Show highlights past and present by E T wolverton february 6 1928 continued from last week the ore was new to bowen and interested him to the extent that he urged burke to stay at his place until he had fully recovered from his recent punishment promising when the mountains and after invest investigate igat that time arrived they would get together a good outfit go back into ing fully take a fall fail out of the in deans to this burke agreed and after several months bowen disposed of his interests in desert springs they both came up to minersville Miners ville where some others were interested in the venture and after securing a good pack outfit headed for the locality where burke had made his find on their way into the moun bains they hired a man by the name of blackburn to help look after the stock cook and as f far ar as he knew the country act as their guide arriving at the mountains they camped on what is known as corral creek burke took bowen directly to his find which proved to be the outcropping of a rich gold bearing ledge they broke off about ibs lbs of the quartz having no drills or blasting pow powder der they could only recover the surface quartz upon deciding to return for mining tools powder and other supplies they very carefully covered their work ings and cached their tools under the foot of a near by tree they had come into the around the north and east sides of mount ellen but in going back they went through the pass between mount pennell and mount ellen headed west and north across the desert for pleasant creek n the east slope of boulder mountain from penn ellen pass the desert had appeared comparatively smooth but on reaching it they found many deep canyons bordered by high escapements they became bewildered dewil dered among the canyons and cliffs and suffered intensely from thirst somewhere in the middle of the desert they found a small pool of water and unheeding the vigorous protests of blackburn both bowen and burke drank heart uy ily and within an hour were deathly ill ill by dawn the next morning they had reached pleaman creek where they rested for several days bowen and burke being in a critical co condi n 11 upper end of rabbit valley where tion by east stages they made the blackburn lived here they rested for several days again by this time burke was much improved but bowen still suffered intensely during their few days rest in rab bit valley they were told the story of the medicine man mans s curse placed upon the workings of the old spanish mine and bowen at least appears to have been profoundly impressed leaving blackburn at his home 11 1 1 1 bowen and burke made their way to ville their partners at that point were well pleased the small amount of ore which the party had succeeded in bringing out was sent to salt lake city for sale and bowen went there for medical attention the ore was sold at the rate of more that 6 per ton bowen bowens s doctor gave him bun little en coura gement and less help after a few days he returned to minersville Miners ville and announced ha his intention of dropping out of the venture he made many objections to tho the enterprise but the two chief ones will suffice for the purpose of this state ment first the find was so isolated that their party could not build a decent wagon road to it he outlined the only possible route and mention ed some of the difficulties to be overcome second he was sure they had found the old spanish mine and while he did not take the old medi cine man seriously yet considering the fact that he had been pois poisoned boned by bad water and was in a critical condition he did not deem it wise to tempt fate too far none of the partners would listen to the suggestion that bowen should drop out of the venture they pointed out that the ore was of such value that no wagon road was needed it could be packed out at a profit the prattle of the old medicine man was nonsense As for his having been poisoned by bad water that occurred frequently in pioneering the deserts and with good water in the moun tarns he would speedily recover they promised to furnish him with as gowl good a pack train tram as could be I 1 found and also with money enough to employ other men for the hard labor until he was fully recovered finally bowen was persuaded to stay tay S with the enterprise and he and burke left minersville Miners ville vilIe with a asplen did outfit and enough funds to meet incidental expenses while waiting in rabbit valley for blackburn to arrange his affairs in order that he might accompany the jie expedition bowen was taken very ill and died when he knew death tn be very near he tried to arrange his affairs and charged burke to carry on in his stead d four days later burke died the pack train tram was returned d to minersville Miners ville and the closed although bow bodens ens partners had made light of his d desire asire to drop out of the venture yet there remains the significant fact that none of 0 them ever made the slightest attempt to revive the affair later blackburn came into the mountains with the intent of locating and working the find he had bar barely ely gotten into the mountains when he was recalled by an accident to one of bis his family after that to use his own expression sickness in my family and bad luck followed me for thirty years during the thirty year period he was compelled to move his family to another part of the state finally he made his way back and came into the mountains again he ile had been at the prospect only once that being the morning when they had gathered the ore up and packed it out bowen and burke had already covered the workings when he ar rived with the stock he insisted that both bowen and burke pointed out the covered workings blackburn helped cache the tools on this trip he succeeded in finding the tools but was unable to locate the prospect in 1921 he was brought into the section by parties who were trying to locate the find but now old and broken in health the he altitude had such an effect that he collapsed be fore reach reaching ing the point where the tools were found he was carried to the upper cabin on the rice property and revived with difficulty and has made no attempt to come into the district since we must now go back forty years to what Is still spoken of by pioneers in this district as the san juan gold rush gold was found along the san juan river in southeastern utah A great stampede followed from adjacent mining states some of the overflow from the rush reach ed the henry mountains and for the first tune time the district came under the scrutiny of experienced mining men to be concluded next week |