Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-02-07
aMistellaneuns Rsadiue.
SALTED MINES AN EASY GRAFT
Innocent Farmer Sold Half Interest In
an Old Cave For $4,000.

| GU S'd SeNS ~ T'~t~
Gold! Many hunted, sweat and bled
for gold, until its value was measured
by the time men sought for it and did
not find it.
It's Elusive uncertainty has been an
incentive to fraud and graft and its
history is prolific of schemes.
Graft in mining has furnished the
theme for many a story with set
ting" in the far west, but the modest
Ozarks have been the scene Of more
mining frauds than any other equal
area, on earth.
1t has been going on for hundred
and seventeen years and is still vigor-
Gus. That long ago-to be exact, June
IL, 1793-the Baron Carondelet gave to
Don Joseph Walters a strip of land 10
leagues in depth on either side OF
White river, in Arkansas and Missouri,
and extending from the mouths of the
rivers Cibolos and North Grande to the
extreme headwarers of White river.
| The Spanish Surveyor General Ton
dreau explored, or pretended to eX-
plore the land grant. Whether he was
instructed to make out glowing re-
port on the natural wealth of the re-
gion or simply let his imagination run
riot is not known. but he reported the
grant" as Astounding in gold and
silver and precious stones
Years afterward Tondreau publish
ed a book Of his travels in America.
The book was a decided failure, but it
inspired Greed Taylor to prove up his
genealogy and inherit the Ozark gold
fields" which he unloaded on John
Wilson of Philadelphia, for $4,000.
Since then there has been constant
search for the treasures Of the earth"
and while no part of the Ozarks has
ever seen the frenzied excitement OF
| California in "'49," the aggregate crop
| of hunters" has been larger one and
these who have been "stung" are a
large majority of the hunters"
Once, in Garland county, Arkansas.
a tourist from the effete east found a
| peculiar cave on the land of an honest
old farmer Somehow the cave looked
good to him and he asked permission
to explore it.
"Yaas, mister" said the guileless old
resident, you can explore all you want
| to. But shucks! you won't find no
| gold ner silver there. If ever they was
any the Mexicans got it years ago. Be-
fore the Mexican war they used to
come to that cave every year and camp
| around a month. That was before my
time. I heard it from daddy"
On entering the cave even the dim
light of the farmers lantern revealed
traces of workings" There were
even fragments of crucibles in dark
corners, where they had been thrown
so long ago. Incidentally the farmer
picked UP a fragment of rock and ex-
amined it carefully by the light of the
lantern. The explorer pronounced the
piece of peculiar formation, but bearing
both gold and silver in paying guam
| titles, and began a search for the lode
in which it was part.
| The true vein" was finally located
| in an obscure angle Of the cave. Its
| formation was identical with that Of
the fragment, but the innocent farmer
was a doubling Thomas" and insist
| ed on breaking off a sample. The as
saws were more than satisfactory, but
the formation in which the precious
metal was found defied the assayer's
skill.
| The old farmer was ignora of busi-
ness forms, childlike, and would have
nothing to do with the stock company
that was formed in New Jersay two
days later.
Neither would he sell to strangers
the cave and mountain that had been
his fathers.
| He was growing old and would never
need much; he would take $4,000 in
cash for a half interest Plying his
simplicity the company paid over the
money and with feverish eagerness be-
gan the installation of machinery to
work the rich lead.
But developing that mine was short
| operation. The second day one Of the
workmen was testing the edge of the
vein" with drill when the entire lode
became loosened; it had been built in
to a fissure in the wall, and was fair
article of conglomerate concrete. The
| gold it had contained was all in the
| fragment that the old man had broken
off.
Sometimes the bitter is bitten, as in
graft, like other things, the luck
cards" will break even.
| In 1889, at the time the manganese
excitement was at it's height, w. S.
Jones installed a plant in certain
| county in Arkansas to mine and wash
that ore. After he had expended $780,
900 the discovery was forced upon him
that the stuff he had bought was the
black oxide that to him had no value
| and not metallic manganese. That a
man of Jones's intelligence should pass
through mines daily for six months
| and not see the character of the ma
terial seems incredible, and can only
| be explained by the fact that he had
been a coal operator, and found that
where coal cropped out" it was quite
sure it extended over comparatively
large area.
In the next county from Joness plant
was a tract belonging to a Mr.. B., of
Tennessee. He had bought this land
years before, intending to colonize il,
but the war had left him destitute in
his native state and land poor" in
Arkansas. The manganese boom"
had increased the price of land four
fold, but only on the assessors books.
In the unequal struggle to pay taxes on
land that yielded no return B. had be-
come penniless and a charge on his
SON. in-law, Mr.. F., of Nashville. AS
soon as Jones saw that his great plant
was doomed to failure he sent trusty
emissaries out to spy out the land"