There are seemingly endless examples of the twenty year long elaboration provided by George U. Young, such as this short article borrowed from the Arizona Republican, dated March 11, 1911, shown below. Young, a syndicated newspaper man himself, hopefully entertains with romantic tales of his sales of un-patented Madizelle Mining Company, lands that are in actuality lands of the National Forest.
Even before the stock swindle from Young’s bogus Derby Mining Company had been eclipsed by the Madizelle Mining Company, in 1908, articles such as these were the commonplace throughout the western frontier, especially in the Arizona Territory. The Madizelle Mining Company, by George U. Young, applied for the patent to the non-survey Mineral Survey 2424 for ‘the group‘ which was simply a theoretical group of junior mineral estates, blanketing a purported senior mineral estate.
In reality, like the Derby and others, The Madizelle Mining Company was all just an elaborate hoax. A clever swindle, sham, shell game, racket, flim flam, sucker game, gambit, land graft and ultimate looting of the public domain. Now, appearing nearly one hundred and three years after the 1921 culmination, the riddle to what is currently known as the community of Highland Pines in Prescott Arizona.
So what really happened to George U. Young? Was he actually stricken as reported….Or did the Centipede get him?
