Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1914-11-20
WRITER
ON CALIFORNIA
AND NEVADA

The following article is from the
pep of Sam c. Dunham, one of the
best known mining writers of the
West, whose poems of the Yukon are
known wherever mining men forega-
ther. II was printed in a recent issue
of Western Opinion:
This is the most propitious tine in
the. history of mining for the legiti.
mate exploitation. of the meritorous
gold mine. With all the great dynas-
ties of the old world tottering to their
fall, the domain Of gold mining is the
only principality that remains undis-
turbed. for its product is always in de-
mand by all nations of the earth. and
at this appalling juncture is command.
ing big premium. Among all the
monarchs of the world, gold is the
only one that now sits secure and Sc
rene on his throne . ... ...
pracing the five counties of Amador,
Ell Dorado, Calaveras, Tuolumne and
Mariposa, with the four counties of
Placer, Nevada, Sierra and PIumas.
lying to the north in the order named,
constitute the great gold belt which
was the scene of the wonderful dis
coveries of 1S48 and I849 that turned
the tide of civilization toward the Pa
cihc coast. This is the country i'm
mortalized by Bret Harte In 20 years
the gold it infused into the sluggish
arteries of the worlds commerce set
civilization full century ahead.
vDuring the 81 years from 1S49 to
the close of 1913 California produced
principally from the area the stupen-
dous sum of s1,5OO,OOO, 900 in gold, or
nearly as much as all the other min
Ing states combined. During all these
years the gold output of California
averaged nearly $25,OO0,0OO per wear
or more than $2,O0O,O0O month. The
state still maintains the lead in Amer
lean gold production. the output for
1913 being a little more than twenty
million dollars.
The everincreasing army of pros
pectors and gold miners spread north
ward and eastward, and 10 years la
ter the famous Comstock lode was
discovered, just over the line in Ne
Vada. The tremendous output of sill
yer and gold from the Comstock
mines. added to the large contribu-
tions of the yellow metal from Cali
fornia, saved the credit of the nation
at time when not only her political
integrity but also her financial status
was in danger, and made possible the
adoption of the fourteenth amendment
to the constitution of the United
States.
But the service rendered by Cali
ornia and Nevada to the nation dur
ing that trying period was eclipsed by
the worldwide influence of this sub
sequent achievement In commerce and
finance. They poured into the lap of
commerce the greater volume any
where in the same space of gold and
silver ever produced time. They sent
their miners to sit among the princes
OF finance in the parliaments of in
dustrial progress and commercial en-
terprise. They sent others to the SEN
ate OF the nations. Upon others they
bestowed the judges ermine and the
bishops mitre. ...........
They raised host from penury to
affiuence, and scattered millions in
that now obsolete form of charity that
let not the left hand know what the
right hand was doing.
They revolutionized the languishing
industry of mining and their great
mining camps became training
schools for the pre-eminently efficient
mining engineers, metallurgists and
practical mine workers who later de-
veloped the vast mineral resources Of
Australia and South Africa.
They laid railroads across the noun.
tains and the deserts and tied the
East to the West with bands of steel.
Their telegraph wires are strung
from ocean to ocean, and their cables
unite the continents and bind us to
the Orient.
Strange that descendants of the In
trepid pioneers who accomplished
these great things should be so blind
to the wonderful opportunities that are
stilf beckoning to them from the prac.
tically. inexhaustible goldAelds that
stretch for hundreds of miles along
the sierrasl
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