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The following news items were drawn from the archives of the Mail Tribune 100 years ago May 20, 1918 APPRECIATION OF APPLEGATE MINER BY AUTHORITIES Mr. and Mrs. O. A. Eshom, son of George and Minnie J. Hardy, well-known writer of Southern California, have just made a successful trip in their auto from San Diego, Calif. via Klamath Falls to Medford. Mr. Eshom intends purchasing a ranch and making this part of Oregon his home. They have been spending a couple of weeks with Mrs. Eshom’s father, John Forsythe, owner of the Blue Hawk placer mine up on the Little Applegate river. Mr. Forsythe is a pioneer Oregon may well be proud of. Living alone in his log cabin, he is always ready to extend the glad hand of welcome to every prospector, tourist or stranger who may chance to come his way. When springtime comes he just “shuts her down”— his mine — and plants a large garden which yields abundantly. Upon being asked what he does with so much produce, this generous old Irishman answers, “Why I just give it away to travelers. I want to conserve food and do my bit to help Uncle Sam.” Miss Hardy describes the life of this cheerful old Oregon miner in the following beautiful poem: Hail, King of the Mountains, proud son of old Erin; The prince of your land is a slave beside you. You are lord of the wildwood, the deer and the song bird. Your mind as free as your heart is true blue. The sand gives you gold and the creek gives you salmon, The pine builds your fire that crackles and burns. For the false face of flattery that smiles on the wealthy, Or high place in office your heart never yearns. You are far from the city, the home of the wary, With their half-frozen heats and their hurrying feet. For the still voice of Nature, the cure for all sorrow, Is drowned in the clamor and noise of the street. But here ‘neath the pines in this Oregon forest, Where the feet of the selfish have never yet trod, John Forsythe, my miner, you live in contentment, And walk day by day hand-in-hand with your God. For more stories like this, check out “The Archive,” a weekly podcast series at mailtribune.com/podcasts