Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-03
Led Brother CT 1000 Mile
Horseback Trip at Age
oil. ID Years.
INSPECTED FIRST MINE
Turned Down Better Paying
Job to Begin Career as
Mining Engineer:
BY J. v. FITz GERALD.

The boys started on horseback from
San Francisco to Oakland. Their aunt,
with whom they were staying while
their father was in the East, consented
to the trip. They took small COM
pass, a shotgun, fishing tackle and $50
also in the extra equipment, for the
lads planned on doing bit of camping
before and after they visited their
friends in Oakland.
John Hays Hammond the older of
the two lads, was IA years old. His
brother was two years younger. They
had been brought up in the California
of Civil War days and they were &C
complished riders and skilled in the
ways of the great outdoors by the time
most bows of today are still playing with
toys.
Their father, a graduate of West Point
and an Army officer detailed to duty in
California, had taught them self-reli-
ance, a love for outdoor life, and
instilled in them a spirit of adventure
from the time they were able to walk
So 1t wasn't unnatural that they should
make up their minds to see something
of the world instead of merely taking
the ride to Oakland and back to San
Francisco.
Headed for Yosemite Valley.
They had heard much of the Y@em-
lite Valley, then a comparative will
derness, and they turned their horses
heads in that direction, seeking the ad-
venture that appealed so much to their
venturesome dispositions.
Occasionally they stopped at small
hotels, but for the greater part they
slept in the open. They shot their own
game. varied their diet with the fish
-, \ H. Al. 49,.
and thrived on their own cooking. BY
the time they reached the Yosemite
they still had a substantial part of their
money left.
From there they ventured into
Nevada, and by the time their father
returned from the East and traced
them through express company agents
they had ridden approximately 1000
miles on horseback. And all this in
period of less than three months.
While seeing the country young John
had an opportunity to inspect his first
quartz mine. He spent several days
watching the operations there. That
experience was largely responsible for
his choice of mining engineering as a
profession. career in which he has
Visited All Parts of World.
The trail that started with the trip
to the Yosemite carried him to practi-
cally all parts of the world, through
dangers and hair-raising adventures in
South America, Africa and elsewhere
and to friendships ranging from lowly
miners to crowned heads
John Hays Hammond was born in
1855 in San Francisco, to which his
father. who had been a major in the
Regular Army during the Mexican War,
had been detailed His mother was a
sister of Col Jack Hays, famous as a
Texas Ranger and later the first sheriff
of San Francisco. Young Hammond
spent much time at his uncle's home.
His mother died when he was little
fellow.
His father and uncle, between them.
taught him to ride. to swim and to
hunt. He proved that he was an apt
pupil when he and his brother made
their 1000-mile trip into the wilds, de-
pending largely on their skill with rod
and gun to live as they rode through
the lonely and rugged country.
The younger was educated in the
public schools of San Francisco. Later
he went to private preparatory school
in New Haven to qualify for admission
to Yale. He was enrolled in college at
the age of II and was graduated in
1876. At Yale he was a classmate of
former President Taft.
From Yale he went. to Germany,
where he spent three years in the
Royal School of Mines at Freiberg. He