Early in the morning, I was awakened by men talking around me and hurrying to get out to stake out lots for building purposes.  It was government land.  Any land that was not staked, you had a right to stake it by placing light logs in form as if you were going to build.  This would hold a lot for six days.  By that time you were supposed to make some improvement on it to keep possession of it longer.  As there were thousands of fallen fir trees, that had fallen and dried up lying around, it was easy to put logs up.  Hundreds of men were doing this and they all expected to realize on them in this silver mining camp rush.

It was all strange to me, but I was learning slowly.  My only thought was to hunt a job of any kind.  I walked around and listened to rough men with two guns hanging on their belts.  They were talking of silver strikes in different places.  Looking up the street, I noticed a man loading a pack on a burro.  As I stood by, a hand was placed on my shoulder.  I turned to see who it was and the man said, "Pard, are you looking for a job?"  I told him that I was.  I was weary looking for it.

I looked him over and had a feeling that he was all right.  He told me he was up against it now looking for work of some kind.  He had only been here a few days.  Had just come from Texas and had had bad luck there by fire which burned up $8,000.00 worth of ties for a new railroad.  We walked around and found a man who wanted an out-house moved and then wanted a stable built.  We purchased a hand saw and a hatchet and went to work and finished the job.  It was built of rough lumber.

We walked around some more and heard some men saying that a business man would grub stake two men.  We hunted him up and made arrangements to meet him next day.  We met at a supply store.  He purchased the supplies and told us that we should go with him to a new mining field about thirty miles away.  New strikes were being made in silver and miners were rushing to new fields.

Our sled was finally loaded and pulled by two horses.  In one place the driver said, "We are on top of a divide.  This is a small pond of water.  Should you kick some water that way it would go into the Pacific Ocean.  Then do the same on the other side and it would go into the Atlantic Ocean.  One by way of the Arkansas River and the other by way of the Colorado River." All around, the scenery was wonderful.  Mountains were covered with snow.  At the foot of the mountains, there was a ring of green fir trees, giving them grandeur.

We could not linger.  The shades of night would be coming soon and we must be at the camp, miles away, so we hurried on.  I noticed a whole side of beef lying in the snow.  The driver said it must have fallen off the sled of someone going ahead.  He said it would not spoil for sixty days or more.  The road we were now on connected Leadville and Georgetown, a mining town further north.  It was near getting dark with a few miles to go.  At last the driver stopped and said here we must unload.  After unloading we stood around awhile, my partner and I, deciding whether we should sleep here or not.  All around it was very dark.  Suddenly we saw a light a few hundred feet away.  We both went in the direction that we saw the light.  We found a cabin with two men in it.

We knocked on the door and a voice said, "Come in."  I told them we had a load of supplies unloaded at the trail and wanted some place to sleep.  They were kind enough to give us a place.  We carried our supplies to the cabin.  They told us they were prospectors.  We told them that we were hungry and would like to have something to eat and some hot coffee.  We had flour and coffee which we had brought from Leadville.  I never had any experience in making biscuits or coffee.  I watched very closely how one of those men made it.  All cooking was done on a light sheet-iron wood stove, very light to pack and carry over mountains.  A mixture of flour, baking powder and water poured in a square tin pan, then placed in the oven and quickly baked.  My partner and I enjoyed this quick lunch.  We slept on the cabin floor that night.  Next morning we looked around.  We were informed that there was a tent close by where we could send and receive mail.  It was called "Aleys and Duns tent".  Another place close by just forming, was called "Kokomo".

As there were many shafts being operated, prospecting for ore was profitable.  Some of them had found paying ore.  Many claims had been staked out.  A claim was 1500 feet by 500 feet, all Government land.  My partner, Frank BRISBANE, decided that we would prospect on the other side of the mountain from where we stood.  We carried our supplies across a flat bottom of land about one and a half miles to a place where it was thickly timbered with fir trees.  Having no nails, we placed a pole across between two trees resting on branches.  Then we cut the tops off of other trees leaning on one side of the pole, then covered them over thickly with branches to keep the snow off our bed.  We scattered small branches in one corner to sleep on.  The top of the trees we used for a door.  We had been told that wild animals were around.