Shadows and Dust 1-3 available now
As mentioned last week, the Canoe Highlands Colony remains shrouded in the hazy memory
of our area's distant past. S.L. Baker, one of the colony's principal investor's, travelled to Chicago on a regular circuit expounding the benefits of settlement in the colony.
Baker's son, Edward, also made trips to Chicago to stir up interest as evidenced by an ad in the Chicago paper, The Inter-Ocean from January 7, 1900:
"An Ideal climate, no extremes, no blizzards no cyclones, no sunstrokes, sea breezes from the gulf all summer, cooler summers and warmer winters than in the North, water of unsurpassed purity, rapid-flowing streams of crystal clearness, productive soil, three and four crops can be raised each year on the same ground, abundant rainfall, regular seasons, crop failures unknown. Land. $4 to $10 per acre. Excursion to Canoe. on. Jan. 10; round trip, $24. We take care of you at our home, while you Inspect lands. - If you buy with credit the cost of ticket on your purchase. Call on EDWARD F. BAKER."
Also mentioned in several Pensacola News articles about the Canoe Highlands was another principal investor, a Mr. Hineman from West Century who built a large horse barn on the Highlands.
The Pensacola News from July 7, 1899 gave the location of the Highlands as being located seven eighths of a mile south of Canoe. A careful study of land records in the Escambia County Alabama Probate Court reveals Mr. Fred German, settler in the colony, purchasing nearly 200 acres of land around 1901 from the Bakers and McGowins. It is well known German's farm was located around the first sharp curve on South Canoe Road; therefore, it may be the case that the colony stretched from at least this area to below the Alabama/Florida line.
As the colony was in its infancy, S.L. Baker, the patriarch of the northern settlers, mysteriously left Canoe for points west. According to the 1910 census, he turns up in Jackson County Iowa with his wife Fannie.
With Iowa as a base of operations, Baker struck out for Nevada with another adventuring soul named A.M. Phillips, both men were living with their families in Maquoketa, Iowa when they headed west. According to the Quad-City Times of Davenport, in its July 28, 1911 edition, Baker and Phillips had the good fortune of discovering a "phenomenally rich strike of gold ore on what is known as the Yellow Dog claim at Dyke, Nevada in the "Pine Forest Range of the Rocky Mountains." The estimated haul of the ore was believed to be over 1300 ounces according to the article.
The Nevada State Journal of Reno noted the strike in its August 9, 1911 edition, " This camp has always been very attractive for prospectors on account of the many outcrops of ledges and the large amount of float (sp) that is scattered over the hills and invariably carrying good veins of gold. However, the discovery of ore on the Baker and Phillips holdings that assays $26,977.84 in gold to the ton has given renewed interest in the camp.
Baker stated to the Journal that originally, they thought they had hit a copper vein but it later turned out to be gold. Baker went on to add that since the discovery, a shaft has been sunk in fourteen feet depth on the lead and they have a considerable quantity of this bonanza ore for shipment.
In an interview with another paper, Reno Gazette, Baker references having the finest gold strike in the state and that the mine required a constant watch; presumably because of claim jumpers.
Unfortunately, the discovery of the gold was a short-lived windfall for Baker in that he died a short time later on June 20, 1913 and is buried in Jackson County Iowa at the First Presbyterian Cemetery. His cause of death is unknown to this writer.
There is much that has been written about the men of vision from this era of our nation's history. Yet to think of a travelling adventurer who called Canoe home for a time and then went on to strike gold in the Old West stirs the imagination in our modern times.
Correction: Last week I mistakenly referred to a person by the name of Seth German. This was a typographical error in that the intended person of mention was Seth L. Baker. Mr. Fred German was a settler from Michigan who made his home in the Highland Colony and is perhaps the last of the original settlers who has descendants remaining in our area.
The book Shadows and Dust III: Legacies is now available for purchase. The hidden history of our area is documented through ten years of All Things Southern articles. Learn about the Canoe Highlands Colony, the ghost town of Falco, Alabama as well as the forgotten history of the last great act in the drama that was the War Between the States as Union troops marched through the area. The books are available online at Lulu publishing.com or by sending $35 (this includes shipping-the book cost without shipping is $30) to Kevin McKinley at PO Box 579 Atmore, AL 36054.
