The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1903-12-15
WOMAN WINS SUCCESS
Wisconsin Girl Who Has Made a
Fortune in Mining.
Her Career in the Southwest Has Been
One of Hnrdships, But Reward
Finally ComeE-AIfne-Hunt-
ing Her Life work.

One OF the most successful mine OPP
orators on the Pacific coast is Miss
Mary West, formerly Of Janesyille,
Wis. She has become famous in the
mining communities of the southwest
because of the sale Of the MADEIRA gold
mine in northern Mexico. and is un-
doubtedly the only woman in all the
world who makes mine-hunting and
practical mining operations life pur-
suit. What's more, she is a success.
Some of the old-time soldiers Of for
tune who for long years have fol-
lowed the delusive beckonings OF the
goddess Luck from camp to camp all
over the west-from Chihauhau on the
south to Klondike on the north--and
have nothing but tatters and bent
backs and wrinl1led faces to show for
it, say that she is simply creature OF
fortune Others shake their heads and
assert that hers is only the reward OF
ability to know how and the never
wearying grit to seek until she finds.
Miss Vests career in the mining re-
gions is a long chapter, full OF grim,
everyday heroism, gnawing privations
and everlasting grit-how Mary West
and her brother Joe searched during
some four years among the Margarita
and Apache mountains, sullen, God
forsaken, fierce, uninhabited region,
for ledges of golden ore; how she and
her brother, footsore and weary, tray-
eled over hundreds of square miles OF
mountain and desert, always seeking
evidence of buried mineral wealth be-
neath the sun-baked soil on the hot
sandy wastes. II is chapter that tells
how Mary West endured hunger and
thirst beneath a lurid sky for weeks
at time; how she and her brother
braved terrific, binding and suffocat-
ing sandstorms that killed their burro;
how they nearly died with cold while
they camped on lofty mountain tops
in midwinter; how many time and
oft, night after night, they slept amid
cactus and whitened powders, with no
human being (not even Indians) near
or than so or more miles and with
only the vault of heaven as roof
above them.
Miss West endured many hardships.
She often went hungry. and at one
time was exceedingly i'll for several
weeks. her only abiding place being an
Indian hut, and the only attention she
received was that which kind-hearted
squaw could bestow. She finally
struck rich mine, which she partially
developed and sold for handsome sum.
Other good fnds followed, and she now
has some $3.50, 900 to her credit in bank
and interests that bring her in a hand
some and constantly increasing in
come.
Miss West dresses for her work. She
wears a heavy blouse, short skirts,
long lesther-laced, heavy-soled boots,
and SLOUGH hat Half dozen times
a day she travels up and down the
deep mine shaft in an ore bucket,
which is operated by a wire cable on
a windlass She keeps posted on the
latest Improvements in mining, and the
library on metallurgy and geology OF
American mines that she has accu-
mulated at her home is up to date.
From dawn till dark she is always
busy-in the assaying room, down in
the mine, in the office Her evenings
are spent in the home. where she finds
delight in the current literature.