From the Bookshelf of Gentle SPECTRUMS…

The Mystery of the Lost Lemon Mine

Ron Stewart

Start date: January 28, 2018

Finish date: February 3, 2018

Discussion: Gentle Spectrums 2018!

Why we're reading this: Well-suited in "Gentle Spectrums"! Treasure, Canadian, and history.…more
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This is a difficult book to grade. I rest at three stars. I appreciate the work of piecing relevant information about ‘The Lost Lemon Mine’ together, a western Canadian legend. For most of the duration, I like Ron Stewart's organization. “The Mystery Of The Lost Lemon Mine”, 1993, gives a little information about gold-panning and groups historic story sources into prospectors, desperadoes, Aboriginals, and newspaper stories. Women are some of the sources, whose accounts are the most compelling. This is a difficult book to grade. I rest at three stars. I appreciate the work of piecing relevant information about ‘The Lost Lemon Mine’ together, a western Canadian legend. For most of the duration, I like Ron Stewart's organization. “The Mystery Of The Lost Lemon Mine”, 1993, gives a little information about gold-panning and groups historic story sources into prospectors, desperadoes, Aboriginals, and newspaper stories. Women are some of the sources, whose accounts are the most compelling. It is telling that they are unlike the popular versions. The purest root is that close to the Montana border, in eastern British Columbia or western Alberta, men with the last name Lemon and nickname Blackjack struck gold but did not get back to mine it. Those who knew where the gold was met with inconveniences, tragedy, or genuinely missed it when leading a prospecting party.

One tale ponders whether there was no mine and that Mr. Lemon and Blackjack robbed prospectors; or buried a legitimate cache but there is no mine. The story with the most backbone because it is from a person it involves, is that the Blackfoot tribe knew the mine but because it is on sacred territory, prevented a gold rush from taking place there. A King Bearspaw said his Father knew its whereabouts but wouldn't share that information with him because he was uncomfortable with his son's passion for finding it. That, I disbelieve. Rather than a lifetime seeking it, you would assuredly urge such a close family member to inform you! At the end of the man's life, he should not have minded helping his son with it, rather than time being wasted.

One thing that annoys me is the old tendency to refer to men via last names. Ron did not use them because they fell by the wayside. Case in point: were it not practiced, we would still know the first names of Mr. Lemon and Mr. Blackjack! I like that he tried to pinpoint them through censuses but he propagated the pointless habit in his own book. With several Father and son interviews and discussions, first names would have behoved him far better. At the end, we suddenly find he is not a curious legend-compiler. Ron is a scientist in the field! Had he said so straight away, readers would absorb his presentation with less detachment.

It is valuable that Ron interviewed as many relatives, as closely-related to the 1870 history as possible. A turnoff is the needless “we might never know”. No solution came to anyone with that attitude! I can imagine undiscovered diaries from Montana, British Columbia, or Alberta. The chief detachment from this mystery is not his doing. What's disappointing is, unlike Eldorado, no one spent time in a mine and described it. It might consist of a bag of fortuitously-panned gold. ...more

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