The Ballestero Blog

Uncle Milo And The Gold Mine

In the 1940’s my Uncle Milo and his brother Bill bought a California Gold Mine. I cannot tell you how excited they were to own a real gold mine. They were thrilled even more when gold nuggets were found scattered on the ground in one of the shafts.

Bill Smith, Milo Smith

The temporary rush of finding gold was the thrill that made them work even more feverishly. Most of the gold was found in an area littered with small pools of water. The constant dripping and seepage of water from the roof of the cave made panning and searching for gold an uncomfortable task. Nevertheless, the gold was on the ground and that’s all that mattered.

As a relief from the water dripping overhead, Uncle Milo and his brother wore rain coats. They  looked funny and laughed at each other because they didn’t look like gold miners with their yellow rain coats on. It wasn’t the easiest thing to wear either.

After months of searching, panning, and digging, they finally admitted there was no more gold to be found in their mine. They took off their rain coats, and pocketed a modest but nice amount of cash. The next thing they did was put the mine up for sale after owning it for only a few months. An unsuspecting buyer was soon found, and the mine ownership switched hands.

The new mine owner walked through the mine to have a look at what he’d purchased. When he got to the area where the water was dripping steadily from above into the pools below, he shined his flash up on the ceiling to see where the water was coming from.

What he saw changed his life and made him fabulously wealthy. He had found the ‘mother lode’ just by looking up!

Uncle Milo settled for thousands and later died a pauper. The new owner died a millionaire.  Milo could have died wealthy if he’d just looked up.

What are you robbing yourself of by not looking up?

Uncle Milo Smith