The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 29, 1898, Page 17

FNELSON SHO coT 18 THE CounTy HoseiTaL THE SPRING OTS oh ks f‘@@@@@@@@Q@@QOQ@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@»9@@@@@ o3 dust found along the beach. That he succeeded in doing this in his Ingieside mine there is no question. For not only did he make a good living during the seven- @ teen years, but he paid $8000 damages once for injuring the Spring 2 Valley water main while blasting; he and his partner lost large ¢ sums of money at the racetracks and they were known as “spenders” among the resorts in the western side of the city. All the while they passed as hermits, with barely enough to live on. Some of the neigh- & Dbors believe this was merely a blind to throw curious people off the s & S & refractory ores. @ ® track of the mine. ANCY any onz working a gold mine in San Francisco for over fifteen years and no one but the miners knowing anything about it. Yet that is what has been done by two men near Ingleside. The mine is on the Sutro property. ‘What success the miners had, how much they made, nobody knows but themselves and one of the men is sup- posed to be on his deathbed, and the other has disappeared since his partner fell {11 and the fact of the mine became generally known. Mooneyville-by-the-Sea and half a dozen other mining excitements and treasure-hunting booms have struck I 1 itk il i~ 1 . A T AR\ S VALLEY WATER MAIN THAT THE TWO SECRET MINERS DAMAGED WHILE BLASTING. CONTINUED THEIR MINING. the city of San Francisco. How much gold has been taken out none but the two miners themselves can say; one of them is © supposed to be on his deathbed zni the other one disappeared on the @ day that his partner had to be taksn to the hospital, and the secret @ their mine became generally known to the community. Nelson Shoots, the discoverer of the lead, found the mine ovar seventeen years ago while trying to locate the fountain of the gold He was a practical miner at the time and well versed in all secrets of gatting all the gold possible out of @ ] —OR over seventeen years a gold mine has been worked right in 006000660660 @ @ @ @ ® @ @ @ @ @ @ Ps PO S & OB ODL OB 4 the ocean beach slope of the city, but through them all and unknown to all their promoters these two experienced miners have been delving sedulously away on thefr secret mine. There is no question that they found gold, a man does not stick to a task for over seventeen years without something to repay him. And these two miners pald their living expenses all this while. Once while blasting they injured a Spring Valley water main and were as- sessed $8000 damages by the court, which they promptly paid. Again, it is well known among their intimate ac- quaintances that they made many big losings at the race track, and they g > s THE DAMAGES WERE PLACED AT $8000. Home oF NELSOH SHOOTS HEAR THE Gord Mine, were known as ‘“‘spenders” at several of the resorts in that locality. Yet all the while to nearby quisitive neighbors these two appeared to be simply hermits. They assumed the garb of poverty, snarled like wild beasts at any curious tres- passers and drove off interlopers with clubs. They would not permit any one to put a foot on the place under any circumstances. In the near neigh- borhood they seemed to want the peo- ple to think that they were poor her- mits. When away from home they seemed indifferent. This strange life of the two hermit miiners in San Francisco was suddenly and sharpl hanged several days ago. Nelson H. Shoots, the elder man and the original finder of the mine, was taken seriously ill. His partner, James Demott, tried in vain to patch up his health with the scant medicine supply in the cupboard. Shoots grew worse and Demott was obliged to summon outside assistance to save his sinking partner, so he sent a message to the City and County Hospital. Shoots was taken there at once in the ambulance and then it was discovered that he was dangerously ill with heart trouble. Immediately afterward his partner, Demott, disappeared, whether tempor- arily or for good is not known at this writing. With him is the mystery of the mine that has been worked for over seventeen years in San Francisco, for Shoots tells all sorts of stories about it. Sometimes he says he worked there the seventeen years for nothing; at other times he declares there is plenty of gold there, and laughs knowingly and adds, “but you've got to know where to find it.”" To add to the mystery it is well known that Nelson Shoots was a pio- neer miner of this State, and a man of great experience in secret methods of handling ores. That mining operations were exten- sively carried on by Shoots and De- mott there can be no doubt. Their work shows for itself. At least 300 feet of shafts have been sunk, one of them belng about 125 feet deep. The tunnels and drifts will easily aggre- gate over 1400 feet. A good deal of the work is timbered. but most of it is sim- ply the rock walls. The timber that is in is battered and worn as if it had done duty in one shaft and then been taken out and made to do duty In an- other. No ore has been hauled from the dumps for milling, at least there is no sign of such traffic. In what shape the gold was obtained only the two miners know. At the first glance at Shoots on his cot in the hospital I thought the old man was dead, so pale and worn did "~ look as he lay back helplessly. He has a strong face, but rather indicative and in- miners THEY PAID THIS AND W FOR OVER SEVENTEEN YEARS A PIONEER MINER HAS BEEN SECRETLY WORKING A PAY- ING LEAD IN TUONNELS UN- DER THE INGLESIDE END OF THE CITY. of firmness than intelligence. A rather high forehead, a Roman nose, a droop- ing mouth with a thin gray mustache partly concealing it, and a head of white hair made up his physiotnomy. One hand lay on top of the cover, partly closed, as if clutching at some- thing. The other was concealed be- neath the quilt. The face was weather beaten and freckled, and the visible hand was scratched and bruised. “He’s not asleep,” sald the nurse. “If you want to speak to him go right ahead.” Hearing these words old man Shoots opened his eyes and looked about blankly. Then he motioned for me to come near. “Have you anything good in your pocket?” he almost gasped, as I bent over him. “What do you mean?” I asked. “Oh, you know well enough,” he snapped, as he turned over on his pil- low and refused to further enlighten me as to what he meant by something “good.” His action and temper were much more vigorous than I had ex- pected after seeing his pallid face on the pillow. For a long while he remained stub- bornly silent. “I am going out to the mine to see your partner,” I said, after a number of efforts. “Tell him I want to see him,” sald Shoots instantly. “Tell him to come to- day.” . ‘“You fellows have a pretty good mine out there,” I ventured. “Yes,” replied the old man. pretty good.” “You've taken lots of gold out of it, I suppose.” “Yes, quite a lot. And there's lots more there. But you have to know how to find it,” the old man replied. By degrees at last I mana.ed to get a continuous story out of him. But in doing so he made several statements that he afterward modified or denied. On things pertaining to the mine he made contradictory statements, appa- rently not willing to have the real facts known.. In the course of his story he said that he had not made a cent out of his mine; then he would say that there was plenty of gold there. He sald he just worked it so as to have some- thing to do @nd have a home of his own. “It's a nice place to live out there in the grove, where you can hear the wind singing through the trees,” he said, wearily, and he looked as if he wished himself out there again. Briefly, Shoots’ story was to the ef- fect that he was born in Kentucky 71 years ago. At one time in the course of his narrative he thought he had been born in England, but finally con- cluded that it was Kentucky. At any rate, after having been mar- ried twice he came from his native State to California during the gold ex- citement and made one or two fortunes, which he lost: One day about twenty years ago he was out hunting along the CIiff House beach, where he struck a patch of black sand. He thought it looked as if it might contain gold, and he had some of it assayed. The returns showed that he had stumbled on a pocket of the precious metal. That solitary pocket vielded him a fortune. He then began prospecting along the ocean beach, but with poor success. It then struck him that the gold must come from the hills beyond, and he be- gan prospecting back until he struck his mine. Then he buiit a house and made him- self a home, where he lived until the other day, when his sickness compelled his removal to the County Hos" ital. “But I wish you’d go out and tell my partner to come and see me. Tell him to bring me something,” the old man called after. Out in the vicinity of the mining camp I found the neighbors greatly divided in their opinion as to whether any gold was ever taken out of the mine on the hilltop. “Yeu bet they made money,” said one. “Haven’t I seen 'em spend it.” “They never made a bean,” said an- other. “They’re a couple of beggars,” said a third, while a fourth wanted to organ- ize an expedition to go and dig for buried treasure, it being his opinion that they had a ‘“sack hidden some- where.” From all that could be learned it is only about three vears since it became known that there was a mine on the hilltop. It was thought.that Shoots and his partner were simply a couple of cranks who chose that methcd of living. And when it became known that the men were working a gold mine many of the nelghbors thought it a “‘She’s good joke and were inclined to do a lit« tle chaffing. 7 Of course those who held to the idea that both Shoots and his partner had made money out of the mine by digging gold and selling it had different opin- jons as to how the precious metal was obtained. No one entertained for even a moment the idea that the gold was extracted by any of the. well known and tried processes. All were of the opinion that it was a secret held by the two men. The belief -entertained by most of Shoots’ old neighbors and friends was that some sort of chemical process was made use of. These held to the theory that the two men, being old miners, had discovered how to select small pieces of rock that contained a high percentage of gold. They then “work- ed” these by their secret method and either extracted the gold entirely or else reduced it to such small bulk that it could be taken to a refinery without attracting the attention that a wagon load of ore would. This is. not without the bounds of possibility. In fact, it is highly proba- ble and fully in accord with the state- ment of old man Shoots: “There is lots of gold there, but you have to know how to find,it.” Did he know how to find it, and will anybody else ever kggw how to find it, are questions the neighbors are eagerly asking. One of the oldest residents of the vi- cinity, who has known of Shoots ever since he came to live out near Ingle- side, is fully convinced that the two men took comfortable sums of gold out of their mine. “But,” said this man, “they didn’t get the gold in the usual way. It’s my opinion that they found the gold in a certain kind of rock and in small nuggets. In this way they could take out quite good sized piles and nobody ever be the wiser. “My reason for believing this,” con- tinued the man after a pause, “is be- cause I have known of similar cases. I used to mine myself, a good many years ago. This was when I was dig- ging along the Sacramento. A young fellow came into our camp and went to work in an old shaft and tool out con- siderable metal. Nobody could ever tell how he did it. Dozens of us went into his mine and looked around, and even prospected there a little when he was away, but couldn’t find any gold. Nobody ever could but him and he al- ways found plenty.” Shoots and his partner were not a bit interested in the affairs of the world. They had a wholesome fear “that in some way they would lose their mine, and a few days ago this was taken ad- vantage of by a car conductor. Seeing Demott in the rcad, he called to him and said that the United States was at war with Spain. Demott- was horror=- stricken and asked for particulars. “Why,” said the conductor, “the Spanish fleet is just off the Farallones and is going to bombard this part of the country. They will blow up your mine sure.” Instantly Demott’s face paled and he ran off through the woods like a fright- ened deer to tell his partner. In con- nection with this it is interesting to note that Shoots was taken to the County Hospital a few days later. One of the first questions he asked after being put In bed was whether the Uni- ted States was at war with Spain. He said he had heard so, but could hardly believe it. 5 After learning the exact location of the mine I climbed the hill, expecting to interview Demott. I found the cabin where the men lived, a cozy enough little place. It was deserted. A couple of dogs, tied up, barked at me at first and then whined piteously. Several chickens came running from the trees and a brood of young ones chirped loudly, as if they were hungry. I walked about in hopes of finding Demott. I looked down the old mining shafts and saw the tunnels disappear- ing in the darkness. I examined the “ore” on the dump. But nowhere could I find a trace of anybody having been there for seyeral days. Going ba€k to the cabin, T examined the lock of the door and found a spider had spun his web over it. Near the Ingleside track T questioned the neighbors as to when they had last seen Demott.. No one had seen him since the day that Shoots was taken to the County Hospital. He had come back that evening, but had not been seen since. Inquiry at two of his old haunts brought no more information. But the mine, with it§ machinery, timbers, etc., is-all there. Can any one find gold there in good paying quantities as Shoots has done for the past seventeen years? Shoots says there |s plenty there, but that “you've got to know how to find 1&"