The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1919-10-07
TAKING UP SEARCH
FOR LONG LOST MINE
ROMANTIC STORY OF FABU.
LOUSLY RICH MINE IN IDAHO
COUNTY AGAIN RETOLD
Idaho County Free-Press)

(ldaho County Free-PreSS)
The old, old story of the long lost
gold mine on the upper Salmon river
in Idaho county, has again been taken
up, and is being published in news
papers throughout the country under
Spokane date-line. The story, doubt
it if you will, nevertheless has stimu-
lated interest among mining men,
some Of whom laugh at it, but others
this summer took up the hunt for the
mine, reported to be fabulously rich,
and which has been lost for twenty
years.
May Be Just Lie
Whether the famous lost mine of
Idaho county will ever be recovered,
or whether the story of its first dis
covery is purely a myth, is left to con-
lecture, but the tale of the lost bon
ANA, nevertheless, is herewith repro
duced:
Somewhere along the upper Salmon
river in Idaho county is a gold mine
fabulously rich gold mine-which
has been lost for more than twenty
years.
1t is so rich that in the early days
unscrupulous persons made every pos
sible effort to locate it, and one man
who held the secret was murdered.
The story is just another of those
stories of lost mines, but the only
other man who possessed the secret
after the murder of his partner, told
such vivid story on his death bed,
to few old timers whom he trusted,
that one of them has spent most of his
summers for twenty years in trying
to locate the mine.
The story is that Old Hughes lost
mine, and there are many of the old
timers who remember when it was not
a lost mine, but just a secret mine,
from which great wealth came each
year.
Location of Mine.
For many years prior to 1900 old
James Hughes and wife lived in Spo-
kane. During his residence there
Hughes and an unknown partner had
worked a secret mine in the remote
and rugged canyons of the upper Sal
mon river. Starting out secretly in
the spring by unknown trails they re-
turned in the fall with a 'goodly guam
tity of gold dust and nuggets, and so
carefully did they guard their secret
them or to discover the hidden sources
of their wealth.
Finally Hughes became so crippled
from rheumatism and the afflictions
of advanced age that he was unable
to make the annual pilgrimage and
for a couple of years the partner
worked the mine alone. About 1898
the partner returned gold ladened !
from the mine and was murdered on
The lower Salmon river by robbers who |
mad lain in wait for him for the pur-
pose of securing the gold he carried.
Tells Secret to Friends.
Hughes at once tried to enlist the |
assistance of trusted friends to visit
he mine. Among those he told the
story to was James H. Boyd. Another
vas former city policeman, G. H.
Rolf of Spokane. To these and others
le told his story
The mine was situated at the foot>Of
i very high cliff in a narrow canyon
very difficult to get into and out of,
md was skillfully concealed by its
,wners from sight of anyone who by
hance might visit that remote and
llmost inaccessible spot. The vein,
While narrow, was so rich that the two
Id prospectors simply pounded out
he gold from the quartz by pestel in
little iron mortar, and then washed
'anned and sacked it up. When he
old the story James Hughes was an
Id and descrepit man. The vein must
ave been surprisingly rich to have
nabled two feeble old men to obtain
y these crude methods their large
nnual returns in gold dust
James Hughes never regained suf- j
icient strength to visit the mine af-