Tonopah bonanza. [volume] (Butler City [i.e. Butler], Nev.) 1901-1909, 1907-04-27
Real Glory of Alder
GuICh Is Yet to Come

reached in FIVE minutes digging. This
gravel not only carries gold thinly
disseminated, it is true, but it is
exactly identical with the gravel of
Alder gulch. The beginning of this
ancient river bed is away up in the
the beginning. 1t stands there with
no cause for a beginning and no
cause for an ending, at an altitude
of 5000 feet. Former United States
Senator w. A. Clark of Montana had
engineers examine this prehistoric
river carefully with a view to work.
ing it for it's gold. The report was
that If the immense body of gravel
could be worked automatically 1t
would give handsome returns, but
the question of water intruded itself
and it was found that since the water
Of the west fork of the Madison
would have to be diverted across a
range and flow into the Jefferson it
would bring on a conflict with all
owners of irrigible waters in the
Madison valley and the project had
to be dropped.
Now, this is the situation which
confronted Professor Shaler when he
tried to solve the mystery of the
origin of the placer wash of Alder.
Lucas ledge cutting through that lit
tie east fork of Alder from which
the gold might have been eroded;
and on the other hand, was the an
cient river bed of the Gravelly range
with its gravel identical with the
gravel of Alder gulch. If Old Badly
were not in the way it would be an
easy problem to solve, but with Old
Badly there and with all indications
pointing to its existence prior to the
passage of that old, old river, even
so eminent a scientist as the late
dean of Harvard university had to
admit, in the vernacular of the day,
that he was up against it hard
So much for the why and the
wherefore of the gold of Alder
gulch. We don't know why or
whence it came, but the fact that
over $3O00OO,0 600 OF gold were ex-
tracted within a decade is sufficient
evidence that it was there.
Following the decline of the
placer mining industry of the early
days the impression prevailed quite
generally that nothing more in the
way of gold was to be found, placer
gold, that is, in the n%eighborhood.
Toward the close of the last century
Professor Shaler was attracted to the
locality by reports of the aged river
bed upon the Gravelly range ard
spent several summers investigating
the geological conditions. Ate.
looking over the entire country he
returned to Boston and informed
some capitalists that if he could not
trace the beginning of the flow no
one else had thought of tracing the
end of it and that if there had been
6 placer wash down Alder gulch
there must have been some place
where the finer gold, the tailings cf
nature, had deposited themselves
and that place once found would pro-
vide rich pickings for dredging oper.
atoms.
At the mouth of Alder the topo-
graphical shape of the country is
saucer-like. Mr.. Shaler said to him
self; This is natures gold pan:
natures gold hopper. There should
be gravel under this fine alfalfa
ranch and If there is gravel there is
gold" Now, MI. Shaler may not
have used exactly those words and
probably did not, but that is what
he meant, and very quietly he had
an agent secure an option upon this
alfalfa ranch of 100 acres and be-
gan drilling operations. One drill
hole was enough to prove his theory
of the existence of gravel. A few
more holes convinced him that gold
existed, also, in paying quantities
Then a company was formed and an
orange-peel dredge was installed.
Before the summer was over the for
mer owner of the ranch offered to
refund the 100000 he had received
and would give a bonus of $4,000
If the ranch would be returned to
} him. The orange-peel dredge was
not an eminent success, except thai
1t digged a big hole and gave the op.
p%ortunity for prospecting a large ares
, and for determining the course o.
e the original wash, and a small bucke'
dredge followed. This was fairly
: successful, yet the gravel was Sc
5 difficult to dig that the ~breakag'
made sad inroad in the profits. A
: second, a third and a fourth dredgt
5 was built along lines made service
able by past experience. Each dredgt
was made stronger, and cost more
to build, than its predecessor. ThC
first boat could handle $4,000 cubi,