Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-10-25
raAp,T.oM in MINING LONE.
A Search for Lost Cabin and Mysteri
Gus Trsasurs.

WI tthkNis'h ttiAA ~ Al tl&S IGal lIiiil6 dIt0
the only lost cabin" mine in the
whole range Of mining tradition and
fiction. Yet the Wyoming discovery lis
hut enc Of hundreds of mysterious
mines which have lured prospectors
on and on for half a century, and are
likely to remain an Irresistible attrac-
ton while fortune-hunting animates
the prospector's breast.
There is nothing more romantic in
modern gold mines than the legends
and myths of golden and silver ores,
whose rediscovery would bring fabn-
lous riches TO the finders. Nearly ali
no matter how long and
severely buffeted by hard fortune. have
an: abiding faith that sometime they
VIII strike IA lost mine and be unspeak-
ably wealthy. Every mining camp in
the West has it's own characteristic
stock of stories Of incomparably rich
mines once found by some lonely pros
rector. miles away from any human be-
ing. and in region barren of readable
and then lost by some fate
full incident. some tragedy or some
strangely accidental circumstance.
Every mining camp has its veteran
iVSASANhtSs Vst'H VI NAOii iih' 'butt se.t
theory as to how those lost treasure
beds may be relocated. Nothing else
in the realm Of mining has such a
charm upon the prospector's mind as
the stories Of lost mines. lii every
mining region every year men risk life
and fortune in searching for legendary
lodges once found and then lost. Last
year some so men gave up months of
their time. travelled over burning
deserts, endured severe privatiOns for
weeks at a time. and came back to
civilization older. poorer, haggard and
ragged. after n search for the Peg Leg
Mine among the sCocOpah NJ 1untains.
There will undoubtedly be as many
more men go hunting for the Peg Leg
this Year.
a Frenchman came into Helena,
Mont, many years ago. bringing with
him thousands of dollars worth of
so,d-dust. He told his friends that he
had found some placer ground richer
than any ever worked. The dust he
brought down had all been pa nned out
With siuiceboxes thousands OF dollars
could be washed out in Il day. OF
course. this news created the greatest
excitement. His friends prepared to
accompany him back, but ere the day
for their departure arrived the
Frerchman was taken i'll ard died.
Just before his death he managed to
gasp: at.... .s b..
'Blackfoot country, two small lakes,
cabin between them built"
Now, this information was very in
definite. There are two Blackfoot
~. nv,a =, e
forest in which rise the Big BlackfoOt
river and its tributaries; the other was
m those days, the eastern slope Of the
Rockies. from the Missouri to the
Saskatchewan. The miners wondered
which one ne meant. Party after
party was organized to search for the
Lost Cabin Mine. Both coun-ri have
been explored again and again. Year
after year has gone by and parties are
still searching for it, undaunted by the
failure of their predecessors hoping
ever that the morrow will reveal to
them two little lakes Nesting in the
forest, and, between, a rude little cabin.
long since IN ruins. perhaps. but still
the evidence of untold wealth.
The Naliagrana Mine is ike famous
"
a silver mine, and the ruby ore from il,
so tradition says, was so rich that Don
Thomaso Aguila, the richest man IN
Monterey, Mexico. in the fifties offered
% buy one third Of it for $15O.OOO. Jose
Vallagrana was q Mexican governor of
the district of Lower California who
lied to La PaZ, at the extreme southern
end of Lower California, in 1885, dur
ing a political revolution. On the way
ne and his party took refuge in an In
dian camp, and the Indians there, TAX
ing a fancy to their courteous visitors,
took them out into a canyon and
showed the OutcrOpping of silver
ledge. The tradition runs that the sill
yer ore could be clearly traced along
the mountain side for some 1,S00 feet.
that the ledge at the surface was over
% feet wide. and that there were indi-
cations that it widened rapidly below
the surface of the earth. Governor
Vallagrana promised not 10 disturb the
Indians in their ancestral rights there
and to keep the silver ledge always
secret. On that promise he and his
associates were permitted TO take away
with them seven specimens of the sill
YER ore. The next day the Governor
and his party started on mules some
200 miles farther over an unbroken,
barren wilderness toward La PaZ. In
the course of two months the party
was at the City of Mexico, where they
were political prisoners for nearly
year. When they were freed only one
of the party had kept his specimen OF
the rich ore. An assayer in the city OF
Mexico assayed part of the specimen,
and he reported that such ore ran 5000
ounces to the ton. Silver was then
worth 81 an ounce.
Every year since 1851 men have gone
in parties of a dozen or twenty, TO seek
the silver ledge. First and last. sew
oral thousand men have climbed over
the mountains. toiled across the ARD
wastes and broiled in summer ana
shiyered in winter while they pros
pected for the ledge that Vaiiagrana
toId about and from which the specl-
mems had come. Time and again the
moor ignorant Indians of Lower Cali
fornja have gotten money on the prom
Uses to lead prospectors to the Vaila
rrana Mine, but each time it has been
an instance of a savage buncoins
trusting miner. In 1898 Governor
Jopez. of the district of Lower Call
fornia. officially reported that that year
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