”On March 17, 1859, I left San Bernardino in company with Major Henry Hancock, Rafael Lopez and Ramon Ontiveras for 29 Palms. 72 miles due east of San Bernardino, in search of a rich quartz mine found by Colonel Washington’s surveying party in 1854. We did not find it. Came back on the north side of the San Bernardino range of mountains to Cook’s lead mines, where Major Hancock had a miner, Barney, at work. From the lead mines Major Hancock went to San Diego via Morongo Pass and Aguas Calientes. Lopez and Ontiveras went to Los Angeles through the Cajon Pass, taking the prospecting outfit. I came through into Bear Valley and found a party of miners sluicing a gulch at wheat was named Poverty Point. Party working were Jo Colwell, Jack Elmore, Madison Cheney, Josiah Jones, Jim Ware, Sam Kelley, Bud Bryant, called the Colwell Company. After prospecting a couple of days I found and located a small gold quartz claim on the side of the mountain above the placer gulch being worked by the Colwell Company.”

Reference Data:

History of San Bernardino County and Riverside Counties, by John Brown and James Boyd, 1922, page 285