Sam the Tenderfoot Prospector |
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There were many thousands of
tenderfoot, greenhorn prospectors that came out west in the 1860s and 70s. Some came to
make their fortunes, some came to flee other problems back east, and some just came for
the adventure. Probably every one had a tale to tell, but one of these adventurous
individuals was a young man named Sam Clemens, and this is his true story. In his early
20s, Sam had fulfilled his childhood dream of becoming a riverboat captain, and was
making a very fine salary until the civil war broke out. In fact, when he was a riverboat
captain, he boasted that he made more money that the Vice President of the USA.
Unfortunately, Civil War military blockades ended the lucrative river trade along the
Mississippi River, and the once wealthy Sam found himself out of a job. Good things seemed
to pop up for Sam, and in the spring of 1861, Sams
older brother Orion was appointed by president Abe Lincoln as secretary to the Governor of
the new Territory of Nevada. Sam decided to tag along as Orions assistant. Luckily
for us, Sam wrote letters to his family back east and kept notes of his adventure
he later wrote a book about his years living in the wild west. It was quite an adventure in those
days to come out west the railroad did not yet reach across the continent. Sam
packed his belongings and traveled for weeks in a stagecoach, hearing stories of
bloodthirsty desperados, and seeing sights and meeting people he never would have
previously imagined. Among the first things Sam noticed
on his arrival in Carson City were the beautiful horses and the amazing horsemanship of
the local residents. Sam resolved to buy his first horse.
A few days later, an auctioneer came flying through town on a powerful steed that
caught everyones eye he called it a genuine Mexican Plug. Sam decided to bid
and won the horse but later found out that he was only partly tamed and barely rideable.
Sam said that for years that horse held the speed record in Carson City for a mile and
three quarters, as he simply left out the three quarters and did only the mile
jumping over fences, poles, scattering small children and generally throwing up dust
storms. Sam tried to loan the horse out, but folks told him that earthquakes were common
enough on the west coast and they didnt want to ride one. The horse ate huge amounts
of food and hay was very expensive. Sam realized he needed to get rid of the horse. After
found he was unable to sell it because everyone knew his horse, he finally gave it away to
a passing emigrant stranger who led the beast out of town. Sam described the afternoon winds
in northern Nevada, also known as the Washoe Zephyr, as a soaring rift of dust,
about the size of the United States set up edgewise which contained things
strange to the upper air things living and dead soaring among the billowing
clouds of dust. It sets up office about 2pm on most summer afternoons, and in those days
of dirt streets, the town of Carson City basically disappeared in the dust for as long as
the Zephyr was in business. A very serious disadvantage of his
job as Secretary to the secretary was the fact that there was no salary! Living out west
was more expensive than back east, and without a job or source of income, Sam needed to
find something to bring some money in. He worked various odd jobs, but nothing ever really
clicked. Sam read the local newspapers and
was very interested in the reports of prospectors discovering fortunes all across Nevada
on almost a daily basis. The headlines screamed of the riches of the Nevada mountains. It
would be hard for any man to resist that type of excitement, and by and by, Sam was
smitten with the Fever. Not knowing much of prospecting, Sam and a few
acquaintances hooked up with an old sourdough prospector with years of experience. One of
the booming areas of the state at that time was Humboldt county. The Sheba mine was
pumping out millions of dollars worth of silver and new discoveries were being made
regularly. They decided to begin their prospecting at Unionville, right in the middle of
the Humboldt range. So Sam and his companions traveled by wagon across the 40 mile desert
to seek the riches of the hills. On their two week desert journey all they could do was dream of the potential wealth waiting for them at the end of the trail. So on their arrival, Sam stole away from his companions at his first convenient chance and began looking around, at first pretending only to go out for a smoke. After a short walk closely examining every stone at his feet, a sparkle in a minor drainage ravine caught his eye. It was golden! He picked up the flake and examined it closely. No doubt about that golden color! He looked back at the ravine and spotted another golden flake. Then another and another within a half hour he had picked up a small handful of the golden treasure. He laughed to himself that he and his friends had come to prospect for lowly silver, when here in this little ravine was an abundance of Gold! What luck he had spent just a bit more than an hour prospecting and he had already found his fortune. The wild newspaper stories seemed to him now to be too conservative! He spied around to be certain that no one was watching him, but the coast was clear. His mind drifted off to how he would be spending his new found wealth. After a time, he decided to return to his companions and share his exciting discovery. He beat around the bush a bit at first, but finally let his friends know that he had made an important discovery. He spread out his handful of glittering golden flakes before them and asked what you think of that? His greenhorn friends looked and beamed with excitement. But old Mr. Ballou, the long time prospector they had taken along to teach them about prospecting, was not so impressed. Why, what do I think of it? He said with disgust its nothing but a lot of nasty mica rubbish that isnt worth 10 cents an acre. Sam was crushed! His sparkling gold flakes were nothing but mica. It was there and then that Sam learned that gold in its natural state did not glitter and sparkle, and that mica did. |
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In spite of his lack of prospecting
success at Humboldt, Sam was still very much taken up with the riches of Nevada mining and
invested his savings and even some of his sisters money, hoping to strike it rich in
mining stocks. The gold and silver boomtown of Aurora in the Esmerelda mining District was
yielding great riches at that time and Sam decided to go to Aurora to check up on some of
his investments. Some of the mining companies were shady at best, with one company
collecting assessments from its investors to put in a 300 foot exploration adit into a
small hill only 25 feet wide (the mine directors were living off the assessments and had
no intention to complete the work). Sam felt that if he checked things out in person, he
could find which companies were the best ones to invest his money with. Sam found out his investments in
Esmerelda were worthless and not long after he arrived, his bankroll had run out. He was
again looking to find money for the source of his next meal. In desperation, he decided to
go to work in one of the local quartz mills for $10 per week plus room and board. If Sam
didnt like the hard work of mining, he found that the crushing, washing and smelting
of the silver mill was even worse! Sam wrote that if only Adam could have gone out of the
Garden of Eden directly into a quartz mill, then he would have realized the full impact of
his punishment! Those mills often recovered only about two thirds of the metal in the
ores, and it was common to screen and then re-treat the ores. Sam said that perhaps the
worst duty at the mill was the shoveling and screening of dry dusty tailings in the hot
Nevada sun. After a week, he could no longer stand it, and Sam went into the
foremans office and requested a raise. The foreman said that Sam was being paid a
fair wage, but asked what he wanted. Sam told him that hed
like to ask for more, but $400,000 per week seemed like a reasonable amount. He was
promptly fired and ordered off the property! While Sam was in the Esmerelda
District, he teamed up with Calvin Higbie, an experienced prospector. Calvin, Sam and
other friends staked a number of claims in the area, and were optimistic that they would
soon make a big strike. In those days, before the 1872 mining law was enacted, the normal
lode claim gave the owner rights to that vein only. If other veins had their apex on that
claim, someone else could claim that other vein. The Wide West,
one of the larger mines in town, suddenly started producing rich ore, but of a character
different than the normal ore which they had produced in the past. The rich ore was worth
more than a dollar a pound! Sams partner Calvin Higbie, was very familiar with the
ores produced in all the mines of that area. After studying the new ore, Higbie decided
the new ore must be coming from a different vein. One night Higbie sneaked into the mine and confirmed it the new rich ore was coming from another
vein. They took some measurements and determined it was a blind lead (vein that does not
come to the surface) and open to claim! According to the local mining law, they had 10
days to do development work on the vein, file the paperwork and complete their claim. They
publicly announced their find and there was nothing the big mining company could do. Sam
and his partner were suddenly millionaires and became the toast of the town! People
offered to give them things or make loans only on their word. A day later, Sam got an
urgent message that an old friend was seriously ill, near death. Sam left at once, but
left a message for Higbie about completing the
development work on the vein, because he would not be there to help. What Sam didnt
know was that his partner Higbie had also been suddenly been called away and left a
note for Sam asking him to complete the development work. By the time either had returned,
it was too late to complete the work and the big company filed over their claim and taken
possession of the rich blind lead that they had discovered. |
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Sometimes fate has a way of working
things out, and in the long run, becoming an author worked out quite well for Sam. It took
some time, but he became very successful and even famous as an author, far better than he
ever did as a prospector. In fact to this day, a good number of people still consider him
the greatest author America has ever produced. In those days, it was popular for an author
to write under a made up pen name. One of the best known writers for the
Territorial Enterprise at that time was a guy who had chosen the humorous pen
name of Dan DeQuille. Sams initial letters to the editor were written
under the pen name of Josh, but Sam chose a new one when he went to work as an
employee. So what pen name did Sam choose for himself? Well, I mentioned that Sam had been
a riverboat captain on the Mississippi River before the civil war, a respected and well
paying job. Remembering those happier days, he chose a pen name relating to the terms of
riverboat operations. In those days, river pilots called out to mark the depth of the
water in fathoms it was important to avoid shallow water and sand bars where
riverboats could run aground. The minimum safe water depth was 2 fathoms and when that
depth was reached the pilot called out MARK TWAIN. Sam chose the pen name of
Mark Twain, and now you know (so they say) the rest of the story. Sam greatly enjoyed his
time at the Territorial Enterprise and often took the opportunity to visit the mines when
he had a chance. Mine owners commonly gave him shares of stock to write articles about
their mine, and Sam ended up with a trunk full of stock, far more than he had ever owned
when he was an investor! His gift stocks were so valuable that sometimes he didnt
even bother to pick up his salary from the newspaper. Sam was very popular and soon became
a leader among the reporters of the Territorial Enterprise. However, in time his strong
opinions got him in trouble with the editor and Sam left to visit some friends who were
prospecting for pocket gold in the mother lode country even after working as an
author he was still bitten by the gold fever. It was there that he wrote the nationally
famous tale of the Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. The tale became famous across the
country. Because of his widening fame as a writer, Sam became a traveling reporter and
went to Hawaii, Europe and the middle east, writing humorous weekly accounts of the things
he saw there. Although Sam ended up marrying and settling down in the eastern US, his
experiences in the untamed western US gave him writing material for the rest of his life. After Sam left Aurora, the Wide
West vein that Sam and his friend discovered continued to produce rich ore for
may years and has a recorded production of nearly $600,000. In spite of its very remote
location, Aurora survived as a town into the early 1920s but no one has lived in the
town since then. A revival occurred in the Esmerelda area in recent years, though the town
of Aurora was not re-established. The old mines around the town however, were still
producing significant gold and silver until just recently. Large amounts of low grade ores
surrounding the old bonanza deposits were mined and heap leached in the 1980s and 1990s. Unionville never became a ghost and
a couple dozen folks still call it home. The waters of Buena
Vista Creek still flow down the canyon and keep the little oasis of Unionville
green and beautiful. Big cottonwood trees planted in the early days still cast their cool
shade in the summer. Even though Sams big discovery there was only mica,
there actually is a little bit of real placer gold around Unionville. A remote bed and
breakfast hotel there still serves the adventurous traveler, including a few movie stars
and celebrities who have stayed there. Although it has been more than 140 years since Sam
prospected there, the Humboldt Range still produces millions of ounces of silver each
year, as Couer Rochester operates it gigantic heap leach facility at Rochester, only a few
miles south of where Sam and his friends prospected. |
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----------- ------------ Mark Twains stories about his experiences prospecting in
the west, including many more humorous tales of his adventures can be found in his book: ROUGHING IT
|
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This is how Virginia City Nevada looked in the 1860s when Sam Clemens was a reporter there. As small as it was, Virginia City was one of the largest towns on the west coast. | |
Mark Twain Prospected for silver ore in the Humboldt range of Northern Nevada. Big Mines in that area still produce millions of ounces of silver every year. |
Please note that the author, Chris Ralph, retains all copyrights to this entire document
and it may not be reproduced, quoted or copied without permission.
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