Tonopah bonanza. [volume] (Butler City [i.e. Butler], Nev.) 1901-1909, 1907-10-26
IS The LOST TOP
SAWYER FOUND?

Et
pector. while climbing oyer the sur
face of Mount Gilcrist in Lundy. Thi
prospector was an early day friend 0
the late James Townsend, when Lun
dy was an infant. Old Jim had Otter
told to him the tale Of the Lost ToI
Sawyer and SO often had the tale
beer told by him. that the hearers
were inclined to treat 1t as a fabrica-
tion of his inventive mind. The
prospector, who made the recent dis
covery, has left the country and will
not return until the coming spring,
when, perhaps, this rumor OF his ind
will be proven a golden fact. So
secretive was this %prospector, that his
presence in the vicinity of Lundy was
not suspected by the inhabitants and
perhaps some episode of the days of
Jim Slack, caused him to hide from
those who might have known him OF
old. We have searched through the
old files of the Homer Mining Index
and in the issue of August II, 1889,
we ind the following which is per-
haps the last known until the recent
discovery, of the Lost Top Sawyer.
The snow and landslides of that
section were supposed to have buried
the mine from sight Whatever
doubts of its existence were ever felt
have been dispelled by the writings
left by Mr.. Townsend, who was the
original %discoverer. and who died la
menting his great loss. So, too, is it
a matter of tradition in Lundy, that
Billy, once so well known, and his
boon COMMUNICATIONS - both
passed to the great beyond with a
firm belief in the realty of the mine.
They, in the proof of the story that
Townsend told, often showed the
pick with which Billy did his slum-
bering work.-The Editors.
One of our most energetic pros
pectors is in trouble, but. contrary to
the usual u of things, there is
much money in his trouble.
I'VE will call him Billy. because It
isn't his name. For the past two or
three weeks he has been all broke
up mentally and physically, but not
financially, for he is accommodating
wealth daily. and this assuages the
pain of the puzzle. He is working a
ling remark to make-he don't know
where his bonanza is, though he is
getting 5000 to $500 a day out of it.
This may seem improbable but gilt
tering facts are stubborn and on
vincing.
1.-TWO weeks ago last Sunday he
awoke in the morning late, stiff, sore
and all broke up in the profoundest
depths of nervous degradation. SO to
speak. The first thing that attract
ed his attention was a Well filled can
vas sack. He recognized the sack.
but how it became filled he couldn't
tell, Opening it he found that it
contained the richest quartz he ever
saw-two-thirds gold and the rest OF
il worth a dollar an ounce, he said.
There was fifty or sixty pounds of it.
and how 1t got into his cabin was be-
yond his comprehension; but think
ing that some friend of his had been
f%oraging around the May Lundy
dump and uncovered a portion of the
treasure said to be hidden there and
had placed it iR his cabin during the
night for safe keeping, he said moth
ing about the matter during the day.
Next morning he found another sack
of ore neal his bed, Naturally
enough. he was puzzled and at the
same time all broke up, as we have
said before.
The following morning there was
another sack. and so 1t continued for
a week fifty or sixty pounds of the
richest kind of specimen quartz each
day. Not being inclined to fly in the
face of Providence, or to turn up his
nose at what appeared to be mama
from heaven. he set TO work with his
hand mortar and beat out more gold
in one day than he had ever pos
sessed before, all the while working
in a thick fog of mystery. Day af-
ter day he pounded away, and each
morning another sack of specimens
was deposited in his cabin by unseen
hands.
Billy was o in a state Of per-
turbation oyer the mystery-sueh a
condition of nervous constituencies
that he feared to sleep alone with his
rapidly accumulating wealth, and so
he impaired his ecret to Constable
Mckenzie. who consented to occupy
a bunk in his cabin last Wednesday
night. They turned in about s
o'clock, as We all do in Lundy, and
all went smoothly until midnight,
when Mckenzie was awakened by
1stl.g. l. - -