The Cooperstown courier. (Cooperstown, Griggs Co., N.D.) 1902-1913, 1902-06-12
LOST COTTON NINE"

kOSI "COITON NINE"
An Old Prospcctor's Tale of a Really
Important Discovery That Came
r to Naught.
used, to know an old fellow in
Prescott, Ariz., when was holding
down q job there" said a mining en-
gineer to New York Herald report
er, "as much as 30 years ago, who
told q story that he swore to before
a notary. He never had done SO UNI
til he told it to me, and when Il
doubted it, he ambled around to the
notary's Office, and when he. *camc
back he had the story all in an af-
fidavit, with the usual legal trim
mings. When. a man will do that with,
a story he tells it ought to be true,
tits or not. ] ~
but let that part of it go. He,
died a dozen years ago, and he has
had to answer to a higher powerif
he lied about what he told. to any
body who took the time to listen to
him. His name was Thomas Stewart,
and he was packer and prospector,
according to circumstances. His
story was one of his experiences as
a prospector. He said he had been
out in the Hualpi mountains, about
so or 60 miles to the north of Will
liams Fork of the Colorado river,
prospecting for several weeks, when
one day he saw from ridge pc
culiar looking colored formation on
small plateau across canyon.
ut was something so much out of
the ordinary that he concluded to get
across to see what it was. 1t was
no easy job, but he got over in the
course of half days climbing down
and up, and, reaching the spot, he dis
covered quite an area of low grow
ing plants, very much like cotton in
appearance. Instead, however, of be-
ing white it was of varying color, red
and blue and yellow and green pre-
dominating. In fact, what was not
pronounced were shades and tints of
these colors. A closer inspection
proved the plant to be cotton, differ
ing somewhat from the Texas vari-
ETY., but practically the same
thing.
ct was the color, though, that was
puzzling, and the prospector, after
an investigation which showed that
it was not due to any settings of
dust from the many colored earths
that are common in that part of the
country, and have made the canyon
walls of the Colorado famous, exam
ined the location of the cotton patch,
which covered about ten acres of a
little valley.
"To one side, and hidden at first by
the plants, he found number of
springs, warm and cold, with the wa
ter in each of different color, or
rather all of them having the colors
found in the cotton growing about
them, and getting it's sustenancce
from them and the soil which they
colored. 1t was all clear enough to
him now, and he looked upon his dis
covery as nothing more than one of
the many natural freaks of that pc
culiar country.
Ten days later he was in Prescott
and heard a Texas cotton man talk
ing. From that he got an idea, and
the next day he was on his way to
his cotton patch, with 20 burros, and
ten days later he was in Prescott
again with about two tons of raw
cotton of bright color. He sold the
lot to the Texas man for $500, and
proceeded to blow himself. He went
to Frisco to organize company to-
raise cotton of natural dyes, but be-
fore he got much of start he had
drunk and gamb1ed all his money
away and was stranded. He had his
wits about him, though, and would
not tell where his cotton mine was,
thinking he would go back year
later and harvest another crop.
about the right time the follow
ing year he hurried away to the
mountains, and when he came back
he looked like he had lost his best
friend. He couldn't stand it, and had
to tell his story which was to the
effect THAT there was no crop to
gather. He had cleared it up thor
oughly the year before, not leaving
a seed, and all he found was a patch
of withered stems.
"He tried to get seed from the
Texas man, but they had been ginned
out and lost. Then he tried to plant
the ordinary seed, but they would
not grow, and SO Stewart lost hts
one chance to be rich, and he never
quite got over Il"