The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1920-05-13
The Romance of Mining Discovery

about the big lode TO go and see il in
July 1882. First they went to exam
inc what Sandy called a silver lode
and then they did some prospecting
on Donald's ground They noticed
some ironstOne boulders in stream
at the foot of 4 rocky hill rising oui
Of the tropical bush; the stream was
Mundic creek, which flows round the
base Of Mount Morgan They Clipped
a piece of the reddish rock, which
they crushed and PANIED on a shovel
1t was full of fine gold. They said
nothing to Sandy about it, but re-
turned home and proceeded to organ 10
/ ize "A syndicate, which included Thos.
Hail. william X. Darcy, and William
Pattison. all of whom became million
aires. To Burns x Twigg. from whom
they borrowed the services of Sandy.
the Morgan brothers offered share
in the discovery for a 10-stamp bat
terry The offer was declined. Sandy
Gordon died as he had lived. 1t is
said that the Morgans paid him see
and as much whisky as he could drink
Donald sold his land to them for c 1
per acre, not knowing what was on it,
He died of chagrin The mine is still
richly productive, yielding copper in
the deeper workings as we'll as gold.
Up to the end of 1919 it had produced
1872 600, 900 in gold and $34.OOO,OOO i'm
copper, making total of 100000,
From, u-b;cb go ooo Ooo In. hoo 7fe
tributed in dividends. The pathetic
story of Donald Gordon has been en-
balmed in verse by Brunton Stevens.
an Australian. The poem is called
The Lost Chance" I give you one
verse of it:
Just to miss it by a hair-breadth-
nay, not to miss it! to have held it
In my hand, and ofttime through my
fingers run the swarthy ore,
Minus only the poor trick of art or
science that compelled it
To unveil for others good the hidden
value, and to pour
on a thousand hearts the light of hope
that shines for me no more.
Broken Hell was discovered at about
the same time. A rough black ridge,
like a reef, rising above the level of
the dusty plain, this great Outcrop
was ignored for many years by the
boundary riders, or cowboys, on the
Mount Gipps station or sheep
range, in New South Wales. When
they began to surmise that the dark
rock might mark the outline of an ore
body they guessed that it must be a
tin lode. Samples were broken and
assayed for tin. without result. How
ever, they pegged a number of claims
on the off chance for Jumps of silver
been found
on the surface not far from this Bro
ken Hill. as they called the black (
ridge That was in 1888. A syndicate |
Of seven station hands was organized
each contributing go to the fund for
sinking a shaft in search of silver ore. |
Of course this shaft was started at
the leanest spot on the outcrop; only |
a low grade lead carbonate was
struck. The original working capital |
was soon spent. Two members of the !
syndicate retired and the number was
to IA in order to raise more
Sinking of the shaft was
then resumed and toward the close of
1884, some rich chloride ore was cut
At about 100 feet in depth. The shares
had gone to a discount. The story is
Ill ba Of
The station, played euchre with Cox, |
1ne of his partners in the prospect, to
determine whether he should sell one
IF his three shares for e1OO or for |
c $50. McCullOch won, and sold for /
e15O a share that six years afterward /
vas worth e1,25O,OOO. An engineer |
old me- when I was in Melbourne in |
1899. how he went to Broken Hill, at /
he time when the first shaft was be-
ng sunk. to advise a client as to whe- /
her he should buy share in the syn
licate on arrival at the prospect he
'ound the superintendent absent and |
he men would not allow him to go
He took some samples
If the rock on the dump and had them
lSSayed at Adelaide, with an unsat-
sfactory result-only 16 ounces of sill
yer per ton The rich ore had been
struck the very day of his visit, and
f he had been more adroit he might
rave elected the Information from the
miners.
In both these Australian stories we
zee the rudiments Of scientific investi-
cation. The science is thin indeed,
cut the use Of the pan or the crucible
10 determine the presence of gold or
silver marks the beginning of meth
DDS that are now established. The
,lindfolded goddess fortune has had
1er bandage loosened so that she can
the way she is going. Mining
becomes less Of a lucky grab into a
nalf-opened sack and more nearly a
systematic study of the signs that in