The Meeker herald., 1899-05-13
CALIFORNIA; KLONDIKE
In the 'Mojave Desert Gold II
Mined with Plows.
nandsburx, Only One Year Old, Al
ready Has 5000 Fortune Seekers
They Expect to Produce S1O,-
100000 Next Year.

To the southeast of where Mount Ell
be tween It and Pilot peak to the north
east, is wide section of desert. which
hts become famous in the last few
I'd onths as ''the Rand mining district"
The Tehachipi range walls it from
northern California. Death valley is
just beyond it's northeastern border,
and it is separated from the bloom and
beauty of southern California by
grim barrier of bleak hills and sncw
capped mountains.
Like its world-renowned namesake of
South Africa, the Rand is a golden coun-
try, but unlike the African Rand, the
gold discovered has been in hitherto un-
known formations and combinations.
''The Rand" is in that portion OF
southeastern California whichis known
as the Mojave desert, a region of arid
desola:ion, supporting on'y the fiercest
ard most forbidding of vegetable forms.
1t was not until the summer Of 1896
that the carefully Kept secret of gold in
the Mojave desert became public prop
erty, and then the rush began. In few
weeks a town of 5000 souls grew up as
center OF the gold fields, and took the
name of Randsburg. Thither adventur-
err fiocked from every part Of the coun-
try, and thousands of claimswere mon
umented" in the desert.
Two men, in digging hole l2 feet
deep, took out So 800 worth of gold in
two weeks, and three feet further down
struck pocket" from which they
took 900 sacks of ore assaying $40 tothe
ton. By the time they had gone down
10 feet and drifted in IA feet they had
realized $4,000, and similar ''coyot-
ing" with similar results was done in
all the surrounding hills.
Unwilling to await the slow process
of pick and shovel, the plow was
brought into use, and though plowing
for gold would seem Munchausen tale
to the ordinary individual, it gave in
the Rand the richest harvest ever yield
ed to the husbandman.
The prospector followed in the fur
rows. picking up float ore as farmers
gather rotatoes. Some Of these pieces
Of quartz nssayed into the thousands,
others were comparatively worthless,
but ell poke eloquently of the precious
metal in the ledge for which search
was thus being made.
Men who were accustomed to long
and expensive search underground for
veins Of orc, could not believe that the
numerous outcrops on the surface
would come TO any thing when followed
deeper, vet the 'coyoting" brought
such marvellous results that owners of
Il IL. q hot
mines solely with the output realized.
In fact, Rantlsburg was "a poor mans
camp"
Now, many of the Rand mines are
heavily bonded, and the total output
is $4,000 monthly, with prospect
based on development work now being
done of eight times that amount month
ly year from this time.
In the hills to the southwest of the
town of Randsburg nature has shown
strange freaks in the deposits of gold.
Veins of quartz run in every direction,
appearing above the ground, disappear
ing far beneath it, running Straight for
few feet then diverging with as many
angles as streak Of lightning, these
''stringers" perplexed all calculation.
These tiny veins of quartz are almost
fabulously rich in gold; and at first
were supposed to descend only few
feet, and to be streams, as it were, cast
off in the general upheaval, and scat
tered on the surface of the soil.
When they were followed deepen
however, they were found to unite and
form feeders" to rich bodies Of ore,
and "the stringer district" bids fair to
become the most famous portion of the
gold fields. From a consecutive run of
90 tons, $50 sacks of ore, $500 was
realized by one Of these "stringer"
mines in the month of June. The
.coyoting" of single mine in the Rand
for six months produced 900, and in
a;na rDoptbe the Same arroa1nt was