The False Gold Rush
A swindle? Or just wishful thinking? Probably some of both.
Of all the secondary topics in The Unassigned Lands, the Wichita Mountain Gold Rush was savaged the most during editing. With no direct connection to Bud Dalton and with so many facets of its own there was simply no room for it in the book. There's room here, though, and we're going to do it some justice.
As with so many other events related to opening the Indian Territory, there was no direct cause and effect relationship to make the gold rush happen. We can see a handful of contributing factors, all inter-related with each other. Furthermore, the rush didn't happen in a vacuum - it played its own role in shaping southwestern Oklahoma. It's easy to imagine what changing even one small aspect of one contributing factor might do the outcome that played out in the real world. I'm going to focus on three factors and they're all connected: Contemporary gold strikes, the reporting of the events in general and one editor in particular, and finally a form of mass delusion that is hard to explain.
First of all, let's get it on the table now: There was no gold. There was never any gold. There were good reasons to believe there could have been gold, but thousands tried to find it and couldn't. So how in the world could thousands of people invest fortunes, search for decades, then believe they just needed to try a little harder, for a little longer? Well, someone was leading them on. I'm going to introduce you to Frank Davis, editor of a newspaper in Lawton, Oklahoma. Frank did the most damage, a virtual zealot when it came to Wichita Mountain Gold. If you've browsed much of this site, you probably know by now that I hold most newspapers and editors of that period in absolute contempt. Frank Davis might have been the worst of the bunch and I going to tell the gold rush story centered on Frank.
But first, the beginning:
Rumors of gold and silver in the Wichita Mountains began in 1540 when Francisco Vasquez de Coronado left present-day Mexico to find the golden city of Cibola. His journey took him through the Texas Panhandle into present-day Kansas, driven by rumors of Indians who ate "from golden plates and silver bowls." He found plenty of Native Americans, but no gold or silver. In 1542 he gave up the search and returned home empty handed.
But not entirely empty handed. He and his men filled their journals with what they saw (some of them believed that they were encroaching on Hell as they crossed the Texas Panhandle - the air was too hot and the terrain far too featureless and barren to be natural. Satan was surely just over the horizon.). Their journals were filled with the rumored gold and the fact that there were plenty of non-Christian people lurking about, all just waiting to be converted.
Years later the Spanish returned with thoughts of converting the natives Coronado had documented. Their attempts failed completely, but the rumored gold was apparently very much on their minds. Old Spanish excavations were discovered as Americans pushed westward, and some of those diggings were discovered at a place named Devil's Canyon at the far west side of the Wichita Mountains (in what is now Quartz Mountain State Park), back then part of Texas.
The settlers questioned the Wichita Indians about the diggings and were informed that the Spanish had taken gold and silver from them many years before, and thus the notion of gold and silver was firmly implanted in the new Texan's brains. They renewed the digging and someone claimed they'd found something (a lie almost certainly). Nearly everyone started talking about how much potential there was and claims of a massive gold field began to circulate. The race was on and even though no one had anything to show for it, the fuse was lit.
Unfortunately, while the small mountain complex holding Devil's Canyon and its theoretical gold was in Texas, the rest of the mountain range was located in the Indian Territory. Texas prospectors eyed the mountains to the east greedily, but there was nothing they could do but wait.
In April of 1889 the first section of the Indian Territory (The literal "Unassigned Lands" David Payne had struggled for years to claim) was opened to American settlers in a giant land rush. To the prospectors in Texas, it was simply proof that all the Indian Territory would eventually be abolished and they began sneaking over the border to prospect in the eastern mountain complexes. Nothing was found, but everyone was certain it was just a matter of time.
Piece by piece, the Indian Territory was parceled out and turned over to white settlers until there was only one part left: the Kiowa, Commanche, and Apache lands that held the mountains (roughly today's Kiowa and Commanche counties in Oklahoma). By that time the whole area was infested with illegal prospectors, all claiming the area to be the greatest gold field in American history. Considering the massive finds in Colorado and California, plus the Klondike rush that was just winding down in Alaska, that was quite a claim. There was no dissent, though. Keep in mind, no one had produced any Wichita Mountain gold, yet there were countless claims of excellent test results and the never-ending mantra of "it's just a matter of time."
Finally, the Kiowa/Commanche/Apache lands were opened in 1901 and Frank Davis enters the picture. Frank was a 21 year old pharmaceutical chemist from Kansas and was blindly all-in on Wichita Mountain gold. He used his newspapers to publicize any and all activities related to local mining as well as to hype the gold rush in general. And also to denounce and ridicule anyone with the temerity to question the validity of the gold rush.
Frank's first newspaper, The Sheridan Miner was founded just after the territory was opened. Frank later moved to Lawton and created The Mineral Kingdom, "Devoted to the mines and mining in the Wichita Mountains, and the mineral interests of Oklahoma and Indian Territory". Frank was completely and absolutely incapable of critical thinking. Wichita Mountain gold was, in his mind, an absolute reality and his paper was filled with propaganda promoting it and the mining industry. He would go into great detail justifying minutia such as why mining is a profitable profession (it wasn't), why miners and prospectors were among the most respectable people (they weren't) and how the mining industry in general was unfairly targeted by judges and politicians (not 'unfairly', they certainly had it coming). Frank also like to sing the praises of local projects and trumpet new investments being made in the area. Two of his favorite locals were Sam Remer and John Pearson. Both men had invested a tremendous amount of money building plants and installing equipment, digging ore, and accumulating debt.
Conversely, all evidence contradicting anything Frank printed was labeled lies or fabrications, the people presenting the evidence were criminals or mental defectives. Negative reports drew Frank's ire like nothing else. One of his first victims was an anonymous geologist who had informally collected samples around the area and tested them. He found nothing, not even trace amounts, and said so. Frank didn't care for that and spent the next edition detailing all fabulous test results he'd been given and questioning the geologist's intelligence and integrity.
Next was H. Foster Bain with the U.S. Geological Survey. In October of 1903, Bain collected samples from over 40 mines in the Wichita's, more than 300 pounds worth of material, and analyzed it all. Bain released his report that December, noting that he found no gold in any sample, and mere traces of silver, copper, and lead.
Frank lambasted Bain daily on a personal and professional level and rolled out one of his favorite tactics when confronted with a negative report from an reputable source: the famous Cripple Creek mine in Colorado. Cripple Creek was an unimaginably rich discovery made in 1890 that was still creating millionaires in 1903 - One of the original claims had sold for 11 Million dollars just 4 years earlier. Cripple Creek was current, was local compared to the Klondike strike in the frozen north, and had endured several negative reports similar to what the Wichitas were currently enduring. Cripple Creek was Frank's number-one go-to response: "They were wrong at Cripple Creek and you're wrong now."
It happened again the following year. A pair of miners brought a number samples to Edwin DeBarr, head of the chemistry college at the recently founded University of Oklahoma in Norman. DeBarr tested the samples and concluded there was gold present at levels profitable to extract. Frank trumpeted “THE WICHITA MOUNTAINS THE FUTURE MINERAL DISTRICT OF AMERICA.” A few weeks later, DeBarr retracted his results, claiming that further tests agreed with Bain's results - there didn't seem to be anything there. Frank drug out Cripple Creek again and used the bulk of the next few editions to roast Professor DeBarr. Bain and Debarr would appear frequently in future editions when Frank wanted to ridicule someone.
On its face, Frank's use of Cripple Creek's negative reports seemed reasonable...until you read the reports. Cripple Creek's negative reports never claimed there was no gold there, as Bain and DeBarr had claimed in the Wichita's. Cripple Creek's reports were initial evaluations of the find's potential profitability. No one denied there was gold there, the question was if it was present in quantities to mine at a profit. The reports were skeptical, and they were dramatically wrong. Frank lumped Cripple Creek's "there might not be enough" with the Wichita's "we don't see any at all" and leaned heavily into Cripple Creek's obvious success, inferring the same held in the Wichita's.
Beyond expert skepticism, there were no physical results attached to any of the so-called test results. If claims could pay 90 dollars per ton, how come no claim paid anything? A few newspapers were paying attention. The Republic News noted:
"Every few days that gold excitement breaks out in the Wichita Mountains, but it is growing feebler all the while. For years the miners claimed that if the United States would only let them into these rich gold fields they would carry the gold out by the bucketful, and a rush would ensue which would put California in the shade. Now they have free entry the country and the right to dig up the ground clear to China and yet the only thing that has been shown is some glittering quartz."
Frank didn't have a good response to that other than to lump the Republic News into the ever-growing category of "deniers". But he sort of swerved into something with Cripple Creek and the Wichitas: Something HAD happened during the very few years between them. America was trying to emerge from one of the greatest economic disasters of all time (another long and interesting topic you can read about HERE). Millions were desperately seeking work or, alternatively, riches, to avoid starvation. Mere rumors of work would trigger caravans to find it. The discovery of gold on the Klondike triggered a mass migration from East to West, then "North To Alaska".
The possibility of gold in Oklahoma would have been very, very, appealing and it's easy to imagine a willingness to simply deny that Wichita Mountain gold could be unreal. It had to be real because untold numbers of people needed to to be real, perhaps Frank was like that, too. But as time went on and no one could produce anything tangible, the rush collapsed.
Frank's final edition was a brief two pages in 1905. The November 30th edition contained only a tiny bit of actual news, and, tellingly, no advertising. The front page was dominated by a nearly unreadable essay on day-to-day the life of a prospector and the normal gossip of who-was-where, the news tidbit relegated to the second page. In an “oh-by-the-way” tone, Davis informed his readers that his paper would “consolidate” with the Oklahoma Farm News, which was dedicated to farming concerns, and that edition was his paper’s last. Davis was never heard from again.
The Wichita Mountain Gold Rush didn't start off as a fraud, but Frank helped make it into one. I'm throwing him under the bus here, but he had plenty of help. Frank didn't create the multitude of false test results, he just hyped them. Frank didn't default on the loans (in the millions) necessary capitalize imaginary gold, he just reported they'd occurred. When worthless claims were sold to unwitting buyers, Frank held the buyers up as brilliant businessmen and, pointing again to Cripple Creek's magnificent sales, told the world that it was more proof that the Wichita's were on the right track: that's what happened at Cripple Creek. The Wichita Mountain mining districts heard what they wanted to hear and blindly forged ahead: "it's just a matter of time."
In an irony that Frank was certainly unaware of, linking Cripple Creek to the Wichita's had a darkly comedic aspect: Cripple Creek started with a fraud and became an enormous success while the Wichita's started as an enormous success and concluded as a fraud.
Cripple Creek's hoax began when two prospectors, S.J. Bradley and D.G. Miller, staked a large claim near Mt. McIntyre, a small peak in Colorado about fourteen miles west of another mountain named Mt. Pigsah. The prospectors set up rudimentary operations, and dug a trench which they named “The Teller Placer”.
Bradley and Miller pulled samples from their trench and hauled them to Canyon City, where the nearest assayer’s office was located. The tests showed high concentrations of gold, possibly as high as $1000 dollars per ton. They knew the results would be spectacular because they’d ground down a ten-dollar gold piece and salted their sample with the filings. The gold was detected, exactly the way Bud’s would be in The Unassigned Lands, and the amazing results were published in papers across Colorado. The rush was on and Bradley and Miller’s plan was working like a charm.
Bradley and Miller had already drawn up maps and pamphlets and immediately began selling shares in their mining operation. After a few weeks there were five thousand men digging holes around Mt. McIntyre, and it didn’t take long for experienced prospectors to look at the rocks they were digging up and to become skeptical. They dug a trench parallel to the Teller site and had those samples tested at the same assayer in Canyon City. Nothing.
Bradley and Miller were exposed, but for reasons no one can explain the hoax was named for Mt. Pigsah, just visible on the eastern horizon. This is where the irony hits - east of Mt. Pigsah is Pike’s Peak with a small stream running through the valley between the mountains. The stream, of course, is Cripple Creek.
Years after the hoax, Robert Womack discovered a rich deposit on the Pike’s Peak side of the creek. He named his strike the “El Paso Lode”, and the gully where he found it “Poverty Gulch”. He raced to town to show off his very tangible find where he was met with skepticism and disbelief. His claim bordered Mt. Pigsah and Mt. Pigsah's reputation was quite poor due to Bradley and Miller's mis-named fraud.
Justifiably frustrated, Womack eventually convinced a furniture store, of all things, in Colorado Springs to display some of his samples in their front window. Each glittered with tiny golden fragments, easily visible to the naked eye. Finally, the samples were tested and behold! Womack was legitimate and Pigsah was not a hoax. Womack was able to finance a mining operation and, despite a handful of bad reports on productivity, the Cripple Creek Mining District would carve its name into history.
The Wichita Mountains would not. Somewhere between the Pigsah hoax, which took mere weeks to expose, and the Wichita Mountains, which lingered for decades (and actually predates the hoax), people's ability to separate fantasy and reality largely evaporated. For years there was a disconnect between the (obviously fabricated) positive test results and the lack of production at those claims, while at the same time massive investment into new projects when there was no production at the old ones.
Both things could not be true at the same time: claims with good tests are proven almost immediately and produce until they're played out. Claims with bad tests are eventually abandoned. The claims in Greer County (the section of mountains in Texas) could have - should have! - been producing for years before the Indian Territory was opened. But they didn't produce anything except words.
So how did it happen? How was there a gold rush at all? Asked a different way - why did the Pigsah miners expose the hoax where the Wichita miners perpetuated it? They were faking test results, they knew their claims were worthless...which probably answers the question. The whole thing was a fraud, willingly perpetuated by miners and prospectors hoping to sell claims, unwittingly perpetuated by lackeys like Frank Davis, and at the expense of men like Remer, Pearson and their investors who simply believed what they heard and saw.
I hinted above that economic conditions might have played a factor, and I believe that, along with the Wichita's (undeserved) reputation for undiscovered gold and some questionably ethical promoters (see Frank Wildman, Elisha Williams, E. E. Moulder, and A.J. Meers), along with their cheerleaders (Frank Davis wins that one) created culture where normal human skepticism didn't survive. Factor in the anything-goes reality of life in the Indian Territory and the take-what-you-want attitude of early Oklahoma and you end up with the craziest true story you never heard.
Some artifacts of the rush survive today. The remains of John Pearson's mill lie in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge next to Ketch Lake, and the remains of The Gold Bells Milling and Mining company, massive concrete steps and the remains of a water tank, are just north of Snyder.
