The Lost Gold Ledge

 The Lost Gold Ledge

When the great gold strikes in Goldfield, Tonopah and Rawhide began to draw thousands of people to the Nevadadesert, they also drew a prospector named Tim Cody. Setting up a base camp at Stewart Springs about 15 miles from Goldyke, Cody quickly began to prospect the area. 

Before long, he was running low on supplies and decided to make a trip to Goldyke on an overcast winter’s morning. On foot, he began to make the long journey when a storm began to brew. In the blustery storm, he was soon lost and found shelter in an abandoned mine shaft. 

Spending the night in the mine, he arose to find the storm gone and the skies clear blue.  He began to climb a nearby ridge to get his bearings before continuing his journey to Goldyke. Along the way he found a rich gold vein in a quartz outcropping. Picking up some samples, Cody continued his climb to the top.

At the summit, he could clearly see Paradise Peak and Rawhide Peak to the northwest.  Making his way back down to continue his trip to Goldyke, he was soon lost again, but after some difficulty he finally made his way to the settlement. After re-supplying, he returned to his base camp and tried several times to relocate the gold laden quartz vein.

However his continued searches proved fruitless and finally he moved on.  However, three men showed up in 1949 with a map that Cody had supposedly drawn for them. The three scoured the area looking for the lost ledge, but they too, were unable to find the rich vein of gold.

Today, the legend continues. The lost ledge is said to be somewhere in the hills south of Gabbs. Perhaps, you will be the lucky prospector to find it again.

Joining the thousands of "49ers” rushing intoCalifornia were brothers, Charles and Joshua Breyfogle. Hailing from Lockhart, New York, the pair headed west with a train of saddle and draft horses and two wagons in the spring of 1849. They soon teamed up with other pioneers inColumbus, Ohio and continued their long journey to the California goldfields. After many trials and tribulations through theIndian ridden plains, steep mountains, and harsh desert, they finally reached Sacramento on August, 14, 1849. About a month later the Breyfogles began searching for their fortunes in the promising areas of Butte Creek and the Chico River. Having no success, they had moved on to the YubaRiver, some 12 miles above the California gold rush tent city of Marysville, in January, 1850.

Many believe the lost Breyfogle Mine is in Nye County, Nevada.

Again disappointed, they moved upstream a month later to Goodhues, where they began to work on a new claim. This time their efforts paid off, as they began to find gold in the river bottom and along the banks above the river. By December, 1850, Charles Breyfogle returned to New York with some $20,000, leaving his brother Joshua to work the claim. A year later, Charles returned to California, settling in Oakland where he was elected county assessor in 1854 and treasurer in 1859.  When he couldn’t account for $6,500 in county funds, he was thrown in jail. Though he was soon exonerated and released, he evidently had had his fill of politics and decided to return to prospecting. Following the new silver strike in Nevada, he went to Virginia City where the buzz was all  about the new finds near Austin, Nevada in 1862. More stories were circulating about gold in the Big Smoky Valley and seeing opportunity, Breyfogle opened a real estate office in a hotel at the mining camp of Geneva. Unfortunately, by the time Charles arrived the Geneva veins were already dwindling and he was once again looking for opportunities. In 1863, he heard three men at the hotel discussing a crude map. Sure that they were discussing the legendary Lost Gunsight Mine of Death Valley, he decided to follow them when they left the next day. Trailing them across Nevada, he caught up with them between Tonopah and Goldfield, where he was surprised to find that the men were not looking for the lost Gunsight lode, but rather were on their way to Texas to join the Confederate army. The men were on their way to join a wagon train on the Los Angelestrail and Breyfogle decided to ride with them for a couple of days. Three days later, the men were encamped south of Ash Meadows in the Mohave Desert’sAmargosa River Valley. Laying his bedroll out apart from the others, he awoke in the middle of the night to see Indians attacking the other three men. Grabbing his bedroll and boot, he fled in the darkness. Without provisions or weapons he wandered in the desert for several days until he finally found a spring. Resting there, he found gold in a deposit of quartz and took with him several samples, vying to return if he could ever find his way out of the desert. Heading south, he eventually came upon wagon tracks which he followed to Stump Spring in thePahrump Valley, in Nevada's eastern Mohave desert. Deciding to wait at the spring for a wagon train to show up, he was instead found byIndians first. Taking him captive, they worked him as a slave for months. Finally a Mormon wagon train came upon the Indian village and freed him with a ransom. Taking him to a ranch at Manse Spring in southern Nevada he was cared for by the wife’s owner, Mrs. Yount. Grateful, he told the family about his gold discovery, showing them the samples he had held onto. After Breyfogle had fully recovered he settled in Austin, Nevada, where he would organize search parties for the next 26 years. Concentrating on the region northeast of Death Valley, the men would search in vain, never finding that lost outcropping. But Breyfogle never stopped looking, becoming so obsessed with the search that he once said, "I shall come back a rich man or leave my bones in Death Valley."  Through the years, many theorized as to where Breyfogle had found the gold, believing it to be located near Las Vegas, Salt Spring, or Daylight Pass. However, many believed that the very same rich quartz that Charles had discovered ended up becoming the Johnnie Mine, north of Pahrump, Nevada. The rich lodes of the Johnnie District were first discovered in 1891 by a man named George Montgomery who was searching for the famous Lost Breyfogle Mine. Yet others believe the mine to be in California in the Armargosa River Valley. Though the vast majority believe that Breyfogle’s find was in the Johnnie Mining District, not all researchers and hobbyists are convinced, as they continue to search for Breyfogle’s lost gold. Many researchers and hobbyists believe the Lost Breyfogle Mine to yet unfound in the Armagosa River Valley ofCalifornia, photo courtesy  University of California - Santa Barbara Department of Geography More Treasure Tales Next Page The Johnnie District is in Nye County, in southwestern Nevada. On the north end of the Pahrump Valley, most of the placer activity was conducted in the washes below the Congress Mine, but also to the northeast of Johnnie on the west slope of the Spring Mountains, and other surrounding areas. To get there, travel south from Las Vegas on Interstate 15 to the junction of State Route 16, then follow northwest past Pahrump for approximately 70 miles to reach the Johnnie District. Here, mines and placers can be seen on both sides of the highway and on the slopes of Mount Schader and Montgomery. © Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, updated October, 2010.

More Missouri Treasures

Spanish Treasure in Cass County - On October 24, 1879 an article in the Cass County Times-Courier described the location of a hidden Spanish treasure near Harrisonville,Missouri. The text read:

"Before being massacred by attacking Indians in 1772, several hundred Spaniards buried 15 loads of gold averaging 130 pounds each and 1,000 bars of silver weighing an average of 20 pounds to the bar... in the area four or five miles west and one or one and one-half miles north of Harrisonville. The silver was buried within one-fourth of a mile of where the present day Rodman School is standing; the gold is three fourths of a mile farther northwest.”

More than fifty years later, a construction crew was building a bridge in 1930. The location was several miles southeast of the old Rodman School. During the excavation, the crew found evidence of a battle between the Spanish and the Indians, locating old weapons, skeletons, and part of old armor.

Harrisonville has dramatically grown in the last several years, so locating the exact location of the old Rodman School will, no doubt, require some sleuthing skills.

Reader Update: I live in Cass county, just north of Harrisonville and a little east of Peculiar, Missouri We have always heard the legend of the Spanish gold and have been told that it is on some land that we had when I was a child and I think mom and dad still own. My sister, brothers and I are going to hunt this weekend, weather permitting. There is an area that dad could never get any grass or anything to grow on. We will look there. Thanks for the research that backs the claims that we have always heard. - Teresa, October, 2004

Reader Update: I've been researching the "Harrisonville" legend and have found the "Rodham" school. I am planning on a trek this weekend to the area. I was viewing some of the maps online and found a topographic map and aerial photo of the area, approximately a 1/4 mile from Rodham school. On the aerial photo there appears to be a concentric ring that does not appear on the topo. I am still trying to find other aerial photos of the is area. See here: Treasurenet. For some reason this "legend" kind of gets my blood pumping. While the Spanish were in the area at the time, I would like to see if I could find records from the Spanish missions in the area. Perhaps they might hold more documentation of the massacre. I believe the Indian tribe was the Osage. I can't say for sure but that seemed to ring a bell. Perhaps some of the old Osage tribal leaders might have information about it. - From Rex, "Flatlander With Gold Fever," April, 2005

Outlaw Loot at Huzzah - About three miles out of Huzzah, Missouri is said to be a cache of stolen outlaw loot. The treasure was carried up a small hollow from Haunted Springs to a rock shelter, placed in a fox hole under the bluff and covered with rocks. At the time it was buried, the skull of a horse head was left as a marker. Huzzah, Missouri is approximately 100 miles southeast of Jefferson City, Missouri on Missouri Highway 8. More Spanish Treasure - Legends abound throughout the area of Noble Hill that a cache of Spanish treasure is buried in the area somewhere. Noble Hill, is about thirteen miles north of Springfield, Missouri on Missouri Highway 13 on the Polk-Greene County line.

Kaffer Treasure - A cache of gold coins known as the Kaffer Treasure is said to be buried in the area of Armstrong, Missouri. Armstrong is about forty miles northwest of Columbia, Missouri. Sunken Treasure in the Mississippi - In the Mississippi River that runs along the banks of St. Louis, Missouri there were several steamships that went down in the river long ago. Some of these are said to be laden with gold coins. Hillary Farrington Loot - The outlaw Hillary Farrington was said to have buried a cache of loot on the Old Duram Farm at Jeona, Missouri. Independence Jewelry Heist - Sometime around 1927, $25,000 in jewelry and gems was taken by bandits who robbed an area jewelry store. Supposedly, the bandits were said to have buried the loot at the foot of an old oak tree between two large roots about six miles east ofIndependence. Now, for the difficult part. If the "six miles east of Independence" was back in 1927, this could be very difficult to find today as Independence, Kansas City and other small suburbs have virtually melded into one large metropolitan city. Independence, Missouri in the early 1900s, courtesy Heritage Museum Forty Niner Gold in Missouri - Long ago a Missouri man was said to have struck in rich in the gold hills of California. Returning to his home near Waynesville in Pulaski County, he was said to have buried $60,000 in the hills. Spanish Mine in the Ozark Hills - Three centuries ago, Spaniards worked mines in the Ozark Hills of Missouri. One of the mines containing lead and silver, eighteen miles southwest of Galena, was worked by seven men, who could not agree as to a division of the yield. One by one they were killed in quarrels until but a single man was left, and he, in turn, was said to have been killed by the ghosts of his previous victims. In 1873, a man named Johnson from Vermont went there, trying to find the old Spaniards' mine. He did work there for one day, and was then found dead at the mouth of the old shaft with marks of bony fingers on his throat. The exact location of the cursed mine remains unknown.  - Submitted by Anthony, March, 2005 Enjoy the stories please follow us. Our websites see American made prospectors tools : Gold Seekers Tools Prospectors tools