Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1904-09-17
LLOYD'S LUCK.
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0OH HEN Lloyd's father told him
VNW that he had sold the farm. and
that they were going to spend
the summer camping out, LLOYD was
very much delighted. His father and
two other meL 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.
Lloyds 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 sluice 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 very small quantity of gold dust
in 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; 80 his father,
one evening after his own work, made
him little rocker out of the thin light
boards of dry goods box. and every
day Lloyd would play he was a miner.
Finally he carried his rocker up the
stream nearly a 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
JSo' my NdllNo a. LCl llll
Lloyd did not find much color"
along the creek, so he carried his rock
er up a dry gulch that led into that
stream.
Next day Lloyd dug till his hands
were bllstered 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. When
he went back next morning he found
that the hole was nearly full of muddy
water that had seeped in from the
spring. There was enough water to
run the rocker for some time
In one place at the lowest part of
the gulch, near where his rocker was
set, a rock cropped out a few inches.
He did not know it at the time, but
he had gone to the best place possible.
A few inches below the surface he
struck bedrock. 1t was quite irregular.
He took his shovel and scraped the
rock, piling the gravel beside his rock.
er. He threw a shovelful OF dirt into
the hopper, dipped up some water and
10 TUCK. Nup0 ule ana
gravel had washed through the hopper,
he lifted 1t off to throw away the
coarser gravel and rocks that would
not pass through the holes in the sheet
iron bottom OF the hopper. AS he did
so he noticed a pretty rock he had
thrown out 1t was white, with yellow
streaks in 1t. He found several more
pieces, and put them in his pocket to
ask his father what they were He
did not know that he had found some
very rich gold quartz, but when he
lifted up the hopper and saw a line OF
yellow along both of the rifles on the
upper apron, he was enough of a miner
to know that he had found rich pay
dirt. The gold dust was coarse, some
of 1t being as large as grains of rice.
He went to the camp and got gold
pan 30 that he could clean up the
rocker.
That night, when the men came to