The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-09-03
New York TimesO

I
While it is true that many Of the
richest gold and silver mines in the
world have been discovered by men
who were out searching for the pre-
cious metals. it is equally true that
others have been favored by fortune
rather than by forethought. The rise
and fail of Coal Oil Johnny" of a
| generation ago, well illustrates the
money craze that swept through the
land Of the oil fields till great cor
poration took control of the petroleum
finds and eliminated the element of
chance from the discoveries and the
output. Bret Harte. in his dramatic
poem, "Dow's Flats" tells of man
who had been in very hard luck who
started to dig for water, the 'derring-
er hid in his breast" to be used if he
failed; but instead of finding what he
was after he struck pay dirt and for
tune.
In 1867 Donald Ross. a young Scotch
sailor, deserted his ship in San Fran
cisco. and with two companions, green
as himself, started for the new placers
/ in the Sierras at the head of Kern
river. Failing in their first efforts, the
three men crossed through the Lee
natchepah Pass and entered the vol
cano rutted Mojava desert. Like many
| before them, they reasoned that re-
gion so worthless and lifeless must
! have in it the promise of gold Again
! they failed, and after some trials made
their way into Arizona and on to the
headWaters of the Little Colorado.
: Fas-
appearance of Cochin and his dreaded
! Apaches forced all the white men in
that region to abandon their claims
and fly to Zuni or the far-of army
posts for protection. Ross and his
! friends succeeded in reaching Fort
WhippIe. from which point Colonel
| Gregg, then in command of the Eighth
cavalry. sent them back to Hardyville,
on the Great Colorado. At Hardyville
the men bartered their dust for sup
plies. and. learning that Owens lake,
to the west of the Sierras, was a new
and promising gold field. they deter
mined to try their luck there. With a
mule to carry their supplies, but with
ont compass. map or trail TO guide
them, they started across the 200 miles
of desert to the north and west
In their futile search for water the
Adventures were deluded by the mir
ages of that region, ana so wandered
! into the bIistering arrOyOs along the
southern rim of Death valley. Two
days after Ross and his friends en-
tered these waterless depths the mule
died. and his burden was abandoned.
The next day one of the men died; the
other. thirst crazed, fed further into
the desert and was never heard or
again Any position more desperate
than that in which Ross now found him
self il would be hard to imagine, but
he had not reason enough left to real
ize it. As crazed as the men who had
left him, the poor fellow wandered aim
Iessly on till all consciousness was
gone. When Ross came TO lie found
himself in the camp of a band of Pah
IJtes. to the south of Owens lake. Aft
er many days, and when the young
Scotchman was able to walk. an Indian
guided him TO the Sierra divide, and.
pointing down to the emerald expanse
of the great San Joaquin valley and
the flashing waters of Tulare lake, he
said: white mans land
About an hour after leaving the In
dian. Ross found himself in the bed of
a rock-banked stream that had its
source in the snow peaks to the north.
He was hurrying down through the icy
waters when suddenly he came to a
stop and pressed his hands to his eyes.
with the dread that the wild gold
dreams of the desert were again mas
tering his reason. Half the sand at his
feet appeared to be gold.