The Parker post., 1918-02-23
SEARCH ON FOR
LOST PEG LEG

years ago, and many times since the
unbound Golden Fleece for scores of
modern Jasons-today again becomes
a magnet for adventurers
| A philosopher, an editor, a noted
chemist and-perhaps most necessary
of allan eastern capitalist set forth
last Tuesday for the barren land be-
yond the Salton Sea, shadowed by
the Superstition mountains, to relo-
cate the Peg Leg and it's tabled
treasure, says the Los Angeles Ex-
aminer
Respectively these adventurers. are:
w. S. Abbot, Venice; A. r. Carey of
the Petroleum Reporter of Taft; Jean
val Jean de la Bisseaux, who SAYS
he is cousin of Nine. Cure, the Pa
risian scientist, and that he was en-
ployed in her laboratory when ra-
dunn was discovered, and H. L. Carey
who handles the purse strings of the
| expedition, and who has been winter
ing in California.
To add the proper tinge of the
mystic to the quest, Jean val Jean
de la Bisseaux has provided an up
tO-date ''divining rod termed an
oscillating mine finder But it is
not alone to mechanical or scientific
cOntraptiOns that the adventurous
four pin their sanguineness of sue
cess. Months of investigation by Alb
bot of previous quests for the long
lost mine, weary journeys to half
clvilizen Indian camps, have con-
vinced him and his companions that
the mine still does exist and that it
is within the bounds of human en-
deavOr to find it.
The four treasure seekers left for
Yuma Tuesday, and from that point
they will travel by pack train
Supposedly in the Superstition
range, somewhere between these
desolate peaks, the little town of
Warner Station, SaltOn Sea and
Smith mountain, the lost mine was
located nearly century ago by
Thomas l.. (Peg Leg Smith, hardy
prOspectOr, who despite his crippled
condition tapped and dug his way
through much of California in the
early days.
goes, he staggered to the Warner
Station pOstOffice with a heavy, dark
mass of metal Copper, the folks
all said, when scratching revealed
a red, metallic CLINT.
Disheartened, Peg Leg limped
away back to his claim, and there
it is supposed he died, for he never
returned to Warner Station and the
inhabitants soon found a new butt
for their pranks and jokes.
Thirty summers the chunk of met
al served to hold the postoffice door
ajar and thirty winters it lay in the
corner till one day a geologist saw
it.
Cold" he cried, and then began
the first stampede for the peg Leg"
mien
Later, so goes Abbot's narrative,
an Indian girl elOped from the tepee
of her father near Warner Station
with a young buck, upon whose suit
the father frowned Although they
had full days start on the irate
parent, he overlook them and slew
the audacious brave who hae de-
spoiled him of his daughter.
Leaving the girl to bury her mate,
the father returned to his tepee, but
the girl showed up soon after at the
settlement of Flowing Well With a
soiled bandanna chock full of the
dull metal
Then began another stamrede.
Twenty teams were driven from Los
in the unsuccessful quest, but
all the stampeders returned : save
those who fell by the way, without
a grain of dust
Abbot, however, did not start his
hunt with the mine as his objective.
"If l can find this Indians grave,''
he reasoned, 81 shall be a notch
nearer the mine, which must lie be-
tween that grave and Warner Sta
tioh, the scene of the elopment'
And find the grave he did At
least that's what he says, and be-
side the grave, half buried in it, was
a copper and clay bowl, used, ABB
bot declares. by Indians to locate
their mines.
Tradition has it that the present
owner of the Peg Leg is an Indian
squaw-possibly the widow OF the
murdered bridegroom 1t is said
that she makes occasional trims to