Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1912-04-05

NW mas us SLOTIRH OF lOSJ mines,
M but there is no place where
II -. there exists a better excuse
for them than the great Ameri-
can desert. 1t is the lure of lost
mines that has caused great deal of
the prospecting and exploration of the
manner or other you will find that a
tradition of lost mine is at the bot
tom Of almost every important dis
coyery.
The fame Of Death Valley has been
largely due to the fact that a num-
Der of glowing stories of lost treasure
have conferred about it since the ear
Her days OF the first explorers who
crossed its vast and mysterious
wastes.
There Is the well authenticated
story of the Lost Breyfogle Mine, ;"
which is known to many old-timers,
and the golden lure of which has been
constant incentive to prospectors
for half century. Then there is
The Lost Gun-sight," the story of
which has spread far and wide and
has become one of the permanent
legends OF the western mining world.
The Lost Aivord," somewhere in
the western yerges of Death Valley,
has about it tang of romance like
that of the Spanish treasures. And
there is still another treasure story
pertaining to the discovery of noun
tain Of solid black sulphurets of sill
yer. somewhere in the southern
Panamints, by struggling party of
immigrants, who made their way
through that region In 1850.
These, stories all give to that region
a coloring and allurement that makes
it worth while to here relate them.
The 5reyfosIe.
1t was somewhere back in the early
sixties when all the southwest was
still an arid and sparsely settled
country, that an early pioneer OF the
desert mountains, namely James
Breyfogle, prospector, made his way
into the Death Valley region, and with
the aid of burro, was exploring and
prospecting the Funeral mountains.
on the eastern verge of the great
forlorn, desolate and mysterious val
ley Of death. But the burros then
were as burros now and inclined to
stray away. as only burros can, and
so one day when Mr.. Breyfogle, like
many prospectors before and since.
had gone in search Of his burro. he
found himself lured on and on in the
vain effort to locate the beast or dis
t1nguish 1t from other objects, he
penetrated vast, far canyon in the
Funeral range, partly for purposes Of
prospecting and exploration and part
ly to determine If the burro might
be found brousing in there somewhere
or seeking the company Of other
burros.
However he found no friendly or
familiar object of the animate world.
only the vast and sun-blackened
weather-beaten cliffs and crags and
the gray and solemn sage and sand
and the strewn debris of the hollows.
/ Finally he espied lone willow tree
/ in ravine, and with the instinct OF
/ one accustomed to the deserts he
knew that the willow was a good in.
/ dication of water. Upon investigation
he found that there was really a
! spring beside the willow, and what
was more, that big ledge of heavy
dark, rusty ore traversed the rayine
just above. Breaking off some of the
rock he saw that it was permeated
with gold. The yellow, lustrous
CLEAN of the metal everywhere In the
halfcorroded ledge quickly gave the
lone prospector the conviction that he
had discovered one of the greatest
gold deposits ever known. He broke
from the ledge number of speci
mems and finally In the catherine
dusk he resumed his way over the
erags and ridges and after some hours
of devious travel was again at his
camp.
With a great resolve to get ont tr
the settlements and thence returr
with companions and equipment. tn.
lone prospeetor with such thought,
as would come to most men undei
such circumstances made his wa,
across the rugged solitudes. in tn,
direction of civilization.
Just what befell at certain point,
in this Journey seems never to hav,
been remembered by Breyfogle-