Jim was saved out as a small stake and was played until his twelfth year against the best grub at the command of the savage tribe for fattening purposes. She was the only person saved.Īfter the birth of her son, and September having arrived (there being an “r” in that month) she was killed and eaten. From information imparted by him to his friends while he lived on the Comstock, we learn that he was born in Patagonia, his mother, a noble English lady, having been cast ashore after the wreck of her husband’s yacht, in which they were making a pleasure trip around the globe. Townsend the gentleman who is making the local department of the Reno Gazette sparkle these days has led a remarkable life. Virginia Chronicle (Virginia City, Nevada), May 27, 1882: “James W. The scribe has to trust to his imagination for facts and to his memory for things which never occurred.” HMI, September 4, 1894: “It requires inventive genius to pick up local news here now. Some say he was inspiration of Bret Harte’s “Truthful James,” the source of Mark Twain’s Jumping Frog story. I would like to introduce you to the editor of that newspaper because he is going to help tell the story today, a man by the name of James W.E. One of the sources that we can use to look back on the mining days of this area is through the local newspaper of the time at Lundy called the Homer Mining Index (HMI). There were some real characters in these parts. When I am hiking in this country, I wonder who these men and women were and what their lives were like. Some mines paid off, a few people made some money, but most never produced. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent. “The Great Silver Belt,” which runs from Tioga Hill to Bloody Canyon, was where the illusive minerals were that they were searching for. One of the reasons that I love hiking in this country is because of the rich mining history that occurred in these parts and when I am up here, I cannot stop thinking of the characters that braved this tough country to pursue their dreams of finding gold and silver. We drove to the parking lot at the Tioga Pass East Entrance to Yosemite and parked, utilized the nice clean restrooms and headed up the trail. The actual high was about 50 with 20-30 mph winds and we were in the clouds all day. The predicted weather for the day was a high of about 70 degrees with possible thunderstorms in the afternoon so I wore shorts. I had snowshoed this route early this spring but on this day we were hiking in the clouds. Hiking up to the Ghost Town of Dana City located in the Tioga Pass is a whole different hike in different seasons and weather. We walked in the footsteps of the miners who had occupied this land back in the 1870’s and 1880’s on this hike, with misty clouds drifting in and out along the trail and views.

Troga scribe saw