The Western Echo / A Description of the Western State and Territories of the United States. As Gathered in a Tour by Wagon

by George W. Romspert

The sand and gravel from the placer-mine are hauled to water, and there the metal is washed out. This is called panning, and is spoken of as panning out “rich” or “poor.”

In the sluice or gulch mine the men dig the dirt into the water and mash up the clods, throw out the stones, etc., and the dirt all washes down while the metal sinks to the bottom. When there is considerable on the bottom, the stream is turned and the gold is taken up, put in troughs, and washed out as in placer-mines.

There is great gold and silver excitement in the mountains all the time, and many fortunes have been made, while, on the other hand, many have been lost.

There are companies in the mountains who employ miners who wish to prospect—and have nothing to go on—upon these conditions: They will furnish picks and shovels and grub stakes, and if the miners strike anything they are to give half to the company. The expenses of the company in these bargains are not very heavy; and many of them have made large fortunes from a pick and shovel and the little sack of provisions that they hung upon the back of an old, crippled miner.

It takes a great deal of money to work a mine payingly, especially a quartz-mine; and often a poor miner is compelled to sell a rich find for very little. Rich companies watch these opportunities, to take the advantage.

In the summer-season, when the snows are melted down, parties of one, two, and three persons, with tools and provisions packed on burros,—and sometimes on cattle,—are roaming all through the mountains,—down the slopes and up the gorges, from the pine-forests below to the barren, snow-capped peaks above,—toiling in the day-time and by moonlight, greedy and anxious for gold.

There are many inexperienced persons going into the mountains every year to prospect; and though the old miners have many tests and a great knowledge as to the sign of ore, a greenhorn often makes a find in his very tracks; for the old miner passes over, depending greatly on his ability to tell almost at sight, while the greenhorn comes along turning every curious-looking stone and digging wherever anything glitters. The following are a few such instances: In the year 1878 two brothers named Sisson, living at Granada, were at Pueblo court as witnesses. They testified in the forenoon, and taking a pick and shovel, in the afternoon, they started out among the hills toward Pike’s Peak to prospect. When they were four or five miles from town their attention was attracted by the peculiar color of the rocks and gravel on the slope of a little hill; and though they knew nothing whatever about mining, they thought there must be metal there. So with pick and shovel they dug away, and by the moonlight they still worked. In the morning they were satisfied that they had struck rich ore, though they had dug but eight feet deep. One of them stayed there and the other went to town to report. That very evening the boys were offered twenty thousand dollars for their find. This place had been trod over many times, and the pick and spade had turned the soil on all the surrounding slopes.

One of the best mines at Leadville, also, was discovered by a poor, ignorant Swiss, who took his tools on his back, to make or break. Some miners, while prospecting among the hills, were attracted by fresh dirt, and going to the place they found the old Swiss sitting in the bottom of a hole seven or eight feet deep, with his head upon his hands, and so weak that he could hardly stand. He had run out of grub, and, knowing that he had made a find, he was afraid to leave it lest some other person should get possession; and thus he was starving to death. This proved to be an immense fortune for the old fellow; and, wiser than most miners, he was content to take good and let better alone; and he sailed for his motherland, where the crystal lakes nestle in the Alpine folds, there to rest and enjoy his treasure.

Finds are continually being made; but the fortune comes so suddenly that the miner, like the gambler, usually spends freely, and is anxious to try his luck still further. Claims are often jumped by other parties, and some bitter fighting is sometimes done; for if there is one thing besides a man’s own life that he will shed his blood for, it is the glittering gold.

Miners receive from five to seven dollars per day, and furnish their own tools. It is certainly hard and dangerous work to dig in the mine so far below, and thus seeing but little sunlight the whole season through; but, strange to say, there are men who have crippled and ruined themselves in the dark gold-dens, and though hobbling on crutches are not yet content to live anywhere but where the pick rings against the rocks, and the exciting cry of gold is heard.