The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1936-08-06
Golden
pElIntOIllS
FASCINATING TALES
OF LOST M L N ES
@wN.u. BY Edifha l.. Watson
THE LOST CABIN MINE

- mountains is a mine richer than
the Comstock Lode. 1t was found In
1868, and lost in 1864, but some day
a lucky prospector will find it again,
open up its neglected tunnels and build
a new cabin where the old one STOOD
Three men, Allen Hubert, Cox, and
Jones, were the first to discover this
bonanza. They had gone out on pros
pecting trip from Walla Walla, and
sometime in the spring of 1863 they
found themselves in the widest part
of the United States. They had been
going through terrible hardships, float
ing on raft down the Big Horn, and
travelling at night to avoid hostile In
dams. Men in their senses would have
recoiled from the bare idea of such
adventures, but these men were be-
witched by a golden phantom; they
kept on, prospecting as they went.
At last, there in the Big Horns they
found a wonderful pay streak, which
PANIED "all the way from five cents
to one dollar each trial" This was
their rainbow's end, and here they
planned to stay through the next win
ter. By the time water froze over
night, each had something like half
bushel Of gold.
| Winter passed all too slowly. AS
! soon as the first spring warmth came
to the little valley, they were out on
the job again, working at their sluice
boxes, and every night adding to their
| store of gold.
| /, What their plans were, no one can
| tell. Perhaps they expected to go back
| to Walla Walla that summer, laden
| with treasure; or they may have de-
| cided to stay on until either they or
| the nuggets were exhausted. But
these plans were destined never to be
| completed, for Indians suddenly fell
on Cox and Jones, killed and scalped
| them, and rifled the cabin. Hubert,
! who had gone some distance Off, saw
| the horrible sight but was powerless
to help his partners.
| AS soon as the marauders left, Hull
bert hurried down to the cabin. The
| gold was still there, and he packed a
| knapsack full, buried the rest, and
! struck out in the opposite direction
from that taken by the Indians. After
| Is days through wild, unknown coun-
try, he reached the North Platte river,
| and found the old trail to California.
| Here he met up with large party
of gold seekers heading toward the
| northwest. On hearing his story, part
of the enormous crowd decided to re-
turn with him to the mine, and more
than 500 people, with 40 wagons, &C
cepted him as their leader.
| How was a man to retrace trail
like his? How could he remember ev-
cry landmark, every direction, of those
| terrible IS days of fight? Hubert
thought he could, but all summer long
he tried in vain to reach that aban-
doned cabin where the bodies of his
friends guarded the golden treasure.
At. last he was forced to admit defeat
and the angry crowd, after even once
gathering to lynch their bewildered
leader, started westward.
Since then, many a good prospector
has spent years in the effort to locate
the Lost Cabin mine. "Old Pancake
. Comstock, grubstaked by Nevada men,
searched for it in vain. A Colorado
miner named Beckley, following direc'
: itions given by a dying friend, thought
. he had found it, but his discovery
proved to be copper. Later another
prospector, Sweeney by name, found
AN enormous outcropping which he
thought must be the mother lode, and
Associated Press items told that the
Lost Cabin lead had at last been found
But this ore also proved to be copper
Then, during the Sioux uprising
when the Big Horn country was alive
with Indians, three men made theil
: way up to the head of the Little Big
l Horn, and here they found what mus
7 have been the real mother lode of the
} Lost Cabin gold. 1t was the larges
known body of rich quartz in the
world
The newcomers built a boat, loaded
1t with gold, and planned to float dow
2 the river until the reached a settle
2 ment. Here they would outfit and re
/ turn to where fortune had smiled he
1 golden grin at them. But death lurket
y downstream: the Sioux camp, stretches
: along the river, was more than three
D miles long, and 5000 warriors waitet
and longed for a chance to spill whit
] mans blood.
III It was midnight when the awkward
. boat started past this gigantic camp
E "A dog, shifting the air, barked excited
] Ily. A sentinel peered and listened
/ The rapids of the Little Big Horl
. reached for the boat. In haste, tn
. miners grew panicky-a moment more
and the boat OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES, an
4 they were captives of the hostile Sioux
FL In the scuffle that ensued, one maj
. managed to get away. He had n
food, no weapons, and his clothing ha
been torn until only few rags covere
him. But he had clenched his han
NJ over a couple of nuggets, and these b
kept during the days when he war
.dered in search of settlement. A
last he stumbled into little town.
|. What happened to Sitting Bull
Custer. and the rest, is history. Tn
Z country became safe from Indian
4 again. But the one man who coul
have trailed the golden phantom bac
to the Lost Cabin lode sat in the SUI
Z shine and babbled of immense wealth
, of hunger, of Indians, of his beautlfr