Kansas Ghost Towns/Treasure Legends..

OSBORNE COUNTY

GHOST TOWNS

1…Deliverance, near West County Line, 12 miles North of Natroma
2…Kill Creek, 8 miles Southeast of Alton
3…Roundmound, 7 1/2 miles Northeast of Natroma
4…Twin Creek, 8 miles South of Osborne
5…Cheyenne, 5 miles North of Luray

Russell County

Legends

1…A payroll shipment was being transported on horseback to the salt mines
at Kanopilas and was hidden during an attack on Lost Creek along the
Old Butternut Trail.

2…An old mill was once located about 12 miles Southeast of Russell on
the Smokey Hill River and was a gathering place for settlers and outlaws.

GHOST TOWNS

1…Fay, 5 miles Southeast of Fairport
2…Success, 10 miles North of Bunker Hill
3…Balta, on railroad, 5 miles West of Russell
4…Homer, on railroad, 3 1/2 miles West of Bunker Hill

SMITH COUNTY

GHOST TOWNS

1…Ohio, 10 miles North of Kensington
2…Hardilee, 6 miles North Northeast of Kensington
3…Tyner, 10 miles North of Athol
4…Reamsville, 13 miles North Northwest of Smith Center
5…Thornburg, 14 miles North of Smith Center
6…Womer, 6 miles North Northwest of Cora
7…Sherwood, East County Line, 8 miles North of Lebanon
8…Anderson, 7 1/2 miles North of Smith Center
9…Hammer, 5 miles South of Smith Center
10..Oakvale, 10 miles South of Bellaire
11..Stuart, East County Line, 8 miles South of Lebanon
12..Oasis, 5 miles East of Harlan.

El Paso Herald 1910..Gold articles..

Two articles in The El Paso Herald (1910), one on The Old Abe mine in White Oaks, New Mexico (Billy the Kid playground) and one in the Sierra Madre Mountains.

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88084272/1910-11-01/ed-1/seq-9.pdf

Use your photo viewer to enlarge picture.

Finding Gold in rivers and streams…

How to find Gold | Reading Streams

How to read a stream and where to find gold have given a lot beginner prospectors and recreational gold seekers a hard time. Let’s face it, it’s not the easiest thing to find. There are a couple ways to go about finding gold and I’ll share one method that works best for me!

So.. Where do you find gold?? Well, creeks, rivers, and water run off’s are some of the best places! That’s not to say that they are the only places though! There’s ancient rivers that are long dried up now that are known to carry VAST amounts of very course gold… more on that in another post perhaps. For now lets focus on finding gold in rivers and creeks.
First things first. The rivers and creeks are not where the gold is coming from! They are where the gold collects! The water from spring run off, floods and landslides all wash gold into the stream bed for you to find later. The gold we find in streams are called “placer deposits”. Placer gold is gold that’s traveled from its original source – AKA the lode. The further the gold travels the more rounded and smaller the pieces become. With that in mind you can zero in on “new” course gold. If you’re finding quartz stone mixed in or even attached to the gold you are very, very close to the source.

Some people like running around with a shovel and gold pan like a chicken with their head cut off! It’s not the best method in my eyes, but it can be an adventure and it’s not a boring systematic way of doing things. It’s a “fly by the seat of your pants” way of doing it and if you’ve got the prior knowledge and some good intuition it can pay off! I think every newbie tries this once before getting frustrated with poor returns or hit and miss gold finds that don’t make any sense.
If you really want to locate a pay streak, the best way is to do a grid system or at least keep it linear. Try the following and see if it works for you.
Find a section of a creek you believe to be gold bearing and look for the high water mark. The high water mark is a good indicator of where the water was during the spring flood season. Those spring floods load and shuffle the creek (hopefully) with gold.
Highlighted in red is where the high-water mark ends. Highlighted in blue is a good place to look for gold. There’s lots of roots and it’s on an inside bend just after the apex where the water tends to move slowest and even pool around the peninsula.
Once you’ve located the high water mark grab your shovel and gold pan, take a sample, pan it out and note how much black sand you’ve found. You can be a little quick and sloppy because we’re only monitoring the black sand amounts for now. Continue in this fashion while working towards the center of the creek and taking samples ever foot or two. Note the black sands in each pan… how much… how little.. and where the most concentrations are.

Here you can see the path that gold and the heavier materials will follow along a stream.Once you have a rough idea where all the concentrations of black sand are grab your pan and shovel again. Go to the spot in the creek (or outside of it if the water is low) and begin panning the area closest to the center of the creek where the black sand levels began to drop significantly.
If the creek is an active gold bearing creek this will be your most likely spot for a pay streak! Continue sampling with your gold pan, and if thing are beginning to look good it’s time to move in the heavier equipment like a sluice box where permitted.

If you’re not finding much or anything in that spot move down or upstream to another spot and repeat the process. Several factors might be causing the gold not to collect there. For instance there could be a slow spot in the creek up stream where the water loses its momentum and most of the gold gets deposited there! It’s also possible that in the spot you checked the water was moving too fast, however if that is the case there should be very little black sand present.
…And remember the old saying: “Gold is where you find it”! It’s worth mentioning though that it’s best to start looking in areas where other people have found it before!!

DEATH VALLEY UNDERGROUND CITY?

 
DEATH VALLEY UNDERGROUND CITY?

Several years ago, two men – Jack and Bill (surnames
unknown) – were exploring in Death Valley, near Wingate
Pass, when one of them fell through the bottom of an old
mine shaft.

They claimed to have found themselves in a natural
underground cavern which they followed about 20 miles
northward into the heart of the Panamint Mountains.

“To our amazement,” they reported, “we found ourselves in
a huge, ancient, underground cave city.

“As we explored, we came upon several perfectly preserved
‘mummies’ They wore thick arm bands, and had gold spears.

“The place seemed to have been abandoned for ages, except
for the mummies. The entire underground system looked
very ancient.

“It was apparently once lit by an ingenious system of
lights fed by subterranean gases.

“In one spot was a polished round table. The thought
crossed our minds that it may have been part of an
ancient council chamber.

“There were also large statues of solid gold. And stone
vaults and drawers full of gold bars and all sorts of
gemstones.

“We were intrigued by some heavy stone wheelbarrows. They
were so perfectly balanced and scientifically-constructed
that even a child could use them.

The men reported that throughout the city were huge stone
doors which were almost perfectly balanced by counter-
weights.

They followed the caverns upwards to a higher level. The
caverns ultimately opened out onto the face of the
Panamint Mountains, about half-way up the eastern slope.

HIGH WATER OVER MOUNTAINS?

There were a few exits in the form of tunnel-like quays.

It appeared obvious that the valley below was once under
water. After some thought, they concluded that the arched
openings were ancient ‘docks’ for sea vessels.

Far below in the valley, they could pick out Furnace Creek
Ranch and Wash.

The explorers brought out with them some of the treasure
and tried to set up a deal with certain people, including
scientists associated with the Smithsonian Institute. The
idea was to gain help to explore and publicize the city
as one of the ‘wonders of the world’.

However, to their bitter disappointment, a ‘friend’ stole
the treasure (which was also the evidence).

And worse, they were rejected and scoffed at by the
scientists when they went to show them the ‘mine’
entrance and could not find it. It appeared that a recent
cloud-burst had altered the entire landscape. It did not
look like it had been before.

When Bill and Jack were last seen, they were preparing to
climb the east face of the Panamints to locate the
ancient tunnel openings or quays high up the side of the
steep slope.

But they were not seen again.

DOCTOR GIVES SIMILAR REPORT

In 1946 a retired physician by the name of F. Bruce
Russell told a similar story.

He claimed to have discovered strange underground rooms
in the Death Valley area in 1931. He spoke of a large
room with several tunnels leading off in different
directions.

One of these tunnels led to another large room. It
contained three mummies.

He identified artifacts in the room as similar in design
to a combination of Egyptian and American Indian.

GIANT MUMMIES

What struck him most about the mummies though was their
size – more than eight feet tall.

Dr. Russell and a group of investors launched “Amazing
Explorations, Inc” to handle the release, and profit,
from this find.

But, Russell vanished. And although he had personally
taken his friends there, they were never able to find the
caverns and tunnels again.

The desert can be very deceiving to anyone not used to
traveling it.

Months later, Russell’s car was found abandoned, with a
burst radiator, in a remote area of Death Valley. His
suitcase was still in the car.

Vermont…Treasure Legends and Ghost Towns

 

Addison County

Treasure Legends

1. In the rocky area known as Hell’s Half Acre at the foot of South Mountain, a cache of between $200,000 and $1 Million in silver bars are buried. The father of a Spaniard named DeGrau worked a rich vein of Silver near Bristol with a group of other prospectors. They amassed such a large quanity of silver ingots that they had to leave a huge amount behind when they left the area. The mining equipment and silver bars were sealed in a cave, but they were never able to return and retrive it.

2. Four Spanish deserters in 1752, left the ship San Jose with 80,000 gold doubloons when the vessle was laid up for repairs at New London. While trying to make their way to Quebec, Canada, they were attacked by Indians, their pack horses were killed, and they had to bury the gold in a space between 2 giant boulders in the area known as Hell’s Half Acre. They fled the indians but never returned.

3. During the Revolutionary War, British Soldiers were seen carrying a heavy payroll chest off of Long Point on Gardiner’s Island. They did not have the chest when they left and it is persumed that they buried it somewhere on the Island.

Ghost Towns

1. Chimney Point…on Lake Champlain near Hwy 17. It was a French trading center in 1690, was attacked and burned in 1759 by Indians.

2. Beldens…on the railroad, 3 miles North of Middlebury

3. South Lincoln…2 miles South Southeast of Lincoln

4. Cream Hill…3 miles North Northwest of Shoreham

5. Richville…1 1/2 miles North of Shoreham Center

6. North Orwell…3 1/2 miles North of Orwell

California…Lost Treasure….Lost Gold Ledge of the Chocolate Mountains

For the land that would eventually become California, the year 1542 was a pivotal point in time. The first recorded sighting of the California coastline occurred in that momentous year. Two small ships commanded by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo worked their way up the west coast of Mexico to what is now San Diego Bay. Cabrillo had been present during the final conquest of Mexico City and had personally witnessed the fall of the Aztec empire. But his discovery of California would be his crowning achievement, although he didn’t realize it at the time.

Sixty years later, the Spanish explorer Sebastian Vizcaino cruised the California coastline in search of wealth. Vizcaino named many locations along the coast including Carmel, Monterey, Santa Catalina, and San Pedro. The expedition found no treasure but did discover “fool’s gold” and a metallic silvery-blue mineral used by the natives.

It wasn’t until 1769 that a joint land and sea expedition to California was mounted by the Spaniards. Don Gaspar de Portola arrived in San Diego in June of that year as California’s first governor. The expedition included a number of illustrious men including Father Junipero Serra, Father Juan Crespi, Captain Fernando Rivera y Moncada, and Lieutenant Pedro Fages. The Spanish presence was now firmly established in California.

Five years later, another expedition set out for the newly-established San Gabriel Mission in southern California. Led by Juan Bautista de Anza, the Spaniards marched from Sonora along the Camino de Diablo trail to the junction of the Colorado and Gila rivers. Here they encountered the Yuma Indians led by their famous chief Palma. From the Yuma villages, the Spaniards marched westward through the desert sands to Borrego Springs and then on to San Gabriel Mission. The floodgates were now open. Spanish prospectors quickly followed on the heels of de Anza and by 1780, were scouring the mountains of the lower Colorado River country. In that same year, gold was discovered in the Cargo Muchacho Mountains, in the Picacho

Basin, and at the “Potholes” near the southern end of the Chocolate Mountains. The Cargo Muchachos have veteran status among the mountain ranges of southern California. They were the site of the first discovery of gold in California by Spanish prospectors. Initially the surface ores were extremely rich, but deeper down they gave way to very low grade ore. The Spanish miners quickly skimmed off the richest ores and moved on to other locations. The Cargo Muchacho deposits were sporadically worked by Mexican prospectors, but they essentially lay dormant for over 80 years.

Then in 1862, American prospectors discovered rich gold-bearing quartz veins in the Cargo Muchachos. Miners and prospectors swarmed into the area. In 1884, the rich Gold Rock lodes were discovered by a railroad worker named Pete Walters. Railroad men sure seem to make good prospectors. Besides Pete Walters’ Gold Rock strike in the Cargo Muchachos there was John Sutter’s discovery of the fabulous Bagdad-Chase lode and Tom Schofield’s lost mine in the Clipper Mountains.

The Gold Rock claims were extremely rich. A mining camp known as Gold Rock Camp sprang up near the workings, but it was renamed Hedges soon after. (In 1910, the name was again changed to Tumco.) Hedges was a hell-raising town during its heyday. During the late 1800’s, an Irishman named Jim Sullivan worked at one of the saloons in town. One of his fellow employees was an old Indian who had lived in the lower Colorado River country all his life. The Indian carried a secret with him. In his wanderings he had stumbled on a ledge of gold-bearing ore and had samples to prove it! Sullivan eventually persuaded him to reveal the location of the ledge and the two of them set out from Hedges. The Indian led Sullivan eastward towards the Chocolate Mountains. After about 15 miles, they located the ledge, worked it, and then returned to town. Soon after, the old Indian disappeared but Sullivan always figured he could find the ledge on his own. He was never able to.