this lost mine has been told and retold with many
variations for the past seventy years, and more than a score of persons
have lost their lives in attempting to rediscover it. In 1836, according
to the traditional story, a man named Smith, distinguished from the rest
of the Smith family by the possession of a wooden leg, was journeying
with several companions from Yuma over the Colorado desert. On account
of his wooden stump he was dubbed "Pegleg" by his fellow-travellers.

After having been out several days and not finding any springs or water
holes, the prospectors became greatly alarmed and hastened toward three
small buttes which they saw standing out in the desert, in the hope of
finding water in the dry wash leading from their bases. On arriving at
the foot of the hills they were sadly disappointed; diligent search
revealed no signs of water. He of the wooden leg climbed to the top of
one of the buttes to get a better view of the country, and to the
northward saw a high mountain; but before descending, he observed some
black stones under his feet and on picking one up found it heavy and
filled with a brassy-colored metal. He then picked up several of the
stones and put them into his pockets, but being desirous of reaching
water as soon as possible, he gave little thought to his find.

He told his companions of the mountain seen to the north and advised all
possible haste to reach it, saying that he believed that they would
there find water. The next day at nightfall they succeeded in reaching
the base of the mountain in an exhausted condition and found a spring of
cool, clear water. They were thus barely saved from a lingering death by
thirst. The mountain was named Smith Mountain.

At San Bernardino, Smith showed his ore to an expert, who pronounced it
nearly pure gold. The real importance of the discovery did not seem to
dawn on the one-legged man, however, until thirteen years afterward;
then, in 1849, it was heralded to the world that wonderful discoveries
of gold had been made in several parts of California and that a man
could dig out of the ground a fortune in a few days or weeks. Smith
became enthusiastic and organized an expedition in San Francisco to seek
for his desert mine where gold could be had for the picking up.

The expedition started out from Los Angeles. One night, just before
reaching Smith Mountain, the Indians who had been taken along to pack
the supplies secretly decamped with the provisio