September 15, 1905

Gold-mining operations officially kicked off at the Kruse Gold Mine, with a procession of workers to the mine led by the Rogers Cornet Band playing “Silver Threads among the Gold” and “In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree.” William Kruse’s hunt for the precious metal on his father’s eighty-acre farm in Rogers (Benton County) was triggered neither by scientific nor geological verification but rather inspired by psychic revelations he combined with automatic writings pointing him to a precise site where he believed wholeheartedly that he would find enough gold to end world misery. To this end, he established the Kruse Gold Mine and spent the remainder of his life trying to fulfill the renderings of his visualizations. The mine, however, was a complete failure.