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 Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

and

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

. 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.

Early life

John "Johnny" Thomas Moss was born in Utica, Oneida County, New York on March 4, 1839, to Nathaniel William Moss (1815–1878) and Margaret Cardwell Moss (1815–1887). In 1857–1859, he left his family and traveled west where he trapped and rode for the Pony Express. In the 1860 U.S. Census, he was listed as working on his father's farm in Jenkins, Mitchell County, Iowa. He soon returned west, and became acquainted with and lived with the

Paiute Paiute (; also Piute) refers to three non-contiguous groups of Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. Although their languages are related within the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages, these three languages do not form a single subgroup and th ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

and the

Hopi The Hopi are Native Americans who primarily live in northeastern Arizona. The majority are enrolled in the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona; however, some Hopi people are enrolled in the Colorado ...

Yavapai The Yavapai ( ) are a Native American tribe in Arizona. Their Yavapai language belongs to the Upland Yuman branch of the proposed Hokan language family. Today Yavapai people are enrolled in the following federally recognized tribes: * Fort ...

Mohave Mojave or Mohave most often refers to: *Mojave Desert *Mojave River *Mohave people *Mojave language *Mohave County, Arizona, a county in the U.S. state of Arizona Mojave or Mohave may also refer to: Places * Fort Mojave Indian Reservation * Mo ...

and Pima of Arizona. He scouted for a short time for the Army at

Fort Mohave Fort Mohave was originally named Camp Colorado when it was established on April 19, 1859 by Lieutenant Colonel William Hoffman (U.S. Army), William Hoffman during the Mohave War. It was located on the east bank of the Colorado River, at Beale's ...

, and claimed that in April 1861, he had floated alone down the

Colorado River The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United St ...

on a raft from

Lee's Ferry Lees Ferry (also known as Lee's Ferry, Lee Ferry, Little Colorado Station and Saints Ferry) is a site on the Colorado River in Coconino County, Arizona in the United States, about southwest of Page and south of the Utah–Arizona state l ...

through the

Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a mile (). The canyon and adjacent rim are contained within Grand Canyon Nati ...

to Fort Mohave. But there were no witnesses to confirm this claim.Dan L. Thrapp
''Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography: G-O''
U. of Nebraska Press, August 1, 1991 p.1026

Early mining ventures

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 George Hearst (September 3, 1820 – February 28, 1891) was an American businessman, politician, and patriarch of the Hearst family, Hearst business dynasty. After growing up on a small farm in Missouri, he founded many mining operations a ...

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

Comstock Lode The Comstock Lode is a lode of silver ore located under the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range in Virginia City, Nevada (then western Utah Territory), which was the first major discovery of silver ore in the U ...

, 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 Thomas Alexander Scott (December 28, 1823 – May 21, 1881) was an American businessman, railroad executive, and industrialist. In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln appointed him to serve as U.S. Assistant Secretary of War, and during the American ...

.''Mohave Daily Miner'', April 29, 1987, p.5George Ernest Webb, ''Science in the American Southwest: A Topical History'', University of Arizona Press, 2002, p.41 Later in 1863, he went into the

Hualapai Mountains The Hualapai Mountains are a mountain range located in Mohave County, Arizona, Mohave County, east of Kingman, Arizona, Kingman, Arizona. Rising up to 8,417 feet at its highest peak, the higher elevations of the Hualapai Mountains support Madrea ...

and organized the Wauba Yuma Mining District, named for his friend the Hualapai chief Wauba Yuma.

Trips to Washington

In a bid to get the job of Indian Agent for the new

Colorado River Indian Reservation The Colorado River Indian Tribes (, ) is a federally recognized tribe consisting of the four distinct ethnic groups associated with the Colorado River Indian Reservation: the Mohave, Chemehuevi, Hopi, and Navajo. The tribe has about 4,277 enrolle ...

Moss took

Irataba Irataba ( , also known as ''Yara tav'', ''Yarate:va'', ''Arateve''; – 1874) was a leader of the Mohave Nation, known as a mediator between the Mohave and the United States. He was born near the Colorado River in present-day Arizona. Ir ...

, a chief of the Mohave and Antonio Azul, of the Pima, to

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

by sea from San Francisco via

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

and to Washington D. C. in early 1864. Returning in June he went back the next year but failed to get the appointment.

Later mining ventures

For a time he prospected in the

Sierra Nevada Mountains The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

in California. He then crossed the

Mohave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the indigenous Mohave people, it is located primarily in southeastern California ...

on foot, then returned to visit Iowa in 1871. He then returned to prospect in the desert regions of

San Bernardino County San Bernardino County ( ), officially the County of San Bernardino and sometimes abbreviated as S.B. County, is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is located within the Inland Empire area. As of th ...

. He became involved, innocently, on the periphery of the

diamond hoax of 1872 Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of electricity, and insol ...

. In 1873, Moss moved on to help to open the

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John (disambiguation), Saint John, most commonly refers to: * San Juan, Puerto Rico * San Juan, Argentina * San Juan, Metro Manila, a highly urbanized city in the Philippines San Juan may also refer to: Places Arge ...

mining region in the southwest of

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

. He established Parrott City in

La Plata County, Colorado La Plata County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 55,638. The county seat is Durango. The county was named for the La Plata River and the La Plata Mountains. "La plata" means "the s ...

, named from one of his San Francisco backers. In September 1874 he guided the photographer William H. Jackson to the site of

Mesa Verde Mesa Verde National Park is a national park of the United States and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Montezuma County, Colorado, and the only World Heritage Site in Colorado. The park protects some of the best-preserved Ancestral Pueblo ...

. In 1875, he married Alida Olson in the first marriage in La Plata County. He was elected to the state legislature from his county. Afterward he returned to San Francisco.

Death

He died in San Francisco on April 11, 1880. as a result of complications from a gunshot wound he reportedly received from an Indian in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

. He is the namesake of

Mount Moss Mount Moss is a mountain summit on the common boundary shared by La Plata County, Colorado, La Plata County and Montezuma County, Colorado, Montezuma County in Colorado. Description Mount Moss is located northwest of the community of Durango ...

, a 13,192-foot summit that is six miles north of Parrott City.

References

External links

*
Bob McCraken, Meet the legendary John Moss, Pahrump Valley Times, Wednesday, August 5, 2015
from pvtimes.com accessed August 5, 2015, reprint of article from August 15, 2013. It includes a picture of John Moss from the 1895 History of Colorado, Vol.4 by Frank Hall.
Jill Seyfarth And Ruth Lambert, Ph.D., Pioneers, Prospectors and Trout: A Historic Context For La Plata County, Colorado, January, 2010.
Describes the activities of John Moss in Colorado, p. 14-17, 26, 29–30, includes a brief biography, and a photograph of John Moss, from the 1895 History of Colorado, Vol.4 by Frank Hall, on page 15. {{DEFAULTSORT:Moss, John Thomas History of the American West Colorado River People from Arizona Territory History of California History of Colorado History of Nevada 1839 births 1880 deaths People from Utica, New York People from Utah Territory