Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1904-09-17
LLOYD'S LUCK.

WND HEN I1 LiOyd's father told him
WkW that he had sold the farm, and
that they were going to spend
che summer camping out, Lloyd was
very much delighted. His father and
two other men had formed a partner
ship and were going to spend the sum-
mer in mining. They bought their pro-
visions and mining outfit, and loading
them in two wagons, they started.
Lloyd's father and mother, with Lloyd
and the provisions, were in one wag-
on; in the other were the two partners,
with the picks, shovels, gold pans and
the lumber for slulce boxes and rock
ers.
When, after several days travelling
they arrived at the place where they
intended to mine, the men cut down
some trees, and in the course of a week
built a log cabin. They had planned
to work placer claim" 1t had been
mined long ago, when gold was first
discovered in California, but not very
thoroughly. Lloyd liked to watch the
men shovel the dirt into the sluice box
es and see the swift muddy water wash
the rocks and coarse gravel out at the
other end. They found the dirt was
not very rich, and some days when
they made cleanup" they would
find a very small quantity of gold dust
On their rifles less than half an ounce
for a whole days run.
Lloyd soon grew tired of watching
the men work; he wished to do some
mining all by himself; SO his father,
one evening after his own work, made
him a little rocker out of the thin light
boards Of a dry goods box, and every
day Lloyd would play he was miner.
Finally he carried his rocker up the
stream nearly quarter Of a mile
above where his father was working.
One of the men had called to him,
Hello. rocker where are you going
with that boy?"
Lloyd looked back and said Were
going up the creek to find a claim OF
our own"
"Well, go ahead. and good luck to
you" they called after him.
Lloyd did not find much color
along the creek, so he carried his rock
er up a dry gulch that led into thai
| stream.
Next day Lloyd dug till his hands
were blistered and his back ached. He
had been digging a hole where the
ground was wet and soggy, so that he
could get water to rock with. Wher
he went back next morning he founC
that the hole was nearly full of muddy
water that had seeped in from tht
spring. There was enough water t.
run the rocker for some time
In one place at the lowest part O.
the gulch, near where his rocker wal
set, a rock cropped out a few inches
He did not know it at the time, bu
he had gone TO the best place possible
A few inches below the surface h,
struck bedrock 1t was quite irregular
He took his shovel and scraped TIL
rock. piling the gravel beside his rock
er. He threw a shovelful of dirt int.
the hopper, dipped up some water ant
started to rock. When the dirt an,
gravel had washed through the hopper
he lifted it off to throw away tn
coarser gravel and rocks that woul,
not pass through the holes in the sh-e
iron bottom of the hopper. AS he di'
so he noticed a pretty rock he ha'
thrown out 1t was white, with yellow
streaks in it. He found several NOR
pieces, and put them in his pocket t
ask his father what they were II
did not know that he had found som
very rich gold quartz, but when h
lifted up the hopper and saw a line o
yellow along both of the rifles on tn
upper apron, he was enough of a mine
to know that he had found rich pa
dirt. The gold dust was coarse, som
of 1t being as large as grains of rice
He went to the camp and got a gol
pan so that he could clean up tn
rocker.
That night. when the men came t