[STUMBLING UPON GOLD MINES.]
Gold was discovered in California in 1848, and in Colorado in 1858. The discovery was accidental in both cases, and the fact created the impression that mines were "lying about loose." Adventurers drifted about in hopes of stumbling upon a mine. Here are some instances of lucky finds.
Three men, while looking for gold in California, discovered the dead body of a man, who evidently had been "prospecting."
"Poor fellow," said one of the trio, "he has passed in his checks."
"Let's give him a decent burial," said another. "Some wife or mother will be glad if she ever knows it."
They began to dig a grave. Three feet below the surface they discovered signs of gold. The stranger was buried in another place, and where they had located a grave they opened a gold mine.
An adventurer who had drifted to Leadville, awoke one morning without food or money. He went out and shot a deer, which, in its dying agonies, kicked up the dirt and disclosed signs of gold. The poor man staked out a "claim," and opened one of the most profitable mines ever worked in Leadville.
"Dead Man Claim," the name given to another rich mine in Leadville, was discovered by a broken-down miner while digging a grave.
A miner died when there were several feet of snow on the ground. His comrades laid his body in a snow bank and hired a man to dig a grave. The gravedigger, after three days' absence, was found digging a mine instead of a grave. While excavating he had struck gold. Forgetting the corpse and his bargain, he thought only of the fact that he had "struck it rich."