The Parker post., 1912-09-28
REVIVES STORY
OF LOST MINE
OFTEN RECiTED HERETOFORE,
BUT LATEST STORY OF LOST
PEG-LEG Is MOST CORRECT
ACCOUNT YET PUBLISHED.

The fascination and lure of lost
mines is strong upon the prospectors
and miners of this part of the coun-
try. The story of the old lost Peg
Leg mine has been published many
times. The following story, taken
from the Adventure Magazine for Au-
gust, is the correct and accurate stO-
ry, down to the date of the second
famous lost mine of this part of the
southwest, the old Padre lost mine
being easily the most famous. The
story which is more entertaining
than fiction, reads as follows
Just about three years ago the
great southwest was awakened by
thu possibility of the relocation of
the widely known Peg-Leg mine The
Southern Pacific railroad was doing
considerable work through Imperial
valley, valley which five years pre-.
viously was one of the hottest and
most fOrsaken deserts on the Ameri-
can continent, but which, with the
coming of water through the exten-
s:ve irrigation system, has grown
10 be one of the garden spots of the
world.
The only human being who ever
ventured into the valley before the
bringing in of the water were the
prospectOrS and then the engineers
and their crews of hardy linemen,
rodmen and assistants, who were
surveying reads, lateral canals for
work A isrge crew was stationed
between Ogilby and Salton, rebuild
irg much of the track. They were
near a watering place called Clam
is when the incident occurred which
sent many Of them scurrying from
their work into tie mountain ranges
IN vain effort to find the wonder
FIJI property that they knew must
exist.
While driving the work along slow
ly under the brs zen sun and amid
the occasional sand clouds stirred
UP by slight breeze from the noun
tains, a figure appeared in the dis
tance. just a vague, tracable figure
slowly and wearily pushing along
through the clogging sands AS it
approached. it. resolved itself into
a wandering indian sqIaw, appar-
emily half dead from lack of water,
who, without going near the work
men, passed on to the tank and
there started to drink from the open
trough
Thinking to assist her when she
seemed about to drop into a heap
from nothing more than the exhaus-
ton Of her toilsome journey, sev-
eral Of the men started in her di-
rection. She saw them coming.
With an effort she arose and made
off wirl all speed down the track in
the opposite direction.
She was followed for some distance
until she turned off into the desert
again, and having no great interest
in a single squaw the men returned
On arriving at the water tank they
discovered an old piece of blanket
securely tied. On opening it they
found a lot of black pieces of metal,
which under the knife revealed pure
gold of darkest hue. They were mug
gets, dozens of them, varying in
size from smaller than a dime to the
size of an English walnut, and all of
them black
Hastily the men tried to follow the
squaw, but by this time she had dis
appeared in the same range of noun
taisn to the north from which she
had been seen to emerge When the
finders of the gold had an opportuni-
ty Of having the metal assayed and
valued they were brought to the
realization of the worth of the dis
covery. The little pack had contained
more than $4,000 worth of property.
Such find could not help starting
search and creating talk and it was
but a short time before a number of
old miners were on the scene They
knew the value of the black gold and
also that in this section, buried far
from observation or generally over
looked by prospectors who had been
Through the ranges before, lay the
old Peg-Leg mime with its tabled
wealth. There was a stampede from
the camp which did not last long,
on account of the hardships the
searchers had to face
Only in the northwestern part of
the range is there any living water,
the Salvation Springs.
Other portions of the range contain
huge natural tanks in the mountains,
which at that time We're discovered in