Finding Silver is the third book of a trilogy, which I call “The Ira Beard stories.” They are three stand-alone tales, the only things in common being the main characters, Ira Beard and his wife Octavia de LaLuz.
Ira is a former New York City police officer who came to San Francisco to get away from violence and corruption in the east, only to discover more of it in the west. As with most of my stories this is inspired by historical events. In this case the main inspiration was a real character named Asbury Harpending. During the Civil War he hatched a scheme to hijack gold shipments from California and send them to Richmond to support the South.
I read Harpending’s ghost-written autobiography, The Great Diamond Swindle. That swindle in itself was one of those things you can’t make up. Two prospectors appear at the Bank of California one day, claiming to have discovered a diamond mind. They won’t reveal its location, but they’re willing to sell. As proof, they produce a sack of low grade diamonds. To make the story short, millions of pounds were gambled in the London stock market. Turns out the mine was salted — the “miners” simply poked holes in the ground and dropped in cheap diamonds they had purchased in Europe. For good measure they added a few emeralds and rubies.
In his book Harpending portrays himself as a hero, who tried to expose the fraud. He was also involved with a fake silver mine in Utah. After finishing his narrative, I read another book which exposes the facts, revealing Harpending as a master swindler and humbug.⃰ I love swindlers and humbugs, they make such great stories. By the way, Harpending got away with most of his crimes. He lived until the 1920’s, in comfort.
In Finding Silver, Ira Beard is persuaded to investigate a fabulous new silver mine located in a remote region of the Mojave Desert. Harpending is one of the mine’s promoters, though he remains mainly off stage. Ira thinks this trip will be a nice break from business, but it turns out to involve a Paiute curse, swindling, desert heat, and murder.
I never have any trouble finding things to write about in the Old West. When I run low on ideas, I need only look up some old newspaper pages. Recently I chose at random a page from The Daily Alta California, in the month of June 1872. There on the front page was a report of a concert in Woodward’s Gardens consisting entirely of military bugle calls. I found as well a report on new silver mines in Nevada, a story headlined “More Apache Outrages,” a lengthy report about several disastrous shipwrecks in the Arctic, and a story titled A Pest Ship in New York, with the subhead, 20 dead babes thrown into the Atlantic. There was even more, too long to list here. Anyone who thinks history is dull is out of his/her mind.
That’s why I write historical fiction. There are just too many great stories waiting to be re-told. I hope you will like my own book. Bear it mind, it didn’t happen exactly that way. It’s a humbug.
Steve Bartholomew, Sept 10, 2018
⃰ An Infinite Deal of Nothing, © Martin Hedges, 2014
