News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1901-10-02
THE PEG LEG MINE.

The Fate OF Those Who Try to Find the
Same The Discovery of Thomas Cover.
By the discovery OF a Masonic ring
on the bony finger of a skeleton found
in the Carriso bad lands of Southern
California the fate of Thomas Cover
has definitely been learned seventeen
years after his unsuccessful quest Tor
the famous Peg Leg gold mine, from
which the ancient Aztecs are belleVed
to have drawn their wealth. The In
dian tradition of the Peg Leg mine
is that only one man at time Is to
know of its location, and that even he
is not to touch it for his own use, I'M
der penalty of meeting horrible and
mysterious death. When this guar
dian, after having kept the secret
faithfully through life, is in immediate
danger of death he may tell it to one
other person, but that person must not
be a white man, unless there is none
other around. In the last generation
these cheerful conditions rarely have
been fulfilled, and it has happened that
the. extreme penalty promised by the
one who has violated its terms.
Cover was an Ohio man, who in 1856
went to California in search Of gold,
and who subsequently roamed over
other parts of the boundless West.
Times without number he had fights
with the Indians. He was captured
often and tortured, but always man
aged to escape. Like many others of
the Argonauts. he failed to find the
wealth of which he was in search, and
upon his return to Ohio, many years
ago. he married a Miss Hess, of Colum-
bus, and with his bother, Perry D. Co.
yer, he went to Riverside, Southern
California. and there decided to make
his home and settle down.
One day nearly 20 years ago an old
miner struggled into Riverside to die.
Thomas Cover visited him and made
his last hours easier, and in gratitude
the old miner told Cover that he had
discovered the famous Peg Leg mine.
of which Cover, like all other rovers of
the West had heard years before. The
miner told Cover the location of the
mine, and after the old mans death
Cover and William Russell, a friend,
started out to find the wonderful de-
posts of free gold which were to make
their fortune. 7 .-.,.~n-. t..-.-
) When they got to the edge of the
Carriso Desert, in Southern California,
they arranged that Russell was to
drive around, and Cover was to walk
across, and they were to meet at an
appointed place on the opposite side.
Russell got to the meeting place ali
right, but Cover hadn't arrived. After
waiting for time and not hearing
anything Of Cover, Russell returned to
Riverside and organized a search party
for his friend. but no trace of Cover
could they find.
A week or two ago a Government
surveying party came across the skele-
ton of a man in this dreaded desert,
which IS the bed of an ancient salt
lake, but which is skirted on the north
nowadays by the Southern Pacific
Railroad. Ordinarily there is nothing
unusual about finding in this God-for-
saken region the skeletons of men and
animals, but it happened that the hand
Of this skeleton stuck up above the
sand, and on one of the fingers was a
ring. This invited further examina-
ton, and the ring was found to be one
OF the Masonic order, and on the in
side was the name Thomas Cover"
The man who saw all of these things
had heard Of Covers mysterious dis
appearance in 1884, and he sent word
to Perry Cover, who still is living in
Riverside. So the bones were removed
to Riverside and buried by Mrs. Thorn
as Cover, who, with her daughter lives
in Riverside.
And so it is known now definitely
that the Peg Leg mine has claimed
another victim. 1t got it's name from
the fact that the first white man who
saw 1t was a wooden-legged sailor who
died soon after returning to civiliza-
ton with the story of his wonderful
lind. The miner who told the story to
Cover got his information from an old
indian, who, dying of terrible disease
brought on, as he believed. because he
had taken some of the free gold from
the mine for his own use, divulged the
secret to Cover.
The tradition Of the mine says fur
Their that none of the gold is to be re-
moved until the spirit of the great
Emperor of the Aztecs, who lived
thousands Of years ago, returns to
earth, when he will take out the prec-
ious metal and distribute it among all
people equally, so that there shall be
no more misery or want in the world.
It is fine tradition, put the coinci-
dence in the deaths of the white men
who have tried to find the mine is
startling.
e ~