The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1909-03-27
|NTERE STING HISTORY


came from Klondyke the seeker after
fortune was pictured thawing out
little piece of ground, his body check
ing the chill blasts lest they might
retard the sight of the glittering gold
which it held in it's frozen grasp,
while fate that made its possession
or its loss mockery sat musing
whether or not it should freeze out the
life so recklessly offered for game
Of chance.
Yet similar circumstances surround
ed the discovery of the gold in the
Colorado hills, only with an additional
touch OF interest. The Klondyke
had a modern, portable
miners equipment; the Colorado
prospector OF 1859 extracted the first
gold taken from the mountains with
his hunting knife and thawed the
gravel in a tin coffee cup, and the
thawlng was accomplished with pine
branches lighted by the sparks from
Aints. When George A. jackson
had gathered up one ounce OF gold
his kuife was worn out, so he gave Que
glance at his treasure-trove.
started out to get tools and when he
returned he brought men with him
who were among the first to publish
to the world the mineral resources of
Colorado.
The first man to bring printing
press over the plains was W. N. Byers.
In the spring OF 1859 under the only
b oard roof in Lenver he issued the
first number of the Rocky Mountain
News. True there were more Indians,
deer and other unappre-
ciative creatures of the modern med
ium OF disseminating the news of the
day than there were readers. But
Mr.. Byers had been on the ground
before and after making tour of the
western portion of the country, be
watched from his home in Omaha the
developments of the wild, but promis-
ing adjoining state aud he came back
to Denver to follow fortune with the
men trying to win theirs in the noun
tains. Mr.. Byers kept record of
every party going into the hills and
the minute he heard that they made
a strike he went on the ground per
sonally and gathered all the facts
there we're in connection with the find
and then published them in his paper.
From 1859 to 1878 Mr.. Byers wrote
up the mining industry of Colorado
from its infancy to the apex of its
success and in the files of these nine
teen years, which have been present
ed by Mr.. Byers to the state historical
society and are now on file in the state
capital, it is conceded the fullest and
most accurate history Of the discovery
of gold in Colorado to be found.
There has been one little point up
on which Mr.. Byers was not certain,
whether the first discovery was made
by Jackson in the winter of '5S or the
spring of '59. Before Jackson's
death by accidental shooting few
years ago, Mr.. Byers had talk with
him when he was hare attending the
festival of mountain and plain in the
historical division of the parade.
jackson through all his years as
prospector in the mountains kept
diary IN which to the most trifling
minutia he kept record of his daily
life. Mr.. Byers persuaded him to
allow to him have that portion of the
diary written in the winter Of '5S and
the spring of '59, and he consented
although he said it was his ambition
to have all his notes published for the
benefit of his little grandson. The
records of these two seasons were
copied by Mr.. Byers and may also be
seen in the rooms of the state historical
society. They settle the question
forever. Jackson says he discovered
gold in January, but did not make his
discovery known to the public until
the May following.
The man who was first on the
ground to report the gold finds in this
state, Mr.. Byers, tells the story of the
first discovery entertainlngly. Dates,
the day and very hour he has at his
tongue tip.
"The first discovery that led to the
development of gold mining in Colo
rado," said Mr.. Byers, "was made by
Green RuaaeIl and a DartY of