John Thomas Moss

John Thomas Moss (March 4, 1839 – April 11, 1880) was an American frontiersman, prospector, and miner, who discovered several new mining districts in what is now Arizona and Nevada. After living with and learning the languages of many of the tribes in the area, he was a go between and peacemaker between American miners and local Native Americans, in the Southwestern United States.

John T. Moss was born in Utica, New York on March 4, 1839. He moved west with his family to Mitchel County, Iowa. In 1857, he left his family and traveled west for two years. During this time trapped, and rode for he Pony Express. He became acquainted with and lived with the Paiute of Utah and the Hopi, Yavapai, Mohave and Pima of Arizona. He scouted for a short time for the Army at Fort Mohave, and claimed that in April 1861, he had floated alone down the Colorado River on a raft from Lee's Ferry through the Grand Canyon to Fort Mohave. But there were no witnesses to confirm this claim.

In 1861, he was one of the more successful discoverers of rich silver lodes in El Dorado Canyon on the west side of the river above Fort Mohave. There he prospected, staked out claims for the Techatticup and Queen City Mines, in what became the Colorado Mining District then rushed to San Francisco to spread the word of the strike and sold his claims to mining speculators including George Hearst for a huge profit.

In 1862, he discovered the Moss Mine on the east side of the Colorado River, 9 miles from Fort Mohave in what became the San Francisco Mining District in the Spring of 1863. He dug out an estimated $250,000 in gold in a small pocket. He went to San Francisco claiming his mine was the most immense strike on record, surpassing the , with ore assaying as much as $24,000 a ton and running for more than three miles with an average width of 100 feet. He then sold the claim for $30,000 to the Philadelphia Ophir Company whose backers included Thomas A. Scott.

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