The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-12-30
Story of the Birth and the Marvellous
Progress of the Most Remarkable
Mining Camp in All the World-The
City Where Boys Are Pioneers, Where
Everybody Works All the Time.
BY JOEL L. PRIEST.

Goldfeld, Dec. PAT have been, first
''in every mining camp between Circle
City, Alaska, the farthest north on the
soil of the United States. to the most
southerly camp in New Mexico and
Goldfield is the king pin of them ALL"
He was a very fine type of prospect
or, the sort that regard trip across y
hundred miles of desert, or into mac
cessible mountains. or over northern
glaciers. as pleasure jaunts, to be I'M
dertaken with light heart and mer-
~ countenance. Deep set in his ieathery
old face merriiy twinl1led pair of keen
gray eyes Bushy white were his eye
brows and his stubby mustaehe. He
was complaining because he couldn't
sleep the night before.
do you know 1 just got In from the
hills" he said, "where 1 nave been
prospecting for four or fine months.
Lately / have been sleeping in the
SNOW. and it was pretty cold, can tell
you. Often and often have thought,
when rolled myself up in my blankets,
that ! would give a good deal TO be
stretched out In the fine. comfortable
bed that belongs to me in my partners
cabin near Columbia But, good Lord,
j stretched out in the bed all right last
get to sleep for hours. just rolled around
until 2 or o'clock in the morning.
Guess I was too comfortable" The vet
eran grinned a dry grin that seemed
almost TO crack his face.
Comparing the mines OF Goldfield
with the mines on the old Comstock, -
he went on, opening a new line Of
thought, as like comparing a shoe
string with q tannery, young fellow
The Comstock was a bubble that grew
mighty big, but il was only a bubble,
and when it busted a lot of people bust
ed with il. The permanent values were
not there Goldfield will never go the
way OF the Comstock because the vai-
Ees are here. I have been down in most
of the mines around this camp, and,
son, they are going to keep on pouring
out gold until this generation has
passed away and a new one has come
bn."
Is Great Camp.
Everybody i'm Goldfeld. from the
newsboy on the street to the millionaire
in his sumptuous Offices, believes that
Goldfield is the greatest camp the world
has ever known. Everybody believes
that many years must elapse before the
STORY of its marvellous richness VIII be-
come a memory. 1t is a wonderful
camp. wonderful in the fullest meaning
of that often-abused word.
First Location Is Made.
Only a little more than three years
ego the site of Goldfield was a desert
bleak, bare. forbidding The slightest
breath of wind blew great clouds or al
kali dust across the barren plain; an &C.
casional jackra6bit skulked through the
sagebrush or rested behind yucca
palm. Over all broOded the great
silence. Nature seemed 10 have made at
least one spot that no man could long
inhabit
One day. If there had been an obserY-
er. he would have seen, far 10 the north.
e. thin column of dust. Beneath the
cloud and in It ranged a little party of
prospectors. The tongues of their burros
tlung. sand-covered. from their lips The
Tlen were as gray as the desert that
stretched before them Slowly. slowly
the cavaloade toiled onward On the
site OF what is now the town OF Cold
field. against what are called the NAL
1api mountains. camp was pitched for
the night.
Next dav one of the Drospertors swept
the desert with a pair of feldgiasses
Curiously he looked at storm thai
was raging in the hills across the way.
a storm that had raised great cloud
of sand and sent ii whirlng across the
wastes. even as the pillar of cloud that
guided the caravan of Moses through
the wilderness. AS he looked the pros
pector caught, through a tiny rift in the
cloud. a flash OF outcropping that inter-
ested him He fixed the location IN his
mind and that afternoon the Sandstorml