The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1900-09-01
Gold is
Found There

The recent meeting of the Colorado
Editorial Association at Ouray and the
approaching conclave of the Knights
Of Pythias at the same place serve to
call attention to the extraordinary at
fractions Of this wonderfully favored
mountain town.
No place in Colorado has SO taxed
the descriptive ability of enthusiastic
visitors, or made them realize so forci-
bly, the poverty of human speech. AS
well might one attempt to describe the
fragrance Of the rose to one without
the sense of smell, of one of Beetho-
ven's symphonies to a person born
deaf as to paint with words the charm,
the grandeur, the beauty of this Gem
of the Rockies" Other places have
rugged mountains and gloomy canons,
others have rocks on which the colors
Of the rainbow have been indelibly
photographed, still others have gush-
ing springs and roaring waterfalls and
glens carpeted with myriads of flow
ers Of every hue, but in no other place
eve visited by the writer are all of
these attractions so concentrated and
on such a prodigious scale a in the
little basin in which is located Ouray.
Nor are its natural attractions its
only ones. Its hotels are large, modern
and reasonable in their charges. Its
streets wide, clean and we'll sprinkled,
its private homes handsome and nu-
merous, its stores well stocked, its citi-
zens enterprising and courteous to
strangers. Its distance from thickly
populated centers and the fact of it's
being off the main line of a railway
are the only reasons we can think of
that account for the comparatively few
people who visit it.
To the mining men Of London and
Paris and Berlin it is we'll known. Its
golden veins, though of comparatively
recent discovery, ate the wonder of the
world, and at the present moment the
awed Parisians, al they tell one an
other Of the magnificent entertain
ments and princely generosity of Mr..
Walsh, owner Of the Camp Bird mine,
rub their eyes and ask whether after
all the stories about Aladdin may not
have been true.
A few years ago We all read of the
"silvery" San Juan. Silver mines there
still are in great number. but as it is
gold the world Is now clamoring for,
to gold do the miners of Ouray now
devote their principal attention. 1t
later diamonds and rubies shall be de-
manded, then let the partisans Of Col
conda and Of South Africa look to
their laurels.
Notwithstanding the enormous
wealth that is daily pouring out of
their hills, n cannot ride over the
district without realizing that its re-
sources have as yet been scarcely
touched. It is still virgin ground. In
all human probability the year 5000
will see it still the center Of great
mining activity. Within three blocks
Of the leading hotel q most important
surface discovery "a made only last
winter. Many well informed mining
men consider the Camp Bird the great
est gold mine in America today, and
yet its owner looks upon it as but a
prospect, nearly all the values having
been taken out while simply getting
ready to mine.
There is one spring within two
blocks Of the heart of town which
alone should, and in time will, attract
thousands Of inyalids. It is still just
as nature created It. Not v a roof
has been placed above it. Clear as
crystal, it gushes from the mighty
rock, and SO hot that it fairly sizzles.
Eminent physicians have pronounced
it a specific for a disordered stomach.
Yet nature has been so lavish in her
bounties here that the natives hardly
consider it worth calling to the atten-
| ton Of their guests.