Utah Centennial County History Series - Piute County 1999

A f t e r the evacuation of Marysvale in 1866 during the Black Hawk War, the little valley was not occupied for two years except for a few scattered Ute and Paiute camps. Earlier, in January 1865, Jacob Hess of Manti had found placer gold on the bench to the south of Marysvale while scouting the area for Indians. He had been at Sutter's Mill in California when members of the Mormon Battalion discovered gold there and recognized similarities in the rock formations around Pine Creek. The gold Hess found at Marysvale was too widely diffused to be extracted with the methods of the time, but word of his discovery spread.

In March 1868 a few gold seekers began combing the mountains above Marysvale, but they found lead instead of gold. Jacob Hess, together with several others, filed on a mine they called Savage Lead.

Later that same month a Golden Curry Lead Mine claim was located and filed on. Next came the discovery of silver by Jasper Cribble. Why he transferred ownership of his Silver Dipper Mine to James B. Porter on 8 August 1868 is not clear, but the search was still on for the precious yellow metal.