Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1935-11-14
Golden
PhantOIllS
FASCINATING TALES
OF LOST M 1 N ES
Nw.N.u. Ru EdifhQ L. Watson
THE MOUNT PISGAH HOAX
Bv EdifIsa L. Watson

THERE once were three men and a
L burro, who set out to seek their
fortunes. 1t was in 'S4 or 'S5; they
were out in the mountains; and it had
been showing.
Suddenly they came across the camp
of some prospectors, and it seemed a
good idea to stop and get warm and
talk little about the gold that every.
one felt sure must underly all the
Rockies.
The prospectors said that they were
Leadville men. They had some very
nice looking nuggets of gold, and these,
they said, came from Mount Pisgah,
where they had just been.
Mount Pisgah! The three men
knew it's general location. although
they had never been there, and that
very day they determined to hurry on
and get to these new diggings before
anyone else should hear of them. Sc
they found the direction of the noun.
tain, took a compass to guide them,
and set out
Partly because they were in hurry
and partly because they did not know
any easier way to reach Mount Pisgah,
they started straight across the coun.
try, and the snow fell and turned tO
slush and fell again, and hills reared
in their way, and mountain streams
tried to stop them, but they waded and
climbed and slid on. A golden phan.
tom danced before them and pointed
to Mount Pisgah, and they floundered
after her.
At last they reached the place, but
to their disgust they found other men
ahead of them. Still, there was room
for everyone, SO they began to make
camp and ask questions. The first
one, of course, was where are the
diggings?" They proved to be small
prospect hole some ten or fifteen feet
deep, in which no gold could be
seen. But perhaps, reasoned the three
newcomers, If the Leadville men had
taken their nuggets from this place
there must be more somewhere near
So they began to dig at random.
One man finally found vein OF
quartz, and this, he was sure, would
bring him a fortune He dug faithful
ly, and his little dump grew and be-
gan to look as a mine dump should,
The others, inspired by the sight of
this pile of ore, began offering to buy
it, and although someone finally
agreed to give $3.50 for the dump, it's
owner refused to sell.
At last he found a piece of quartz
that he liked, and he and his friends
watching for the gold that they had
longed for. To their disappointment,
not even trace of the yellow metal
showed, and they realized that they
had been fooled.
By this time the camp at Mount
They had all been lured by the idea
of finding gold, and now they all were
sleuthing about to discover who had
been guilty of hoaxing them. 1t was
learned that the two men who dug
the original mime" had sailed it, and
were even then on their way out OF
the camp with what riches they had
LldudSCu W dSQulIc NY tHC SulC VI
claims.
The guilty pair were caught and
brought to trial by the angry miners
Only one sentence, it was felt, would
be just-that of death by hanging
But even as some of the group went
hunting a rope the culprits managed to
escape, and this time they got away
safely. They had hoped, 1t was
learned, to cause gold rush and in
terest capital before they were found
out.
So far, this sounds like one Of the
many minor farces of gold-rush days.
But wait-Mount Pisgah now stands
sentinel over booming, rushing min
ing town where many billions of dol.
lars have been made. In their dis.
gust at being hoaxed, the miners neg
lected to look about them, and in 1891
only six or seven years later, vast for.
tunes were found almost at the very
foot of the mountain.
For the little creek that flowed past
Mount Pisgah, the little creek that no
one crossed to see what was on the
other side, was -
Cripple Creek.