The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1914-06-25
The Miner as a Pioneer of Civilization
10y T. A. Rckard)
10y T. A. Richard J

brought the technique of mining to the
new world applying it peacefully to
the mineral development of Mexico,
Peru and Chile, all along the re-
gions previously ravaged by European
freebooters.
But the great era Of mineral eXplor-
alton came with the discovery of gold
in Australia and California. 1t was
ton, an enormous expansion of trade,
a tremendous advance in the arts Of
life and the spread of industry to the
waste places of the earth.
The color of energy began to tint
the blank spaces on the map. The
western half of the North American
continent all of Australia, the south
ern half Of Africa, the northern half
of Asia, were invaded, penetrated and
explored by those in search of gold or
other metals, and as each successive
mineral discovery was made by the
miner he called upon his fellows to
come and take hand in the good
work. He was the scout far ahead Of
an army Of development. Trade fol-
lows the flag, it is true, but the flag
follows the pick.
tbn e,tn Of hot
sey and see for ourselves what human
progress owes to it's adventurous fore
runners.
Discovery Of Gold in California.
First we turn to the American argo-
nauts, the men who sought the Gold
en- Fleece in California. Even the
dates in this story are fragrant with
romance, for gold was discovered by
James w. Marshall on January "a.
1S4S and the treaty Of Guadalupe Hill
dalgo, which ended the first Mexican
war, was signed on February 2. In
other words, California was coded to
the United States days after the
great discovery, which, at that time,
was not known to either government,
fortunately for both of them, and for
many others. Marshall had built
sawmill for John A. Suffer at Coloma
on the south fork of the American
river, only 35 miles northwest of Sac
ramento. When the mill was ready
to start Marshall saw that the tail
race or ditch leading the water from
the wheel was not deep enough. He
proceeded to deepen it by opening the
flood gates to full capacity, so that the
swift current would scour the bottom.
The water was allowed to run all
night. In the morning Marshall not
ed the effect and while doing so he
saw several yellow nuggets. He ham
mered one of them. and decided that
It was metal; he bit it and found that
| II was soft he boiled some of them IN
, kettle and proved them insoluble in
water. Thereupon he went to Helve-
tia, or Suffers Fort, to tell his patron
THAT he had found gold Suffer tested
the metal with nitric acid some OF
which he found among his apothecary
stores: he read the article on gold in
his copy of the Encyclopedia Ameri-
cana he weighed the nuggets and
compared them with coins; whereupon
he also pronounced it gold.
That marked the beginning Of the
golden age in the foothills Of the Sier-
ra Nevada. Others found gold in the
nearby streams: the news Travelled to
the Atlantic seaboard and thence to
Europe. An excited migration began
across the plains, over the Panama
isthmus, around Cape Horn. The
young, energetic and adventurous
hurried to the Eldorado that promised
to fulfill the dreams of Raleigh's day.
In 1851 California yielded $S1,294.7OO
in gold. It was no idle imagining, but
an astounding fact. Nor does the out
nut of precious metal measure the full
conseouence of the event. Cities were
born, new avenues of commerce were
created, the valleys of the Sacramen-
TO and the San Joaquin became the
granares of prosperous communities,
the unknown territory in the middle
of the continent was traversed and
explored. the great west leapt into
vigorous life and became an integral
part of the American domain. More
over, among those enriched by the
mines were men Of initiative and I'M
agination: like Balboa they stood on
peak in Darien: they saw the Pacific
and the Atlantic as surely as he did,
and to more purpose; they built a
transcontinental railroad and tied
California to the union with links or
steel.
You may say that most of these ad-
venturers were not miners. ! demur.
What is a miner? He is a man who
does the work of miner, and that IS,