The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1917-06-21
MINING; GREAT ADVENTURE
A
of Of Mines)

Ing anu oclentlnc Fress, 10 graduating
School of Mines.)
tribe in the southern mountains
where gold was SO abundant that the
Indians powdered the whole body of
their chief with the dast This tale
of the gilded cacique became the will
O. the wisp Of mineral exploration, the
something beyond the range that en-
ticed the prospector of romantic
epoch across the swamps, into the
jungle, and over the snowfields of the
Andes into those mysterious forests
that cloak the interior northern parts
of South America.
One of the later versions of this
myth referred to the Chibchas, a semi
civilized race dominating the plateau
of Santa Fe de Bogota in Colombia
their chieftain. on the occasion of a
high festival. would strip himself and
be anointed by the priests with mud
from sacred lake; they would then
blow gold dust upon him. gliding him
from head to foot. In which guise he
would perform the religious ceremony
III honor of the sun. Thus Colombia
shared with Venezuela the honor of
being the cradle of this legend, which,
Furthermore, declared that there ex-
listed great interior sea, in the CEN
tire of which there was an island, up
on which stood the city of Manoa.
where gold was SO abundant that the
roofs were made OF 1t and the streets
were paved with It, Exploration drove
out of Venezuela; it retreated into the
vague hinterland where the Rio Ne
gro and the Orinoco have their source
but so persistent was the belief in the
story that all maps of South America
from the first attempts at accurate
cartography by Padre Fritz in 1916,
down to the school maps published as
late as 1910. In the United States,
showed this lake with its city of Ma
roa. Slowly the lake shrank on the
maps and its position shifted uneas-
lily until 1t became hidden in the last
UNEMPLOYED portion of the Amazon val
ley, the territory of the Roucouyennes,
at the foot of the Tumac- Humac
mountains. This chief. being oiled,
was covered with the yellow spangles
of mica. the near gold, tender-f foot
gold, or new chum gold, of the I'M
sophisticated. And so the bubble was
prcked-another suggestion of flota-
ton. According to the technology
Of today the oil ought to have enabled
the bubble to survive---but perhaps
that idea too will prove to be myth
before many years are gone.
Thirty years ago, losing my way
among the foot hills of the Sierra
Nevada, l stumbled upon a deserted
mining camp-half a dozen bedrag-
gled shanties. abandoned prospect
holes, deserted save for couple of
wretched Chinese coolies The name
of this derelict of mining was Eldor-
ado. The word threw a halo of ro-
nance around those empty cabins in
the silent pine woods. No deserted
village of poetry was this. yet even
Sweet Auburn" suggested sentiment
less poignant from Eldorado to emp
ty shacks. from extravagant expecta-
ton to bitter disillusion.
South America had Its gilded man,
but California had it's golden age. |
What colossal adventure that was!
1t involved so much more than mines,
and John A. Suffer was the central
figure of the story A Swiss, at the
age of 81 he came to New York and /
migrated to Missouri, where he heard
enough about California to want to
go thither. He achieved his purpose
IN roundabout fashion; proceeding
n 1888 across country to Vancouver,
thence to the Sandwich islands. where
ne found no vessel going the way he
wanted, so he sailed to Sitka, in Rus
'ian Alaska, and from there, at length {
n 1889. reached Yerba Buena. the
title settlement that is now San
francisco. Accompanied by the eight {
that he had brought with I
i'm, he sailed up the Sacramento river {
nd established himself at New Hell s
eta, now Sacramento. where he
rected the stockade that became /
nown as Suffers Fort. At that time v
he Mexican ruled California, but the fl
russian also had foot hold. Fort '
Joss and Russian river in Sonoma n
ounty are names that but vaguely a
ecall an incident that might have had r
ute another meaning. 1t was there p
1912 that Russian farming set a
ement was established by an expe- c.
ltion, under Alexander Kuskoff, from W
itka. This Russian post was due to a
lie far-seeing design of that Nicolai d
ezanoff whose romance with Con- IL
'pcion Arguello, the commentaries Il
aughter at the Spanish fort on San Ii
bay. is preserved in Bret CO
arte's verse. Rezanoff won her love, In
was recalled to Russia, expecting
return, but he died by an accident
the way and with him persisted not