Most popular of lost mine stories in pioneer days was that of the “Nigger Ben.” In 1891, a miner named A.H. Peeples, who had been prospecting with the “Weaver Party,” told an editor what he knew of the legend. He said there was a black man in the party, who the other miners called “Nigger Ben,” and described him as a good man, who was the only one of the party who dared to prospect alone. The Indians would not harm him, evidently on account of his color. He struck up a friendship with several Yavapai chiefs, even when they were the most hostile to the other miners, and they told him of a place where there was much gold, far more than on Rich Hill, where we were working. Ben took a nugget from the prospectors’ stock that was about the size of a man ‘s thumb and showed it to a chief who was especially friendly with him. The Indian said he had seen much larger pieces of the same substance and started off to show him the treasure. Ben was taken to some water holes, about 65 miles northwest of Antelope, toward McCracken, in southern Mohave County. When they arrived; however, the chief would show him no further, seemingly being struck by some religious compunctions he hadn’t thought of before. All he could be induced to do was to toss his arms and say, “Plenty gold here; go hunt.” Ben did hunt for years and was outfitted several times by A.H. Peeples, who believed that he finally died of thirst on the desert. Numbers of others have tried to find the Nigger Ben diggings, but they have not been discovered as yet. Ed Schieffelin, who discovered the Tombstone mines, would later search diligently for the lost mine, but if he found it, he never told.