March 28, 2024
Treasure Legends on interactive Google Earth Map

Treasure Maps Update #1


The Treasure Maps portion of the website is a Google Maps interactive view of a collection of Treasure Legends with decent chances of having some truth to them. The locations given are in some cases out in the wilds, near the general area where a search is thought to be most productively undertaken, or in other cases located where a good central starting point is near the road where one might take in a vista of the area and refine the differences between how things looked in Rand McNalley or USGS Topo versus how they look in person – usually, the map makes distances seem very short and chasms seem very shallow!

Here are four new Tales, from a very hard to find resource “Western Treasures Lost & Found” by Jesse Ed Rascoe. I often try and cross-reference stories between multiple sources, but these somewhat lesser-known tales are a bit exclusive to Mr. Rascoe. His publication being in 1961, the stories might just be that much closer to the events of the time to have that one missing piece that has been otherwise warped and twisted by many more re-tellings in the time since. In my Maps section, I provide enough info to whet the whistle and make you aware that the stories exist; it is up to you to do additional resource before piling into the adventure wagon and hitting the road.

If you can’t find books for sale, don’t forget your local library, which may have a Special Collections department or be able to get things for you on inter-library loan.

Without further ado, here are the four new entries added to the Treasure Maps page:

Lost Cement Placer
“TREASURE: a placer of very rich gold cemented in a blue clay.
SYNOPSIS: A trio of pioneers, fleeing hostile Natives, were pushed off track and into unfamiliar territory. They stumbled into a blue clay deposit rich with gold, and subsequently tried to make civilization with several loads of the stuff. Only one made it. A map was conveyed to a Mr. Whitman, who made a search with outcome unknown. A similar-sounding deposit was found in Bodie in 1880.”

Stagecoach Loot of Mud Lake
“TREASURE: Mighty haul of gold bars from a Wells Fargo shipment.
SYNOPSIS: A Wells Fargo stagecoach transporting gold bars was robbed and the bandits made a break for it, stopping to lighten their load somewhere near Mud Lake, nothwest of Idaho Fall, ID. They were likely traveling along the old emigrant trail (marker in map sits on possible trail location, if you have the Eye). A map dating to 1876 supposedly exists that features the lake by it\’s older name.”

The Dying Man Mine
“TREASURE: A very rich gold mine with assays of up to $40,000 per ton (old values, much more now!)
SYNOPSIS: An injured man named Alex divulges that he built his mine over his cabin, and filled it with booby traps, presumably confessing to such to avoid future injury to innocents should he die. His cabin was located somewhere on Silver Mountain in Huerfano County, CO, and Alex passed on at the hospital in Pueblo. That he is known to have bought many mining batteries, his traps were perhaps dyanmite-based; it is not known how long such devices may remain stable.”

Lost Sheepherder Claim
“TREASURE: An extremely rich gold outcrop, guarded by a now-headless skeleton.
SYNOPSIS: A passing prospector named Ross told a local sheepherder friend about rich gold float he could follow up on if the prospector moved on the next year. When Ross failed to show back up in the spring, the sheepherder went looking for the float, found the tools Ross left just as he said, and traced the float to the outcrop, where he discovered a human skeleton. The sheepherder returned with samples from the rich outcrop and the skull of the skeleton, and enlisted a Mr. Pence to help him secure the claim. The sheepherder passed before they could return, and the location is thought to be somewhere near the Idaho state line, north of Jarbridge. Possible location between Jarbridge viliage and marker as shown on map.”

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