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Show Eureka, Tintic, where lie secured an interest in the Eureka Hill mine, which cost him $6,000. This interest he subsequently lost through law suits and assessments, but in the meantime he had converted the A peculiarity of the growth ot the mining industry in its various had from it shipped the first ore a . ,'ri is the general rule that the discover of valuable mines does not property from a prospect into mine; ever sent from Eureka, and discovered the Beck mine. To prove that ; . ;ain possession of them, and seldom enjoys any of the material The prospector is so it was a mine he started to work on it, as he himself says, "with from his energy and For ten years he continued the struggle U ni the mine owner that a case at variance with the rule can only $2,000 less than nothing. ' held as difficulties and without success, and proof of the rule. The habits of the prospector probably against almost insurmountable The formation through Which he for this anomalous condition, for it is usually his aim to dis-- .. almost without advancement. .,ver the mine. This may take him months of hard labor and rigor-i- s started his shaft was a hard; flinty quartz, that would, with the meagre which is frequently spent in one locality, and when he showing of mineral, have discouraged companies with capital, but had no such effect on the lone individual who didnt seem to be aware of iiids something he disposes of it at the tirst market reached. The the always open possibility of giving' it up. During this period John lake thus acquired puts him, on easy street for a few weeks or months, him--eBeck tasted the distress of the deepest poverty. He would borrow a according to its size, and during that period he usually devotes team and wagon and haul up a load of farm produce from Lehi to the as earnestly to the work . of getting rid of his money, in the enMammoth mine and load back with old junk to the smelters and deavor to furnish a good time to himself and others, as he did before foundries, and with the money thus received he would buy powder to to acquiring it. When it is all blowed in he takes the trail again to blast out a few inches more of the stub- find another mine. born rocki When this supply was exThe exception to this rule form a hausted he would repeat the operation, verv small class, but small as it is Utah sometimes varying it with a weeks furnishes at least one shining exception work in the harvest field or elsewhere in the person of John Beck, president where a dollar was to be earned, but and largest owner of the Bullion-Bec- k whatever the source the money invariamine in Tintic, of which he was the bly went into the hole. Such was the original locator and discoverer. Many stress of his conditions and the flint iness times since his labors tirst met with of the rock that at the end of ten years reward has lie. been, figuratively speak the shaft had attained a depth of only ing, thrown from the top story window, and just as often has he landed ninety feet. Beck and the one man le had to employ to hoist the dirt from on his feet, and through it all his pertithe shaft, existed on the scantiest faie, nacity has been so marked that he is s and lived, cooked and ate in tiie munth of still possessor of about of a tunnel, being too poor to even the remarkable mine that his adventurbuild a shanty. The only indications ous, prospecting spirit brought to light. of ore that were found in the shaft were John Beck was born .in Wertem-bersome specks of mineral through the Germany, 53 years ago.. Whether his youth was characteristic of his formation, and these were the only manhood in its remarkable reverses of encouragement in sight for the profortune is not known, but certain it is Beck many times heard himspector. that from his coming here at the age of self called a fool for continuing the 21 his career has been a. succession of work instead of making an honest ups and downs iii which he has alternaliving for his family, but he was not ted with the command of moderate capideterred from his work and kept on. tal, and sometimes great wealth, and the where no one else would have given a bitterness of poverty. While being of At length, moment's consideration. a very sanguiueJemperament he is a in 1880, a reward came. A shot that JOHN BECK, He is had been put off in the afternoon exstrong believer in predestination. Discoverer of the Beck mine and President of the Bullion-Bec- k imbued with the conviction that his desa small bunch of wire silver, and posed Champion Alining Company. the hopes of the prospector went up a tiny is at the top and has Consequently few7 notches. always regarded his material reverses as merely stepping stones Speaking of the incident, Mr. Beck says: I was overcome to his ultimate success. His first venture here was to acquire a with both joy and astonishment, and that night homestead in Richfield, Sevier county, which,, by 1866, by thrift I couldn't eat my supper or sleep. thought then that all my trciibles and hard work he had converted into the medium for supplying were over, but 1 was fooled, for had plenty more to do. him with a moderate competence. In that year the Indian trouble The bunch of silver was soon worked out, but two or three known as the Black Hawk war was raging in Sevier, and on one of hundred dollars were taken out, and this was immediately put back in their raids the Indians swept all of his accumulations from the face of the mine. For two years more the sinking continued, with an occinto the earth and destroyed his buildings by fire. asional small bunch of ore appearing, the proceeds always going The Saratoga Springs farm, on the west shore of' Utah lake, the ground again, until, in 1882, a chamber was discovered from which Even attracted his attention and for four years he worked the farm on $75,000 were taken in three months, at a depth of 1 50 feet. shares and acquired cpnsiderabie money, and it is not out of place here then the fight was not over, for no sooner had the Beck become a Pr0" the to state that though he lost the farm, he afterwards acquired title to it during mine than it was involved in an expensive conflict with and is still in full possession. While he was living there, the first two Eureka Hill, which claimed the Beck vein. For two months the tight wagon loads of ore from the Mammoth mine in Tintic stopped at his was waged underground against the Beck men by armed forces, and this failing to keep him out of the disputed territory, he was enjoined. place over night on way to the smelters, and at once John Beck got the mining fever. In 1870 he moved up to what is now the town of After years of fight in the courts and an expenditure of $JOO,Oi ,;J, tbs VJSCOFERER'mulVNER: ; bene-accurri- ng self-deni- al. self-deni- al, . lf . . two-third- g, 1 1 . y |
