Los Angeles herald., 1905-04-10
Stockton People Go Wild
for a Few Brief
Hours
GOLD LONG BURIED
NOW BEING SOUGHT
Prospectors Report Big Finds.
New Smelter for Jerome.
Gold Nwes Bunched

when the next meal must be paid for
with actual cash. Up in Stockton the
people went gold mad and for a few
hours dreamed the golden dreams of
riches. The gold mad spell came on
April fools day and the mad gold spell
was broken when the FOOLS gold was
determined.
On the banks of the classic Mormon
slough, at point where the mass of
polluted truck intersects Stanislaus
street 300 men, women and children of
staid old Stockton stayed all April
FOOLS day and night and infested the
new Goldfleld. Up to their hips these
people squatted in the mud, pushing
and surging and not giving away an
inch Of the land they claimed as their
own. With rocker and pan and ladle
and tin cup these seekers after quick
riches stuck to the mud and struggled
to sift the gold from the sediment of
the slough.
That gold was found is q fact, and
those who stood on the banks and
scoffed and those who jeered wondered
when the excited panners toward night
made good to the value of $1,000 in
coarse gold particles.
Many amateur miners would not
leave the digglngs during the night,
but procured lanterns and worked
through all of the hours Of darkness.
The bank of Mormon slough for over
a block alongside the diggings was
lined with delivery wagons, buggies
and automobiles. Many who simply
looked on caught the excitement, bor-
rowed or bought a pan and were soon
on their knees in the mud and water
washing for gold.
Theories as to how the gold originated
in that odd locality are as plentiful as
the grains were numerous. Some say
that the gold Is a part of buried treas
ure, mined in the early days and pur-
suit by robbers forced its loss. Others
assert that the Mormon slough is
part of the former Mexican quarter of
Stockton and that the gold is loot that
was cached by pardners long since
gone. The best theory, however, is
that the biggest find is the result of a
practical joke, by which brass filings
were literally scattered where they
would do the most good and find the
most victims.
Sic transit gloria mundi.
SmeIter for Jerome
G.. w. Hull, president of the Cleopatra
Copper company, is visiting his mines
in the Big Bug district near Jerome,
Ariz. In a special report to The Herald
Mr.. Hull is quoted as saying that within
six months he would have a smelter at
work reducing ores from the Cleopatra
mine. This smelter, which will be of 100
tons capacity to start with, will be a
few hundred feet east of the mouth of
the Dillon tunnel and below the road
leading to that tunnel from Jerome.
The location of the smelter will allow
the delivery of all ores from the mine
directly irto the smelter from above,
convenience that will be a great saving
in the handling of the ores, they being
taken directly from the slopes to large
bins which will be located above the
plant and from them fed into the fur
mace. At present the company has
abundant water to run 1OO-ton
smelter.
Work still continues in the drifts from
the Dillon tunnel and in the winze in
the Winingham tunnel with more than
satisfactory results In both drifts from
the Dillon ore is being taken and from
the one being run to tap the Winze a
great deal is being taken and of a
quality identical with that being taken
from the winze. The winze continues
all in ore which, as depth is attained,
increases in values Some days ago the
winze was thoroughly sampled, giving
extraordinarily high returns from as
says. Since that time about twelve
feet has been made, with the result,
from the general character and looks
OF the ores, the values, it is estimated,
have more than doubled. At present
the ores are being stored in the drifts
and tunnels to await the connecting of
the Winingham and Dillon tunnels,
when it will be lowered and taken TO-
the smelter site.
Goldfield Big Strikes
Reports have come to Los Angeles
mining men that another big strike
has been made in Goldfield in the
Goldfield Gold Dust Mining company
claims, two and half miles south of
Goldfield. At depth of fifty feet in
a shaft the company struck free milling
ore of an assay value of $205 a ton,
a decomposed quartz unlike anything
before found in Goldheld. Many proml-
nent men are visiting this property
to pass opinion upon this wonderful
discovery, and leasers are making a
mad rush to secure ground space, but
the company is doing its own work
and h1s let a contract for fifty feet of
drifting and fifty feet of additional
sinking on the shaft Until now all de-
velopments have been done so quietly
that hardly anyone realized what was
a King nlace as this mine. which con-