Bandit Hordes in California

Joaquin Murrieta's Stolen Cache Joaquin Murrieta was a legendary figure in California during its Gold Rush days of the 1850's. When he tried to make his living in mining, he faced racism and discrimination. Forced to turn to a life of crime, he was seen by some as as a Mexican patriot, resisting the white settlers' domination. Others saw him simply as a bandit. Murrieta became the leader of a band called The Five Joaquins, who were said to have been responsible for the majority of cattle rustling, robberies, and murders that were committed in the Mother Lode area of the Sierra Nevadas between 1850 and 1853. One of those robberies was a wagonload of gold that the Joaquins had stolen from the northern mines. However, when members of Murrieta's gang were driving the load along the hills east of the old Carrizo Stage Station they were ambushed by Indians. According to the tale, the gold, as well as other items taken from the gang, were hidden in an old burial cave under a projecting rock ledge. No doubt Murrieta would have soon gone after the lost loot, but he was killed by the California Rangers before he could retrieve the gold. The Old Carrizo Stage Station which once served the Butterfield Stage Station is located in the Anza Borrego Desert.	Joaquin Murrieta, photo courtesy San Joaquin Valley Library System, California Digital Archives
Another treasure that Murrieta was said to have buried is thought to be located between Burney, California and Hatcher Pass. The $175,000 cache, said to be hidden not far from Highway 299, has never been found. Yet another stolen Murrieta cache, worth some $200,000. is said to be buried somewhere between Susanville and Freedonyer Pass near today's Highway 36.  Murrieta and his gang were often known to hid their stolen loot in the area of their robberies. On one occasion Murrieta and his right-hand man, Manual Garcia, known as "Three-Fingered Jack, robbed a stagecoach along the Feather River. The strongbox was said to have contained some 250 pounds of gold nuggets worth $140,000 at the time. Allegedly, the pair buried the strongbox in a on the banks of the Feather River in a canyon a few miles south of Paradise, California. According to Wells Fargo officials, the stolen gold has never been recovered. HidHidden Treasures Near Vallecito Station Allegedly, a stage was traveling from El Paso, Texas to San Diego with a box of gold coins in the 1860’s. In addition to the driver, the stage also carried a guard to protect the money. However, when the stage reached Yuma, Arizona, the guard fell ill and the driver continued on without him. Somewhere in the area of Carrizo Wash, between the Fish and Coyote Mountains, the stage was held up by bandits, who killed the stage driver and fled with the box of gold. According to the tale, the outlaws buried the gold on the south slope of Fish Mountain but were unable to retrieve it because there were so many soldiers in the vicinity. The buried coins are said to remain there to this day. In addition to this stolen cache and others said to be buried near the Vallecito Station, numerous lost gold mines are also said to be in the area including the Lost Bell Mine, The Lost Bill Williams Mine, and the Lost Squaw Mine. Vallecito Station is now located in the Vallecito Regional Park in San Diego County. Holden Dick's Stolen Loot In March of 1881, a freight wagon carrying several hundred pounds of gold ore through Modoc County was stopped by a lone bandit. The ore from Nevada was destined forSacramento and heavily guarded by three men. But, this did not stop the vicious outlaw. Immediately killing two of the three guards, he forced the stage to stop and the remaining guard and driver quickly surrendered.   Forcing them down from the stage, he ordered them to set out on foot in a southerly direction. In the meantime, he boarded the wagon, tied his horse to the back and drove north where he is said to have buried the loot on the western slope of the Warner Mountains.
Eagle Peak in the Warner Mountains of California, photo courtesy  California Digital Archives	The vicious crime went unsolved for years until a Pitt RiverIndian known as "Holden Dick” began to trade small amounts of gold ore in Susanville and Alturas. In between appearing in the saloons of mining camps, spending his money freely, theIndian would disappear into some of the most rugged sections of the South Warner Mountains, only to return again with a goodly supply of gold ore. At first, the locals thought that the Indian was working a secret mine and when in the saloons, they would try, without success, to get the Indian to talk.  They also began to follow Holden, hoping to find the mine. On one occasion, when another miner named Samuel B. Shaw was badgering theIndian for the location of his gold, Holden got fed up and shot the man, wounding him fatally. Holden Dick was soon arrested for Shaw’s murder and locked up in the Susanville jail. On January 23, 1886, four men stormed the jail and dragged the Indian into the street. Beating, whipping and torturing the man, he refused to tell the location of his hidden cache and was finally hanged at the blacksmith shop.
Somewhere along the line, the authorities figured out that the gold ore so freely bandied about by the Indian did not come from a mine, but rather, was the stolen loot taken from the freight wagon some five years previously. After a little more "digging” the cache is believed to have been hidden in a cave where Holden Dick lived most of the time. The cave was located in one of the many canyons which extend from Eagle Peak on the western slope of the southern Warner Mountains. He was also said to have constructed a crude rock wall at the cave’s entrance, though today it would most assuredly be collapsed. It is most likely that the cave would be located in the lower elevations of the mountains since theIndian lived there year round. © Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, updated February, 2010. Hope you enjoyed the story see some American Made Prospectors. Click Texas Pete for  PROSPECTORS TOOLS Click here on Old GreatPaw for GOLDSEEKERSTOOLS

The New Geocache Craze

I see there is a new adventure sport emerging. It is called Geocaching. Geocaching is a real world game that consists of people hiding caches, then others go to find it. Hide and seek for adults basically. There are some sites that offer prizes for finding caches. One asks that you trade a found cache for another one. It is becoming quite a trend.

Now forgive me for being naive - but if you are going to burn gas and energy looking for treasure - why wouldn't it be REAL treasures that you search out? There is so much actual bonified treasure out there to be found - old coins, pioneer artifacts, Indian artifacts, actual lost mines and long buried treasures from yesteryear, and this is not to even mention gem minerals. The attraction of hunting for planted "caches" just escapes me somehow.


Rockhound State Park about nine miles southeast of
Deming, New Mexico.  Photo courtesy Texas Campgrounds
There are ghost towns all over, and in those ghost towns are many lost items just waiting for the fortunate hunter to dig up and bring back to the world. Of course, this is just whole towns. Anyone hiking in areas previously trod by early gold rush era prospectors or pioneers is bound to stumble across lost homesteads at some time or other. Where ever parties of pioneers, wagon trains, or stagecoaches came through, there rests the possibility of real treasures. Pioneers were known to often bury treasures when they were being pursued by those who might steal it, or when the load became too cumbersome to be able to travel with it. I'm sure these people meant to recover these treasures at a later date, but for reasons ranging from untimely death to just lost directions, many of these caches remain buried and waiting for recovery to this day.

What about lost mines? No one yet has found the Lost Dutchman mine, now you want a real thrill, be the first to dig that one up. That is only one mine lost in the archives of history waiting to be retrieved. The Lost Cement Gold Mine still remains lost near the head of the middle fork of the San Joaquin river and the Lost Soldier Mine somewhere in Arizona near the Gila River bend has thus far managed to elude hunters. This is only a couple of mentions out of scores, possibly hundreds, of lost mines just waiting for rediscovery. Pirates and Bandits were well known to bury treasures as well. No report has been made of the Lake George or South Mountain treasures in Colorado having been found yet. Florida itself is not much more than a grand treasure cache, with hundreds of caches having been dug up that were left by pirates, explorers, and people fleeing battles, and who knows how many left to discover - and that is on land. For the adventuresome scuba diver, the gulf is an explorers paradise, hiding wrecks of ships toren on reefs, lost in storms, or sunk in battles.

The South Western portion of the US abounds with treasure stories of lost Indian treasures, caches stolen by invading Spaniards and buried to be lost later, and stagecoach and train robberies that resulted in burial of treasures. While some of these stories can be chocked up to legend, historical evidence exists to support many.

So maybe the fact with the Geocache game is the competition and involvement with others. Real treasure hunting does not necessarily negate these factors. Many a treasure hunt that I have seen revolves around shared research and information, as well as teams of hunters who report back to each other about progresses and failures. Some are undertaken with the spirit of sharing a cache, while others involve shared information but the actual discovery is pretty much a finders-keepers, winner-take-all proposition.

 So simply speaking - while Geocaching sounds like an entertaining way to spend a weekend - for me "ain't nothing like the real thing, baby."

©2005 Sally Taylor
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