Bisbee daily review. [volume] (Bisbee, Ariz.) 1901-1971, 1919-02-02
fasteners DREAMS
OF GOLD HUNTS END
With ROCKY RANGES

DENVER, Colo, Feb. 1.-Fanciful
dreams of the fastener who comes 10
the mountain states expecting to find
the picturesque figure of the gold pros
pector searching the hills in a never
ending chase of the precious metal
are greeted with a rapid disillusiOn-
ment. The roughly clad individual,
with pack mules, pick and shovel exist
now largely III the movies, though oc-
caSionally one comes across a sur
vivor of the old day to whom the
appeal of hidden treasure remains IT.
resistable.
With the exception of the years of
1915 and 1916, when discovery of tung-
stem brought a horde of wealth seek
ers to Colorado hills, the search for
gold in this and neighboring states
has steadily diminished since the
height of the gold rush some 25 years
ago. At the time. old mining men say,
the mountains were full of prospectors
searching for new veins and placer
miners panning in the streams for
gold deposits. The new generation
hasn't followed in the footsteps OF
the old one and one of the pictures
que features of western life is be
coming extinct
The explanation is simple. Pros,
pecting doesn't pay. This is the state.
ment from mining men familiar with
the situation. The big majority of old
prospectors spent their lives in the
hills without winning the fortunes
they sought. They managed to exc
out bare existence, occasionally
making a strike which would tide
them over a winter in Denver ana
give them the start for the next years
chase. But they lived and died poor
men, most of them finding a resting
place in the hills which they made
their homes. Discovery of their bod
les in their cabins or caves built in
the side of the mountains told the
tale.
If a good vein is located, the cost
of developing is prohibitive EXpens-
i've machinery must be installed, The
prospector must interest capital in
his find and uncertainty as to whether
the vein will fulfill expectations tends
to discourage the treasure seeker.
Officials of the state mining COM
mission are of the opinion that the
really big gold strikes already have
been made and they attribute the dis
appearance of the prospector of the al
most certain knowledge that his guest
will be unsuccessful.
All over the mountainous region of
Colorado, small abandoned tunnels,
bored into the solid rock bears evil
dence of the shattered hopes of some
prospector. Abandoned sluices and
smelters speak of the days that are
no longer, and of streams whose de-
posits of the precious metal have been
PANIED out In certain regions, not
ably in the vicinity of Cripple Greek.
the ore is mined in paying quantities.
but it is by means of costly machinery
that the gold is separated from the
crushed ore. MOneyed interests have
taken the place of the individuals who
found fortunes here while the coun-
try was yet being developed.
Occasionally, in the winter. one
finds in the cheap lodging houses some
grizzled veteran of the hills whose
spirit Still is alive with the hope of
success in the following summer and
he sets out in the spring as trustingly
as he has started out into the hills
every spring for a score of years But
these are becoming fewer every year
and the old life of the mountain coun-
try lives only in the movies and mem
cries of the early DAYS.