They called him a tenderfoot when he reached the end of the trail which led out into a sand-blown waste two hundred miles and more beyond rail transportation. Here, on the east slope of the San Francisco mountains, in southwest Utah—about thirty miles from Milford, on the San Pedro line—this man from the plains country, ripe for more adventure, was to have a try for a third mining fortune. It was his first hard-rock mining venture.
Green Campbell got the gold all right—millions of it — and distinguished himself by developing one of the greatest silver mines of the age. But that is only part of the story.
The great fortune was won by so close a margin that it hurt. Then there was, to some extent, the usual anti-climax — spiced with complicated domestic relations, growing out of an improvident situation.
But the name “tenderfoot,” as applied to Green Campbell, was not quite right. He had already taken $100,000 from the placers; certainly enough to lift him out of that classification. Even so, granting that he was a seasoned miner at the time he entered the Utah field, Green Campbell did, however, slip just a trifle.
The erroneous application of that appellation came about through a little misjudgment of the waters of that desert country—springs they are called. But the springs in that section, as in all other desert country, with few exceptions, are not the bubbling, sparkling, steady flow of waters generally visualized with the mention of springs. Rather, in most instances, they are only seepages of water which must be collected in ground reservoirs through a system of trenching the earth. Some of those springs supply what is termed on the desert as sweet water, while other springs—those issuing from volcanic rocks—are brackish and unfit for domestic use, or for steaming purposes. The first spring developed by Green Campbell was of the latter class.
Thus it was that when in later years Green Campbell went over into Nevada to establish a new camp, he first had the waters analyzed by a chemist, then very appropriately named his new camp Goodsprings. And it so remains on the map today—a gold, silver-lead-zinc, and vanadium mining camp down among the gentle slopes of the Spring mountain range in southern Nevada. The next two camps established by Green Campbell, in California, were named Vanderbilt and Providence. We may be sure the water there was good also.
Here, I want to interrupt my story to say that it was at Goodsprings where the writer was, some thirty-odd years ago, initiated into the mining game along with Campbell followers, and where much of the material for this narrative was picked up, first-hand. Here at Goodsprings were Elwood Thomas and his nephew, Frank Williams. Elwood Thomas had been Green Campbell’s right-hand man all through the latter’s colorful mining career, having gone out from the old home town in Kansas to join him in 1873. Frank Williams went direct from Wetmore to Mr. Campbell, at the age of twenty-one, and has spent forty-seven of his sixty-eight years on the Nevada desert. And perhaps I should say here that much of the information presented in this narrative was obtained from Mr. Thomas and Mr. Williams.
In the Utah field, then a new and isolated country, under conditions that tested the fiber of the man, Green Campbell prospected the hills of Beaver county for a while. Then, nearly five years later, his big opportunity came when he secured an option on a mining claim for which he agreed to pay $25,000. That claim was later developed into the famous Horn Silver mine, which, up to the time of my last visit nearly thirty years ago, had produced slightly in excess of twenty million dollars. The mine, owned now by New York interests, is still producing at great depth. Few metal mines there are that have had such long run of life.
But, as I have already stated, chance played a big hand in this game of millions. At that time Green Campbell had all his funds tied up in other properties. He was then operating the Hickory mine at Newhouse. Green Campbell turned to his friend, August Byram, of Atchison, Kansas, for financial assistance. Byram and Campbell had become acquainted while they were both in the employ of that major freighting firm. Byram had already spent some money at the suggestion of Campbell without results, in the Star district, close by. After considerable correspondence, Byram decided to take another chance at the game, promising to come through with the funds to take over the Horn Silver claim before the expiration of the ninety-day option. Byram was to advance the full amount, half of it as a loan to Campbell, and they were to own the property on a fifty-fifty basis.
But here caution stepped in and robbed those two men of exactly one-half of an immense fortune—a fortune in the making. After the agreement had been made Byram wrote and asked Campbell to see if he could find someone to take a quarter interest in the risk. Campbell found two men, Matt Cullen and Dennis Ryan, who would come in for a quarter interest. But Byram still thought he was taking too great a chance, and wrote a second time asking Campbell to try induce those two men to take a half interest. It was so arranged.