As we were chatting, I became aware of a delicious, pungent odor, like the perfume of orange blossoms.  “Is it possible,” said I, astonished, “that there are orange groves in bloom in this vicinity?” The old gentlemen said they did not smell anything wrong, but the clerk jumped to his feet and sniffed the air in the direction of Prescott.  “Why, gentlemen,” said he, “of course, you cannot smell any further than the blossoms on the tips of your noses, but the young man has a sharp proboscis, he scents the girls.  Here comes Dan bound for the Silver Bell Mine with his blooming show.”  We heard the clatter of hoofs and wheels and saw a large coach pass by, crowded with passengers, mostly ladies.  The clerk said that the genial owner of the Silver Bell Mine, who was also the proprietor of a popular resort in town, was going out to pay his miners their monthly wage.  “That is it,” said one of the merchants, “and to keep the boys from leaving the mine in order to spend their money at his resort in town, he takes his variety show out there.  He cannot afford to have his mine shut down just now, as they have struck horn silver, and that is the kind of tin he needs in his business.”

These kind old gentlemen cautioned me to keep away from a dark-looking, broken mountain, looming to the north.  “That country is no good,” they said; “there is nothing but copper there, even the water is poisoned with it.”  Those were the black hills where there is now the prosperous town of Jerome and one of the great mines of the earth, the famous United Verde Mine, the property of Senator William Clark.

The following day, about noon, we rounded a sharp bend of the road and Fort Whipple and the town of Prescott came into view.  A pretty and gratifying sight truly, but imagine my astonishment!  Here to the right was the identical mysterious hill which I had seen in that memorable night from the height of the Mogollon mesa and behind it was the black range, the Sierra Prieta, which had formed a part of the encircling horseshoe.

Never in my lifetime have I come to a town where the people were as hospitable and kindly disposed toward strangers as here.  It is no wonder that I got no farther, for here the people vied with each other to welcome the wayfarer to the gates of their city.  The town was then young and isolated.  The inhabitants had come by teams or horseback from as far away as the State of Kansas, where the nearest railway connection was eastward, or from California, via Yuma and Ehrenberg on the Colorado River.  Stages and freight teams made regular trips across the arid desert to Ehrenberg.  The first settlers of this region came from California in search of gold.  They first found it in the sands of the Hassayampa, which is born of mighty Mount Union, the mother of four living streams.  From its deathbed in the hot sands of the desert, they traced the precious waters to its source.  Gold they found in plenty with hardship and privation.