Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1913-05-02

HSo vi AC, hlo pans SSohA Ascy'
had obliterated all signs of a trail and his knowi-
edge of getting back was gone with 1t.
Men will sacrifice love, life, virtue and kindred
things is there is a great opportunity presented
for the accumulation of sudden wealth. Strange
alliances, stories of murder, long legal fights anu
bitterest enmity have grown up in the southwest
as adjuncts to the continued hunt for treasure.
Among the strange stories that are more widely
known is that which has to do with a lost placer
of great riches.
1t finds it's origin in the early eighties, either
1888 or 1854, when a white man, a lone prospec-
tor, wandered into the camp of the Piute Indians
at Piute Bend on the Nevada side of the Colo
RADIO river. The bend only lay a few miles above
Fort Mohave, and 1t is there that Jamison. which
is generally given as the mans name, gathered
his first inklings of the storied wealth accumulat-
ed by several members of the tribe.
They were said to know of several great gold
deposits in the desert and mountain country con
tiguous to their place OF living, and from these
they frequently brought to Fort Mohave splendid
specimens Of nuggets and gold dust. This gold
they traded for a half or third of its actual Value,
buying the baubles and the gaudy apparel SO dear
to the heart of the red man. 1t also led occa-
sionally to serious trouble, attempts OF unscrupu-
lous whites to obtain their secrets, sometimes
even by force, usually by some chicanery.
Jamison took a course which brought him in
direct and continued contact with all members of
the tribe. He married one of the squaws, and
after a year or two of living with the Indians
gained many of their secrets. To his brother-1n-
law he was indebted for the discovery Of an i'm
mensely rich placer. To reach it at all seasons
of the year was apparently impossible.
I'VE shall wait till the snow falls and covers all
the land" said the red brother to Jamison.
They waited for two years for such a time to
come, snow not being a usual thing in that portion
of the country every year. And when it came,
the Indian took his adopted tribesman for a long
journey, to a place Of three peaks and a place
where no water was obtainable, save through
melting the snow, and there they gathered from
beneath the white cloak much gravel, and carried
1t back to the CamD Of the Indians in three DAYS
Feeling assured, then, of the wealth he was
to gather, Jamison wrote an old eastern friend
whose name has been lost. 1t is said to have
been Fields. He told Fields all about the won
derful gravel, and so excited his desire for riches
that within a few months Fields had arrived at
Fort Mohave. Jamison left the Indians with the
excuse that he had to look after particular busi-
ness in California.
Then with Fields he went to Homer, a station
on the Santa Fe railroad in San Bernardino coun-
ty. California. There they purchased a span Of
good mules with some of the gold that Jamison
had saved from his first trip, and they loaded an
old blackboard with a barrel of water and a few
provisions and started out, driving south into
Homer Wash. From all reports they probably
Travelled forty miles that day and night, arriving
at the ~diggings early the next morning.
There we climbed a mesa" said Fields, telling
of the discovery in after years. and on top of
this proceeded with our work, which merely con-
sisted in scraping the gravel in heaps and pam
ming it in a tub which Jamison had brought along
for the purpose. The water which had been left
in the barrel was used in the tub. The gravel
was nearly half gold. so rich that it nearly stun
ned US. We became careless in our work, picking
off only the coarse gold and the nuggets, and
dumped the residue of fine gold and dust into the
tub. 1t was far too much work to pan it clean"
Want of water, the bugaboo that has menaced
every prospector at one time or another in the
southwest, came upon them at %nlghtfall when
they were forced to give to the two mules the wa
ter that had been used for panning. 1t was less
than enough to quench their thirst, and in half
panic the two miners cached their tub, half full
of dust. and their gold pan in a small cave which
they had discovered in one Of the little canyons
leading off the mesa.
Then came their retreat, as ignominious as any
that ever befell an army. With all their wealth
they wer forced to run. A panic seemed to over
take them and they logged their mules through
the desert night, trying to get to Homer before
the break of day and the heat that came with it
in that summer period. With coming OF dawn
they found themselves in a sad plight. They
had lost the trail entirely, were in a country new
to them. had not a drop of water and scarcely a
handful Of food.
With breaking light came hope. Way off in the
distance they discerned the guidepost that has
led to many a salvation in the desert wastes;
telegraph poles strung at regular intervals. To
reach them and the railroad tracks they marked
was their aim. Through three hours of tortuous
work, walking instead of trying to ride behind
the WORKOUT mules. they struggled on, their
tongues loling black from out their mouths, their
threats burned to a cinder crispness, their eyes
bullying in continued effort and strain.
And reaching the railroad, they could discern,
just a short distance to the right, a few strag-
Cling buildings. some little outpost of civilization,
with promise of water if nothing more. And this
they reached eventually, pulling their mules be-
hind them. They were found by an old miner
who happened on to the broad wooden platform
of the only bar in Blake during the noon siesta
of the town. They were more dead than alive,
and it took several hours of hard work to bring
them to. For twoFdays they were out of their
minds.
Their first thought on coming to was their gold.
Had they lost it, Eiad it been stolen2 They
directed search for il in the wagon. and there It
lay in a large canvass sack, untouched by the men
who had cared for the mules. When it was
weighed. the men found themselves in possession
of $4,000 for a singla days work. The story of
their find made Blake IA deserted village in a few
hours. A stampede for gold was on. For days
and weeks it continued. but never successfully.
Their trail had been obhterated in the winds that
continually sway the said from dune to dune and
obliterate ceaselessly through ages.
It was a week before 1amison and Fields could
travel. They packed uptat the end of that time
and in their swaying blackboard they drove to
$40 -~-y ~--1-Ior -