What we know
1829 - 1892
Came out west from Chicago, where he had worked as a librarian. Tried his hand at prospecting but found his mind was not up to the task. In 1870, he found a large box canyon of marble cliffs and named it the Devil’s Punch Bowl. After filing his claim, he knew he could not look at those cliffs again. Jake convinced him to sell the claim to T. M. Davidson for $500. This, Jake said, would be enough to cover 500 drunken afternoons1
The Griffin’s Price
by Sandora Chappelle
Loud.
Griffith was getting louder.
Emmy looked up from the table
and fled into the kitchen again.
"I had a golden dream
a myth of me
my mother's golden griffin
that I tracked into a canyon
and fed upon my dream
till nothing was left to eat!"
"You'll find your arse in the street!"
Jake warned him
not too unkindly.
This was their ritual,
6 days a week
for 7 years running.
Jake would pour1.
Griffith would leave
the gamblers alone.
Dark gold at 4 o’clock.
Griffith would stare at the drink,
and sip and talk
to himself till he passed out.
He thought he had found some magic
vessel, an alchemist’s sign
that his mother’s belief was not weak.
Like her veins at the end, like the vein
he had followed
through that damned canyon.
Three years digging, alone
in a marble box.
Except for the skull and bones
of a mountain cat.
Not much reward
but dark gold at 4 o’clock.
Then, when the sun hit the west wall
so hard that it lit the whole canyon
like whiskey punch in a cut glass bowl
he stopped for the day. And toasted
the skeleton.
They floated together and floated apart
The head of a man on the body of a cat
The head of a cat on the body of a man
The skin of a man on a skeleton.
Connections

Portal
Sources
Portal caption and links
Drawing of a skull and crossed shovel and pick-axe, or miner's tools rather than bones.
Jake Mateson
Martin Crow