Show i J the lost cowboy gold ledge writt the S written mining f for ne review C I 1 i flat of offs lei lei lei follet W lot toilet 01 of jai lot lei M lei lot too toilet too toile so 1 4 many fany years ago about the time of the building of the southern pacific over the dreary deserts of nevada and through V the he sierra nevada mountains I 1 had been min ing on the border line of nevada and california those were the days of extensive gold placer mining operations and while iliad I 1 had met with occasional good luck in my various mining enterprises I 1 was rather hard up at the time I 1 write or and was also turning my attention to a certain extent to gold quartz mining having been in informed by a roving cowboy of a section in panamint range in california below what is now the famous camp of tonopah To in nevada where in one of his wanderings wandering 3 he had found a spot wild and rugged where a quartz ledge cropped boldly to the surface the vein being filled with nuggets of gold as large as a walnut while scattered abundantly along the surface near the ledge there were large chunks of the yellow metal in a pure state that had been released from the vein by the action of frost and heat and by erosion in corroboration of his story he showed me large nuggets bugge s and pieces of gold which he had collected during his short stay in this land of gold his sojourn there being but brief as there was no water waier in the immediate vicinity and he was short of provisions and a long way from any supply station he also gave me a map of the locality as near as he could remember but his directions were indefinite and to me somewhat vague about this time I 1 received a letter from my brother joe living in one of the eastern states who said that he be had been advised to go west byl by his physician on account a of lung trouble I 1 wrote him to join me as soon as possible and that together we would start out on a prospecting trip in quest of the marvelous discovery made alde hy by my cowboy friend in the meanwhile I 1 got a good camping outfit together purchased two or three saddle ponies and as anany any burros so that by the time my brother arrived we were ready to start out upon our ur rather venturesome journey which we thought might be attended by some danser danger and peril as the country in those days was as virtually unexplored band and was inhabited by tribes of warlike indians our journey was a tiresome one ane water courses and springs here ere few a and nd far r between and despite careful precautions OtI we were often compelled to camp ver over night in some aird and lonesome place with uh our canteens dry and without a drop of 1 I water wherewith to slake our feverish thirst arst our way was a difficult one deep canyons had to be crossed and precipitous cliffs and precipices often compelled us to follow a circuitous route in order to pursue our journey in the direction desired we often found strong ledges which although not as rich in the yellow metal as we desired would be accounted bonanzas in this day and age once we camped upon the banks of a small stream in the sands of which joe while washing our dinner dishes discovered particles of native gold we stopped here for a few days and before leaving had washed out several thou sand dollars by our grimit primitive ve methods this placer should have satisfied our inordinate greed for riches it has since turned out its thousands its millions for those who came after us but we were after nuggets chunks of gold and would not stay to gather up the easy money that was ours for almost the asking after leaving this stream we had misfortune for a companion one of our ponies died from a rattlesnake bite and a burro ate of the loco weed and died a short time after being as crazy as a maniac before death ended his sufferings to make things worse joe was pushed paea by his pony against a jutting rock and his leg feg was badly crushed and wrenched wrench sd this necessitated a stopover stop over for another week or ten days and it was well along into the excessively warm season before he was able to resume his way onward two days out from this camp we were compelled to defend ourselves against an indian attack there were but two of our foes a couple of antelope hunters using some outcrop ping rocks as a sort of fort we defend defended eI ourselves for an hour or more when by a lucky shot I 1 killed one of the indians and joe slightly wounded the other but not before a bullet had penetrated the muc muscles cles of my right arm we lay all night behind the rocks keeping constant guard my arn arm pained me dreadfully but joe bound it up for me as well as he could under the circumstances cum stances the country ilow how be began an to grow wilder and more precipitous we made but slow progress although we must be nearing the locality so ardently s sought for when we finally arrived at the conclusion that we must be within a short distance from the wonderful gold be beading aling ledge we established a permanent camp near a small cpr spring ing near which mountain cedars grew in profusion the valleys below being dotted with growths pf af the giant joshua joshuaa jos huas s a plant closely allied to the cactus and other vegetable life in the scorching sc deserts of this southern country every morning for two we weeks aks we left camp early in the search for the cowboy ledge 1 we found many small veins and stringers in which nati native ve gold was visible but this was not what we were look ing for one day well up along the side of a box canyon we found evidences of prehistoric occupation in that locality lity perched against the side of a steep cliff was the rem nant of what were termed cliff dwellers inside back in a cavern part cave and partly an excavation made by human hands we found a mummy which although shriveled and black was in an almost perfect state of preservation the mummy in life must have been a person of good heigh heights th and his features were good we also found ancient pottery bone knives and axes and covered over with ashes and debris we found corn on the cob and in perfect condition in a crevice in the rock we found a few gold ornaments and several good sized nuggets of the same metal about half a mile from the ancient abode of the cliff dwellers one day we stumbled onto a small dilapidated shack and to our great surprise it was inhabited the occupant being an old mexican so wrinkled stooped and toothless that he must have been at least a hundred years old he also was nearly blind and could scarce speak an intelligible telli gible word why he lived alone in this bleak and desolate re region ion we could never find out by signs and in other ways we made him understand why we had ventured into solitudes of the panamint Para mint range at first he maintained absolute silence as to the possession pos of any knowledge concerning the object of our search but after we ve had given him his fill of our bacon real bread and coffee and he had smoked of our tobacco until he was content he became more friendly and communicative and finally offered to direct up to the ledge we were seeking but he refused absolutely to accompany us to the spot the next morning bright and early we set out and by noon had reached a point where we must leave our ponies and burros for it seemed that the cowboy had made his find from the other side which we afterward found sloped gently for some distance to the east and until the country became broken and cut up by canyons taking with us provisions cant to last for two or three days and a canteen of water each we began the hard and somewhat per ilous climb to the crest creet of the range for five hours we toiled onward and upward sometimes crawling on our hands and knees now and again we were compelled to scale the rocks where a goat could hardly have found a foothold in one or two instances we we were re obliged to mount each others shoulders and throw a rope over a pr projecting boulder in order to make the ascent at last how however ever 2 bruised and weary we reached more level ground and shortly after had re found the ledge as described to us by the cowboy at the sight our weariness left us we shouted for joy we hugged each other and almost wept for the quartz was as rich as our friend had described it and on the ground scattered d around promiscuously were great nuggets and chunks of the pure metal a fortune for a the millions of a vanderbilt I 1 it was now beginning to get dark and filing our pockets with some of the finest nuggets we prepared to return jurn to our temporary camp to where we had left our ponies burros and supplies upon reaching the point where the hazardous descent began we were suddenly set upon by a band of hostile indians seeing that they outnumbered us ten to one we made a hasty retreat and none too soon as in the brief skirmish I 1 had a bullet through my hat and joe had a scratch under his left arm to remain where we were was almost certain death and as it was now dark we fled to the east and kept up our pace throughout the greater portion of the night in the morning we rested but from the smoke from the signal fires which we beheld behind us we felt certain that the indians had not abandoned the pursuit and that they were warning their allies of our presence in the country the next night we started east again skirting p the northern rim of death valley and that night camped in a romantic spot at the juncture of two creeks which are now marked on the maps as armagost Arm agosa and ash creeks here we rested fo for the day and refreshed ourselves keeping a bright lookout for the savages for two nights more we continued our weary travel being reduced almost to starvation as pur provisions had given out cut our only means of sustenance now being a few ground squirrels that we were able to kill finally almost perishing for food and water we reached the grand canyon canyon of the colorado at the point near which it is joined by the virgin river which rises in southwestern utah crosses a corner of arizona and finds its way to one of the greatest water courses in the west where this river for a short distance forms the boundary line between nevada and arizona for two days we followed along down this mighty canyon until we were able to descend to the river here hidden in the bushes we found an old canoe and here also we were able to kill a deer as we had drought brought our rifles with us although he had thrown away all our gold with the exception of a few small nuggets for two days we floated down the river camping upon its banks at night when we reached fort mohave where we were kindly treated and cared for A month later we joined a freighting outfit bound for california where for many years we engaged in mining joes lung complaint by this time having entirely disappeared twice since then and the last time not more than five years ago joe and I 1 with several companions have tried to find the cowboy ledge but in vain while I 1 am satisfied tho that t we have been in its near vicinity the country looked changed ani and although w wr searched for it faithfully I 1 am now sati fled that it will never be found again unless it is by accident we are wis er now than we were then for by our folly in not being willing to stay with a good thing when we had it we lost our placer gold our camping outfit while the diggings we discovered the first week out when next we visited it in the hopes that no one had found it as yet were being held and worked by a hundred or more of hardy miners who had already taken from it a million or more in the yellow metal |