<br> <br>I'd like to know what others can add. <br> <br>Peter, you certainly know the buttons to push.Slim Kite
Isn't he a cowboy poet or something? <br> <br>Say, it's worthwhile to scan back through older postings periodically. We have new people joining, like Fritzski, who have left interesting comments on some of the prior entries. <br>Fritzski, good to have you here! You obviously know the mountains well and are at home with the subject matter on this site.
Well, the name does sound like it should belong to a "cowboy poet" and while he was something of a cowboy, I am not too certain on how often old Slim waxed poetical. <br> <br>Slim Kite was a cowboy who worked at a ranch in Ash Fork in the 1930s who went "Dutch hunting" one day with a friend of his named Frank Campbell. He and Frank apparently interviewed Mrs Dick Holmes before their adventure began and were also aquainted with Brownie Holmes. <br> <br>Slim seems to have felt that the permanent camp Brownie Holmes refered to was at Charlebois Springs and claims to have found several landmarks relating to Brownies hidden clues in the vicinity. He also found many signs of mining in the area where modern day Peters Canyon and Tortilla Canyon converged (in the vicinity of Indian Springs...a favorite haunt of Gottfried Petrasch). <br> <br>It should also be noted that Slim got some things wrong. He called the fellow who packed Adolph Ruth into the mountains Connard or Connerd and claimed Brownie Holmes was a "lunger" (that is he had TB) and could never camp out in the mountains because of that.
Sorry I can't add anything but questions, but here it goes. <br> <br>I'd assume that the significance of Slim talking to Mrs Holmes is that she might have been less cagey about giving out information than either Dick or Brownie. So did Slim share any of his findings with Brownie? It seems like there's other stories where people found some of the clues Brownie was looking for, but refused to give them to him. <br> <br>Are the signs of mining related to other tales of arrastras, drill bits, etc in the Tortilla Flat/Mesquite Flat areas? I think there's at least a couple references in Barry Storm's notes of authenticity. <br> <br>I guess I'm a little confused when you say that the signs were in the area where Peters Canyon and Tortilla Canyon converge, in the vicinity of Indian Springs. The canyons converge just southeast of Tortilla Flat, but Indian Springs is over five miles away (as the crow flies) by the Tortilla Well trailhead.
Heres the quote from Slim Kite when interviewed by Warren Miller in 1986 refering to the country you mention: <br> <br>" Well, that's tufa country. But a little east, a little east of there around the head of Peters Canyon, uh, the Barge (sic) Canyon comes up here and Peters Canyon and Tortilla Canyon, theres three canyons come up and they all come up here, head up about the same place, you see. Well, the last time we was in there, we went up Tortilla Canyon. And in to Peters Canyon. We were right out where Peters Canyon tops out, and Tortilla Canyon, the head of Tortilla Canyon, Theres a lot of diggins in there, and theres one trench there, it aint over three foot deep, and its a quarter mile long. Tailings throwed out you see. Someone was digging gold out of there......" <br> <br>I do not not beleive Kite was talking about the confluence of Tortilla and Peters up towards Tortilla Flat, but rather the area southeast of Tortilla Mtn, between the head of Peters Canyon and Tortilla Ranch, an area that encompasses Indian Springs, Kane Springs, etc... <br> <br>I beleive Gottfried Petrasch was interested in this area, along with George Miller who worked some claims thereabouts in the 20s and 30s. <br> <br>Slim Kite seemed to search an area somewhere between the Charlebois vicinity and southeastern Tortilla Mtn. <br>Why he went to Mrs Holmes and why she would give him any information knowing her son was out looking for the mine I do not know.
I was just re-reading Glovers book on the Holmes manuscripts, and noticed a brief mention of Slim Kite. When listing Brownie's partners over the years, he said that Brownie worked with "a few others for shorter periods, like Slim Kite whom he trusted (at least to some degree)" <br> <br>Also, Brownie says that he put in a lot of time searching around Indian Springs in the late 1930's and 1940. <br> <br>So was Brownie working with Slim for a while, and they had a falling out? Or maybe Slim was one of the people that Brownie talks about whom he considered a friend, but later found them spying on him in the mountains
I also recall seeing the reference in Dr Thomas Glover's book about the relationship between Brownie Holmes and Slim Kite. There is no reference to a concrete partnership in whatever material I have seen, but that, of course, does not mean it was not so. <br> <br>Your reference about trust and "falling outs" is an interesting one relating directly to Dutch Hunters that I have seen. Hmmmm maybe post a new topic on the subject.