The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1920-06-24
SILVER LINED CAVERN
LEGEND OF EARLY DAYS
STORY RECALLED BY DISCOVERY
OF SKELETON NEAR THE
ENTRANCE.

IN hANOEs
Years ago, when the gold fever frs
brought the bearded men with sluic
boxes and arrastras to this section o
the country, an Indian myth telling o
a cavern in which silver hung lik'
stalactites from the roof of country
rock was current among the wander
ing Lemhi and Bannock redskins. The
story was a fanciful one. and though
prospectors are an easily-led class
when it comes to fabulous tales OF
hidden wealth. the story was given lit
tie credence. But chimerical as the
tale was there was an aftermath, and
the story is told here as it was told
in a little cabin hidden on the solpes
of Bald mountain by a prOspector
whose face was as hidden by a snowy
growth of bread as is the lower slope
of the mountain with lodge pole pine.
which lies above his tiny cabin.
Bud" Nelson came to the old
Grasshopper diggings as green a lad
as ever rounded Cape Horn to the
California coast and lived safely to
reach the Idaho territory No story
was too wild to enlist his interest and
he was the butt of numberless jokes
by men of the diggings. who sent him
on wild chases for worthless ground,
which he worked with tenacity Dis
appointment followed disappointment
and gradually Bud began systematic
campaign of drowning his sorrows in
liquor. In one of these drunken stu
pors he was taken care of by an In
dian. who was rewarded with liberal
donation of frewater, thus making
him a fast friend of the bibulous gold
seeker.
Bud Disappears.
Time passed, the Indian still hung
around the diggings and one day Bud
and the redskin were seen hOofing 1t
over the range of hills to the west of
the present almost deserted mining
camp of Bannack. Months elapsed
and Bud failed to return. Returning
prospectors told of seeing him enter
ing the cleft of hills where Rattle
snake creek breaks from it's canyon
but none saw him on return journey |
His disappearance was matter OF
talk for some time, but his value be- |
ing small, in the estimation of the |
denizens of the diggings, he was
gradually forgotten and the months
passed into years and the years into
decade.
Then came the hard winter of 1883,
when cattle died by the thousands
and snow lay like a heavy blanket
over what was then Montana territory.
II was reported in the upper reaches
of the Rattlesnake in the sprng that
a bunch of cattle had somehow
weathered the winter and were in
condition which allowed them to be
driven out when the snow had dis
appeared. Cow-punchers were sent to
work the animals to better range and
spent some time rounding up the
strayed cattle and bringing them to
the mouth of the canyon near where
Argenta now stands, a pathetic mon
ument to the days of the old west.
The punchers penetrated to spots
which had never before been explored g
and in one of them, beneath tower
ng wall of rock covered with beetling
pull pines, they found a skeleton. J
A Skeleton. 4
A few decayed remnants of cloth
'luttered about the white bones and
he remains of a pair of cowhide boots
If early-day pattern still clad the
leg bones of the ispecter. It
vas impossible to identify the body y
when first found, but the punchers =
nevertheless rolled the body over for /
,etter Identification. n
Sticking in the spinal column was d
IN Indian arrow mutely telling of the ID
sudden and violent death of the pio- o
,eer. A bony hand, hidden beneath d
he body when first found ratified and II
ell away fom the rest of the skeleton N
nd there clasped in the ghoulsh u
niger was a wand of silver a silver 'e
talacite. The body was later identi-
led as that of the missing Nelson by
belt buckle which the long-missing
nan had worn and which he had Sc Ia
ured while serving in the Swedish :.
rmy
Did Nelson find the silver cavern?
lid he, while guided by his Indian o
riend, find the object of the old In
ian myths, and was he killed by the
edskin when he attempted to take p;
ews of his discovery to the miners N
f the Grasshopper diggings? 1t will C.
emain an unsolved riddle but the ga
act that one of the greatest fortunes of
T the country was founded on silver of
lken from the hills Immediately adj 81 T.
acent to Argenta lends credence to sa
story which is as fanciful as any be
oniured up by the miners of the early I ne
avs in this state.-William F. Chap &c
IAN in the Anaconda Standard. in
Paw While Goinu to School. ot