I said, "Yes, there is plenty of game all around the Platte river and Cherry creek, but if you go there, I advise you not to go further than the mouth of Cherry creek this winter. There is a grove of timber there that you can make your camp in, and you could put up a shack to protect you from the weather." The Capt. and his company pulled out the second day after this talk, but it was very plain to be seen that the whole company was much discouraged in regard to the gold mines. As they were leaving the Fort, I said to Capt. McKee, "When you come back in the spring, Capt., I hope I shall hear you tell about the grand success you have had in panning gold on Cherry creek this winter." He said, "If there is any gold to be found in that country, I shall find it. That is what I came out here to do." As soon as the mining company had gone, Col. Bent said to me, "Will, do you want to go and trade with the Indians for me now, or have you caught the gold fever too?" I answered, "Col. I have not had the gold fever as yet, and I do not think there is any danger of my catching it, so I am ready to go to work for you trading with the Indians." Col. Bent laughed and said, "If you haven't got the fever now, Will, I will bet your best hors, that you will catch it bad when the rush for the mines comes in the spring." At that time I had no idea there would be any rush for the gold mines, for I thought the excitement would die out before spring, because so many had been disappointed in the fall, but in this I was mistaken, for by the first of May they commenced to come to the Fort on their way to the mines, and by the first of June one could see the trains stringing along for miles, and what was very amusing to me, when I asked them where they were going, they invariably answered, "Pike's Peak." I remember one train that I met that spring down on the Arkansas river, below Bent's Fort. One of the men asked me, if I could tell them how far it was from there to Pike's Peak. I said, "No sir, I can't tell you how far it is, but I can show it to you. There is Pike's Peak right before you," and I pointed to the snowcapped mountain that could be seen for hundreds of miles. He said, "Oh, I don't mean that. I want to find out where the Pike's Peak gold mine is." I told him that I had never heard of such a mine. This seemed to surprise him, and in a few minutes the whole outfit was crowding around me, inquiring about Pike's Peak mine. Then I told them what the report had been about the discovery of gold at Cherry creek and Russel's gulch. One man asked if I could tell them where Denver was, and that was a question I could not answer, for I had never heard of a place called Denver before. I asked him what Denver was. A new mining camp that had just been named, or what. "Why" he said, "Denver is a city close to Pike's Peak."