Colorado DOYLE VIII -
learned the carpenters trade but did NOT fol-
~. INV II, was driving hack in Manitou when
the Cripple Creek excitement heean in 1aoi
IN Colorado Springs there was voun9
plumber named Jimmy Burns The two var
aacqualnted, and together they went to Cripple
creek to try their luck. Neither knew any
tnlng about mining. Battle mountain nsar
victor was then covered with location stakes
Inere was piece of land comprising about
| one-s1xth of an acre that had no owner he
! cause it was considered worthless DOVE and
! Burns took up this land in the belief that
something was better than nothing They
sent Tor John Harnan, who was empIoved in
| driving street scraper in Colorado Snringa
TO come on and help them dig their claim
| HARNAN'S MINING EXPERIENCE
! consisted OF what he had learned as child
IN picking slate from the screens of Penn
| sylvania coal mines. For months the trio nnt
! in hard work sinking a shaft with nor a sion
Of pay ore. Their acquaintance sought to
discourage them, but they persisted, and
! were rewarded by striking a vein that made
them millionaireS
Possibly Dennis Sullivan studied mining
and mineralogy between stations when he was
IL
road back in 1876 but it is doubtful if he
would have applied this knowledge had it NOT
been for his weak lungs, which drove him to
Colorado. He helped to locate the Nav Queen
| silver mine at Leadville, and the money he
received for his interest in it enabled him to
| buy into the Dead Pine at Cripple Creek
which adjoins the Portland E r. stark. the
locator of the Raven properties at CrippIe
| was butcher in Colorado Springs and had
| been ranchman and cattIenian before that
With no knowledge of mining whatever he
! made fortune. A. D. Jones, who opened nm
| the Pharmacist, another big paying PROPOSE
| ton at Cripple Creek. was drug clerk at
Colorado Springs previous to his debut as
mining man.
The Creole boom was started by the finding
| OF some good-looking stuff on Bachelor noun
tain by poor prospector named George K
! Smith He had scratched around all over the
mining districts without success, and finally
| got an idea that luck might hit him around
-Creede, where the Holy Moses had found ore
| Mrs. Mary A. Coffin, of Buena Vista was i'm
| pressed with the same idea, and she and her
| husband went to Creole and ran a boarding
| house in order to grub-stake Smith One day
| in July Smith came to the cabin and said in
| a joking way: I've found our fortunes this
time and told what he had found Neither
had any idea that immensely rich mine
had been discovered, but soon it proved to
.,I 4.