I had the pleasure of meeting William Cull at the Witch of Endor pub back in 1991 when I first really started tracking people down who had searched for the mine. He was very hesitant to share the location of the tent-shaped rock but I managed to get the general area. He was also the inspiration for something I wrote called "the prospectors philosophy." It's below as well as the line he said in our conversation that inspired this. Anyway, since he has passed away, I thought maybe someone would find this interesting.
You see, we prospectors are a dying breed. The world doesn't function around us anymore like it used to back in the gold rush days. The people who care for you can't understand. What in the world would make you want to risk your life to look for gold? They don’t understand the dream, but in the old days everybody understood.
You didn’t have to worry about your wife leaving you or your friends scorning you because you wanted to find the gold. Everyone was doing it. Everyone dreamed of the day when they would be the one to strike it rich. For all it represented freedom, but what does it mean to people today? I’ll tell you, a big house and a nice car. People don’t see that prospecting is so much more than just finding the golden score. It’s not seen as a building block for freedom. It’s been twisted and messed up to the point of being stuck on a scratch-and-win ticket.That is what is left of the prospector’s dream in today’s world. All the people around you don’t understand, they can’t see the freedom and the hope it brings you when you chase the dream. They just think you’re dreaming, but we know the truth, don’t we? .
"The truth is: you’re living and they are the ones that are dreaming. Their search for the big car and the nice house. Ha! Illusions I tell you, brought onto their brainless minds by a media machine. How I wish I could chase after it still, but the fight’s over for me, lad. I’ve got a bad ticker, you see."
THE LINE ABOVE WAS SAID BY BILL CULL.WORD FOR WORD.
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