Old Bookaroo
Silver Member
- Dec 4, 2008
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Legendary Mines.
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The Daily Alaska Dispatch of recent date contains an article about "Legendary Mines." The writer mentions Chris Keyes "Lost El Dorado," which as the story goes is in [the] Bear Paw mountains in the Choteau country, says the Western Mining World. The mine has never been found. He also notices the Peg Leg mine, a famous deposit of marvelously rich ore. That mine is still lost to the world, although found between Yuma and Los Angeles and has been repeatedly searched for. The Belle McKeever, named after a captive in the hands of the hostile Apaches, is also classed among the legendary mines which have never been found by searching parties. They never will be.
The entire western and northwestern country, if stories may be credited, are prolific of lost mines which have been discovered and all sight lost of them by crazed or highly imaginative prospectors. Every old-timer can recall their names. California had its quota, Montana is credited with not a few, but Arizona claims the blue ribbon for lost El Dorados. They never materialized near the locality were, as the story goes, they were found and lost. "Lost mines" have furnished food for many wagging tongues around old-time miners? hearthstones and in quite corners of camp's grog shops. They were the stock in trade of old topers who retailed their yarns to open-mouthed tenderfeet for a glass of tarantula juice or a square meal. But in this late day and generation those lost mine stories fail as drawing cards. The have lost their hair-splitting, pulse-lifting power. The greenest pilgrim takes no stock in them.
Still, strange and incredulous as it may seem to the unobservant and indifferent, it is true that the western mining states are full of lost mines, lost to those who once profitably worked them, and then abandoned them in disgust. They failed to pay. The "pay-streak" in quartz or the pay channel in placers had been lost. The owners had broken themselves to recover the lead and, failing, condemned the ground as worthless. Every old miner of experience can recall instances where abandoned mines have yielded fortunes under a new management and changed conditions. Brains, capital and added experience did the business, the lost was found and money made.
Individual instances may not be cited, for those who have long resided in mineral countries can recall the time and place where just one more shot, or one more day's work could have opened up a mine, which was lost to the original owners by the absence of that shot or that day's labor. A mine was lost, a fortunate day found it for another. It was a cruel loss to the one, a blessing to the other. Lost mines, like lost money, are seldom recovered by the losers, but they are recoverable, all the same. An accident reveals the treasure to one, logical deductions lead another to it. But whether accidents or reasons unearth a fortune[,] the fortune is there for some one.
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The man who attempts to cloud the title or decrys [sic] the merits of others' claims, is a brother of the mine jumper and would rob your camp during your absence.
The Arizona Silver Belt [Globe, Gila County, Arizona] 15 March 1900 (VOLUME XXII. No. 49.)
Editor's Note: More later on the "Lost Belle McKeever Mine."
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Good luck to all,
The Old Bookaroo
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