The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1922-10-13

nigh OF virgin gold. The greater por-
ton of his gold was no larger than
the flakes and pieces displayed the
otner day by Mr.. Coyle, but there were
chunks as large as a large mans
thumb and graduated from that size
down to the smallest flakes. We had
hardly passed the age of callow
youth, we nad never seen placer gold
neIore, and the sight of so much
wealth In the very raw fairly took
our breath away A remarkable feat
ure to us was the apparent placidity
ana indifference Of Mr.. Prichard. the
owner OF so much riches. He tossed
the gold about as though It were so
much dirt, and did not consider the
showing of any considerable import
ance. for, as he said, there was plenty
more where that came from and all
he had to do was to pick 1t up.
Of course the Review broke loose
In great head lines and extravagant
descriptions of the new Ell Dorado. IL
was big stuff for a newspaper and
every scrap Of information from the
land OF gold.was grabbed with avidity
and worked to finish. The demand
for copies Of the Review from Butte,
Salt Lake City, from every point Of
the compass was greater than the old
aand press could supply. A stampede,
such as the west had not seen since
the discovery of gold in California
followed. Spokane Falls became the
Quitting point for the mines. People
flockef to that embryo city by train.
by wagon, by horseback, by foot and
such a heterogeneous mass of peO-
pie was hardly ever seen before. Ac-
commodations were inadequate to
meet the demand. Exhausted men paid
dollor a night to sleep in chairs.
People camped anywhere and every
where. The lust of gold lad drawn
out all kinds and classes of men.
There was feverish anxiety to get
to, the diggings. 1t was every man for
hmseilf and the devil take the hinder
most. Every human instinct was bent
on gain, and while there were many
instances where humanity overcome
the power Of greed, the outstanding
feature of the rush was selfislness
and eclipse of the higher virtues.
One unfortunate feature of this. rush
was that it took place late In the fall
and winter, and hardships untold
were suffered by those who were the
first to make the trip, for the trip was
made over almost impossible trails
on foot at first. The winter Of 1884
was one of the hardest that had been
depth in the mountains over which
the trails crossed and mining was
impossible. Many returned to the out
side disillusioned and cursing the
country as worthless. 1t was not until
the next spring that mining could
commence in earnest and much gold
was taken out. But the wealth of the
COeur d'Alenes did not rest upon the
placer washings. That ground was
soon worked out as the gold was con-
fined to a rather restricted district,
but miners turned their attention to
quartz leads, many leads were discov-
cred from which great mines were
evolved and to this day the Ceour
d'Alenes is one of the richest mining
districts in the world.
The original discoverer, A. J. Prich-
ard. has passed to his fathers. For
four years before he finally located
placer gid, he lived and prospected in
the Ceour d'Alenes, far from any civ
ilization and living the life Of aer-
nit. We have an original letter, some
what yellow with age, written by Mr..
Prichard in January 1883, the writing
as, distinct as the day the aged hand
traced the words. In that letter he
spoke of the discovery Of gold and
also of a ledge after his years Of hard
searching. 1t appears that Mr.. Prich-
ard was obsessed Of cult, or ism,
and i1is chief desire was to benefit his
brethren of that cult. The letter was
written to one Mr.. Chow, of California
in which Mr.. Prichard tells OF his find
and explains how he wants the friends
of this cult to reap the benefit. He
proposed to withhold publicity OF the
find until these people could secure
all the gold they desired.
It seems that Mr.. Prichard also
wrote to friends" in Montana and
that parties started both from Cali
fornia and Montana for the Occur
d'Alenes in the dead Of winter. They
met Prichard. but at that time the
ground was covered with snow and
Mr.. Prichard was unable to locate his
discovery The crowd that made the
long trip in expectation Of fortune
was incensed against Mr.. Prichard,
believing at the time that he had IN
tentionally deceived them, and the
Montana people were so exasperated
that they wanted to hang Prichard,
hut the Californians prevented that
drastic proceeding. The way we came
in possession of the letter was that
when the Cailfornians returned nome
| the man who had received the letter
from Prichard sent it to the Spokane
Falls Review with the request that the
naner "roast the everlasting life out
of the old dotard," and use every ef-
fort to warn people from going TO the
alleged placer mines. How little those
birds dreamed Of the marvellous
wealth hid away in the mountains OF
the panhandle of Idaho. which nave
since given employment to thousands
of people and produced great fortunes
for many men. "a,
what did Prichard get out OF it'
Notb;np so far as we know, except to
have creek named after him. Like
Tho nioneer in every enterprise. ne
sowed that others might reap.