Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-08-09
DRY WASHING IN THE DESERT.
Gold Hunting After the Old Mexican
Plan.


is rich in legends of lucky strikes mad
by dry washers. And the dry washe
is not laundry utensil designed TO
use where water is too scarce to b
used other than internally. 1t is tn
sole mechanical invention with whic
the native Mexican is credited,
means of taking placer gold from tn
sand in which wind supplies the plac
of water.
Given q good head of water and tn
man with the hydraulic giant wi
wash a fortune from auriferous grave
that carries a few cents worth of gol
t. the square yard. The fellow wit
the pan must find fifty cents worth o
better in the same area to make wage
but the dry washer regards the groun
as barren If he does not find dollar
worth of the yellow metal on his rifle
after screening the same amount o
sand
| There was old man Cushenberry
whose haunt was south of Casa Donna
that curious volcanic plateau which
visible for a hundred miles around Yu
ma. He was in his chronic condition
of hard luck when a shovelful of san'
left the rifles of his primitive dr..
dust and nuggets.
In half an hour he had taken ou
$4,000, and in the next six months h
had spent every cent of it in an inef
fectual effort to raise water from tn
Colorado for more extensive opera
tions. He never found another pocket
Down around Yuma, when you tall
Of dry washing, they will also tell yo'
oc the ditched hobo. A Southern Pa
cific brakeman elected him from sid
door Pullman, and he sought the wa
terfront, which was an institution thel
/ celebrated from the Dallas to the Yaqu
country.
"The Front" was a narrow strip o
shore just below the old government
corral, where by ancient usage was es
tabished the commonwealth of tn,
dead broke. Everything was owned il
common. They had mayor and al
unwritten code enforced by a Kanga
roo court. In earlier days no loss o
caste attached to residence on "Th'
Front" today's insolvent was frequent
ly tomorrow's magnate. Gradual!
however. the hobo element came to b.
predominant, and the city marsha
abated the sanctuary as a nuisance.
But to return to the ditched hobo
He told the Frontiers a hard luck stor!
that would few years ago have In
sured aid, comfort and Incidence. Th'
tanning Of the Apache and the exten'
sion of the Santa Fe and the Southern
Pacific had, however, made them ia.
miliar with his kind. and his was very
was made up and he was advised tC
accompany q couple of men who were
just starting on a dry washing expedi.
ton up the river.
That same day the outfit uncovered
a gold ledge that was shot and speck.
led with free gold, and the hobo's share
brought him $4,000. All hobolant
preserves traditions of the period o.
plenty that followed. Incidentally no
one of the trio that struck the lode wa:
alive a year later.
But as to the dry washer and thu
man who operates it. The tourist whC
h. Ill u
a Pullman, or is whirled in an automo-
bile to the bonanza to look at the goot
thing the superintendent has framed
up for him sees neither.
The desert prospector is the brothe
of silence, a silence so profound ant
pervasive that when a vagrant winC
raises a level jet of sand and moves 1
a yard or two the silken swish Of IT
transit is audible for furlongs.
| The scamper of the horned toad fill
the void corridor of the ear, the foot
fall of the sad-eyed burro is percus
sive. Only at night, when the coyot
lifts lean muZzle to the bland moor
is the stiffness shattered as infinit
| deSolatiOn finds voice.
| Another sound there is that speak
OF mans presence. In the heart Of tn
waste, miles from the railway ant
equally remote from wood and water
there may be heard a recurrent popping
that is not to be confounded with tn
PAIRING rataplan of the stamp MILL
| t. &c hn mo- Of
gaSolene launch, and the tenderfoo
might fancy that the ship Of the des
ert had been brought up to date AM
equipped with those mysterious appli
ances of which the motor enthusias
loves to discourse.
| Approach the sound and you vii
come upon a man and his machine
sun Drowned and solitary man, the cor
ners of his eyes wrinkled like an appl
that has been frozen and thawed, b.
the instructive contraction of the lid
against the glare of refracted rays.
He is the last of the placer miners
the survival of q type that levels hill
and fills valleys by q magic that woul
disturb the rest of the mighty wizard
Michael Scott.
The water ways. from the frozel
tundra Of the north to cienegas Of tn
south, have long since given up thei
store OF yellow metal. The pan, tn
longtom and the fiume exploited then
after which the hydraulic recovere
fortunes from tailngs or from grave
too poor to work by the more expen
lSive method.
i've method.
But the desert is rich in auriferou
Igravel. There are thousands of squar
miles in the Mojave and the Colorad
that yield placer gold in such quaint
ties that. given water the output O
Cripple Greek and TOnOpah would
made to look like a grub stake propo
Isition.
Water is not, but there is wind. Th
dry washer is merely a rude below
OF the familiar blacksmith pattern.