Colorado River Gold

DIARY OF ALMON HARRIS THOMPSON 139

COLORADO RIVER GOLDBy

CassHite*

Rincon, thirty-five miles above the mouth of the San Juan River in southeastern Utah, is as far as a road can ever be taken down the river (from Green River, Utah), and is about ninety or a hundred miles to where it empties into the Colorado River. From that point the San Juan enters and plunges through three canyons that are dark and appalling as the mighty canyons of the great Colorado.

I see by the papers that they are claiming coarse gold in those places. I look upon that as an impossibility. The Elk Mesa on the north, and the Mesa Calabasa on the south are entirely sedimentary formations, and all gold that has ever yet been found in the sedimentary rocks is fine gold. Coarse gold does not travel far from the leads.

The whole country has lost several thousand feet of its surface. The great process of erosion has worn the gravels, bedrock and all, down, down to the sea! Gold being soft and heavy has naturally been ground very fine in its travels.

The only show, according to my belief, for coarse gold in that region would be in the short gulches on the north or west of Navajo Mountain, which is at the junction of the San Juan and Colorado. They head in the trachytic formation of that island-mountain, and unless they have found coarse gold in shale, marl and sandstone, then there is no show for nuggets outside of those few little short gulches heading up into the Navajo Mountain. You ask me my opinion, and, although I may be wrong, I do not think there is any coarse gold in the country.

But for fine gold, and large areas evenly distributed as fine gold most generally is, that (industry) has a great future. That entire country is sedimentary rocks. Erosion has caused that great box canyon country, and left between them high mesa formations, which show in the most distinct manner the great markings of Time. The stupendous belts of the sedimentary often cut 2,000 to 3,000 feet in depth. A stratum of quartz pebbles many feet in thickness constitutes one of those great blankets that cover that entire country, and with that stratum I contended for two years.

I never found anything that a poor man could work, although I am convinced I know of much good gold property in that section that could be worked at a good profit with capital enough to put itin good working order. The gravel in that quartz stratum, the water levels of the strata for miles, would suggest that it is formed by glaciers.

The great canyons of the lower San Juan and the Colorado have performed the functions of mighty sluice boxes. The fine gold and the richest of the black sands, owing to their gravity, have dragged along behind all other matter and deposited wherever they had a chance in large and small bodies, and in some instances very rich. From the mouth of Moonlight Canyon it is about thirty five miles to the confluence of the San Juan and Colorado Rivers. That is a very rough canyon, and with but few gravel deposits. Coming into the San Juan from the south are Moonlight Canyon, Copper Canyon, Foote's Canyon and East Canyon, the latter being the last, and it drains everything to the east of Navajo Mountain.

*(In Beaver U ton Ian, January 13, 1893. for Associated Press.)

That is a good gold country, and the fact that I did not strike it rich in there is no reason in the world why others may not. I drifted over on the Colorado and struck Dandy Crossing (Hite on present day maps), Tickaboo and Good Hope, where I could and did live for years with a 'rocker'. I believe that the beds of those streams are yellow, but it is the easiest bars or deposits we are always after. The gold deposits on those streams will last for a century of active mining. It is a barren, desert country, and the great mass of poor adventurers who go there will likely suffer great disappointments, as well as for 'chuck'. The waters of the San Juan and Colorado Rivers are hard to take out for mining and irrigation purposes, owing to the walls and banks and seasonal rise and fall of the waters in the rivers.

Green River, January 13, 1893.—The excitement over the valuable placer finds on the Green River still continues. Prospectors are staking every promising bar both up and down the river. A party has just come in for supplies, bringing considerable gold, which goes to Salt Lake for assay. An outfit left the bars at Wheeler's Ranch (San Rafael), eighteen miles south Tuesday. These bars have been worked in a desultory way for some time. Small boats are in great demand, and every possible conveyance is pressed into use. Green River parties are deluged with inquiries by mail and wire as to the accessibility and value of the placers. Supplies of every description can be obtained here. Every man in the vicinity has claim stakes driven. Reports from placers on the Colorado Rver in Utah show that the original statements have not been exaggerated. A large amount of machinery goes to Hall's Ferry.—Herald.

January 13, 1893.—The road from Green River all the way to San Juan via Dandy Crossing is in good condition. The distance from Green River to Dandy is 105 miles, and from Dandy Crossing to the placers on the San Juan is 50 miles. The trip can be made by wagon from Green River, in six or seven days' time. Tom Farrer of Green River is prepared to take care of all parties desiring to reach the gold fields. He will furnish horses and teamsters and all supplies. The rate overland from Green River to the San Juan River, for parties of four, will be about $15 (each), and for parties of seven about $10 (each).—Beaver Utonian.