The Lost Silver Mine of Zokeeeye
After decades of searching, a Yakima captain claims he has finally located a legendary, inaccessible silver vein.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
It will be remembered by old-timers the excitement engendered in 1865 by the silver bearing rock brought to Fort Simcoe by an old Indian named Zokeeeye. During that summer Mortimer Thorpe, Charles A. Splawn and others put in their undivided time looking for the mine. A man named Walker gained the confidence of Zokeeeye, who promised to reveal the location of the treasure; but Walker, after visiting San Francisco and getting an assay of the rock (which showed up marvelously rich), died before again reaching this place, and Zokeeeye dying soon afterward the secret was lost. Since then there have been many searching parties for the ledge, and probably no one has been more persistent in the hunt than Captain J. T. Simmons of Yakima, who on Wednesday returned from the mountains with a flour sack full of specimens, and, with some pardonable mystery, claims he has found the long sought Zokeeeye mine. He says it is no wonder the location has not before been rediscovered, as the place is so inaccessible that even his shepherd dog couldn’t follow him to it. The rock has been deposited in the First National bank, and is the wonder of those who are competent to judge of ore. Experts say it will yield $200 per ton and the 'kidneys' will run into the thousands.
“The rock has been deposited in the First National bank, and is the wonder of those who are competent to judge of ore.”
The legend of 'lost' mines in the Cascades remains a staple of local folklore. Captain Simmons’ discovery reflects the intense, sometimes desperate speculative drive that defined 19th-century Washington, where prospectors scoured the mountains for the next big strike.
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