The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1916-05-11
LUCK COMES NINE
YEARS AFTER DEATH

The search for George Treat is end
ed.
The missing owner of "Chance, +"
the abandoned silver mine in the Cher
ry Creek district in Nevada, which is
said to have been recently found to
contain great riches in tungsten, is
sleeping the sleep that knows no end.
Nine years ago Treat died after hav-
ing sunk about all his fortune in this
and other mines which, despite his
steadfast faith in them, failed as bo-
nanzas. The smile of Dame Fortune
has come, for him, too late.
Today his two daughters, Mrs. May
Morrison, wife of Alexander +. Nor
rison of the law firm of Morrison,
Dunno & Brobeck, and Mrs. George r..
Child, widow of the late secretary of
the Deimei Linen Mesh System com
pany, are about to reap the benefits
of their fathers "Chance. They
are his sole direct heirs.
Not until Mrs. Child read of the
search for "Major" Treat in the San
Francisco Chronicle did anyone con-
meet the missing miner with the one
time wellknown pioneer San Francisco
capitalist, after whom Treat tvenue in
that city was named But the story
came out in all its details. And it is
a story af lifelong trust, of implicit
faith and, in the end, of blasted hopes.
Prospecting in the early seventies,
through the barren regions of the
Sagebrush state, Treat struck color in
the Cherry Creek distict He located
a claim and began operations.
GfTb. vain .oorooJ
always just beyond reach,o said Mrs.
Child, in telling the story yesterday.
fThen, too, operations were so costly,
for wood and water and provisions, to
say nothing of machinery, had to be
hauled over many weary miles to the
mine.
Never did my father Is faith in the
mine falter. He believed it to be rich,
and he was borne out in his belief by
others, among them Addison Head,
mining engineer and expert of Com
stock fame. Everything that my ia
ther could serape together went into
the Chance as he had humorously
named it. NY sister and I were able
to attend the University, but we did
not have much to go on
Into the open mine shaft, fgurative-
ly speaking, were poured all Treat 3
once vast realty holdings. He had a
large ranch near Santa Cruz, where he
bred horses and where often came Sen
ator Leland Stanford, himself asbreed-
er of note, The ranch went. So did
the old family homestead 800 acres in
the heart of the Mission district of
San Francisco, in the neighborhood of
,Io~ I
ard streets.
Finally Treat had to abandon his
mine. But, still hoping that he could
develop it into a paying property, he
tried to recuperate his finances by
mining on two other properties in
Mexico, near Durango. From these he
was forced away by the Mexican rev.
olution of some twenty years ago
Obliged by the exigencies of fate to
give up his pet projects, Treat return
ed to San Francisco, where he died at
the age of SO, in the year following
the fire.
To the very last, says his daughter,
he spoke of his faith in "Chance'
''My sister, Mrs. Morrison, is on
motor trip to San Diego with her hus-
band,' said Mrs Child. GAS soon as
can communicate with her we will
decide on our action. If it is true that
we can regain possession of the mine
by paying up back taxes, this we un-
doubtedly viii do
The police were advised of the dis
covery that the mine is rich in re-
cent communication from B. F., Har-
rison of Cherry Creek. The firm of
Morrison, Dunno & Brobeck, which is
investigating the matter, is said to
have been told by Harrison that the
ore discovered at "Chance" is tung-
stem, which, with war prices prevailing
at present, is of almost fabulous val
ue.-S. f. Chronicle.