The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1909-05-29
Was Here Before Jackson.


been received from j. C. Baird, of
Whittier, California, and is published
so that our readers may know about his
claims for being the first discoverer of
gold on Clear Creek
Il received a copy of your paper of
the Sth inst. with an account of the
celebration of trail-blazer's memory of
Geo. A, Jackson, supposed to be the
first discoverer of gold in the Rocky
mount .ins of Colorado.
On looking up my memoranda OF the
events of my trip to the Pixies Peak
gold region in the fall of 1858, find
that party of twelve of us arrived at
Cherry creek on November 20, 1858.
We camped one day there, then moved
up the Platte river one mile where
there was a large grove of trees, most
ly cottonwood, and there we built
double cabin with two fireplaces and
there we expected to spend the winter.
After spending couple of weeks
there, prospecting along the banks of
the Platte and hunting along the river
valley, we heard of game being more
plentiful on Clear creek. A party of
US hitched up one of our OK teams and
on the 18th of December drove up and
camped on Clear creek right where the
town of Golden now is. We were so
well pleased with the outlook. for game
and gold that we concluded to build .
log cabin just where Clear creek comes
out of the mountains and which we
completed just before Christmas and
celebrated the day in our new mount
ain home" Between Christmas and
New Years, 1858, we prospected down
the stream between and below the
Table mountains. on and around which
we found an abundance of game, most
ly the common deer and some antelope.
l wish to mention here that the ground
was then frozen hard and the only way
we could prospect was by shoveling the
sand and gravel out of the bed of the
stream where the water flowed. No
other prospecting could be done without
the use of pick, the ground being
frozen 80 hard. We found some light
scale gold in the creek down the valley,
but no one had a. yet gone into the
mountains to prospect.
On the first day Of January, 1859, l
killed my first black-tail deer on the
backbone ridge about half mile south
east of Golden. My fine buck tumbled
over on the Clear creek side of the
ridge and had a hard time getting
him down to the stream through the
deep snow banked on the north side of
the mountain. l carried his saddle to
camp where l found the boys had been
talking over the plan of going back to
the states, as most of them had be-
come suddenly homesick. They dis
cussed the matter until late bedtime
and decided that they would start back
next day. determined to stay alone.
Early on the morning of January 2,
1859, we divided our rations. l bought
their share of mining tools and fine
rifle from one of them. They bid me a
long farewell and started back on their
homeward journey. On reaching
Cherry creek they met an old hunter
who had been camped there with two
others. They told him they had left
me alone on Clear creek, and as his
pards were moving camp also, the
hunter, whose name was Joe Higgan-
bottom, came up to my camp that even
ing and we arranged to hunt and pros
pect together. That night we baked a
lot of bread and arranged to start on a
trip in the mountains the next day.
Early on the morning of January Sd,
we started up Clear creek with our
outfit for ten days or longer trip, Joe
with his rifle, hatchet, blankets and
bread, and l with rifle, blanket, shovel
and prospecting pan made on purpose
for panning out gold.
We camped that evening about ten
miles up Clear creek, and while Joe
was securing a deer for our principal
subsistence, took my shovel and pan
and prospected in the stream where it
was not frozen over, and there and
then dug out the first gold taken out
of the mountains of Colorado-January
Sd, 1859 The samples and quantity
was small, but it was the first.
On the second day out, January 4th,
we travelled some fifteen miles anc
camped on a small stream that rar
through beautiful little valley which
emptied into Clear creek. In this little
stream l also found some fine samples
of scale and shot gold and made a mem
orandum of the location, intending tt
come back and prospect further. Al
this camp we each killed a deer, ane
not needing but one, we dressed the
other and hung it high up in tree. W.
also raked up the ashes of our camp