Los Angeles herald., 1907-04-14
STORIES OF LOST MINES

miner getting lost IN the woods To-
Gated a placer bed Of fabulous rich-
ness in the bottom OF a stream. He had
bucket along that he was carrying
for water, and when he made the find
he loaded himself up with as many
nuggets as he could carry and hung
/ the bucket on the limb of tree near
the spot. He got back to the settle
ments and, renting. started out 10 find
the placer; but either the bucket hal
been picked by some indian, or there
was something wrong with the land
marks, he was never able to get back
to the spot.
The Lost Cabin
One of the more apocryphal Of the
lost mines Is that of the Lost Cabin. OF
course It may be that there have been
a good many lost cabins, but nearly
every state has one Of them and the
earliest record of the name was IN n
story told by Kit Carson In South Da-
kota In 1845. Now Kit, while famous
scout, was also considered by some rs
one Of the most notorious liars of the
west. He told the story of the lost
cabin on what is now known as Cabin
creek. But he never looked for IL him
self, and drew so many differffent plans
of It and distributed them to so many
different people that 1t is very ques-
tionable whether the cabin ever ox-
listed outside a bottle.
Llngard's Lake Mine
One Of the most picturesque stories
Of the same stretch Of country is that
Of the famous 'Lingard's Lake" in
northern California. 1t is known
throughout all that region and is told
with great detail and implicitly be-
lieved. There is settlement known
as Nelsonpont near the Feather river.
Ill m
quainted with a miner of the name
of Lingard, who in the fall of 1853
came into the store with lot of mug
gets, paid for an outfit with them and
disappeared. He came back again the
next season, paid for fresh outiit
with more nuggets and again vanished.
This kept up for three years, when he
turned up again broke, and, taking the
storekeeper into his confidence, told
him the story of his troubles.
Lingard had been prospecting in the
Feather river country during the fag
end of very dry season. He had got
ten off the track of water, but finally
found a lake where he stopped for a
drink. When he stopped for a mouth
full of water he was amazed to find the
bottom where he was drinking covered
with nuggets. 1t was q beautiful
country and there was fall OF about
ten feet into the upper end of tie lake
Here the gold was even richer, and
Lingard loaded UP with all of 1t he
could carry and started to make his
way out to civilization. He was weak
and found before he had gone far that
he had overtaxed his strength, SO he
cached the most of his gold at the foot
of a big pine tree that would serve
as a landmark. and finally made his
way back to Nelsonpoint.
Before he had time to outfit and re-
turn it came on to rain-one of those
drenching downpours common in north
ern California. He waited till the rain
was over and started back to look for
the gold-lined lake. He did not find
J it that season and searched persistent
ly for it for three years. He found
lakes, but none with a ten-foot fall
! at the upper end, and finally, when
his nuggets had given out and he was
broke he took the storekeeper into his
confidence. They Quilted afresh and
secured the country where the golden
lake ought to have been, but they
never found it. The belief of the old
miners in that region is that he lake
was one that did not reveal its golden
treasures ,xcept at very low water,
and the heavy rains so changed its
aspect that Lingard was never after
ward able to recognize it.
The finding of bleaching bones of the
body of a. prospector near the Hidden
He'll mine, loaded with specimens of
"bonanza" gold ore, the richest that
has been seen in that country for many
day, discloses another lost mine of
comparatively recent date. Life had
been extinct for many months; the
dried flesh and the bleaching bones
were far beyond recognition.
A pack of five burros lay near-poor
beasts-the helpless victims Of mans
| greed for that glittering gold that
| oil -h1If
they were packed and the clothing
found hanging in shreds on the mans
whitening body, clearly indicated that
he was ''tenderfoot," who rushed ig-
norantly into the midst of unknown
horrors, but with tenderfoot luck found
ore, for which the Oldest and most ex-
perienced prospectors and miners had
searched lifetime in vain. The man
was evidently on his way from the
Funeral range of mountains, where he
must have struck ledge OF far richer
ore than any before located there, but
whether he became victim Of the
| hideous thirst and heat, which every
season claims its scores of victims
among the gold-seekers in the Death
Valley country, or whether he drank
of the arsenic water of the Poison
spring of Funeral mountain, will never
be known. His death adds another
lost mine to the long list Of discovered
and lost again bonanzas.
Suicide in Desert
Many arc the men who, blinded by
the magic wonders of the yellow metal,
take their lives into their own hands.
go down into the desert country, climb
up precipitous rocks and descend into
fathomless canyons, hoping to find one
of natures bank vaults, draw the larg-
est check in their lives on natures own
bank, cash it quickly, and expecting TO
get back to civilization alive and en-
joy their untold riches-only to find
that they must miserably perish many
miles away from the nearest human be-
ing, without a charitable hand to
moisten. the parched lips OF a dying
prospector. And nature again takes
the key and locks its secret bank vault.
Stories of the lost mines of the west
could be added to at considerable
length, and many Of them have ro-