Bisbee daily review. [volume] (Bisbee, Ariz.) 1901-1971, 1908-07-15
$4,000 IS
FOUND IN
AN OLD CAVE
Escaping From Wounded Lion,
ProSpeCtor StumbleS on a
Fortune of Virgin Silver in
ella County, Near Pioneer.

George Washington Mcfarland,
dean OF Arizona printers, who for the
past thirty years has divided his time
unseliislly between the county seats,
mining camps and villages of Arizona,
going north in the summer and south
in the winter. arrived in Phoenix on
Saturday after an absence of ten years
to tell in whispers 2 marvellous dis
coyery that has just been made in
cave near Pioneer. ella county.
BY wagon and stage. on foot and
horseback, Mcfarland has put in the
past week coming from Globe to Pace
nix by easy stages, stopping two days
at Pioneer to investigate the finding
near there of a treasure chest, which
unfortunately fer Mr.. Mcfarland. was
discovered and pre-empted by an
other.
To his taking refuge in an old cave,
which he found while climbing a
steep hillside to escape a mountain
ltcu he had shot and MORALLY wound
ed, Jack ThortOn, one of the least
known, but oldest, of the Arizona gold
hunters, owes his stumbling upon I
( fortune estimated at $4,000.
/ Just as Thornton stumbled into the
! cave and fell exhausted on the floor,
the wounded lion dropped at the eli
trance, and giving one last, despair
| ing wall, died within few feet Of
| Thorton. who, in his exhausted con-
dition, would have been torn to pieces
| had not the bullet from his rife did
| its work and brought death to the mon
arch of the forest.
As soon as ne dared venture tCrtn.
| Thornton secured a pine torch and
again entered the cave, which had
aroused more than common curiosity
I in the breast of the prospector, thank
full for his deliverance.
For half an hour Thornton lighteo
| his, way about the cave, peering into
1 first one corner and then the Other.
AS he was about to turn and leave.
disguised with the result Of his
J search, he saw a rOtting beard stick
/ ing through pile of rock. =
! 1t was not hard for Thornton to
reason that this presence of this
board meant that others had been
there before him, and pulling aside
/ the stones he soon uncovered the
! frame Of what had years before been
q strong wooden box.
/ To the trained eye of the prospect
or the contents Of the box were not
unfamiliar. They were slabs and in
COTS and humps of virgin silver, such
as made the Silver King in Pinal
county one of the great mines of the
country years ago.
Excited by his find which had
brought aim fortune after years OF
fruitIess search in the hills Of All
zCna. Thornton emptied the contents
Of the box on the floor of the cave
until he had a pile of silver it would
take several men to pack away.
BY netting some of the chunks
and estimating the rest, Thornton hg
ured his find al rot less tan $4,000
As vet he has not removed his wealth
away from Pioneer, but will shoru!
take it to Globe.
In the early days Of Arizona. Pho
neer was a thriving silver camp, be
tween 1900 and 1900 men being EN-
ployed in the hills around the camp
With the slump in silver it was grad
ually deserted until today there re
mains of a once prosperous settle
meut but one shack and one man. 1
lis on an old stage road, and that i
! all that keeps him there alone.
Netherlands theory is that whel
J the silver mines we're working, "higl
graders" stole this silver as the
worked, hiding it in the cave, to b
taken away later. They never can
> back. No man will ever know VIII
they were or what became of then
They may have quarreIed over taei
spoil and wiIled each other, or deaf
may nave overtaken those who su
vived in retribution for their erin
/. inality.