Show the prospector I 1 and his burro J by wil C higgins it has been a long while since I 1 visited this part of the country said the prospector to his burro and it looks as if no one had been here since my last visit it is evident that you take no interest in the mining possibilities here and seem concerned only about the possibilities of this beautiful little spring and the little grassy patch below it but this is really a historic spot and yonder rough slabs mark the resting place of those who first ventured into this region and who came to their un untimely timey end through the treachery of a marauding ma band of redskins red skins it was some twenty five years ago that a prospecting party of five left S jan an berdue headed in a northeasterly direction they were well equipped as to provisions and supplies and had a pack train of five jacks for weeks they searched the canyons and saddles of this mountain range until finally they made a most important gold discovery somewhere not very far from where we are now camped As a matter of fact they made this spring their headquarters and had built a rock cache in which to store their provisions the remains of which you can still see over there under that overhanging t cliff the boys had already pounded out considerable of the yellow metal from their discovery which is popularly supposed to be not further than three quarters of a mile from this spring they had opened up a vein of honeycombed honey combed quartz that was literally lousy with gold and had planned to put in an w when hen the tragedy of which I 1 am about to tell you transpired on the night in question after playing stuff until it was too dark to see they all turned in not even thinking of setting a night guard the burros were all down on the little meadow and not even a dog had been brought along for with a dog in camp the calamity might not have happened 1 I 1 see that you are becoming interested in my story continued the prospector and wish that I 1 would hurry on to the blood and thunder portion of my narrative as you have tears to shed over my recital and fear f ear that th at if they are held back too long there will eventually be a cloudburst in this vicinity all of which speaks well for your tender and sympathising sympathizing nature but to my story that night the little party was set upon by a band of prowling indians which had been trailing them for weeks without a word of warning each member of the prospecting party was tomahawked toma hawked and four were killed outright the fifth victim however received only a scalp wound and managed to roll over into the bushes unobserved by the savages then very slowly he crawled away until he was far enough so that he could take to his feet when he fled from the scene of bloodshed as fast as he could reaching aching He a crevice in some jutting rocks he hid until morning and about noon worked his way back cautiously to where the bodies of his comrades lay scalped scalded and despoiled of their clothing that night he began his weary way back to san Bero berdue lue where a posse was soon formed to return to camp bury the dead hunt down the indians if in the vicinity and finally to resume work in the operation of the newfound new found gold mine the bodies stark and swollen were just as they had been left and those slabs yonder mark the resting place of the remains the indians were not to be found and so it was decided to follow out the plan of working the mine during all this time the prospector who had escaped had been suffering from the blow on his head and with privations and exposure he seemed rational enough but had lost all remembrance of the direction to the mine and its 1 location weeks were spent in th endeavor to rediscover discover re it but to no avail since then many parties have been out in these hills trying to find the lost mine but without success for there is no more evidence of its existence than could be found in westlake park in los angeles I 1 hope however while we are here to be able to throw a little glimmer of light on this mystery and to prove to the world that there is really a great mine here and that the story 1 I am telling you is not a mere myth or id idle e dream 1 I want to tell you old long ears concluded the prospector this is an awfully big country and one could find a big cropping of gold ore hereabouts one day and lose it the next just as easily as one could lose a needle in a haystack so that I 1 am always a firm believer in more than half of the stories of lost mines and am always ready to go 90 out and look for them but believe me if I 1 had been prospecting these mountains in the early days I 1 should always have had a night guard out or at least had a dog along and there you are and then some |