Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-10-01
THE PROSPECTOR AN
INTERESTING CHARACTER

l
Mr.. A. L. Fontaine,
| My dear Sir:-I lind the prospectol
an interesting character in this
country, and will send you a little
sketch pertaining to him. Mining is
a business to which all other occu-
| pat4ons are dull and tame The pros.
pector is always a prospective mil
| lionaire. You meet him On every
trail, every highway and by-way, and
where there is no way, in the noun
tains around Grants Pass. 1t is self
evident that the gambling, and not
the commercial instinct, predominates
in mining and prospecting in southern
Oregon. The fascination is in the
hazard. The spell so binding usually
is not of avarice, but lies in that de-
licious feverish, intoxicating charm of
| chance
There is nothing certain about luck
except that its bound to change. Yet
luck, chance, accident, is the pros
pector's stock in trade. Of the bo-
nanza king we daily hear by tele-
graph, photograph, autograph, OF
the vast army of defeated prospectors
nothing. The every day trades, the
tame, beaten path, are not in the pro-
spector's line of march. He is for the
short cut to fortune. We came upon
the prospector making a dry camp in
the sage brush out in the mountains
| west of Grants Pass. He sat tailor
wise in the sand, with his coffee pot
on the Goals, his supper ready for the
frying pan, and himself in a mood
for talk. He used no gun, but he
would set snares by the water-holes
for quail and rabbit, and in the trout
country he carried line. He wore a
ready-made suit ready to be unmade
at the seams. and hat of superlative
slouch. His hat was shaggy as a
buffalo's
There are many strange sorts of
humans in mining country, but of
them all l found the prospector
around Grants Pass, the most ac-
ceptable for his clean companionable
talk. There is more color to his
"reminiscences. He is easy going and
good tempered, yet as ready to fight
as an old bear, and you never can tell
when he is going to begin. He is man
whose experiences are only wide, not
deep. All his life he has lacked the
refining influence of women. Noun
tain and wood and stream and other
men have been his companions.
We came upon him often after that,
threading the winding passes or by
water holes in the desert hill and got
to know much of his life. He travelled
faiAand took long time to it. The
simplicity of his kitchen was inter-
esting. A pot for beans, coffee pot,
frying pan, tin TO mix bread in
he fed his pack mule in this when
there was need. With these he had
been half around the western world
and back. This is mysterious land,
lonely inhospitable land, beautiful,
terrible. But he came to no rarm in
it. The land tolerates him as it
might a gopher or badger, OF all it's
inhabitants, it has the least concern
for man. He maintained a cheerful
preference for his own way OF life.
1t was an excellent way if you had
the constitution for it. The pros
pector had gotten to that point
where he knew no bad weather. l do
not know just how long it takes to be-
come saturated with the elements so
that one takes no account of them.
But the prospector and the Indian get
kind of weather shell that remains
on the body until death. Of course
with so much seeking he found some
gold. But he had as much luck in
missing great ledges as in finding
small ones. By break of day he is up
and on the march. For his unfailing
appetite, there are crackers, bacon and
coffee. He breakfasts as if he had
tasted the day before and dimes as
though he had had no breakfast. He
wanders from the borderline north
ward along cold. sharp. icy crags.
Lava-beds do not stop him nor
chaparral or cactus. In whitening
winds, in binding snow and drifting
sand, the undaunted prospector
pushes in search for rich leads. Such
persistent energy directed to any
other business would command sue
cess but will it in prospecting? That
depends. But whether success or
failure, there is delight in its agony,
a sweetness in its insanity.
History has kept scant record of the
prospector of southern Oregon. The
true story of his life has never been
written and never can be written.
Above the trapper or hunter or noun
tain guide he stands, strong and
lonely as grizzly. Taking stern
religious view of mining and prospect
ing as now carried on. | should call
mining a game of chance-exciting,
fascinating. bewildering: which de.
frauds no one but yourself.
| A. Decker.
/