Veteran Locates Several Claims He Is Confident Mean Vast Fortune

WIFE GOES WITH HIM

He Cures Her Sprained Ankle By Binding It with Radium Ore

Jack Bell, veteran prospector and wanderer over the hills and snows and plains of many continents in search of mineral wealth, has finished his forty-first year in the heart of nature and is planning to return to radium fields of Colorado and Arizona. Bell during the last year took up twenty-two radium claims and expects to wrest fabulous wealth from radium-bearing ores.

Mrs. Laura Bell, wife of the prospector, newspaper man and soldier of fortune, accompanied her husband on his 1,800-mile trek across the Natural Bridge country of Arizona and over obsolete trails of San Miguel county. Bell says he took his wife over a route where he would not have guided many strong men.

Bell's description of his finds of radium ores is of interest to Denver men with whom he is visiting before he returns to the Natural Bridge country.

"On one of my claims," says Bell, "I found a formation of radium ore which is of the highest test grade. I had been in the Natural Bridge country in 1901, '02 and '03, and when I decided to go on my radium prospecting tour I sent home for my journals which I had cmpiled on my former trip.

Radium Ores Found In Many Wild Places.

"After a trip filled with harrowing adventures, all of which my wife passed thru gamely, I found the remarkable deposit of ore.I had seven pack burros in my train and on my first trip out carried 250 pounds of the ore for a thoro test with my electroscope.

"I found that the radium ray emanations from the ore tested high and sent samples to the Radium Institute of Chicago for further tests. I received many orders from technical institutes for my ore and went back for more carnotite.

"My wife had fallen from her horse prior to our entry into the Natural Bridge country and fractured her skull. She was recovering when we went to the San Miguel county fields to prospect. On a Sunday, Sept. 6, we were among the rim rock formations of this country and it was necessary for me to go down a steep side of a rim to fetch water for my animals.

"My wife expressed the desire to go with me. I refused to allow her to do so at first, but permitted her to accompany me when she promised to be careful. When we were at the edge of a 'tank' where we were to procure the water, my wife slipped over the edge and broke her ankle. She also sprained it severely.

"I packed her back to camp, which was no easy task, and proceeded to set the bones of her ankle. We were many miles from a railroad and I was forced to act as surgeon. I procured cedar splints and bound her ankle. Then the thought came to me that radium might assist in the healing of the injured foot and ankle.

Cure's Wife's Sprains with Radium Ore.

"I had no medicines to sooth the pain and my wife was suffering from the break. Her foot was swollen and lacerated. I crushed some radium ore which I had in one of the pack bags and applied it to the outside of the splints and bandages. In three hours the pain in my wife's ankle was gone and in two weeks she was able to resume the journey.

"We were over some very wild country and met with packs of wolves on several instances. The Natural Bridge country is remarkable. It is a territory where many bandits flee from civilization. They have been pursued into this section by officers, but it is an unwritten law and tradition that when a man who is hunting another man goes into that country he never returns.

"Many of the men who have fled from places where they are wanted by authorities have begun ranching activities, and are almost without exception doing well.

"Persons who have been over some of the Natural Bridge territory report that there are three great natural bridges. I have seen more than 200 natural bridges in this section and the scenery is most remarkable.

Bell has done prospecting work in all mining sections of the United States, has been in Alaska as a miner, explorer and writer. He has prospected in South Africa and has traveled in Europe for mining men.