The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1920-11-04

ing was early in 1850, when a Nor
mon emigrant train on the way TO
California camped in Carson valley to
recruit their animals and several of
the party made a prospecting tour
along the river and its tributaries
Near the site of the present town OF
Dayton. at the mouth of Gold canyon,
they found gold, though not in large
quantities. The details of this ais
covery are interesting. On May Is
William PrOuse took a tin milk pan,
went down to the creek and washed
out little of the surface dirt IL
there had been any prospectors IN the
party the riches of Gold canyon would
have been discovered in a short time
from this clew, but the MormOns only
saw the ashen- hued, barren land
which they were anxious to leave;
they went on. but found the great
Snowy range, as they called the
Sierras, still impossible. and so they
turned back to their former camp.
John Orr and Nicholas Kelley now
named the ravine Gold canyon, and
they spent three weeks looking for tine
precious metal. On June 1, Orr
thrust a butcher knife into a crevice
ut the edge of small cascade" and
pried out a nugget worth perhaps ten
dollars. A few days later the whole
company packed up and crossed the
SIerras.
Whether Prouse and Orr told others
or not the news of the discovery
somehow crept ahead. In August
some immigrants camping in the val
ley saw a train of Mexicans with |
mules and wooden bowls, provisions |
and miners tools, crossing the hills |
to Gold canyon. Two American boys |
among the immigrants followed the |
Mexcans and found that Don Ignacio !
Paroles was the chief and that the
party was originally from Sonora, |
Mexico but had recently come from
California. Provisions were so costly,
however, (flour being $1.5O a pound),
that several small groups of miners
who tried to work the Gold canyon
placers abandoned the region in 1850.
Nevertheless, this discovery led in
time to the discovery of the Com
stock lode, for Gold canyon heads far
up the side of Mount Davidson, and |,
the metal it contained came from the
wash and overflow of the great ifs
sure vein.
Discovery of the Comstock.
The last year of real placer mining
in Nevada was 1858 and long before
it's close the very air grew full of
change and growth. Dull of compre
hension. ignorant of their position up
on the verge of an unsurpassed min
ing excitement the rs or so men now
working in the very tops of the ra-
vines east and south of Mount Dav
idson were nevertheless beginning to
feel the thrill and presence of the
spirit OF discovery. For the first time
in years there was talk of prospect
ing parties throughout the district to
look up better claims.
Johnstown was again the center of {
activities in the winter of 1889, for
the weather was unusually cold, freez-
ing the water in the gulches so that I
the miners had a season of enforced
idleness They spent it in discussing
the situation, which certainly con- {
tanned elements of pathos and sar- I
1
miners of 1858 were men who had \
heen in the region for six or seven c
years The only change in their oc- \
equations had come about as the
character of the "diggings' changed. r
At first they had mined on the bars" O
then on the FLATS" then on the sides a
of ravines, ascending toward higher f
ridges. The ordinary auriferous gra- {
vel became of darker, color; the soil a
of the hills was heavier and heavier 9
clay, though still containing gold. The
ground was difficult to handle-full of S
what they called sand of iron" and
a substance they called lead and a
heavy blue STUFF that carried off the
Sometimes a miner af-
ter working all day long. from sun
rise to dark, with his back aching d
from the labor of cleaning his sluice !,
box every few minutes from the 'ac- p
cursed base metal that clogged b
rifle, threw it down with fierce male ?
dictions, to the bottom of the ravine. a
The Story Begins. Il
Our story follows the fortunes of 8
little group of Gold canyon miners c
John" Aleck Henderson, Jack Yont
and "Old Virginia" One day, about
the goth of January, while they were
on the ridge Immediately east of the
canyon in which the town of Gold d.
Hill was afterward situated "Oid Vir- re
ginia" pointed to a small, low mound II
and said, Boys I believe that some h
good dinggings are waiting for us tC
there" b,
let us go and try it," one of them 8,
d.
"Some other time, boys; it's a deep
gilch and late in the day" =
The "other time" came on Satur-
day. January 2S, when four men went -
to the mound as agreed upon. Bishop
who had a shovel pushed it full of
earth with his foot "Old Virginia"