A friend writes to us desiring information in regard to the newly discovered gold mines in Kansas. As a matter of information and interest to our readers, we have taken pains to collate from the correspondence of the daily papers, from files of the Kansas Herald of Freedom, and other sources, a brief history of the mines, and the success of those who have been there.
    In 1836 a French trapper named Carrier, was lost from his party and wandered about through the country at the base of Pike's Peak. He found specimens of gold which he took in New Mexico. A party was formed there and came back with him, but he was unable to find the same streams, whereupon the Mexicans tied him up and whipped him severely, supposing that he did not wish to disclose the location of the gold.
    The existence of gold in that region was again discovered by a party of emigrants on their way to California in 1851. A proposal was made to stop, but as some of the emigrants had their families along with them, and as there was nothing to afford the means of shelter and subsistence, the party went on to California.--On arriving, they reported their discovery and wrote to their friends in Arkansas. The late troubles in Kansas not only prevented further search during their occurrence, but at their close hundreds of desperadoes were left with nothing to do but to look up some other field of operation. The infamous Col. Titus who had amused himself by burning houses, stealing horses and plotting assassinations and forays, went first to Nicaragua; thence back to Kansas where he found it had grown remarkably hot in his absence, so hot that he finally went with a few loafing ruffians--the dregs of Buford's cup of glory--to Arizona. Some went to California, others to Mormondom. A party from Arkansas remembering the story of the emigrants of 1851, went to Pike's Peak to explore for gold and were successful.
    Such is the history of the discovery--a discovery which must inevitably give all that territory--one, two, and perhaps three States--to Free-Soil and Free Labor.
    PIKE'S PEAK is the abrupt colossal termination of the mountain promontory which, protruding eastward from the Cordillera for nearly one hundred miles sunders from one another the sources of the south Platte and the Arkansas rivers. The altitude of the Peak is 14,500 feet above the level of the sea. Cherry Creek is a branch of the South Platte, and it is in the Cherry Creek Valley where most of the gold is found. Pike's Peak is in latitude 39� the same latitude as St. Louis and San Francisco, and the distance from each of these cities is about 1000 miles. In the Cherry Creek valley are immense forests of yellow and white pine, also cherry and cottonwood. Game is exceedingly abundant--black-tailed deer, red deer, elk, antelope, mountain sheep, black bear &c., being found in all portions of the country; and so plenty is it that the meat has no value, as will be seen from an extract from a letter below:
    MR. WYNKOOP--a brother of the late Col. Wynkoop of Pottsville--states in the Atchison (K. T.) Champion, that he left the mines Dec. 11th and returned by the South Platte route.--He says the average yield of gold dust to the panful is ten cents. He has returned to ask the Legislature now at Lawrence for a charter for a company, of which he is a member, to construct a canal from one of the mountain streams through the "dry diggings" for the purpose of supplying the miners with water. The canal will cost one million of dollars, but he says the dirt taken from it will pay for the work.
    JOHN SCUDDER writes to the St. Louis Republican from a new city named Auraria, under date of Nov. 24th. The city is laid out at the mouth of Cherry Creek, a branch of the South Platte, and already contains 150 cabins and 600 inhabitants. It is 30 miles from Pike's Peak which is in sight. There are about 1200 miners in the Cherry Creek valley. Average yield per day $4; highest amount made in one day $10. At the date of his letter flour was being sold at $10 per 50 lb sack; bacon 25 cts per lb; whiskey $1 per pint; and venison and bear meat was given away.
    DR. KAVANAGH writes to Santa F� (N. M.) Gazette, that he has been seventy-five miles up the valley of South Platte and found gold all the way. The best result found was four dollars to the pan. The region abounds in the best grazing and the climate is healthy.
    The Topeka Tribune states that a Mr. Edwards had returned for a shingle machine and the running gears for a saw mill, and that Mr. Garvey was about to start with a printing press. A Mr. Storm had killed fifteen deer in a day and wrote to a friend to bring a stock of groceries. Another town of fifty log houses has been named Denver City.
    These extracts will serve to show the true state of affairs in the new El Dorado. All accounts agree in representing the region as a land of gold, and there can be little doubt that that country contains immense treasures.
    We do not propose to comment upon the political or commercial changes and interests which these facts suggest, though we may do so at some future time. We have simply given in a condensed form the gist of a vast amount of correspondence with the authority. We would say to young men who have good and permanent employment, not to go off on a wild goose chase after a fortune, as it might possibly be found easier at home. To those who have no employment or who do not care to find any; to those who spend their time in loafing in barrooms and groceries; and to those who have poor prospects before them, we say go--go by all means, for while you have everything to gain you cannot possibly lose anything. When you get there be industrious, subscribe for Garvey's paper, and if the gold should fail in the mines, you can find it in the harvest fields in Autumn by using a hoe in the Spring.

Source:

Unknown, "The New Eldorado," Agitator, Wellsboro, Tioga County, Pa., Thursday, 10 February, 1859, Page 2.