The Goldfield news. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1904-1911, 1905-11-24

in most cases is but due to a success
sion of fortunate blunders would seem
to be more often exempliied in mining
for the precious metals than in any
other field of the worlds work.
eco and dig therel" advised a face
tious miner, thinking to play a joke
on the confding tenderroot who had
asked where he would better begin his
mining. He pointed as he spoke to a
crumbling prospect hole, long before
abandoned as ground utterly barren.
put to the eyes of inexperience one spot
looked as promising as another, and
the young fellow promptly lent himself
to the unguessed humor of the situation
with the result that in less thar a day 8
work he had uncovered one of the rich
est veins of tellurium ever opened in
that camp. He was still so ignorant OF
what he had found that when another
practical joker offered to sink the shaft
forty feet for a half interest in the
claim, the opportunity to relieve a pair
of blistered palms was hailed as a god
send. Yet, that forty feet of sinking
paid something like $4,000, while
first and last, the great Melvina mine
of Boulder county, Colorado, has yield
ed close to 100000.
Another Colorado reasure-trove that
has made history for Custer county was
discovered quite as much by chance.
1t happened that an 1rishman, named
o 'Bannon, employed at one of the
mines above Rosita, coming down the
steep trail from his work one day,
stubbed his toe upon a projecting rock
and fell headlong. Having a violent
temper, the moment he picked himself
up he turned savagely upon the cause
of the mishap, kicked and stamped
upon it, until, such attacks proving
innocuous, he finally seized upon a
great boulder and peat the ~outeropping
to fragments. Rage was quickly for
gotten, however, when in the debris he
beheld such a showing of native silver
as had v met his gaze before. A
claim was quickly staked out, which
he called the Pocahontas, but in max
ing his measurements he unwittingly in
cluded three hundred feet of the Hum
boldt claim.
This prospect had been taken up by
a poor German, who knew nothing CT
ores. and who soon decided to abandon
mining for his old trade of basket
making. He was in need of material
for his work, and traded his Humboldt
claim and a sack of -four to Paul
Goerke for a load of willow twigs from
the valley below. By the time O'Ban-
non discovered that he might be
charged with error in his measurements,
development work had proven the
ground to be so rich that he was loath
to part with an inch of it. When his
reluctance had been reinforced by legal
opinion, he contended that the German
had made his lines in the Humboldt
wrong in the first instance, that, as he
had never discovered any mineral there
he had had no real title to the claim.
Goerke, however, with avidity equal
" aroused, and likewise sustained by
legal advice, was by no means willing
to take this view of the case. An in
terest in the Humboldt was sold to pro-
vide funds to begin the fight, while
o Damon also sold a share in the Po-
cahontas, and devoted the proceeds to
the purchase of Winchesters and am
munition. From this time forth trouble
teemed as though the rich ground had
ali been sown with dragons teeth.
Rifle pits were dug and armed men
guarded the disputed territory by night
and day, until a compromise was 50
far effected that the contestants agreed
to sumbit the case to arbitration, vacat-
ing the ground pending a decision.
But now the plot thickened through the
enterprise of a young grocery clerk
of the camp, who conceived the idea of
stealing up and jumping the disputed
fraction while the arbitrating board
was in session. He went so far toward
carrying out the purpose as to sink
the ten-foot hole required by law 10
hold the claim before he was discov-
cred. Rosita was then in such uproar
as had never been known there before.
The honest miners determined to see
fair play. The feeling against the young
pirate was so strong that it was only
by vigorous use of his heels that he
escaped ending his career then and
there at a ropes end.
Feeling was kept at fever heat by
the fact that all parties refused to
abide by the decision of the arbitration
board, and carried the case into the