2i6 J. A. LATCHA 



following the discovery of gold in California in 1849, prac- 

 tically began the era of the golden age within the limits of 

 the United States. In the north are the rich deposits of 

 the Black hills of Wyoming and Dakota, and the probably 

 still richer deposits of Helena and other gold camps of Mon- 

 tana. Upon the extreme northwestern boundaries of the 

 United States lie the regions of the Kootenai and Mt. Baker, 

 from which come tales of fabulous riches; and unquestionably, 

 millions of gold will be mined there within the next genera- 

 tion. 



In the extreme southwest rich gold fields are now being 

 developed in Arizona, from Callville on the Colorado river 

 southeasterly to the Mongollon and the White mountains 

 at the headwaters of the Salt river. In California gold de- 

 posits have been found, and thousands of mines are now 

 profitably operated from the Mojave desert to Mt. Shasta. 

 The so called mother lode, extending from Kern river north- 

 ward to Feather river, is famous throughout the world as 

 the scene of the labors of the Argonauts of '49, a period never 

 paralleled m the history of gold mining. That territory pro- 

 duced perhaps more nugget gold than any other portion of 

 the globe; and yet the rich placer mines of California were 

 practically exhausted within ten years after the first gold 

 was discovered by Marshall at Sutter. Nevertheless, the 

 steady production of gold from the deep quartz mines on 

 the mother lode furnishes to-day a large percentage of the 

 metal for the world's supply. 



The disaster and disappointment suffered by the pioneers 

 of Pike's Peak are of comparatively recent date; and the 

 scenes where gold was vainly sought are well kno-^Ti and 

 held in romantic remembrance by the thousands of tourists 

 to Colorado Springs and Manitou. The history of the fitful 

 fever of the gold hunters of Pike's Peak is in many respects 

 one of the most remarkable in the annals of the craze for 

 gold. Thousands of men dug and delved, revelled and 

 starved, with barren results, on the eastern slope of Pike's 

 Peak, while deposits of fabulous wealth rested, unsuspected 

 and unsought, in the ribs of the earth less than fifteen miles 

 awa}^, on the western slope of that grand and beautiful moun- 



