The Dickinson press., 1900-02-10
ELUSIVE BONANZA
THE oroRY OF THE LOST LODE OF
GORE RANGE.

THE oroRY OF THE LOST LODE OF
GORE RANGE.
How a Tenderfoot Accidentally Dis
covered This Wonderful Bank of
Gold and Why He Didn't Enjoy the
Richness Thereof.
They were telling mining stories in
the courthouse, and Dee Reese, the
lawyer, asked:
ibid you ever hear Of the lost lode
Of the Gore ranger
The other lawyers sitting around
him said they had never heard of it
and then waited for him to begin. MI.
ReesG borrowed q fresh chew of tobac-
co and told this story:
Hundreds of experienced and mex
perienced miners us we'll have spent
a great deal of time and money looking
for the lost lode Of the Gore range,
and they are searching for it yet.
This famous mine was found and lost
in the fall of 1896. A party Of men
from Iowa visited Routt county, Colo,
in the fall Of 1896 on a hunting and
fishing trip. The party made its
headquarters at Steamboat Springs.
In the latter part Of October the party
moved up and went into camp on
Rock creek, in the Gore range of
mountains. which runs through north
ern Colorado. One Of the party was
a druggist, who had gone On the trip
for his health. He knew nothing of
mining. He had been warned by q"
old miner before he left Iowa not TO b"
fooled, as many q tenderfoot had been.
by what is known as FOOLS gold OF
iron pyrites. So this druggist :i! no
attention to the rocks. but ATTENDED!
strictly to his hunting and fishing.
lone afternoon while hunting for
deer he started a fine buck and fired at
him and wounded him. The buck fell.
but got up and a before the druggist
could get to him. Where he fell was a
pool Of blood. which showed that lie
was badly wounded. The hunter trailed
him by the blood spots on the dead
leaves and grass for n mile and there
found where the buck had lain down
and then rising had gone on again. In
this way the chase continued until
shutdown. and then the hunter. who
was exhausted. sat down on an out
cropping ledge of rocks to rest.
"In the enthusiasm of the chase he
had not noted which way he Travelled,
and he realized that he was lost in the
heavily timbered mountains, with
night coming on. He knew it would
be useless to try and find the camp
that night, SO he gathered a pile Of
dead limbs and kindled a fire against
the ledge of rocks and laid down with
his feet to the blaze and prepared to
sleep. While lying there he noticed
the rocks sparkled in the freight. He
got up and examined it, supposing it
was the fools gold lie had been warn
ed against. But the rock looked so
pretty that he broke off several pieces
and put them in the pocket Of his
hunting coat, intending to carry them
back to Iowa with him as curiosities.
'"Thc next day he wandered all the
forenoon, and then found the Gore
pass road over the range and followed
it to the camp. That very afternoon
a regular mountain snowstorm began,
Steamboat Springs and from there
went east.
"The druggist. whose name ! have
forgotten, staid in Denver for n few
days on his way to his home in Iowa.
In the lobby of q hotel in Denver the
talk drifted to mining, and the drug
gist mentioned the specimens of stone
he had found and was taking home.
An old miner never misses n chance to
examine Il specimen and in this group
in the hotel lobby was an old prospect
or. He asked to be shown the spcci-
mems. The druggist went to his room,
fished up the old hunting coat from
the bottom Of his trunk and took out
the piece Of stone. The miner exam
ined it closely and exclaimed:
"'Man, that's the richest specimen
Of gold bearing quartz l have ever
seen!
"The druggist thought at first that
he was being joked with, but ut last
the old miner induced him to take the
specimens to Burlingame, the best as
sayer in Denver. Burlingame assayed
a piece Of the quartz and reported that
it yielded gold at the rate of $4,000 to
the ton. The druggist was not salts
fed. He submitted another piece of
the quartz to another expert assayer
and got a report that it yielded gold at
the rate Of $4,000 to the ton.
"The druggist returned at once to
Steamboat Springs, but there was snow
in the mountains. He went back to
Iowa and returned to the Gore range
the next spring and has spent every
summer since then looking for the lost
lode, and others have searched for 1t,
too, but no trace Of it has been found"
kansas City Star.