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Tingman – the type of story that caused him to sell the store and go prospecting – 6 of 12
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Los Angeles Herald, Volume 43, Number 145, 5 March 1895
cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH18950305.2.10&…
A MINE OF MANY MILLIONS
The True Story of the Great Discovery Near Indio
ONCE WORKED BY AZTECS
Bricks of Solid Virgin Gold Found in ihe
Caves of the Canyon
An Old Prospector Hade the Find but Was Afraid of Ohosts-A Boy Followed His Footsteps—lt’s a New El Dorado
In the discovery of the mines they have called the Desert Chief, the Desert Queen, Chief of the Hills, and the Dry LaKe Valley mine, the McHaney boys, William and James, have probably located the richest group of gold mines ever discovered in the world. The discoverers and owners of the claims say there is more than a million dollars’ worth of gold in sight, and old mining men, who have no interest in the claims whatever (and the McHaney boys say they won’t sell a foot of what they have located), say that the mines will make multi-millionaires of every man interested. The richness of the mines can be judged from the results obtained from working a hat full of the ore mined years ago. It was put through a thiee-stamp mill and yielded 3 in gold. There is a well authenticated story In regard to the discovery of the mines, admitted as true by the McHaney boys and others who know the circumstances, which reads like a fairy tale. It is only one more proof of the old adage that truth is stranger than Action. This is the story: About three months ago an old prospector, with two burros carrying his outtit, walked into Tingman’s grocery store in Indio, the only one in the place, and said: "What’ll ye give me fur that ere outfit?" Over his shoulders and under his arms he carried two army haversacks which seemed so heavy as to weigh him down and his pockets were bulged out with rocks or something else. Tingman outfits prospectors, but his corral was full of burros and his store room with prospectors’ outfits, that only needed grub to make them complete, so he hesitated about making an offer for the old’man’s outfit. "What do you want to sell for?" said Tingman to the old fellow. "Going to quit prospecting?" "Yes, sir," the old man answered; "I’m done prospect!n’ now or hereafter. Want to buy that outfit? I’ll sell the whole business for ." The outfit was easily worth 0 cash and Tingman told the man so, advising him to go farther and see what he could do, but the old fellow was persistent and finally the trade was made. Then the old man ordered some cove oysters and crackers and Tingman got to talking to him. Finally, just before the train arrived bound for Arizona, the old man said to Tingman: "I told you I had quit prospectin’ and mining and I have. I’ll show you why and then tell you übout it." Saying this tho old man dumped on Tingman’s counter from each of his haversacks twenty bars of pure gold, evidently mined and amalgamated many, many years ago. They were worth, probably, 00 a bar or brick, and Tingman’s eyes bulged out of his head as he looked at them. The bars were marked with hieroglyphics, evidently indicating their fineness and weight, but Tingman, who is a Spanish scholar and talks most of the Indian dialect of the Southern California tribes, could make nothing of them. •T got these bars," said the old prospector, "less than sixty miles from where we stand in a canyon where there are ledges containing millions of dollars’ worth of gold, millions of dollars’ worth, I tell you, and it’s sticking up out of the ground. My burros took me to the place hunting for water. They went down on an old trail to a spring where water was plenty, and I camped there. It is a shut-in canyon, and I think I am the first white man who has set foot in the placo for years, God knows how many. The Indians are afraid of the place and never go there. After I had grubbed I started to look around and I found the place full of caves, evidently made by hand, and I began exploring them. My first find was ghastly enough to suit anybody," and the old man shuddered. "I stumbled into a pile of hones, men dead long ago. Around them were arms, baskets and other things apparently all right, but when you touched them they crumbled into dust. I didn’t care to stay in the caves, but as I was going out I saw the shine of something and I went to it. It was one of these gold bricks. Before night I had gathered from the cave the gold bricks I’ve got in my haversack, and as it was growing dark 1 thought I would wait until morning before making another search of the caves. It was plain to me that an old race of people bad been mining in the canyon, and in the failing light 1* began to look around for the ledges and old drifts. "I found them, and, mister, as I hopo some day to get to a better country than this, by the memory of my good old mother I swear to you the rocks were seamed with gold, seamed with gold. I went back and camped, intending the next morning to stake out my claims, put up my monuments and sneak out of the canyon and go and record them providing I could make evidences of work, but I changed my mind before morning. "If you was to fill that box with gold bricks like these," said the prospector as he pointed to a big packing case, "I wouldn’t stay another night in that canyon. Why, sir, to think of the sights 1 saw there makes me shiver now. I’ve been prospecting many years. I’ve fought white men and red men and floods and forest fires. I’ve been rich and poor, but never, never since I’ve been born have I had a night like that. "The dead men were all around me. 1 wasn’t asleep and I hadn’t tasted a drop of liquor for weeks. I was wide awake and the dead men came out of the caves and drove me out of the canyon. That they did. I wouldn’t go back there for ,000,000. The burros I got out in daylight. Where is the canyon? Well, pardner, you find it if you can. Mobile I might change my mind about it and come back someday," and with that the old man walked over to the depot and ten minutes later took the train to Arizona. For years there (j aye been stories afloat around Indio and the desert about a famous old mine that was said to have
been worked by tbe Aztecs, and was rich beyond compare. Ting’man had heard the story many times and when the old man showed him the gold ho believed his tale. At the Lost Horse mine, up in the Morongo Mountains, Tingman and his partner, Holland, have a three-stamp-mill and are working ore that pays*:iO and upwards. The day after the prospector loft, Tingman went to tho Lost Horse and told Hoiland the story. The McHaney boys were Micro and all hands at once took the matter in hand, and not less than ten prospecting outfits were arranged for and as many parties sent into the mountains to find the canyon where the dead men and the caves were. Will Ball, a nephew of the McHaney boys, aged about 17 years, and, like all boys, a great hunter, has brought into the McHaney ranch and given to his uncle, Harry Harrington, of this city, who was then visiting there, an old bayonet covered with hieroglyphics, which he said he had found in a cave in a canyon while out hunting. Tho boy also told of the spring of water and so described the place that the McHaney boys were sure it was the El Dorado they sought, but when it came to going back to the canyon the boy was at fault. He knew about where it was in the hills, but for his life he couldn’t find it again. The McHenry’s, nothing daunted, start d on a thorough search, with others, for the canyon. Tingman and Holland, with parties, were also searching, but after five week’s hard work, both sides were ready to give up. The McHaneys decided to abandon the quest, as did Tingman, but Holland and one or two more kept on. The McHaney boys are stock men and they were in the mountains for the purpose of finding grazing land where there was water. One day Jim McHaney was riding through the hills about sundown hunting a spring where he could camp when his horse struck an old Indian trail and followed it. McHaney knew there was water near from the way his horse acted and gave the animal free rein. Bye and bye the horse turned through a mass of brush and down a deep declivity, at the bottom of which there was a spring, a good big one with water enough for a herd of stock. McHaney camped there and in ten minutes realized he had found the cunyon that fifty men had been hunting for five long weeks. Morning only convinced him. There were the caves, the skeletons and the ledges rich beyond comprehension with virgin gold. The rest is soon told. Jim went back to the ranch and got his brother. The two made the locations already named, and then, before saying a word, recorded them in both Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
"We won’t sell a foot of our claims," said Harry Harrington, the brother-in-law of the McHaney boys, yesterday. "A million dollars for our claims would not be a temptation. Why, man, you can’t conceive of the richness 6f the find until you see it. We have all the water we
need, and the water belongs to us. The ore we have already crushed rum up in the thousands per ton, and it is only poor ore in comparison with what we have in sight. lam not an en thusiast. but I say to you the boys today have the richest claim ever discovered in California. I don’t care whether the ledge is deep or not. The ore in sight guarantees my statement. As Bill said when Jim led him into the canyon: ‘We’re all rich.’"
Work on the mines will be started at once, and a big mill will be erected in the canyon as soon as the road, on which the men are now working, will allow its transportation
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Quick Durban KwaZulu-Natal Fact: Northern Natal – This is a huge area, but with the exception of a few major towns, like Ladysmith, Colenso, Dundee, Glencoe, Newcastle and Vryheid, this region contributes little to the industrial and commercial wealth of KwaZulu-Natal. It does, however house several major game-parks and tourist attractions. Steeped in history and the scene of some of the worst battles in South African history, between the Boers and the British and also the Zulus, this area has many museums and sites to visit.
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