Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 274, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1916 — OLD MINE WON AT CARDS [ARTICLE]

OLD MINE WON AT CARDS

Thirty Years Later Claim Shows Prospects of Producing a Large Fortune.

Helena, Mont. —One wintry night some thirty years ago a group of men sat about a card table in Helena. It was late when one man shoved in his last “white” —and lost. Demanding one more try, he offered a mining claim. Not a gambler in the house would give the desperate stranger so much as a chip for his claim —none but “Swede Sam” Wallin. The miner lost. The land which became Wallin’s as a result of the night at cards lay in the Blossburg mining district, near Helena. As the years of three decades passed, its dirt remained unnoticed. Lately Wallin’s claim may have grown to beworth-$40(1,000. A prospector struck a rich vein of ore in the Blossburg district, running into Wallin’s claim.