| Living in a cabin near the
Current River with his daughter, Slater continued to mine until he
learned through a government survey that the mining claim he had filed
was on another man’s property.
Though he would have liked to have bought the land, he knew that an
offer might reveal the location of the mine. Instead, he and his
daughter sealed up the mine, careful to hide any signs of digging, and
made plans to go "Back East.” His plan was to stay away for two
or three years and then approach the owner about buying the land,
under the pretense of farming the acreage.
However, Slater never made it further
east than St. Louis, where he could keep up on the progress of
Missouri
mineral exploration and development. But before he was able to
return to the Jacks Fork area, he died and his daughter eventually
married, moving west without ever returning to
Missouri.
Though the folks in Shannon County never saw the miner nor his
daughter again, the legend of the lost copper mine continued to be
told.
On June 4, 1926, the Kansas City
Star ran a story about the Slater diggings, stating in part,
"There were those who believe that at some time the lost mine will be
found and that it will reveal a deposit of copper and perhaps other
metals that may revolutionize the Ozark region of
Missouri."
The mine is said to be in the vicinity
of the junction of the Jacks Fork and Current Rivers, and though many
have searched for the mine for more than a century, it has never been
found. Shannon County is located in the Ozark Hills of southern
Missouri.
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