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Show But he laughed last. His inquiries located the place where the grindstone had originated, a red cliff 18 miles northeast of St. George. He staked claims there, and the Silver Reef mine became a heavy producer. It also added knowledge to mining geology. Even Pioche businessmen helped develop the new camp, moving a mill to process ore and other buildings from Pioche to the Reef. Two other versions of the Murph story you should know. In one, the doubters rode him out of town on a rail-before they thought of assaying the grindstone. In the other, they lynched him, and then found the silver in the sample. Tales of lucky strikes showered sparks into the gloom of our farming failures. I was willing to believe when a lone rider swung out of the saddle at the store one summer day. He imparted a secret to me: he owned a tattered antique Spanish map showing location of a rich mine west of Nada. . ."back of Blue Mountain" was as close as he got to telling where. "We'll know it when we see it: there's a big hole in the rock with a cool breeze blowing out of it," he told me. The Old Spanish Trail, I knew converged with Escalante's route at Hot Springs or on our our ranch. My parents were perhaps too confident about my judgment as a teenager. Or they disliked thwarting me after a long spring of grubbing brush and other toilsome tasks. So Father consented and Mother packed bags of food for us. I stowed them aboard our one horse. He was a pinto gelding named Blaze, getting along in years but still sturdy- Our only other transportation then"was our truck and a Model T passenger car. |