Some Quotes.
“It has been said that the miner in these northern states is a rich man if he never finds gold or other valuable minerals.
I must agree; just being alive in the mountains of Oregon,
Idaho, Montana or Washington is an end worth striving for.”*
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“In Ireland, county of Wicklow, seven miles west of Arklow, about the year 1770, there was an old schoolmaster, who used frequently to entertain his neighbours with accounts of the richness of their valley in gold; and his practice was to go out in the night to search for the treasure. For this he was generally accounted insane. But, in some years after, bits of gold were found in a mountain stream, by various persons; and , in 1796 a piece weighing about half an ounce. The news of this having circulated amongst the peasantry, such an infatuation took possession of the minds of the people, that every other sort of employment, save that of acquiring wealth by the short process of picking it up out of the streams, was abandoned; and hundreds of human figures were to be seen bending over the waters, and scrutinizing every object there to be seen.”**
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Frank (Shorty) Harris discovered gold in the desert of Death Valley, August 9, 1904. His discovery resulted in the boom town of Rhyolite, Nevada. Shorty undersold his part of the claim while drunk in a bar soon. Shorty’s epitaph;
“Here lies Shorty Harris, a single blanket jackass prospector.”***
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“I have a 25 year old Ford Station Wagon. "Old Sunshine" I call her, no windows or curtains. So I ride only on sunny days and in this desert climate I don't have to stay home many days of the year.” ****
Notes:
* - Simple Methods of Mining Gold, by Terry R. Faulk, Filter Press, Palmer Lake, CO, 1981, Page 24.
** - This is from a dilapidated 19th century chemistry textbook that I found in a recycle bin - A Treatise on Chemistry, by Michael Donovan, London, 1832.
*** - My source is an excellent little book, Rhyolite, Ghost City of Golden Dreams, by Harold and Lucile Weight, Calico Press, Twintynine Palms, CA, 1953.
**** - From Harry Oliver’s Desert Rat Scrapbook, a 5 page newspaper made by him in the 1940’s.
