The silver state news. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1907-1909, 1907-11-21
How Soda Lake was
Once Sold for $1,000, 900

Soda lake on the Carson desert in
Nevada is one Of the most valuable
In the world. It is turned into mon.
ey as easy as gold dust is converted in
to coin. The supply is inexhaustible
and the demand is ceaseless and with
out limit. Consequently 1t is worth q
great many millions Of dollars. The
owners would not trade it for the rich
est gold mine in the world. There vas
a time when I owned every inch OF this
wonderful treasure-every drop of its
rich waters from the surface to the
bed of wealth 400 feet below, says a
writer in the Chicago Tribune.
DAYS + was a millionaire. Yes for
two months / sat, walked and slept
reveling in dreams of luxury and plan
ing to enjoy illimitable wealth.
Looking back on those days l now
am satisfied that they were the most
miserable Of my life. Happy peace
full hours did not come again until ]
fully realized that my millions were
gone from me and my heirs forever.
It all happened in the old bonanza
days Of Nevada. Virginia City, on a
mountain top obove the clouds, was
crowded with the widest, gamest and
/ sold it for $1,000, 900. For sixty
most desperate set of miners, mine
owners, prospectors and gamblers that
ever before collected in any n camp
ON the Pacific coast. Fortunes were
made and lost in an hour. Men who
drove carts or handeled shovels one
day were millionaires the next. The
flight of time was not noticed No
one knew or cared whether it was
day or night. The narrow streets
were iammed at midnight. One
morning Consolidated Virginia was
selling at $50 a share. At midnight
these same shares were worth $4,000.
A secret had lacked out. They had
struck q bonanza in the little mine.
It was q real bonanza of solid silver.
The miners said it was as big as a
house.
Everybody Wanted Stock
There was a scramble for those
shares. Many of them had been given
to miners for labor performed in the
mine. Porters, hod-carriers and dray
men had shares in the almost un-
known mine. A servant girl drew
from her bosom enough Of them to
make her rich beyond her widest
dreams
Mickey Doran crawled from a dug
out in the side Of the mountain and
fighting his was to the side of a man
he knew asked the cause Of the ex-
element
CONSOLIDATED virginit is worth So
600 a share,' shouted the Irishman 8
acquaintance.
Later in the day Mickey and his
wife Biddy were seen on the cars en-
route for San Francisco. They had
sold their mine shares for a fortune
Each chung close to a stout barley
sack. The sacks were soiled and no
suspected their contents. The lucky
Irish pair were going to old Ireland
in a hurry and they were carrying
about $4,000 in coined gold. What
seen them pouring this glittering gold
out on the dirt floor of an old cabin
on the roadside six miles from Belfast.
where lived Mickey's old father and
motherf
I went through all this, scarcely
eating or sleeping-hardly knowing
the difference between day and night.
and I emerged from it sick, sore and
respondent, I had lost money.
One morning I put ON my hat and,
shaking the gold dust Of Virginia
City from my feet, I walked down
Six Mile canyon with two bits in my
pocket, singing "My Name 1t is Joe
Bowers, all the Way from Pike
Silver quarters were the smallest
coins in circulation. There were no
dimes nor nickels in our booming.
beloved Washoe. Only a tenderfoot
dared to intimate any knowledge of
small coins.
Two Gays afterward / stood in the
door Of q little cabin on the shore of
Soda lake and shook my fist at the
smoke of the bonanza mines, James
Shannon, Fair, Mackay, Flood and
O'Brien were harvesting their mil
lions- l knew@there were millions in
Soda lake, and that gave me nerve.
Nerve was what I needed. Nerve was
what it took to stay there. 1t was
the most desolate region that any
mortal ever looked upon, a cloudless,
rainless, limitless waste of burning
sand.
1t is the bed of an old soda sea,
Wncrc BullU SILL mover ABOUT the
foaming waters, with bands Of howl
ing wolves prowling along the beach.
Far away in the west one can see the
outlines Of the s~now-capped Sierras.
Toward the rising sun are two SHIN
mering spots like the deceptive mir
age. These are where the great Car
son river spreads out and yields to
the parched, thirsty sands Of the
mighty desert.
! imported a half dozen Cinnamon
and set them to constructing watts.
30x40 feet and l foot deep. These
were filed with the water of the lake.
Then I sat down and watched the
Chinks and nursed a lot of home
made dreams, all lined with gold.
The Sun Did the Work.
We were waiting for the burning
sun Of the desert to do the rest. The
sun performed its part well. At the
end Of 30 days the water had ascend.
ed to the skies and left a sheet Of
It is hard to conceive a more pitiable