The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-06-16
HAVE rHrY POUND ITf

Some days ago The Advertiser re- ceived special from Taiiadega of which we repubiish the main part. as 1t may have escaped the attention of the reader. It read:
 The lost Indian silver mine has been, discovered in Talladega. c. w. Wright and Kelt Lackey have located it one and one-duarter miles for Ironaton> on the site of the Indian town formerly occupied by Chief Mohoc.
 passing wagon had turned over rock beside the road and when Lackey shape shaped h spike m in the ss'iss rock. Adjoinins rocks contained carvings of Indian figures. Upon blasting the rocks away he found three six inch bars of silver silver plate about seven inches in di- ameter-
 Under these treasures, Wright, who was with Laekey: found a vein of sil- Assure vein and runs almost perpendic- ular. The men upon having the ore assayed found 1t to run $62.1t to the ton.
 This discovery will be of much in- terest to the old residents of that re- zion. Even if there are none left who were there when the Indians were they can. some of them at least, call to mind things told them by those who lived among the Creeks seventy or eighty years ago. We remember old Uncle Jimmie" Johnson, who lived three or four miles West of Ashland. in Clay County. and who lived there many years while the Indians were there. he was a blacksmith and a gunsmith, good friend to the red men of the vi- cinity, and did many jobs of his trade for them. He often told how the In- dians would bring him chunks of solid silver, which they had mined and melt ed into Jumps or bars, and from which he would make ornaments for their persons. as well as to ornament their guns.
 But one thing about it was that not one of them would divulge to MT. John- son or to any one else the location of their mine. With the reticence and craftiness which were part of the In- dian nature they produced their sil- yer and no white man ever learned it. What is more. they carried their de- termination to the end. and when they were preparing to leave their homes they covered and concealed the mine so carefully that no white man could ever find trace of it. though many sought it for years. If the discovery referred to above in Talladega is genu- inc. and there is no mistake about it, the lost has been found after a lapse of some three-seore and ten years.
 And while on this subject we may mention that the little village of Loeina, in Randolph County, just across the Tallapoosa River from the growing railroad town of wadley, had a somewhat similar record. Near Losina there was said to be a rich sil- yer mine, and we have heard the old citizens of fifty years or more ago tell of having many times seen the Indians with Jumps and bars of native silver which they procured from some near locality. but no white man ever knew where 1t was. It was a common tra- dition among the old inhabitants that when the old Indian woman Loeina, for whom the village was afterwards named. left for the West with her tribe she had a pony loaded with silver. which she carried with her to the new home to which she and her tribe had been bantshed by the white invaders.
 The part of the story about the pony loaded with silver may have been a myth, but there seems no doubt about the existence of a silver deposit in that vicinity, nor is there any doubt, so far as we know. about the care. cunning and success with which the Indians concealed their mine. The proof that the Indians throughout that section knew of the existence of really val uable silver deposits is beyond ques- tion, but they were determined that the whites should never learn the loca- tion of their mines. and they succeeded in their purpose. It Is possible that there was one or more of such deposits nearer Mr. Johnson's home than the one just reported. but if not the dis tance would have been a small matter to the Indians. It will be of interest to know that no mistake has been made in the statement from Talladega.