The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1917-05-31
GOLD OF LAST CHANCE
HOW It WAS DISCOVERED
FIRST PASSED UP, THE FINDERS
CAME BACK TO IT AS
LAST CHANCE.

When the first spring thaW lately
sloping streets of Helena, in Last
Chance gulch, the richest placer gulch
OF the state In historical times. small
nugget of gold was found in front OF
crossing the street Later some boys
found IA number of grains of gold In a
gutter on the street, and then for sew
eral days there were youthful gold
and Broadway, one of the steep side
streets, at the curbs, looking for placer
gold
This recalls that it will be SO years
covered in Last Chance gulch. The
finders We're three Georgians, John
/ Cowan, Robert Stanley and Gabe
Johnson, and the discovery seemed so
placers yielded millions afterward--
that they abandoned their find and
went prospecting for the rest of the
summer northward to Sun river.
Failing in their search for gold, in
the fall, there being nothing else in
sight, they returned to their discov-
/ cry, and named the gulch Last Chance
because it represented that fact to
them, so far as mining possibilities
that year were concerned.
Two More Arsonauts.
Their placer claim was located where
the Masonic temple now stands, and
they settled down upon it to make a
strenuous effort to make 1t pay. Speak
ing of what Immediately followed
Judge Cornelius Hedges in his His
torical Sketch of Lewis and Clark
County published by the Historical
Society of Montana, says that Captain
George j. Woody and Abraham Mast
entered the Prickly Pear valley that
fall on a hunting expedition from Vir-
ginia City and adds
at so happened that Messrs. Woody
and Mast arrived about the time the
Georgians made their first successful
cleanup. The sight of that was enough
to decide them to move at once to this
locality, and the next after the two
cabins erected by John CoWan and
Robert Stanley were those of Messrs.
Woody and Mast.
Notwithstanding the assurance of
the discovery party that there was no
gold in the gulch above them, it was
found in promising quantities in many
localities. Through the personal sos
licitation of Mr.. Woody, portion of
Minnesota train, just then arrived and
camped in the valley of Ten Mile, We're
induced to stop and join in prospect.
ing the Last Chance mines.
Big Nugget Found.
During the months Of October and
November following, the extent and
richness of the mines became well es-
tablished, and their fame began to
draw miners from all other camps.
at was ON the third of July, 1865,
that the big nugget was found on the
3, above discovery claim in Nelson
gulch. 1t was thrown out with a
sluice fork, and accidently discovered.
1t was entirely free from quartz, and
was worth $2,073."
The Last Chance placers We're mined
to exhaustion within the years that
followed their discovery over half a
century ago, and yet, so elusive is the
gold that some of it still remains in
the earth, and yearly, when the snow
melts in the spring and the water
comes down Last Chance gulch as 1t
has done for ages, it continues to throw
up bits of the golden metal, to ex-
cite, tantalize and lure schoolboys,
and stir visions Of the long departed
past in the memory of the pioneer.