The suburban citizen., 1902-11-22

lost cabin nine in the WnOle range
IF mining tradition and fiction. Yet
he wyoming discovery Is but one OF
hundreds of mysterious mines which
nave lured prospectors on and on for
half a century, and are likely TO re-
main IN irresistible attraction while
fortune hunting animates the pros
oectors breast.
There is nothing more romantic IN
modern gold mines than the legends
and myths Of golden and silver ores,
whose rediscoyery would bring fabu-
GUS riches to the finders. Nearly all
orospectors, no matter how long and
severely buifeted by hard fortune,
lave an abiding faith that some time
hey will strike lost mine and be un-
,peakably wealthy. Every mining
.amp in the West has its own charac-
.eristic stock OF stories of incompar-
ably rich mines once found by some
'onely prospector, miles away from
any human being. and in a region
barren Of readable landmarks, ana
!hen lost by some fateful incident.
some tragedy or some strangely acci-
dental circumstance.
A MEXICAN MYSTERY.
The Vallagrana mine is the famous
ost mine of Lower California. 1t was
silver mine, and the ruby ore from
t. so tradition says, was so rich that
Don Thomaso Aguila, the richest man
IN Monterey, Mexico, in the sos offered
20 buy one-third if it for $l50,000. Jose
Vallagrana was n Mexican governor Of
he district of Lower California who
led to La Paz, at the extreme southern
end of Lower California, in 1850, dur
ing a political revolution, On the way
he and his party took refuge in an
indian camp, and the Indians there,
taking a fancy to their courteous Wis
tors. took them out into a canyon
and showed the outcropping of a silver
ledge. The tradition runs that the
silver ore could be clearly traced along
the mountain side for some 1900 feet,
that the ledge at the surface was over
twenty-five feet WIDE and that there
were indications that it widened rap
idly below the surface Of the earth
Governor Vallagrana promised not to
disturb the Indians in their ancestral
rights there and to keep the silver
ledge always a secret. On that prom
Use he and his associates were per-
mitted to take away with them seven
specimens of the silver ore. The next
day the Governor and his party started
on mules some 200 miles farther over
an unbroken, barren wilderness to-.
wards La Paz. In the course Of two
months the party was at the City Of
Mexico. where they were political pris
oners for nearly Il 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 re-
ported that such ore ran 5000 ounces
to the ton. Silver was then worth 81
m ounce.
Every year since 1851 men have gone
in parties of dozen or twenty to seek
the silver ledge. First and last, sew
aral thousand men have climbed over
the mountains, tOiled across the arid
wastes and broiled in summer and
shivered in winter while they pros
pected for the ledge that Vallagrana
told about and from which the speci-
mems had come. Time and again the
poor, ignorant Indians of Lower Cali
fornia have gotten money on the prom
lses to lead prospectors to the Valla-
grana mine, but each time it has an
instance of a savage buncong n trust
ing miner In 1898 Governor Lopez of
the district of Lower California Off
cially reported that that year some
200 men had been vainly trying to get
q clue to the mythical Vallagrana.
TRAGEDY OF DEATH VALLEY.
The pitiful story OF Death Valley
victims in 1854 is connected with the
Gunsight Mine narrative. Sixty-two
emigrants to the gold fields of Cali
fornia, by OK and mule teams, in the
summer of 1854, were trying to find
southern passage through the Sierras
to California. They were persuaded
at Salt Lake City to follow what was
known as the southern route in pref
erence to the more frequented one
farther north. The new route took
them through southern Utah, across
the Colorado River, and into the ter
rible and then little known Colorado
desert. In a few days they reached
the dreary waste Of Death Valley.
One by one, as they went on, their
worn horses and oxen fell by the way
side, to rise no more, and one by one
they were forced to abandon their
wagons. Then death and famine stole
in among the little band, and, the
weaker ones perishlng in quick sue
cession were buried where they fell
Finally. the survivors scant stores
were exhausted and no water could
be found. Within a month the party
was reduced to four men. There was
no chance for retreat, and, though dy-
ing by inches, the survivors pressed
on forward and southwest,
One night while camping near n
rocky ledge George Dennis discovered
that the sight on the muzzle of his
rife had been in some way loosened
-,