Los Angeles herald., 1905-08-13

to give TO ntf HlSleI SNaIeS HeI itth 0hu
abundant products, leaving her only
poorer and more detected than before.
most Of the $500 100000 which the great
Comstocl mines at Virginia City, New.
yielded went to enrich the splendor OF
California. When the activity of that
period ceased, Nevada was left with
population no greater than that OF
Yonkers N. Y, population much small
er than that required for statehood-so
small indeed, In comparison with the
actual area of Nevada that were the land
of that state distributed equally among
all its people there would be great
tract of 1900 acres for every man, woman
and child of it's population. For many
years after the days of the great activ-
itv at virginia City had passed, Nevada
lay dormant Now the state Is In the
flush of q second awakening. There Is
excitement and industry from one end
of the desert commonwealth to the
other. The United States government
has recently completed Inc this state the
first of its great projects for the rec
lamation of arid lands. Various rail-
road enterprises are under way, but most
important of all is the opening of new
gold mines. The mining fever has in
creased the population of the state by
many thousands within half dozen
years, so that the comparison with
YonIers is no longer just.
One by one the new districts have
been developed, and in a regular Sc
ouence that has furnished the evidence
of a most remarkable and significant
geological condition,i which has never
before been fully appreciated. This is
the existence of a well-defined lode Of
gold ore extenUing from the northern to
the southern part of fl.the state and per-
haps through Arizona9 into Sonora, Mex,
and now marked by a, chain of rich min
ing camps The lode lies parallel to the
c1o Of NnVada
mountains Just as the famous Mother
Lode" of California follows the
Sierras on the western side. At the head
of this mother vein in Nevada are the
famous Comstock mines with their rec
ord of S6OOOOO 600. They created the for
Mackays and many others. Many of the
old Comstock mines have been reopened
and are now being operated with profit.
The next link in the chain is Tonopah, |
which has one mine alone worth $500C0- |
OO0 The men who rushed INTO Tonopah |
with the fever that came with the rich |
discoveries of that camp followed the |
lode southwark and eastward and struck |
GoldfieId There was at once another |
era of excitement. Rich mines were
opened up, and Goldfield, since January
/, has produced S4,OO0.0OO. In less than
two years town of 10000 inhabitants
sprang up on the sagebrush prairie, |
tent or human being to disturb the
coyotes and the jackrabbits.
Men who had richly profited in this
camp-and others who had not-spread
farther to the southwark into the hith-
erto neglected regions of Nevada, and
they found more mines of gold. The
new district was called Bullfrog-with
the usual disregard of mining men for
euphony in nomenclature-and veins
We're opened that produced ore contain
ing gold values of $40 900 to the ton. The
saloons, the hotels, the town-lot boom
ers thrived The stampede continued.
Someone found gold in Rhyollte, and that
town became the center of feverish in
dustry The flight of the gold-seekers in
Nevada has been-only in it's manner of
procedure-like the visitation of the To-
Gusts, which come in a caravan from
no one knows where, and after a short
period of sudden and intense activity rise
and fly onward like a cloud, to settle
again by common consent at some point
miles farther on
Following the unvarying trend of the
gold lode, few of the vanguard of the
Nevada caravan have gone forward to
Searchlght, still farther south, and with
evidence already thoroughly established
of a richness that will probably equal
or perhaps surpass the wealth of any
other mining fields of the Cinderella
state
AS I write this letter the gold fever
has its highest temperature at Bullfrog
and Rhyolite; before my story has ap-
peared in print the fever may strike
Searchlight, and there may be horde of
pack-trains, frontier wagons, tents,
shanties, prospectors and automobiles
(for the automobile invariably follows
the trail of the goldseeler in Nevada) at
this old new mining camp. l propose,
therefore, to anticipate the interest and
tell some things that 1 have learned at
Searchlght before the facts are in every
body's mouth.
Mind you there is no excitement yet at
Searchlight No wildcat" companies
have yet maze this district the excuse
for their operations. Every mine that
has been opened here has paid. 4n no
instance has any extensive work been
done or any amount of money been eX-
pended without return in gold ore from
the ground. Few persons, aside from
those who are actually engaged in the
mining industry, know that there are only
two richer gold mines in the whole United
States than the Quartette mine, which is
in this camp.
Searchlight is in the midst of the brown
desert. For a few weeks this spring
after season of unusually abundant and
persistent rains, the plains and hills wore
an unwonted garb woven of myriads Of
dainty wild flowers; but the rains ceased;
the wind like the breath of the furnace
returned and the desert is itself again,
with little beside the sagebrush and
greasewood and Fabbitgrass, and without
trees or permanent streams But these
are minor details to the men who happen
TO own rich gold mines here.
l have called Searchlight an "old new
mining camp because its history began
in the Civil War time. In 1861 five Cali
fornia miners were prospecting among
these hills. Railroads were miles away;
hostile Indians were everywhere. It was
a friendly Indian, however. who guided
the five adventurous Californians to a
place where he told them they would find
'heaps OF gold" They followed him and
located a mine where he had directed
them they should; and that was the be-
ginning of the Eldorado mine, which has
produced $l50O0OO0. The pioneers worked
at enormous expense and against obsta-
cles that seem almost insurmountable
All their supplies were shipped by boat
from San Francisco down the Pacific
coast and around the peninsula of Lower
California into the Csu1f NJ Cia1ifo-of.