File:Marvels of the new West - a vivid portrayal of the stupendous marvels in the vast wonderland west of the Missouri River - comprising marvels of nature, marvels of race, marvels of enterprise, marvels (14741887176).jpg

Identifier: marvelsofnewwest1889thay (find matches)
Title: Marvels of the new West : a vivid portrayal of the stupendous marvels in the vast wonderland west of the Missouri River : comprising marvels of nature, marvels of race, marvels of enterprise, marvels of mining, marvels of stock-raising, and marvels of agriculture, graphically and truthfully described
Year: 1887 (1880s)
Authors: Thayer, William Makepeace, 1820-1898
Subjects:
Publisher: Norwich, Conn. : Henry Bill Pub. Co.
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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housand to ten thousanddollars for his sack of flour. ♦ It is not strange that many of the best class of gold-seekers startedhomeward soon after reaching the gold country. Privations andhome-sickness forced their return. In addition, a large class of shift-less characters, who supposed that nuggets of gold could be pickedup anywhere in the vicinity of the Rocky Mountains, were maddenedby disappointment, and they, too, stampeded. So that, for two or MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE, 237 three years, and longer, perhaps, the plains witnessed two largestreams of humanity, one going to, and the other returning from, thegold country. The white-covered wagon that bore the inscription Pikes Peak or Bust on its outward trip, returned with this inscrip-tion under the former, Busted by Thunder. Most of them declaredthat Pikes Peak as a gold region was a hoax. One D. C. Oakes,who had induced many men to go to Colorado by a pamphlet that hepublished, setting forth the richness of the gold mines, came near
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PERILS OF D. C. OAKES. losing his life. He had been to the States, and was returningwith a saw-mill, when he met a large company of returning fortune-seekers on the plains, who charged him with deceiving them, andthreatened to destroy his mill and take vengeance on himself. Butfinally he was allowed to proceed, the exasperated stampeders con-tenting themselves with hurling hard names at him. Mr. Oakes hadnot proceeded far before he came upon a new-made grave, on whichthe bleached shoulder-blade of a buffalo lay, bearing the followinginscription : — 238 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. Here lies the body of D, C, Oakes, Killed for aiding the Pikes Peak hoax. The party of disappointed gold-hunters who had just interviewedhim had buried him in effigy. Subsequent developments provedthat the gold-cry was not a hoax. There was plenty of gold, butmany of its seekers lacked the enterprise, perseverance, and strengthto find it.

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