Tales of Four Alta Miners

Tales of Four Alta Miners

By CHARLES L KELLER

In the late 1860s Little Cottonwood Canyon, about fifteen miles southeast of Salt Lake City, was gaining a considerable reputation for its deposits of silver ore. By 1870 a mining boom was in full swing, spawning the community of Alta near the head of the canyon at an elevation of 8,600 feet above sea level. There are many stories about the riches of Alta's mines and how miners and investors alike realized fame and fortune from the treasures that Nature had placed there. However, for each one of those lucky persons, there were hundreds who were not so fortunate: those who labored in the depths or prospected the hills, ever certain that they, too, would soon realize the reward they so fervently desired but who were destined to remain nameless and faceless in the annals of history. In spite of their misfortunes, or lack of fortune, they were individuals whose lives witnessed joys and sorrows, who touched other individuals for better or for worse, and whose lives provide interesting vignettes in the ongoing human drama. A few of those men left enough of a trail, albeit faint, to allow us to look back into their lives and witness what the life of the average miner was like more than a century ago.

JOHN FORD and his young wife immigrated to the United States from their native Germany and somehow found their way to the mines of the Wasatch Mountains His name surfaced in May 1881 when he and three of his fellow miners at the Vallejo Mine came into Salt Lake City with the body of Richard Williams, a comrade who had been killed in an avalanche that had devastated the town of Alta and its surroundings the preceding January.1 Williams had remained buried until spring thaws lowered the snow levels enough to expose his body.

After this incident, John Ford returned to Alta and anonymity until February 1885.At that time he, his wife, and their small child were comfortably settled in a little house in the mining community. On the evening of Friday, the thirteenth of February, Ford, his wife, and a neighbor friend named Mrs Keist were sitting around the stove in the Ford home Ford was holding his child in his arms when a huge snowslide roared down the mountainside to the north, smashing the house and those in it In an instant, most of the town of Alta was damaged or destroyed. Twenty-seven houses were carried away, leaving only some twelve standing About 150 persons were in or about Alta that evening, although many were in the mines or living in boardinghouses at the mines Of those who were in town, thirteen lost their lives, including John Ford's wife and the baby. Mrs. Ford was found within a few feet of the infant, indicating that her last action was to reach for her baby. When rescued, Ford could remember nothing except that the child was snatched from him at that fateful moment.2

Both Ford and Mrs. Keist were badly injured; in fact, their rescuers thought that Ford would die from his injuries. On the second day after the avalanche, a party of Alta residents started down the canyon with the dead and the most severely injured on sleds. Among them was Mrs. Ford with the body of her baby lashed to her breast On a following sled was John Ford, wrapped in blankets. A train was waiting at Wasatch, at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon, to carry the victims into the city; there the injured were hospitalized and the dead taken to undertaking establishments Mrs. Ford and her child were buried after services at St Mark's church on February 20.

John Ford remained in the hospital for several months, recovering from his physical injuries, but the records fail to disclose what travels he took to escape from his memories What is known is that one year later, when lessees took over the workings of the Emma Mine and installed a power plant and pumps at the mouth of the tunnel, John Ford was there as the engineer. It was he who first started the machinery to pump the water from the mine.3 Presumably, he remained at that job for some time, for on March 4, 1891,he was one of nine employees of the Emma Company who were sent down the canyon to get some beef As they struggled back up the canyon, each with a load of meat on his back, an avalanche came down Emily Gulch, about a quarter mile below the town of Alta It was not a big slide, but it caught all nine men and carried them along at a rapid rate When it stopped, one man was dead and two were badly hurt. One of the latter was John Ford. The following morning he again made a sled trip down the canyon and to the hospital.4

Following this disaster, Ford wandered about the country, going as far east as Chicago and west into Washington. But the Wasatch called to him, and he returned to follow his calling at Alta. In 1904 he went to the head of City Creek Canyon to help a friend with assessment work on his claims One day he was doing some blasting. Six shots he set and six shots he heard, but when he went back into the tunnel he made only several strokes with his pick before there was an explosion Some powder that should have been consumed in the blasts remained, and when he struck it with his pick it exploded He later said that he knew the powder they had was bad, so he had been careful—but he was not careful enough. When he recovered consciousness, one of his eyes was gone; his head was crushed and his abdomen torn open. He sent a lad who was at the mine with him into town for help. When aid arrived, he was taken to the hospital, where he remained for sixteen months. After he was finally discharged, he returned to Alta to follow the only calling he knew Some years later he reflected, "Will I strike it rich? Don't ask me that. We all expect to. The riches of the Wasatch range will be uncovered for me some day...."5

The years and the many injuries were taking their toll on poor John Ford. In 1910 he remembered having six children at the time of the Alta avalanche that took his wife, four of them being lost in the tragedy However, records from that time fail to support his memories; although there were a number of children buried in the snow that night, only one of them was his. He became increasingly tired and despondent until finally, on November 8, 1913,he was found dead at the age of sixty-seven in his bed in the American Rooming House on Commercial Street in Salt Lake City.6 Back in 1910,when he was talking about the riches of the Wasatch, he had continued, "Well, on the other side there are those who beckon me now; they will welcome me later There are riches there There is a haven there for old fellows like me."7 John Ford had finally found his reward.

PATSEY MARLEY was born Patrick Marley in Ireland in 1840 or 1841 When he left his family home, he went to London for a period of time then emigrated to the United States. It is not known what drew him to Utah, but he arrived in the territory early in 1870 and soon gained a considerable reputation as both a pugilist and a miner. The first indication of Marleys presence in Utah was the recording of the Patsey Marley Claim on May 23, 1870, it having been "dated at Curtis & Spaffords cabin."8 Levi Curtis andWW Spafford, the owners of the cabin,were two of the locators of the Grizzly claim, filed just six weeks earlier, as was Abram Noe, one of Marley's collaborators in the Patsey Marley claim At this time Patsey was about thirty years old; he must have had a considerable knowledge of prospecting and mining matters, for six weeks later the Salt Lake Herald mentioned that "Patsey Marley brought into town ninety six pounds of bullion, the result of three quarters of an hour run of his newly built smelting works."9 Mining histories mention nothing of this smelting works, but the mining recorder's books do, for the following year there was an entry referring to "a furnace known as the Marley Furnace."10 And if Marley really brought bullion rather than ore into town, he must have used some sort of furnace, however crude it may have been.

The mine was becoming known A letter from Salt Lake City published in the Missouri Democrat stated that Patsey had a number of men working for him and that the claim was estimated to be worth one hundred thousand dollars.11 The following February it was reported that the mine had been bonded by certain western parties for thirty days; in other words, the parties had an option to buy.12 As often happened when an option was taken on a mine, the discovery of a rich deposit in the mine was also reported. Then the mine's production of news worth printing ended, but its brief days of glory assured that it would be remembered by miners in the years that followed.

Marley remained in the area, although his name appeared on only two other claims in the district, neither one of which amounted to anything. But Patsey made more news with his other profession, that of a fighter. Some of his sparring matches were arranged—"mills," they were called— and some were spontaneous. The latter more often than not ended in police court or jail. One such event, on election day in August 1871 at Central City, started as a friendly match but quickly escalated to involve rocks and then pistols, and it ended with one man being shot in the stomach and dying early the following morning.13 In 1873 Patsey and an associate, Matt Brennan, opened a saloon at No 7 Commercial Street in downtown Salt Lake City, where they taught boxing, foiling, and other gymnastics.14 Of course, the saloon was host to numerous incidents that involved arrests and appearances in court. In October 1873 Patsey was back at Alta, where he engaged in a series of matches at Nick Drainer's Hall in the Grand Hotel He was willing to take on anyone willing to challenge him He gave a good account of himself in these matches, but he admitted he was getting too fat to fight and only put on the gloves for the exercise it gave him.15

In spite of his skirmishes with the law,he was a very popular fellow. The press loved him for the stories he gave them; for instance, someone once posted his name on the Central House bulletin board as a candidate for the presidency of the United States, with other prominent citizens as candidates for various other offices.16 And when a desperado by the name of

George Curran assumed an alias of Patsey Marley, the newsmen happily published Patsey's denial: he was not the same man "Patsey," they wrote, "has attended a few Irish weddings but has not and never expects to disturb other people's rights or property."17 They then started calling Curran "Patsey Marley No. 2"and for the next two years followed and reported his misdeeds, which ranged from Salt Lake City west into Nevada Patsey himself drifted west and engaged for some time in mining in the Tooele and Stockton area, then he moved north into Idaho. Little was heard from him in local circles, and it seemed he had drifted into oblivion But then he returned to Utah, took up some claims in Farmington Canyon, and worked them in spite of his advancing years In July 1905 he was brought to Holy Cross Hospital in Salt Lake City in a most enfeebled condition, disabled by inflammatory rheumatism He was destitute but still had a few friends. Mr. D. P. Felt, editor of the Davis County Argus, undertook to contact Marley's mining friends to help him with his needs.18 In the year that followed he was back in the hospital at least two more times, but he was not easily put down In 1912 he was still working his claims near Farmington. He struggled along until mid-1916, when his health became so seriously impaired that he had to be moved to Salt Lake After a time in the county infirmary he was moved to the county hospital, where he died on December 12 Someone who knew not only him but also his dire financial situation stepped forward and had a brief article published in the Salt Lake Tribune. Unless his friends subscribed to a fund to pay for a funeral, the article said, Marley would be buried in a pauper's grave. 19 Within a week's time funeral arrangements could be made, and on December 22, 1916, funeral services were held, attended by a few old friends One man, dressed in tattered clothing, tiptoed into the chapel and stood in a far corner. No one asked his identity, but several times he was seen to wipe his eyes with the sleeve of his tattered coat It was later learned that he was an old friend of Marley's,one who was in similar financial circumstances and who wished to remain inconspicuous while he bade farewell.20

Patsey Marley was buried in Mount Calvary Cemetery While his grave is unmarked, his name lives on in Patsey Marley Hill above Alta. The various slopes above Alta were named for the mines located on them Such was the case with this hill, the site of Patsey's original claim. The name continues to be used to this day, although few people know its source One recent article that professed to explain the origins of Wasatch Mountain names went so far as to suggest that Patsey Marley was a madam at an Alta brothel.21 Amid such fallacious stories, perhaps it is time that history be set straight and Patsey Marley given his just and due recognition.

JEREMIAH REAGAN

was a teenage boy when he came to Alta to find work and seek his fortune. The first documented evidence of his presence in that camp was in October 1876, when he was one of four men recording a claim near Central City.22 He was eighteen years old at the time. While Jerry Reagan never found his fortune in the mines, he was destined to have a continuing association with Alta's greatest nemesis, the snow avalanche. In December 1879, when he was twenty-one years old, he was caught in an avalanche between Alta City and Grizzly Flat.23 Although found to be completely buried, he was only slightly injured. Then in January 1881,when avalanches smashed into and around the town, killing four at the Grizzly boardinghouse, two at the Toledo compressor house, and another three at Strickleys store in the heart of Alta, Reagan was one of fifty-two people who fled the besieged town and made the long trek down the canyon, sometimes groping through the cold darkness of the tramway snowsheds and other times climbing out to wade through the deep snow to pass around sections of the sheds that had been wrecked by the crushing snows. He did return to Alta, at least briefly, for he was one of twenty-four who filed a mining claim in August 1881.24

In March 1884 Alta suffered another devastating snow avalanche. In the early evening of the seventh, an avalanche carried away the buildings at the New Emma Mine, killing ten men and two women All except one had fled their homes in Alta, seeking safety in the cold depths of the Emma tunnel, but they were still in the boiler house when the avalanche struck. Jerry Reagan was not in Alta that night; he was reported to have been in a hospital in San Francisco at the time, but his good friend Edward Crocket, the fireman at the Emma Mine, was on duty that fateful evening and was killed on the job.

Ed Crocket had been born in Scotland and had spent some time in and around the South African diamond mines before coming to Alta in the early 1870s. His name appeared on at least six mining claims between 1873 and 1883,and he worked in a number of mines. In 1874 he was a foreman for the lessees of the old workings of the Flagstaff Mine.25 In January 1883 he relocated the Kate Hayes Mine, renamed it the Crocket,26 and attempted to work it, apparently without much success, for he soon found himself working at the New Emma Mine as the fireman. He was at work that evening of March 7, with the boiler house full of people getting warm and, perhaps, heating tea or coffee before they moved into the tunnel to spend the night. But before they left the building the avalanche struck and carried all of them into eternity. The 48-year-old Ed Crocket was found in the wreckage of the boiler house, lying against the furnace with his hands, badly burned, pressed against the boiler door The bodies of the victims were brought into Salt Lake City, where Crocket was buried "with three of his fellow victims in a plot in Mount Olivet Cemetery.27

Crocket had been the epitome of the legendary Scotchman; he was a miserly individual, hoarding his money to the extent of starving himself, although occasionally he would go on a spending binge and part with several hundred dollars. While he worked at the New Emma he lived at the saloon run by James Kennedy and J J O'Riley It was thought that he had accumulated a considerable amount of money, but after his death none was found.

The following spring Jeremiah Reagan returned to Alta In July he was working at the Buckland tunnel on Emma Hill, the north slope above Alta He lost his clothing, blankets, and other articles when the bunkhouse burned down, but he was not in the building at the time.28 Later that summer, Reagan leased the Kennedy & O'Riley Saloon and became a businessman. On Monday night, September 29, after he closed the saloon, he went to bed in the building. During the night he awoke when he thought he heard someone calling his name. He sat up and saw an apparition of Edward Crocket The spirit told him to go down to the post in the cellar and get Crocket's money and keep it. Reagan struck a match to light a candle, but the spirit had vanished and he found himself alone The next morning he went into the cellar and dug around the post that had been placed there to support the building, but he found nothing The incident weighed heavily on his mind, so later in the day he went back down and dug some more This time he found a purse containing about $75 in moldy bills and several letters addressed to Crocket. That evening he described the event to George Cullen, superintendent of the New Emma Mine, who said that Reagan's description of the apparition matched exactly what Crocket was wearing the night of his death Unable to get the incident off his mind, Reagan wrote a letter to his friend J.J. O'Riley in Salt Lake City, telling him the entire story With that action, the matter reached the newspapers There were, of course, many disbelievers who thought Reagan was making up stories But Father Kieley, assistant pastor at the St Mary Magdalene Catholic church, claimed to be acquainted with Reagan and said he "knew him to be a man of unimpeachable veracity."29

The winter of 1884-85 brought new avalanche dangers to the town of Alta On February 13, 1885, the same massive avalanche that killed John Ford's family wiped out much of the mining camp. Strickley's store, at the upper end of Main Street, was built into the hill, so the snow passed over it, but the buildings below, including O'Riley's store with Jeremiah Reagan inside, were smashed and carried down the hill into the buildings below Reagan was one of the thirteen people who lost their lives that evening. The bodies of the victims were taken into the city, where the twenty-seven-year-old Reagan and three of his fellow victims were buried in a city cemetery lot near victims of earlier Alta snowslides.30

FRITZ RETTICH was another immigrant from Germany who found his way to Alta. His name surfaced in the spring of 1874 when he reopened the Canon House in Alta, but there were implications that he had been on the scene for some time and at that time was well-known among the residents as "Baldy Fritz."31 The following year he moved down-canyon to Tannersville, where he ran the Mountain House throughout the entire season. 32 It was that same year, 1875,that Rettich filed his first mining claims One of them was the Baldy Fritz Claim, on the north side of the canyon above the short-lived Central City The following year he established the Baldy Fritz tunnel to work the earlier claim, establishing a presence at the site that would continue throughout his long life and beyond In the years that followed he filed at least thirty-four claims, most of them near the site of the former Central City. Only one took him out of the Tittle Cottonwood Mining District, when he and three associates made a claim above Lake Catherine at the head of Big Cottonwood Canyon.33

It appears that Rettich enjoyed moderate success with his mining ventures, but he also continued to be one of Alta's businessmen When the city was destroyed by fire in 1878 Rettich was running a saloon that burned to the ground, complete with its furniture and stock But as the community rebuilt, he constructed a new saloon where his cheery voice could be heard greeting passers-by at all reasonable hours.34 He was surrounded by an air of joviality and enjoyed telling stories, many about himself Although he was a shrewd and clever businessman, one of his stories was about a bad investment. When he first arrived in Alta in midwinter he looked for a place to build a cabin. He was shown a lot that had a comfortable log cabin, although the only part of it visible above the twelve-foot-deep snows was its stove pipe. Knowing that prices would rise in the spring, he paid $1,200 for the lot and cabin. But when spring arrived and the snows melted he found that his structure consisted of only three sections of stovepipe that had been stuck in the snow. 35

Years later, another man remembered Rettich at the period around the turn of the century. Rettich was fun to talk to, he recalled. He said that Rettich was once caught in a snowslide and was completely buried. As some men were digging for him, he could hear them, but they could not hear him.They concluded that he was not in the slide and decided to leave.

"I got real mad," Rettich said,"and managed to stick my finger through the snow.They saw my finger and dug me out."36 Rettich also had intellectual interests. One of them, ancient history, was reflected in the names of some of his claims:Romulus, Remus, and Xantippe.

He continued to run his saloon until February 1885,when most of Alta was destroyed by the avalanche.37 After that event he gave up the occupation of saloonkeeper and devoted his full attention to mining. He continued to run his Baldy Fritz Mine but also took leases on other old and sometimes profitable mines, including the Moltke on Bald Mountain, the North Star on the north slopes above Alta, and the dump of the Toledo Mine, from which he made several shipments of concentrates in 1891. Rettich also continued to file claims of his own. He took over the old Crown Prince and Frederick mines and accumulated other properties, many of them near his original Baldy Fritz Claim, where he built a comfortable cabin that became his home. He continued to believe that the Alta mines would revive and once again see the activity they enjoyed during the 1870s, even while the camp's population declined and most mines fell into disuse and disarray. In 1894 and 1895, for instance, only nineteen votes were cast in the district mining recorder election—an indication that few active miners remained in the area

In 1900 he leased one of his claims, the Columbus, to a young mining hopeful named Tony Jacobson, who found considerable marketable ore and went on to found the Columbus Consolidated Mining Company38 The success of that company certainly placed Rettich in comfortable financial circumstances for the remainder of his life, but it did not keep him from pursuing his own mining interests The last claims he filed were in 1901 for the Hellgate, located in the bed of Little Cottonwood Creek about a mile below Alta, and the Alaska Extension up at the head of Peruvian Gulch.39 The first was near his cabin home, but the second was over fifteen hundred feet higher, at an elevation above 10,000 feet. Though then in his seventies, he was still a hardy man.

Fritz Rettich lived in his beloved Alta home for another decade before he died on August 7, 1910.Although the media reported that he died at Sandy, his tombstone in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Salt Lake City carries the inscription, "Fritz Rettich; Born Feb 27, 1831;Died at Alta, Utah, Aug 7, 1910."40 In spite of many lonely years spent in his mountain home, he still had friends who honored him with written tributes. Peter Lochrie wrote, "This much can with truth be said of Fritz Rettich: During his eighty years of life he made no enemies His generosity was bountiful, and when before the last sleep came he had the consciousness of knowing that he had done his best in life to help his fellow man."41 In another article, Jerome B. Ireland revealed that in spite of the "Baldy Fritz" nickname Rettich carried throughout his life, he did not like the name, although he revealed his dislike to very few. His close friends called him Fritz, never "Baldy." He often remarked that since he had been parting his hair in the middle for so many years,it was the name he objected to, not the implication.42

During Rettich's long life at Alta no public mention was ever made of any family he might have had. From all obvious appearances he had lived alone and died alone.Yet on the first day of January 1889 one Hugo Rettich had filed three claims with the district recorder, two of them as "Hugo Rettich for Fritz Rettich." 4 3 Hugo's name appeared in the recorder's books again on January 1, 1891,January 2, 1894, and January 3, 1895.44 Hugo, as it turned out, was Fritz Rettich's son Following the lead of one of his grandfathers, Dr. Friedrich Beck, who was personal dentist to King Wilhelm I of Wurttemberg, Hugo attended the Philadelphia Dental College and went on to a successful dental practice in New York City. It was later revealed that Hugo also had a brother, Dr. Adolph Rettich, who was a dentist in Stuttgart, Germany.45

During Hugo's annual visits to his father he posted many other claims, having at least fifteen to his credit by 1904.Three of them were additions to his father's Hellgate, forming a group that would continue to be in the mining news for a number of years. After his father's death, Hugo became heir to the mining properties and revealed that he had inherited his father's penchant for mining. He patented the Hellgate claims and formed the Hellgate Mining Company to receive the properties and work them He continued to hold the Frederick and Alaska groups as his personal property. Although he employed miners to operate the mines, Rettich made annual visits to Utah, often accompanied by his wife, to inspect and supervise the operations The mines continued to operate over many years, although their financial success is questionable. It is likely that more money flowed from New York City to Utah than in the opposite direction In 1924 the comment was made that Dr. Rettich had advanced the company more than $20,000, and in 1928 Rettich admitted to having spent a great deal of money in the enterprise, but there was no thought of giving up. "It looks too good to quit now," he said.46 But by 1930 Alta was practically a deserted camp, with only a dozen or so men in the district. The Hellgate was the only property lighted by electricity; the few other mines used candles or carbide lamps for light. Rettich admitted he had never seen the camp so dead, but he reaffirmed his faith by saying, "Change is sure to come."47 However, that was a time when the national economy was heading downward, and Rettich was destined not to have enough time to see the change he awaited. Dr. Hugo Rettich died in New York City on February 22, 1934, and with him died the promise and hopes for the Rettich properties at Alta.48 All that remains today is the Hellgate name applied to prominent cliffs and properties in the canyon between Snowbird and Alta.

NOTES

Charles L Keller is a writer and historian living in Salt Lake City His book on the history of the Wasatch Mountains is forthcoming from the University of Utah Press All photos are from USHS collections

1 Salt Lake Tribune, May 27,1881

2 Ibid., February 18, 1885

3 Ibid., May 28, 1886

4 Ibid., March 6, 1891

5 Ibid.,July 13,1910

6 Deseret News, November 8, 1913 Commercial Street (34 E.) ran between First and Second South Streets It is now called Regent Street

7 Salt Lake Tribune, July 13, 1910

8 Patsey Marley Claim, May 23, 1870, Little Cottonwood Mining District Book A, 62, Salt Lake County Recorder Archives

9 Salt Lake Heraldjuly 13, 1870

10 Restraining Order, March 28, 1871, Little Cottonwood Mining District Book A, 210

11 Deseret News, July 12, 1870

12 Salt Lake Herald, February 16, 1871.

13 Salt Lake Tribune, August 9 and 10, 1871 Central City was a temporary mining camp located just below Alta

14 Ibid., March 5, 1873

15 Ibid., October 14,1873

16 Ibid., February 7, 1874. Central House was a "hotel"/flophouse in Central City.

17 Ibid., July 2, 1872

18 Salt Lake Tribune, July 28,1905.

19 Ibid., December 15,1916

20 Ibid., December 23, 1916

21 "What's in a Name? Place Names of the Wasatch," in Sports Guide, February 1998

22 Rodgers & Regan Mine & Tunnel Claim, October 3, 1876, Little Cottonwood Mining District Book C, 385

23 Salt Lake Herald, December 30, 1879

24 Salt Lake Tribune, January 16, 1881 Teamster claim, August 8, 1881, Little Cottonwood Mining District Book D, 127

25 Salt LakeTribune, September 16, 1874

26 Crocket Relocation, January 1,1883, Little Cottonwood Mining District Book D, 176

27 Deseret News, March 12, 1884; Salt Lake Herald, March 11, 15, 1885; Salt Lake Tribune, March 11, 15, 16,1884

28 Salt Lake Tribune,]uly 6, 1884

29 Ibid., October 2, 3,1884.

30 Salt Lake Herald, February 15,17,18, 1885; Salt Lake Tribune, February 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 1885

31 Salt Lake Tribune, May 31, 1874; Salt Lake Herald, June 3, 1874. Herald correspondent "Archibald" commented that "the boys are happy that the old man is once more in the field." Rettich was forty-three years old at this time

32Salt Lake Tribune, May 30, 1875, July 9, 1875, October 10, 1875 The latter article, which kidded Rettich as having "been in Zion attending Conference," mistakenly gave his home as Grantsville instead of Tannersville There is no evidence that Rettich had joined the Mormon church

33 Silver King No. 2 Claim, September 12,1883, Big Cottonwood Mining District Book D, 427.

34 Salt Lake Tribune, September 4, 1878, January 1, 1880.

35 Salt Lake Tribune, October 16, 1880

36 Frank Ottley interview, September 6, 1967, in Lawrence P.James, Little Cottonwood Canyon Collection, University of Utah Western Americana Collection, MS 632

37 Salt Lake Tribune, October 3, 1883, February 15, 1885 The first of these articles says that Rettich was "captain of a good refreshment house, and he is as full of fun as ever." The latter enumerates losses in the avalanche and lists Baldy Fritz's saloon as a $500 loss

38 Salt Lake Tribune, October 20 and December 30, 1900, July 16, 1903

39 Little Cottonwood Mining District, January 2, 1901, Book G, 103; July 8,1901, Book G, 120

40 Mount Olivet Cemetery, Plot T-31-8

41 Salt Lake Tribune, August 14, 1910

42 Jerome B. Ireland, "Recollections of Fritz Rettich," Mining Review, September 15, 1910.

43 Tippecanoe, Ben Harrison, and Idanha claims, Little Cottonwood Mining District Book D, 315-317, January 1,1889

44 Jennie, Columbus, Oxford, and Alaska claims, Little Cottonwood Mining District Book D, 359, 431, 502, January 1, 1891, January 2, 1894, and the last two on January 3, 1895.

45 Salt Lake Mining Review, August 30, 1920; Mining Review, February 27, 1934 The Salt Lake Mining Review became the Mining Review on September 15, 1927.

46 Salt Lake Mining Review, November 30,1924; Mining Review, September 30, 1928

47 Mining Review, September 15, 1930

48 Salt Lake Tribune, February 24, 1934 Mining Review, February 27,1934