Show RICH PLACER GOLD DISCOVERY REPORTED ON LINE OF D R G A bonanza gold discovery which will rank as one of the richest ever made in colorado has just been made near edwards on the D R G W railroad according to a grand junction colo dispatch of recent date A few weeks ago one could have seen three men throwing one of sand and gravel after another into a sluice box in a narrow canyon in western colorado one of these men was an old time prospector now well beyond three score and ten he was finishing his eth year of search for a rich streak of pay dirt supposed to lie somewhere in the stream bed of the canyon geologists said it should be there indians said it was there and every well known prospector in the state knew of the phantom bed of precious metal in this narrow canyon but none of the hundreds who diligently prospected from one end of the canyon to the other was able to find more than a trace of gold this old time prospector was none other than robert F smith of Kren krimmling kremmling Kr imling his companions at the sluice box were ruland grindle and carl norgaard As they shoveled away their hopes ran high it was the fifteenth anniversary of smiths first visit to the canyon in 1874 but this was not the only reason for high b hopes old tools show the way when men smith came again this year as usual to look for flie the precious gold lie he made a strange discovery geologists contended that gold should be found about three miles up the canyon and it was around that point that most mo st of the I 1 prospecting had been done following a hunch that had haunted him all last winter smith went down nearer the mouth of the canyon here he uncovered sonic some old tools half rusted away how long they had been there he does not lot know but lie he does know that they were left by prospectors before 1874 rounding up his partners the old prospector went into the canyon with complete camps camp outfit with materials for sluice box with tools and above all with a light heart and a heavy hunch t on this day a few weeks ago the three men shoveled daway smith although still pretty spry despite his three score ore and twelve summers is not the man mail he was when lie he started prospecting fifty y years ears ago he stopped stopp ed shoveling tuck stuck his shovel up in the sand wiped the perspiration from his brow with a big blue bandanna and stepped to the sluice u e box ox for another periodical look it was then that lie he held up his hand motioning the others lers to stop shoveling silently the three bent down ver the sluice box for nearly a minute they held motionless ti gold specks of gold gold dust and tiny nuggets of gold sad smiths voice broke as lie he tried to say weve struck gravel rich gold pure y I 1 the strike which is Ieli believed eved to be one of the richest placer made ade in a narrow strikes e ver ever made in colorado was m 0 canyon near I 1 edwards deagle dagle wards about 17 miles east of 1 in n R agle smith never saw county in all his experiences uch cha a coarse grained glacer cylawer gold it travel four f I 1 IJ f let in tile the sluice box lna the e gold olal is virtually pure its value is placed at I 1 2067 20 67 a an i I 1 ounce ordinarily gold ru runs is fron from 14 to 20 an 10 ance the latter being the highest value ever known in dorado colorado tic according cording to mr smith it is estimated that t he workings will run 3 to the yard A dredge cannot iti used I because se the canyon is so narrow and rugged but it is ls believed that the hydraulic method can be used sonic some of the nuggets found are nearly half an inch long and have a value of about 1 following the news of the strike visitors to the canyon were many and they begged so hard that nearly all of them went away with a tiny nugget of gold smith said that they gave away more than they kept he carries a little bottle of the stuff around with him when winter came on and things froze up tip all work was necessarily stopped smith and his wife came to grand junction to spend the winter while their young daughter goes to school he says that operations will probably go forward on a big scale when winter breaks he and his companions had been working for two months when the strike was made the bottom of the gulch where the richest dirt is expected has not yet been touched |