John Thomas Moss

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 and Nevada.

He soon returned west, and became acquainted with and lived with the Paiute of Utah and the Hopi, Yavapai, Mohave and Pima of Arizona.

[1] 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.

He went to San Francisco claiming his mine was the most immense strike on record, surpassing the Comstock Lode, 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 established Parrott City in La Plata County, Colorado, named from one of his San Francisco backers.

[1] 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.