Show MOUNTAIN TALES The Stormy August of 1875 in the Rocky Mountains STORIES TOLD IN THE DARKNESS Hail and Sleet in CheyenneCaught on the Summit West of Georgetown Colo A Miners Symposium f I oJ 7oJ to P l s UGUST 187d was an unusual sort of month in the high plains and I through the Rocky mountains generally In Utah and Idaho where usually not a drop of rain falls at that season there were sudden stormsof most amazing violence xain came in sheets forked lightning played among the mountain peaks in a way to de light the poet and the artist while in the val ley even in Salt Lake City thunder ran along the ground as the people said Down at Beaver where the once notorious John D Lee was on trial for his life there was rain enough that year to clothe a red desert with green growths Leaving Utah after the drought had resumed its normal sway I reached Cheyenne just in time to intercept storm of sleet and hail which left the prai xie covered in places an inch deep with ice i 1 Atctr 3i I f A PROSPECTOR People began to say that nature had changed her processes that all the far west would soon be a rainy region once more that < 3reat Salt laVe would go on rising till it stood once more level with the old shore marks on the mountain SOO feet above its present level the elevation of the lowest pass in the rim of the basinthat the deserts of Ifevuda would bud and blossom and things in general bo quite promiscuous But it was not to be soat least not immediately The last of the month found me in Georgetown George-town Colo and that lovely mountain glen was looking as dry and bright certainly as it ever did T There couldnt have been a clearer morning morn-ing than that on which I started with two practical miners to go over the range to visit some mines on the western side of the mountain summit and therefore on the slope towards the Colorado All the weather prophets in Washington would have agreed ihat several fine days were ahead of us Nothing could have been lovelier than the combination of azure sky and bright sun shining on the yellow rocks and the green forests far below as we passed the summit Language cannot describe the charm of riding J rid-ing down the canyon westward getting be Pow the timber line and threading the pine forest to the secluded mine And so it continued con-tinued until about 4 p m and we Were thinking of starting on the return when suddenly sud-denly in less than five minutes it turned so dark that one could scarcely see ten rods throuch the woods We were mounted and off in three minutes min-utes The whole western sky was black as might and up from the valley the mist was trolling in clouds that seemed like solid fleeces like steam from an enormous caldron Evidently something was brewing and we fastened to pass the summit But the storm got there first Tho light mist enveloped us at the foot of the 1500 feet climb on the western west-ern side A third or half way up the wet rain came A little later the sleet then the scene was truly sublime Ve were as in the mouth of a tunnel All the force of the 1t i 1JJ Of lJJI I co t4Y i j A SNOW SLIDE jstorm from the west was naturally concen jfcrotiag in the narrow pass from above below be-low both sides tho thunder rattled among the pecks while far down the canyon we could see the jaj jed lightning striking out as Xf it wore trying to get at us Around us was a whirling whito cloud above us a dull gray blank I But the traveler ian high pass has some advantages ad-vantages the damp warm air of the lower valleys is seldom driven so nigh even by tno I fiercest wind The storm had outrun us but we bad climbed up through its strata mist rain and sleet were left behind and we were in a mountain snow storm On the summit in a blinding snow storm nothing visible a rod in any direction so a few minutes halt to counsel and let tho animals breathe Give i your horse his bead and hang on said the oldest miner I did and soon felt him dropping drop-ping his forefoot rapidly down the shelVing mountain side Instead of going around the winding way the experienced brutes had struck straight down declivity seemed to me that we were not twenty minutes in descending de-scending 1500 feet to the grassy hills where the slope is more gentle In twenty minutes I 4ju iMSsixiAK idjaWfe more we were in tne main roaa unen mv animals indulged in an exulting snort and broke into a gallop In an hour we were far down in the timber where the air was so warm that our overcoats felt heavy By late supper time we were in the cozy speakeasy of the Barton house the sky was crystal clear all was lovely and the awful storm seemed like a vision All the same there was two feet of snow in tho pass the next day and we soon learned that some lives had been I lostOur Our little experience set all the old fellows I in the barroom to talking and when a party in a mining town talks the old prospector starts in early and holds out to the last Tho prospector is the character of the camp that is if he is a real and confirmed prospector prospec-tor and not an amateur or a casual The real prospector is as incurable as the confirmed firmed old drunkardhe will die so Give him a good claim in an old camp with fair dividends let him have a pleasant home and plenty of money wash him shave him seek to disguise him in store clothesit is all in vain The prospector shows in every line of his countenance Let a rumor spread that indications have been noticed in some hitherto unsuspected range of mountains and the old prospector is off like the old warhorse war-horse at the sound of the trumpet A week later he is in the wild canyon blanket twist 61 in a roll and strung over his shoulder ipyiiig every stain oa the rocks scauning very sand deposit in the streams peering here and pecking at the rock thero inK in-K > rt prospecting for signs of mineral Personally ho is a walking encyclopedia of his locality collectively they are the incar ated physical geography of the mountains Quo had his story of an Indian march one without provisions the travelers living oa rosa leaves buds and roots of various I kinds and such game as they could kill of COO i miles from the most westerly camps then in Colorado to the Mormon settlements Others told piteous tales of starvation and suffering from snowstorms and still others of perils on the steep mountain side perils from savages perils from floods nnd death by thirst The lesson of it all was that the west was redeemed deemed at a great price in suffering and life There is an ineradicable instinct in the Aryan Ary-an race discover what lies beyond No race of white men ever remained long on one side olin ountain chain without feeling an unap JKble longing to know who or what was on Tlie other side If they camp by a strange river they hanker to know where it heads and what it empties into What is the formation of that mountain f mat is the country rock over the divide are I questions the miner is perpetually asking till he gets an answer no matter whether he has any money interest in it or not The old prospector can answer such questions and soho so-ho old prospector is very welcome to such s an evening party as ours Tar more amusing but occasionally pathetic pa-thetic were the accounts of long struggles over mining claims for almost every valu able mining property has been the occasion of a few fights and some deaths One told of the last deadly fight over the East Rooa claim near Georgetown which half a dozen men were shot another of the tragedies trage-dies connected with the DivesPelican and still another of the rfunny business in the claim known as the Cap Wells We had em dead to rights said this veteran for we was workm under em and as we got nearer near-er together and e could hear heir picks as if hey were just he other side c fa brick wall = Awe A-we set up a 4 stinker on em I Wo found I a crevice that Zfe iy c I I WE HAD EM DEAD TO EIGHTS ve could work a little pipe through and under un-der the funnel end we piled up some of the gol blamedest stinkinest stuff the assayer could get up and set fire to it The draught was > eautiful in half a minute their drift was nil and you ought to aneard em ahustlin up the ladder They all got up but two and they tumbled low Pothers run out and yelled for us to shut it off and we did not dot do-t a second too soon for they just did bring the fellows too and only just How does hat strike you for a stinkin joke It struck me as just that sort of a joke And with such cheerful tales did the honest miners while away the evening hours J B PAKKE |