Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1886-1927, 1912-11-01

NNo"NAiHS anu CouCIuuluS my re-
view OF history of Josephine county,
IL will say that Bob" Worthington
and John Spurgeon were mining
partners on the Althouse. They di-
yided their money and buried it sep
arately in tin cans. In the fall of
o., Worthington buried one thous-
and dollars that | knew of. One
sunday almost a year afterward, he
requested me to go prospecting with
him. He took me along to see him
dig up his deposit Going a half
mile he paused at the base of a
large sugar pine tree, some thirty
yards from which he had buried his
treasure under some brushes. Co
ling to the place he saw an empty
hole where the gold had been. In a
worried voice he said, MY God!
some one has watched me bury it
and stolen it,"
Worthington was going back to
Pike in old Missouri, and, now he
declared he was ruined. thought
the hole looked IKE the work of a
small animal, but could not make
Bob" think So While he was look
ing at the ground and bewailing his
loss | went down the draw leading
away from his safety vault. Kick
ing among the leaves and trash,
about thirty steps below, | uncovered
the can intact with the gold in it,
| called to him, saying, Here, Bob,
is your money" A few long hur-
ried strides brought the now happy
man to his wandering "chinkamin." +"
In addition to the large nuggets
already mentioned there was the
seventeen pound slug found in 1859
on the left fork by a diminutive
lrishman named Matty Collins. The
value of the slug was $3,46S. Col
Inns hired another Irishman named
Dorsey to help him get the big mug
get safely out of the country. Dor
sey to accompany Collins with It..
Dorsey carried the gold in a burlap
bag thrown over his shoulder,
Walk ahead Dorsey" said Collins,
and let me see how ye look" He
stood and watched Dorsey as he
marched with the fortune on his
back Dorsey paused when Collins
said: "Arrah, Dorsey, the devil a
one will notice it, 90 ahead"
The "Rich Bar" claim one mile
below Browntown was owned by
Church, Mann, Goldsmithtier and
the writer | was foreman. We
paid four dollars day and board
for common miners and five for bed
rock cleaners. We employed from
ten to fourteen men. When shovel
| ing in we got from one to two ounces
to the man and when cleaning bed
rock we got as high as seven hun
dred dollars per day.
Eight Dollar mountain near Ker-
by got its name from trouble with
the Dear creek Indians. A party
was made up to go on the mountain
after Indians supposed to be there.
One of the party had bought a pair
of eight dollar boots, though they
did cost eight dollars they were of
poor quality and gave out on the
trip. For a joke the boys reported
j. that the Indians got after the wear
er, Fastening the wear and tear of
the boots very materially. Hence
the name Eight Dollar mountain.
In May, SO, on my birthday,
Shorty" and | went hunting from
the forks OF Althouse. There was
snow high up on the mountain, on
the crust Of which we could walk
We hunted up the range. 1t soon
began to snow, and there was fog
which hung low. We became sep
arated and both got lost. Shorty
was out two days and nights be-
fore he finally reached the Illinois
Valley near Waldo. Night came on
me. was wet, cold and hungry
kept from freezing to death by con-
stant moving and jumping about all
night Morning found me on the
summit OF the main range OF the
Siskiyou. The sun shining brightly
| I thought that to travel toward the
sun would take me to the right
fork OF Althouse. Instead, however
found myself on what proved to be
the head OF Indian creek on the Cal
ifornla side. down which went
Following the creek bank ! came
Iup against huge boulder. Looking
over the top Of It / was amused to
sac tyo black bear cubs about the
] t - ,o,rs ctfr,hfng q emalT Fir