I remember one train that I met that spring down on the Arkansas river, below Bent’s Fort.  One of the men asked me, if I could tell them how far it was from there to Pike’s Peak.  I said, “No sir, I can’t tell you how far it is, but I can show it to you.  There is Pike’s Peak right before you,” and I pointed to the snowcapped mountain that could be seen for hundreds of miles.

He said, “Oh, I don’t mean that.  I want to find out where the Pike’s Peak gold mine is.”

I told him that I had never heard of such a mine.  This seemed to surprise him, and in a few minutes the whole outfit was crowding around me, inquiring about Pike’s Peak mine.

Then I told them what the report had been about the discovery of gold at Cherry creek and Russel’s gulch.

One man asked if I could tell them where Denver was, and that was a question I could not answer, for I had never heard of a place called Denver before.

I asked him what Denver was.  A new mining camp that had just been named, or what.

“Why” he said, “Denver is a city close to Pike’s Peak.”

I answered, “Strange, you must have made a mistake in the locality of the city you are seeking.  I have traveled all over this country for years, and I never saw or heard of a place called Denver in my life.”

Then they told me that Dr. Russel, one of the discoverers of the gold mine, had staid all night at the town where they came from in Missouri.

When he, the Dr., was on his way home to Georgia, last fall he had told them what wonderful gold mines had been discovered up in the mountains, and there was a large city building in the valley that was going to be the queen city of the west, and they had named the city “Denver.”

I was young then, and of course my experience was limited, so I believed the story that the man told, not stopping to think that it might be exaggerated, as an older person might have done.

I was going down the Arkansas river on my last trading trip with the Indians for that season, and the story of the wonderful gold mines made me anxious to get back to Bent’s Fort.  I had very good success in this trade, and in two weeks I was back to the fort with my pack horses loaded down with Buffalo robes.

After I had settled with the Col., I said, “I reckon you would have won the wager if we had made the bet last fall, Col., for I am afraid I have a touch of the gold fever.”

Col.  Bent laughed and said, “I thought you would not escape, Will, but you are not the only one affected.  I have news for you.  Kit Carson and Jim Bridger will be here in a few days from Taos, on their way to the gold mines, and so you are just in time to go with them.”

I then told Col.  Bent the story the gold seekers had told me when I was on my way to trade with the Indians this last time.

He said, “You must not believe all the stories that are floating about, Will.  If you do, you will only be disappointed, for in a time when people are excited, as they are now over the finding of gold, there will be all kinds of exaggerated stories told.  Some of them will be told in good faith, and some will be to merely mislead too credulous people.  So take my advice, Will, and keep cool and don’t get rattled.”