Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1928-05-04

fall and spend the winter months in
some of the small settlements along the
railroad in northeastern Montana. The
tall prospector possessed a charming per-
s~onality, he vas a delightful CONVERSE
tionalist, and capital story teller. Mark
Twain once defined a mine as q hole in
the ground with a good liar on the sur
face, Alexander, as the man on the sur
face, could certainly deliver the goods.
Before spring he would have practically
every one in that settlement believing in
the story Of the los Reyes mine. And
so, in the course of time, 1t became a
matter of common knowledge in north
eastern Montana that a man named Al
exander was searching the Bad Land
country for a lost mine. In this way the
public mind was prepared for the start
ling newspaper announcement in the
spring Of 1895 that Alexander had found
the lost Reyes diggings,
In the spring Alexander was camped
on Big Dry creek, a small stream empty
ing nto the Missouri river opposite old
Fort Peck. Two nights before Alexander
reached the Big Dry, a beautiful Indian
maiden appeared to him in a dream. &C.
cording to his story, and whispered the
mystic words in his ear, 1.-TWO more
sleeps then, with peal after peal Of sill
very laughter. she faded in the distance.
From the Indian maiden's hilarious
laughter and subsequent developments
it you'd appear that a joke is appreci-
ated upon the astral plane.
The second day Alexander was on the
creek he found an old rubber boot and
a piece of rotten plank with a cleat
nailed across one end. He did not at
tach much Importance to these articles
at the time, but a few weeks later they
were revered in a shrine.
Gold!
Shortly after he had found the boot,
he was prospecting along the creek with
a gold pan. He had carefully panned
down a shovel full of gravel until there
was perhaps a teaspoon OF n left
in the pan, n mingled with the sand
were three fine particles of gold. While
he was examining the gold with a pow
erful magnifying glass, q cowboy rode up.
The cowboy was acquainted with Alex
ander and his mission in the Bad Lands
and he became interested at once. When
he looked at the gold with the glass, in
stead of a particle Of gold, smaller thar
a mustard seed, he saw a little rugged
nugget of bright yellow color, the size of
a small kernel Of corn. He had never
seen raw gold in nature before and the
CLEAN of 1t fascinated him, and started
the wheels of imagination Of the cowboy
to revolving.
Visions of udden wealth surged
through his mind; he began to breathe
hard and fast, THAT is good enough for
mel' he said excitedly. How far up
the creek does YOU claim extend? I'll
locate a claim above you" The cowboy
staked his claim n then rode swiftly
in the direction Of the Missouri river and
Glasgow, the county seat.
After the cowboy left, an alarming
thought flashed through Alexander's
mind-his own claim was not on record
yet. The next morning he was following
the cowboy to the county seat to place
his claim on record. Late that day he
reached Glasgow. The cowboy had ar
rived that morning and had broadcast
the report far and near that Alexander
had found the Keyes diggings and 1t was
rich, and that he. himself, had seen three
nuggets Of gold as large as Kernels OF
corn, from only n pan Of gravel. When
Alexander recorded his placer claim, 1t
seemed to double cinch" the cowboys
story, and the most skeptical now be-
lieved the lost Reyes diggings had been
found.
For the next few days the excitement
n the little county seat was intense
Groups of excited men discussed the
finding of the lost mine, and shrewd,
long-headed business men pointed out
the probable beneficial effect the ind
would have on the future Of Glasgow.
Distance not only lends e~nchantment
to the view. but 1t lubricates and stimu-
lates the mechanism involved in mag
nation. When Alexander was down on
the Big Dry and had a check on his
imagination he could harmonic his
Judgment with actual conditions OF the
environments, and he was not at all sure
he had found the lost mine, but when
he was 100 miles from the Big Dry his
imagination could run unchecked by VS.
ual evidence. He remembered seeing a
round. smooth piece Of wood which re-
sembled q piece Of shovel handle near
where he had found the piece OF plank.
Then Imagination triumphed over VIII.
reason and judgment; the short piece OF
round, smooth stick was part OF q shovel
handle. the piece Of decayed plank was
a relic Of Reyes sluice box, and the OLD
rubber boot was one worn by Reyes when
he worked the placer ground. Hurrahl
at last, after IL long years OF search he
had found the lost mine.
Alexander had a particular friend IN