The Copper Era

A placer discovery which is causing considerable interest in mining circles was made at a point along the Colorado river, forty-three miles below Needles, some days ago by Horace Phelps and a party of six other prospectors. Phelps passed through San Bernardino a few days ago on his way to Los Angeles with $1300 in gold dust that he and his companions washed out after a two week's work. With the gold, there were several good sized nuggets. Phelps stated that he and his companions have ascertained for a certainty that the placer field is limited to a very small area, and, though this is very rich, it would not pay others to go to the locality, as he and his party have already located all the field, and they believe that a few weeks' more work will exhaust it. When Phelps and the others arrived at the place, on their way to a mining district further down the river, there was a number of Mexicans washing out gold there. They had only primitive methods of separating the gold from the sand, and were not making more than a few dollars a day. On the appearance of the Phelps party these Mexicans sought other fields, leaving the newcomers in undisputed possession.