Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1900-09-11
THAT GOLD CRAZE.
Newspaper Man Tells How the Edge
ley Gold Craze Affected Staid
Residents.
Whole Country Staked Off by Elk
cited Prospectors, Who Thought
They Had Millions.

Kuhn Messenger: That the hills
ten miles north of Kuhn, abound in
rich deposits Of gold, both in placer
and quartz, seems now an established
fact. The Raney brothers, who op-
crate an extensive cattle and horse
ranch eleven miles due north of town,
discovered what they thought to be
good indications Of gold in a gulch,
just east of the ranch several months
ago. They sent specimens of the
rock to an assay office and the returns
showed that they contained gold and
silver to the extent of $11S per ton
$S92 of silver and $26 of gold. It was
the intention of the Raneys to keep
the matter quiet. but two Minneso-
ia gentlemen to whom samples of rock
had been sent to take to the assayer,
in coming out to secure claims aroused
suspicion and a stampede was started
from Edgeley last Friday. Several
Kuhn parties who had been in posses
sion of the secret for many weeks
heard Of the break and hastened to the
scene TO stake off claims. 1t was not
until these began to return that the
craze got the town. On Saturday
daylight found the streets Lined with a
rushing mass Of men, women and chill
dren tumbling over in their efforts to
get started for the gold fields. Many
of them reached there early in the
morning only to find a milling mass of
half frenziel Edgeleyites stalking ey-
erything in sight. AS might be ex-
pected the Messenger man was about
the last to start, and it was about noon
Sunday when with an experienced
mine prospector, who we had employed
by phone the day before, we reached
the rancn. It really looked discour-
aging as the whole country seemed to
be staked off. There was not even a
chance to obliterate the boundary line
of anybody's claim; Harmon Bros. had
obstructed the road with their pegs and
Attorney Larsen had driven stakes
three feet into solid stone; G. J. Zell-
mer lay upon a large rock, shouting to
the passersby to keep off that claim z
saying 1T belonged to a bad man from
New York; DR.. Brenckle had encom-
passed a portion of the lake, contain
Ling several feet of water and hay
stack large enough to winter regi-
ment OF mules; Senator Sharpe and
Fred Buechler had erected a picket
around the outlet of the lake; so we
passed on, into the guIcn, stopping at
the Joe Raney claim where several
feet of a ledge Of rock had been uncov-
lered The upper crust of this was
genuine shale but farther down it re-
sembled joint quartz and our expert
said it carried gold but could not tell
how much. This is the point where
were procured the specimens that are
said to have assayed so well. The
stratum seems very thick and extern
I.siye and it looks as though It was q big
fortune for the owner Here we met
many Edgeley peop4e, quite q number
oI them ladies, and all were busy as
Ebees. H. B. sox stood on a side-hilI,
rubbing sand in his hands and blowing
out the dust; James Carpenter had
several tape lines tied to gether and
WAS doing them" on measurements.
A number from that Oown had claims
staked on for all their relations, dn-
|cluding their ancestors. clear back TO
apedom. Hancock OF the Mail had the
rest staksd on, SO We were about TO
lquit in despair when we saw the fam