I remember he called the vein an ‘iron dyke,’ and said that a compass revolted when placed on it.  His great desire was to mine that strata by means of a tunnel, but he had no money, so he and Tad decided that they would work during the winter months and save what money they could, then both work on the tunnel in warm weather.  They chose a spot down in the canyon that was high, but still near the stream, and there built a log shanty to live in while they worked the claim.  He wrote me how they cut the great spruce on the side of the mountain far above the chosen spot and rolled them in.  Dad let them use his team of donkeys to pack in the necessary lumber and shingles for the ‘shack.’  Father came home, and Tad, with some hired help, erected the first log cabin in the canyon.  My, but he was proud of it.

“The next spring saw them at work on the tunnel.  I did so hate to let father go, for I was afraid some harm would befall him; but he reassured me and seemed so positive that all our future hopes lay hidden in that hole that I let him go.  The first season they went in thirty feet, and things looked better every foot.  It was very hard for him to close up the hole and come home to his winter’s work.  His company in Lansing had inspected the drawings of his proposed machine and had promised him a goodly sum for the patent if he proved that it would work.  The only question was the securing of the proper ore for flux.  I remember his hopes ran high when one day they came upon a narrow vein of this necessary flux stone.  He was so sure that they would find more, and the gold, too, that he made plans to build a great reducing plant, using the falls for motor power.  He had it all worked out on paper, even to details.

“Meanwhile my sister, your Aunt Lucy, and Uncle Joe went West for her health, and settled in Colorado Springs.  Uncle Joe became a real estate dealer and also interested in mines and mining properties.  He was greatly interested in the tunnel, and predicted great things for its future.  About this time all the land around the canyon, both north and south, became a part of the Pike’s Peak Forest Reserve, so that your father had to refile on his claim and prove to the land office that he was working a real mineral vein.  In refiling, his claim was not big enough to include the shanty, but anticipating no trouble on account of it he neglected to lease his cabin from the Forest Reserve officials.  The news leaked out that gold had been discovered in Cookstove Gulch, and in a few days the entire stream was staked from one end of the canyon to the other as placer claims.  Of course the cabin site became the property of another man, and with it the cabin, as it could not be moved.  The new owner was a little, short, pudgy man with an ever-ready eye for business, so father and Tad were forced to rent the cabin they had built and paid for.  That winter was the one your sister Mabel was taken from us, and the last year we were all together.”