An American Tall Tale: The Story of Silver Steve and Gold

A long time ago in the late 1800s a baby named Steve "Silver Steve" Miner was born at the base of the Appalachian Mountains. Both his mother and father were miners and were some of the best too. Silver always loved the wilderness, hiking, and mining. At the age of 5 he spent most of his days out in the Sun and fresh air. He was a courageous, strong, energetic, and up-beat person. By, the time he was a grown man able to live out on his own he grew to about 6'4'' and his arms and legs were as thick as tree stumps. So, Silver set out looking for the best mountains and caves to mine in.

One day he went out on an expedition towards a place we now call Yellowstone National Park to search its caves and mines for some of the best coal, silver and rocks people had ever seen. He searched the area with some of the best tools available but no luck. On his last day of the expedition he made camp in a cave. He slept there all alone in the cold darkness of the cave with only his tools to comfort him. But, Silver had no idea what he was in for the next morning when he awoke.

It was one of the worst, meanest, and terrible storms ever to occur. Discouraged from his expedition Silver just ignored the storm and started to pack up his things. Seeing this the storm grew bigger and more furious. It then did one of the worst things it could have ever done to a miner. It picked up Silver's tools and waved them in his face and then tossed them aside like it was a piece of scrap paper. Seeing this Steve grew unbelievably angry. He snatched the tools up and jumped onto the back of the storm fighting it as it whirled and thundered in a seven-hour fight of man vs. nature war.

This fight sent lighting blots from the storm into all the mining caves in the United States and the rain from the storm also drowned many parts of the land around them creating lakes and rivers. Then the storm sent a huge lighting blot into Silver's cave and struck the giant land around them repeatedly. Inside that cave something unspeakable happened. Some of the rocks in the cave turned into a yellow metal. To see what happened in the cave and defeat the storm, Silver then kicked the eye of the storm sending it crying to its mommy.

Silver searched the cave and was amazed by the color and beauty of the new element. He called it Gold. As, he stepped outside he noticed that around him the whole area was glowing yellow. He called that Yellowstone Park. Discovering this Silver changed his name to Gold Steve. Not as catchy as Silver Steve but, still a beloved hero. Today both gold and Yellowstone Park can be found in United States. Although Yellowstone Park's color has faded it is still an amazing place to be. Today they say the geysers found in Yellowstone Park are just Gold Steve mining away looking for a new metal to discover.