Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1915 — HE COULD NOT DODGE FORTUNE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HE COULD NOT DODGE FORTUNE

How Stratton Became One of the Great Millionaires of the West UNLUCKIEST OF PROSPECTORS His Mins Wss • Joke in Colorado for Years, Until Hs Found ths Trunk Vain and Sold for $15^)00,000, By RICHARD SPILLANE. (Copyright, McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) Fortune forces itself on some men no matter how they dodge. It was so with Stratton. Out in Colorado he was a joke for years. He wandered about the hills prospecting whenever he had grub enough for a trip and, when his supplies ran low, or winter overtook him, he went to work at the one thing for which he was fitted — carpentering. He could use a plane or a saw as well as any ordinary jour* neyman and might- have settled down in Gunnison, Buena Vista, Ouray, LeadviUe, or any one of a dozen towns, and made a comfortable living. Re had the lust of gold, however, and no matter how bitter his experience, or how many times he determined to abandon his wanderings, each spring brought back the fever. Surely he had reason to know his limitations as a prospector. Several times he went over ground which to him gave little or no promise. Other men came along a year or two later, saw what he couldn’t see, located elsfms and developed fairly good mines. His ill luck was proverbial. Those wbd knew the things he missed used to say he would not know a gold mine if he tumbled into one. Stratton was forty-eight, gray, a btt rheumatic and altogether down on his luck, when one July 3 he spread his blankets on the ground and prepared to sleep on the hlllaide six miles from Cripple Creek. He could see the lights of the camp in the distance. They spoke to him of companionship, merrymaking and something better to eat than he had been having for many daysj He had hoped to make the creek that night, but had stumbled and fallen, and had gone a bit lame. He didn’t have pony or burro—nothing but his pick, his blankets, a little grub and a few cooking utensils. When Stratton awoke co the morning of July 4. his leg ached so much that he didn’t think It would be wise to tramp to town burdened with his pack. He had said a few harsh things the night before about his ill luck and he repeated them with interest in the morning. After breakfast he moved around a bit, lust to take some of the stiffness out of his leg.

Uoca*ed Two Claims. Naturally, aa a prospector, he examined the ground. He didn’t see anything promising. There was a streak of prudence in the man. however. and, knowing that some good strikes had been made at Cripple Creek: he thought he might as well locate a claim or two right there where he was laid up. He did sd. As a patriotic American and in respect to the day, he named one of his claims George Washington and the other Independence. The next day his leg was better and he paddled along to Cripple Creek. The camp was bustling. Stratton had no trouble In getting a job. He did a little carpentering and a little mining. He got good pay, especially as a carpenter, for the little camp was growing. New strikes were being made, and there was an urgent demand for buildings. After a while there came a lull. Stratton, who didn’t have a lazy bone in his body, went back to the hill and did just enough work to held the two claims he had located. In doing this assessment work, he ran across a little vein of silver. It was so very thin that it didn’t amount to much more than a basis for him to have hope. He tried to follow it, but it ran out. In another place he encountered a vein of gold. That, too, was very thin. In many Instances the bodies of precious metals that are in the earth are fashioned after the forms of trees. There is one main body like

the trunk. Then there are a lot of branches.. Prom these branches there are stringers. Usually the trunk is deep in the earth. Generally the branches spread out over a wide stretch of territory. In the majority of cases, It is one of the stringers, or small veins, that a miner runs on in his work near the surface. He fol-. lows this stringer, or vein, in the hope of finding the trunk. His quest of the trunk would be comparatively easy but for the fact that these trees of ore are broken in many places. These breaks are called faults. In a convulsion of nature, the great tree was shattered. A branch was thrown here, a stringer there, and maybe the trunk itself ripped apart. Sometimes thefault only extends for a few feet. Sometimes it extends for hundreds or maybe thpusands of feet. When a miner runs on to a stringer and is abb** to follow it to the branch and runs along the branch until he finds the trank, he has a bonanza. What Stratton had come across was a stringer from the tip of a branch. Veins Seemed to Pit sr Out. The carpenter forked on his mine n _at. streaks of gold

and silver were little more than threads. Occasionally, when he could afford it, he had an assay mads The report was not reassuring. Once he got out as much as a carload of ora. This didn't bring him a day’s wages. Then Instead of widening, the little veins of metal seemed to peter out the deeper he went Stratton worked for several months and then became convinced that the mine was of no account, or at least no account for a man who didn't have enough money to carry the shaft deeper into the earth than he could afford. He was about at tbe end of his resources. He bad to earn some money to pay debts he bad contracted and pay for bis daily fare. He did a little carpentering and Worked as a day laborer in other mines. Meanwhile he looked around to find some one to whom he could sell his hole in the ground. No one had much confidence in his property, but there is nothing like perseverance, and after a. weary search he finally dug up a person who agreed to pay 3500 for the two claims. The purchaser was very careful. He didn’t mean to get stung. He paid SIOO down and agreed to pay tbe other S4OO six months later. If the mine was all right, he was safe. If it wasn’t, all he could lose would be the SIOO and the work he put in. Stratton was very happy when he got that SIOO. It was a lot of money just then. The purchaser of the Stratton claims was not so happy. He proceeded to get what stuff he could out of the mine. He didn't get much. If he worked 24 hours a day he might get enough gold or silver to pay for one good meal, but not much more. He waa a dogged sort of individual and the more he thought about that SIOO of his good money that had gone

to Stratton, the harder he labored to get even. But it was no use. When the six months were up and Stratton called on him to produce the other four hundred, the man was angry enough to fight. He said he wouldn’t give four cents for a quit claim deed to the properties. Stratton offered to compromise, but there was no compromise possible. Reluctantly Stratton had to take the mine back. Stratton let the mine lie idle for eight or nine months, and then, having nothing better to do, he went back and worked it. He could just get out about enough to make him hopeful at times, but not enough to live on. Every time he found a stranger tfi Cripple Creek who was a likely candidate to buy a hole in the ground, Stratton went after him. He landed one person after , a long effort and managed to close a deal with him that seemed heavenly to Stratton. The stranger agreed to, take the mine for $2,000. He was to pay $250 down and $1,750 at the end of the year. This second purchaser did some earnest work. He had a fair amount of money and spent several thousand dollars in extending the shaft and opening the thing up. It was no use. The ore he got didn’t pay expenses. The threads didn’t widen beyond threads. There was only a streak of metal to be found and the outlook was hopeless. His year rolled around and when- the time came for him to pay the $1,750 he told Stratton to go hang. By this time the Stratton mine was a camp joke. Some of the old-timers qsed to say that at the rate Stratton was going he would make a good living. ' ■

Sold for the Third Time.

Stratton had been ridiculed for so many years that 'he was becoming used to it. He went back to his mine the following spring and took np the work where the second purchaser had left off. He hadn’t been at the job more than a month or two when the thread of gold suddenly widened into a pocket. It looked at first as if he had struck a branch, a big branch, of the tree of ore. There was some excitement when the news got out that Stratton, poor old Stratton they had laughed about so much, had really struck it rich. Men went up and looked - at- thet ore

nodded their heads significantly. It looked good to them Stratton didn’t have to go hunting easy marks now to purchase or lease hia property. Experienced miners and men with money came after him. -They knew the hazards and the possibilities of the game. One of them, Bill Parish, offered $50,000 to Stratton. As usual this was not to be all cash. There was to be an initial payment of $5,000 and $45,000 was to be paid at the end of the year. Stratton accepted. He couldn’t lose either way. He had the laugh on the jokers who had been talking so much about him. ‘the $5,000 real money and the possibility of getting forty-five thousand more, made him feel almost plutocratic. Parish and his associates got cold feet in short order. The body of the ore they had been so much impressed by dribbled out to nothing. They were fully satisfied their $5,000 was lost. They were fully satisfied, too, that the mine was a bad property. They did some inconsequential work for the full 12 months, but the further they went in extending the mine, the poorer was the return in ore. Back to Stratton went the title to the mine when the year was up. Once more the jokers had an inning. They used to sing a song in Cripple Creek that was a parody on “The Cat Came Back." It wasn’t a Sunday school hymn by any means. That mine had been pretty good to Stratton. It had brought $5,350 in real money. There was no telling mow much more might come his way. It’s no wonder, therefore, that he went back to it He switched, however, in regard to his operation. He had been working the Independence claim. When he back he began working the George Washington. He made some money out of this, not enough

to thrill him, but enough to pay expenses for a season. Then the ore ran poor again. The following year he decided the George Washington wasn’t of much account, so he returned to the Independence. Suddenly Struck the Trunk. He plugged away all season at the Independence, occasionally running on a little vein of gold, profitable ore, and then having: it lose Itself on him. He just about made expenses. He had his eyes open all the time for a purchaser. The purchasers were rather shy, however. Too many had been stung. The Independence and the George Washington had bad names. If Stratton had offered to sell the two properties outright for $2,000 it’s doubtful whether he could have found a purchaser. That was the condition when Stratton suddenly came on the trunk of that tree. It was rich ore. Within a few days the strike was known throughout America. Stratton no longer was a jbke. He had no trouble in getting money. He could take it right out of the ground. The more development he made the richer became the prospects. Day after day the trunk widened. Mining experts from all over the world came to see the property. All sorts of propositions were made to Stratton for the purchase of his holdings. He was pretty shrewd. He carried , his development along until he had eight or ten million dollars in ore in sight. Then he sold out for $15,000,000. There was no string tied to this amount. He had to get the money and he got it. He had been seven years selling that mine and he had gofcrqd of it three times before he finally sold it for good and for all.

That 000,000 made Stratton one of the great millionaires of the West. His home at Colorado Springs became a show place of Colorado. The Independence mifie is one of the richest the Cripple Creek region has known. Stratton has been dead some years and he will go down in history as a miner, his name linked with the Independence. Nine men out of ten who knew him intimately will declare he was a better carpenter than a miner, and that his case was simply an Instance of a man's inability to avoid a fortune when it"is his destiny to hare. nna mm# tn htmr" •

He Encountered a Vein of Gold.