The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1920-01-01

the distinction Of producing the larg- |
est nugget ever found on Prichard |
creek. 1t was valued at 1870, and
came from ground IL feet deep. Jack.
son died her some years ago. He was
an old Californian and typical min
en- Melley is still in the flesh and a
resident of Murray. The claim will
coming year.
| The o. X. claim was known as the
tragic ground Of Prichard creek. Ear
! ly in 1884 1t became the abiding place
! of kindred spirits mostly young and
untamed men, who desired to pose as
gunner. What idle time they had
from placer employment was devoted
to revolver and rifle practice, entirely
oblivious of the safety Of their neigh
bors, or of those who passed on the
trail through the timber One of
these youngsters, about 25 years old.
whose name | have forgotten, except
that he was called George, became
known as an expert with the revolver,
not only as to Workmanship, but as
to quickness and rapidity Of firing.
This elevated him to the leadership OF
the gang. When visit was made to
Murray. which was practically every
evening, the town soon became aware
that the gang was all there, and
everybody was careful not to get
mixed up with 1t, although the pro-
vocation was pronounced in the dance
halls and gambling houses. The gang
terrorized the town while they occu-
pied 1t. and in quitting they did not
steal away silently but "shot the place
up" Tranquility, however. followed
one of these violent demonstrations.
The leader was called upon to exhibit
Ibis skill with an automatic, that is,
twirling the gun on his right fore
finger and firing with every revOlu-
ton at some object. Five shots went
I'll right, but the sixth sent the huge
bullet into the left shoulder Of George
His ascendancy was shattered; so was
his shoulder in most horrible man.
ner. The wounded man was carried
&c Murray by his companions, and the
following day sent east to his rela-
tives. He never returned The spir-
its of the gang shortly afterward re-
viyed and it became known as the
kid Price hand" This was broken
up by a combination Of citizens, who
notified the kid and his compatri-
OTIS that they had got to the end of the
rope and that there might be jerk to
lit Tey vanished Peace then reign
ed on the O. *. claim for several
months, when message reached
Murray that Charles Simpson had
shot and killed Lew wyatt, These
miners, however, had no connection
with the KID Price gang, They quar-
reled among themselves. There was
mo eye witness. Simpson claimed
self-defense. He was acquitted. Con-
siderable gold was taken out of the
10. *. although bedrock was IL feet
deep All the gold was coarse, up to
nuggets of five, six and seven ounces.
Besides gold, the dredge, in it's pro-
gress Just below the O. X. claim, has
already caught on it's rifles several
pounds of big softnosed bullets.
The Last Chance claim. lying imme-
dately above the Gelatt on the rim,
had the distinction of yielding two
different qualities of gold, one regular
channel and the other bright and clean
quartz gold the latter predominating.
Il was lower in value, however, and
Had to be separated in part before
sale. The quartz gold was scattered
out Of vein close by. Pieces OF
several ounces in weight were not un-
common and We're highly priced as
specimens, selling above their weight
value 1t is believed that the dredge
quite recently cut the vein from which
this quartz gold came. OF course
search was made for it by tunnels in
the early days, but it could not be
found More may be revealed several
hundred feet farther up the gulch
where huge vein crosses and can be
traced for miles north and south. Sim
gularly. too, the southern end Is in
limestone and there the ore, in small
seams. runs high in silver, assays
giving $50 ounces per ton and only
SIS in gold A we'll defined vein 30
feet wide has been uncovered suffi-
GENTLY to indicate its course On the
northern side of the gulch this ledge
has been located for three miles and
gives out nothing but gold, excep,
what silver usually follows quartz
gold, This vein unquestionably en-
riched Dream gulch and Missoula
gulch both of which were rich in
placers; and these gulches, in turn.
particularly Dream. poured out much
of the gold that the dredge is now
digging up Dream gulch was also
noted for its yield of nuggets and
coarse gold in 1SS4-S5. Very much
later a 10-ounce nugget was taken
from shaft at the eastern end Of the !
mouth of the grlch and almost every
Nugget of any size carried the char
acteristic quartz of the big vein that
forms the ridge between Missoula
and Dream gulches.