Show THE prospector AND HIS BURRO every time that I 1 stroke your back said the prospector to his burro and the electric sparks fly out it makes me think of copper and this again makes me reflect on the new camp of greenwater Green water in inyo county california but recently invaded by such noted magnates as charlie schwab johnnie W gates patsy dark clark senator willie A dark clark don on B gillies malcolm mcdonald borax smith councilman A J davis and col nick but I 1 want to tell you that in my opinion I 1 was one of the first white men that ever visited that region and I 1 would not go through the experience of that trip again for all of the copper in the west by the way you are wagging those long ears of yours I 1 believe you would like to hear the story so here goes several years ago shortly after the building of the southern pacific through the desert plains of nevada and over the great sierra nevada range into california I 1 was mining or rather prospecting in a section of country close to what is now known as lida not far from the present atte site of the great camp of goldfield in some way I 1 heard of a wonderful gold discovery near the panamint range and with a partner and two burros I 1 started out for the new eldorado which had been found by a cowboy who had paid but little attention to it and could give but meagre description as to its exact location excepting that it was on the top of a mountain that was extremely rugged on the west but which had a gentle slope to the east we had all kinds of adventures as we made the journey all kinds of hardships camping sometimes without water sometimes near bitter springs until we reached the armagost Arm agosa river near where the district of bullfrog is now located once or twice we had a brush with indians and in one of these encounters I 1 was shot through the fleshy part of my right arm by an arrow one of the burros was bitten byda rattlesnake and lied died and my partner had a severe attack of fever from armagost Arm agosa to the panamint range the journey was long and most trying when fairly in these lofty mountains we pitched camp and hunted for days for the cowboy ledge twice we moved camp and from the last one we prospected up through a deep canyon on the steep precipitous sides of which we found an old stone shack in which was a very aged mexican he was infirm and almost blind and why he lived there alone and so far from human habitation we could not ascertain he would hardly talk to us and was very suspicious of us until we furnished him liberally with tobacco when we asked him if he knew the location of the cowboy ledge at first he plead ignorance of the existence of gold in that locality but finally after we had given him a drink from our black bottle he became more sociable and indicated that we might find the object of our search in the mountains back of our camp in the morning almost before sunrise we started out taking our burro and outfit with us in time the ascent became very rugged and we were compelled to leave the burro and baggage behind taking with us our rifles and provisions sufficient for a day in places the mountain was almost impassable and exceedingly cee dangerous to travel but at last we reached the summit where to our joy we found the great ledge much decomposed and disintegrated but in the debris we found nuggets of gold as large as the end of my thumb and the float quartz was shot through and through with gold in its native state did we feel happy you ask well I 1 should say we were we laughed danced and sang then we filled our pockets and prepared for the descent to the spot where we had left our burro but as we turned to go we were attacked by indians who were hidden behind the rocks they were between us and our camp and we were compelled to fly to the east my partner was wounded in the leg and I 1 was slightly hurt in the side the indians were too strong for us and we fled to the desert and traveled all night in the day we made a secret camp and hid but we knew by the columns of smoke ascending from the highest peaks behind us that our foes were signaling to their friends the morning of the second day found us almost at the spot where greenwater Green water is now located we camped under the cropping of an immense ledge that contained thousands upon thousands of tons of a good grade of copper ore in fact copper was all around around us and we marvelled marvellee marvel led greatly at the immense deposits but had bad the enormous outcrop been solid gold we could not have staid as our lives were at stake and we were without provisions and supplies we started eastward again at dusk and managed to shoot a few jack rabbits which tasted very t good to us for a week we traveled ony on passing a little to the north of what is now the camp of los vegas and finally struck the virgin river at its cn confluence fluence with the colorado here we constructed a crude raft and floated down the mighty river until we reached fort mohave from there I 1 drifted over to the coast two or three years ago I 1 made another effort to find the cowboy ledge but the country seemed so changed that I 1 was unable to find it again 1 I want to tell you old long ears this was a great gold find but I 1 am inclined to believe that it was no bigger than the copper we found at greenwater Green water and it now looks as if this would eventually make one of the greatest copper camps in the west and my partner and myself were the first to find it copper at that time was comparatively ively worthless but now these wonderful deposits are virtually worth millions I 1 could have located them a year or two ago but I 1 am a gold miner and prospector and it is hard for me to leave the beaten path I 1 am in and so with you I 1 am still on the hunt for the yellow metal |