The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-02-26
ARIYER BED PAVED WITH GOLD
A GREAT TREASURE HUNT COM
ING on THE SNAKE RIVER.
on March 1 Its Course for Thirty Miles
VIII lie Laid Bare-Tradiuon Says
Vast Quantities of Gold Are There
Hitherto They Have Been inaccessible

Hitherto They Have Been Inacoessibl O
SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 25.-Gold Is the
word on the tongue Of every man to-day
In the States Of Utah and Idaho. and all
because the waters OF the turbulent Snake
River are to be turned aside and for three
days at least mystery Of generations
will be exposed. If tho expected hap
pens the great finds in Alaska. tho mill
lions garnered in the districts OF Goldheld
and Tonopah and, in fact all the great
discoveries of golden treasure in the world =
history will be outdone when Snake River
yields up its secret on March /.
A channel in the river thirty miles long,
coo feet wide and an average OF 100 feet
deep. reputed to be gold ballasted from
one end to the other. but never before
accessible, will be laid bare. Thousands
are preparing to join in the search for
treasure here. There Is not a town in this
great Western country that will not have
its complement Of fortune hunters on tho
spot, all eager to get some OF the great
treasure believed to be In tho bed OF this
almost inaccessible stream.
This channel which has been hewn out
Of the valley through which it runs by the
waters flowing down from innumerable
mountain streams, though Judged to be full
Of golden nuggets, has defed the efforts OF
the miner to garner them and has kept them
concealed deep beneath the surface OF the
river in the rifles made in the lava rock
which forms its bottom.
On the first day Of March the Twin Falls
Land and Irrigation Company will close
the gates Of it's great dam across the Snake
River at Twin Falls, and during the several
- nil in, ia
immense reservoir above the dam not a
single drop OF water will find it's way into
the rock ribbed cavernous channel or canon
fort distance Of thirty miles below the dam
The only water that will remain In the bed
~of the river will be that which cannot es-
CAPE from the Impressions and holes In
the bottom.
Thousands of bars believed to be heavily
laden with gold and thousands OF crevices
In the rocks which are believed to lhave
caught the avier nuggets washed down
the stream through the ages will become
bare and accessible to the prospector
Within the distance mentioned 1t Is said that
that there are plenty OF places where the
preoipitous banks may be scaled and tho
bottom OF the canon reached.
From the earliest days OF the settlement
Of southern Idaho and northern Utah
stories have been current about tho fab
ulous riches to be found here and there
In the vicinity of the Snake Tradition
has it. and no one has ever disputed the
assertion. that the first settlers found the
Indians wearing ornaments made from
virgin gold. but all efforts TO learn the
source of this gold proved futile.
IL was not until the wonderful scenery
In the cahon of the Snake became known
and explorers began to search its pre-
cipitous walls that the first traces Of gold
we're found there. Prospectors focked
In and they discovered gold a-plentyi but
to obtain It was another question.
The land on either sides Of the canon
forms a plateau. and standing on the edge
one is almost made dizzy by the great depth
that vawns below him. Only at intervals
is il possible TO find crevlces by means Of
which one can dec0end to the sandy beach
bordering the foaming torrent.
The gold thus far obtained has been
picked up by prospectors who have sue
ceeded in making the hazardous descent,
and the gold they did find was lodged
in the crevices mentioned. They found
evidences 81 untold wealth on every hand,
but to get it out without the latest improved
machinery was another matter. for every
man who succeeded in reaching the bot
tom Of the canon took his life in his hands
and there were not a few who, losing their
footing, slipped and fell, bounding from
crag to spur and spur to crag until they
were swept away in the raging torrent.
II was an undertaking from which many
shrank. hut those who did reach the bot
tom agreed that the evidences Of gold
were more and more abundant as they
arrroached the sandy beach OF the Snake.
Yet of the few who managed to reach the
tor Of the plateau again only very small
proportion were willing TO undertake
second descent into the cahon.
one of the first Of the pioneers 10 under
take to solve the mystery Of the Snake
River was Bill Higley, trapper, hunter.
prospector and miner. He was tall, raw
honed and powerful. When he first began
TO come into the settlement he usually
brought in with him bundle Of pelts which
be tartered for ammunition and food.
There came time. however, when he
brought in nuggets and dust, and on each
succeeding trip he added TO his wealth
in the assay office. Efforts were made to
learn from him the source OF the gold, but
he was not communicative. He was fol-
lowed on more than one occasion, but sue
oeeded to eluding his pursuers
Finally. when he thought he had ac-
cumulated enough gold for his ordinary
wants. he told of his find in the canon OF
the Snake River on his next trip nearly
every one Of the male inhabitants in the
settlement went with him, but when they
saw the walls down which they would
have to descend they shrank from tho
task and gazed in wonder as, standing
on the brink of the precipice, they saw
BIZ lower himself down the crevices until
b. stood on the sands 900 feet below them
One man tried to follow him. but he had
scarcely gone down fifty feet when he lost
his hold and, with wild cry, went tumoling
down into the seethng waters of the river.
The spectators waited for the body TO
come up, but the Snake once 1t clutches
it, prey never gives it up-and so they
turned away and tried to find traces OF
gold on the summit of the plateau. In TINS
they were only partly successful. for for
tune seemed 10 have conspired with nature
TO hide her golden food either in the deep