Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1913-02-28

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golden dream, II. T. +. -nmstock
came upon them He declared him
self Sin on it, He had prospected
the ground before. He was determin-
ed he would not give an inch. They
| conceded him half interest, which
| he divided with his partner. That
claim afterward became the Ophir.
| ground.
| Its gold-bearing days were shoT
lived, when an assayer named M
vile Atwood came along. Struck
the appearance of the black residy
from the ore, he essayed it and four
that it ran three thousand ounces i'll
silver to the ton. Prior to that she
search had been for gold. Now t,aere
was stampede Within two years
| Virginia City. Nevada, had a popula-
ton of thirty thousand, and the fam
Gus lode named after Cotnstock has
produced in gold ard silver $3.50, O00,-
600 The mines barrowed down to a
depth of more .Ehan1shree thousand
feet, and for years fought through a
rain of scalding hot water under
ground
In the eafly 70s 1t began to play
out" The PEOPLE were panic-stricken.
Thousands faced starvation. Then ap-
peared a man who seemed to ''see
through the mountain" The great
lode had only been scratched he de-
clared. John Mackay, with James Fair
and Messrs. Flood and O'Brien, start
ed to sink the Consolidated California
and Virginia shaft. Dark days were
on the camp when that shaft went
deeper and deeper without revealing
an indication of ore. Just as the night
was blacklist, and the people filled
with despair. the bottom of the Con-
solidated shaft punctured the top of
the greatest bonanza ever recorded
in history. Stocks scared. The hopes
of the people revived. Virginia City
was bedlam Of excitement. Millions
came out Of that hole. In the next
two years the Consolidated paid divi-
dends at the rate Of 100000 a
month.
The Chicken and the Professor.
A chicken was the accidental means
of hating party of gold hunters, at
a point which afterward became a
great city, and the center of the most
remarkab BILE mining discoveries ever
known
group of Georgia miners stopped
on the banks of sandy creek in west
ern Kansas, New Years day, 1859.
They cad some poultry with them
which they turned loose for a few
days. They killed one. and in clean
ing it small gold nugget was found
in the crop.
instantly a town was born. The
men were from Auraria, Georgia, and
they gave that name to the new place.
The stream was called Cherry Creek.
They PANIED up and down and within
a few weeks so many trains of prairie
schooners had stopped there that
quite a community had been estab-
lished The Pixies Peak boom was on.
From Leavenworth the world had
been notified. There were saloons,
gambling houses, dance halls, all the
indulgences of a mining town, when
the placer began to wane The rush
crowded the village. But the supply
of gold was scant. Wagons labeled
pixies Peak or Bust" came in daily
Some assembled the peak-seventy-fiv
miles to the southland if they could
have found the man who started the
rumor there would have been a hang
ing.
Then John Gregory PANIED down
the creek to the Platte, and followed
it to it's confluence with Clear Creek
Here he obtained better "colors" He
assembled this stream thirty miles to
the point where it forked. He PANIED
the gravel on each side, and selected
the North Fork. The next day he
lifted painful of gravel from a gulch
that will forever bear his name. The
rush that followed changed the name
of Auraria to Denver. and divorced
from Kansas and Utah enough terri
tority to create Colorado The people
were gold mad.
w. Green Russell, another Georgian
went into the next gulch, and almost
the same day that Gregory Struck
it." George Jackson, who had reached
the South Fork of the same creek by
crossing the mountains, added another
district
The gold came so fast that the gov
eminent ordered a mint erected al
Denver in 1861 Then evil days fell on
the new camp. The free" gold dis
appeared. 1t was now held in the
clasp of iron and sulphur and would
not yield. Thousands faced ruin
Not one, but several cities had beer
built in the mountains. Denver had
grown by leaps and bounds. The
people were in q panic. mass meet
ing was called 1t was gloomy crowd
that assembled All agreed that some
thing should be done But what?
/ Send for Professor Hill!' shouted
a man in the rear of the room.
who is Professor HIP" asked the
! chairman