The Arizona sentinel., 1900-02-14
The"P egleg" Again.

:. l pIOuSilG III SOHlS UIdNh Ol ROLO
 from the desert, refusing to divulgt
 the exact location where they were
 found, and the paper suggested that
 possibly they were from the Pegleg
 mine. There is scarcely any mining
 section of the great west, between
 Mexico and Alaska, that has not some
 est mine," in search of which parties
 of men or individual prospectors ec-
 casionally set out. Some of these
 yarns are founded on fiction, others
 on fact.
 Without doubt the best known oi
 these lost mines in the southwest is
 the Pegleg. During the past quarter
 of century dozens, if not scores, of expeditions have Set out to endeavOr
 to discover this deposit, and several prospectors have left their bones to bleach on the Colorado desert in try ing to locate the celebrated bonanza. The story of this mine, which some people believe to be myth, has been 1 told many times and in many ways. ! The following is about the most corset version. as gathered from one who WAS acquainted with the facts:
 h 1857 PrgIeg Smith, an old hunter ami trag ger, who died about thirty years ago, was piloJing party Of i trappeTs from Yuma to Los Angeles, when he come across three low hills | on whieh was the bonanza which | bears hIs pane. a name he had earned ! by tue fact that he had a wooden leg on one oi his legs aLd to save hls life he had ampuJa ed the limb with knife and hatchet and crawling back to hls cauin manufactured rough aruhciai limb. According to the story, Pegleg had climbed on one of these IIttie hills to take his bearings and there he saw the hill was com posed almost entirely of a black spar formation that ap cared to be metal he Thinking uat 1t might perhaps be a copper ledge he put samples of the rocks Tn his pockets. He did not think any more about the matter for number of yeas, until California was all aolaze with the gold excite ment, when it occurred to him to have the samples assayed. The assay showed that the material which he had picked up on tue desert was al- most entirely gold, the yellow streaks when he had mistaken or copper being yIrgjn gold. In 1850 he fitted out au expedition to go in search of the miue The explorers had gone as far as Wa~ner's ranch when a band of Indians attacked them, killing all mem ners of the party except Pegieg, who thereupon returned to Los An gees, and never again made any at tempt to discover the bonanza.
 Meantime, the story of the mine hat been spread abroad any many ex- petitions Sta ted out to try and find 1t some of which were never heard of again. About forty years ago miner on bis way t.om Yuma to Los Angeles in crossing the Colorado Desert, took a short cut and noticed three hills. one of winch he clm0ed, as Pegleg had done more than twenty years be- fore. Here he saw the same wonder tul black spar and packed his saddle bags with samples, which he brouy Int to Los Angeles The hardsh ps 1ich he endured in crossing the desert brought on fever. tnroug which he was nursed by Los Angeles physi- clan. When he recovered he Is said to have handed over to the physician a portion Of the ggets which he had brought frum the desert, valued at $2000, the whole Quan " of samples being, 1t IS said, worth $7000. He told the doctor the story oi his find and indicated as closely as he could the location of the deposit. Latter he had relapse and dled before he ceuld take part in an expedition te the deser5 The physician hired In dians 10 seek for the three hills, but they never found the site, or at least, Il they did they never disclosed it.
 In ISS6 1 homas Doran and A H, Hanson, t"o experienced prospectrrs, got Up a carefully plaunsd exuedilon in scar n c. tn9 lost Pegleg, leaving San Diego in January and spending q 2bt months in ca eful exam nation for 50rty square miles of the desert, during which trip they had narrow escape rom death. They were un- successful. In the early part of 1892 DOran, in company with a man named Bell, fitted out another expedition, and again without success. It is prob able that the recent reported tinI of black nuggets by Indians will lead to renewed attempts to discover the far famed bonanza, and it is not unlikely that more lives may be sacrificed to the tarrOrs of the desert -T, A Times.