Weaselskins Gold Stash / Colorado

[Gypsy Heart]

A Ute Indian by the name of Jim Weaselskin found a source of gold somewhere up the Vallecito River and would pay for food and favors with gold nuggets. However, the first actual discovery of precious minerals near Vallecito was at Cave Basin in August of 1913. Cave Basin is located on Middle Mountain, which lies between Vallecito and the Pine River. The main mining area at Cave Basin was called Tuckerville (link to Forest Road/2 wheel Forest Roads). A five-foot vein of good copper and galena (lead ore) was found. As hard as the miners tried to keep this exciting news under cover, the secret was soon out and hordes of eager men soon followed.

What about the gold? Well, the stories of Weaselskin’s hidden stash have some substance. Many have searched for the treasure over the years. As far as we know, no one has found it - yet!

http://www.bluesprucervpark.com/area/lake-vallecito.php

 

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[UncleMatt]

If you read Sheepherder Gold, Temple tells of a group that passed through that area in 1860's, and of 2 men who supposedly found the source of this gold on the west side of vallecito canyon below the junction of vallecito and rock creek. One of the men returned in later years, but was not able to re-locate the mine. It was supposedly a short tunnel only 8 feet deep that the Spanish had opened up way back in the day. In the late afternoon the sunlight was said to go all the way to the back of the tunnel. Temple also talks about how the old Ute indians in the area who were his friends told him they covered the tunnel up with logs, dirt, and rocks when white settlers would not leave them alone about leading them to the gold source. I will be looking at this site in late August.

 

[UncleMatt]

I tried to make it to this site, but the rain flushed me out of the canyon before I could get there. I will try again next year with horses so I can haul everything I need up there for a week or so.

 

[BuffaloBob]

I copied this article as it tells more about the story and facts are genuine.
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The Okie Legacy: Vol 7, Iss 33 Hamilton's & 1906 Woods County Atlas...

[h=4]Weaselskin's Gold Mine...[/h] Vol 7, Iss 33 This photo is a picture of Vallecito River looking North, in the San Juan National Forest at the North end of Vallecito in the campground.

Somewhere located where Weaselskin Creek empties into Vallecito River, just North of the present Vallecito campground, to the North of the lake, there is purportedly a much talked about legendary Weaselskin Gold mine that belonged to Old (Jim) Weaselskin (a Ute Indian born 1850) & his extended family. Weaselskin acquired his name from numerous weasel skins he always wore.

Summers would find the Weaselskin family packing and beginning their long hike up the steep trail to Endlich Mesa (high mountain mesa that sets above and to the west of Vallecito River Valley). Endlich Mesa was dotted with tiny lakes, rock formations, random patches of trees and located above the tree line. The white men that settled Vallecito River Valley named one of Endlich Mesa's swift running streams Weaselskin Creek in honor of the Old Indian who used this location as a summer pasture for his horses for many years.

Besides a creek and bridge named after him, Weaselskin's claim to fame was the legendary Weaselskin Gold Mine. The Gold mine was said to have nuggets by the handfuls. Exactly where it was located, we haven't found it ... Yet! BUT... many have tried!

As the Story has been told... On their trip to and from the mountains, the Weaselskins & extended Ute Indian family became well acquainted with the few settlers who lived along the way. They got to know the Charlie Waldner family who owned a ranch far up the Florida (Flo-re-dah) River above the present Lemon Reservoir just over the mountain to the west of Vallecito. Weaselskin often stopped there on his journeys to Durango, and the Waldners fed him a meal in order to cultivate his friendship. At this time the Indians still instilled a certain amount of fear in the settlers, and they figured it was safer to be on good terms with them.

The visits became a routine. As Weaselskin made his way from his mountain camp to Durango, he would stop by the Waldner ranch and have a meal. As he prepared to leave, he would give them a gold nugget to repay them for their kindness.

After a time, Mr. Waldner started thinking that he wasn't being fair, taking all these nuggets for just a few meals. He might cause Weaselskin to run out of his best trading commondity. On the next visit, when Weaselskin tried to pay, Waldner offered to give some of the gold back, but Weaselskin refused. He was happy with the arrangement. The white man's food was worth every nugget.

Weaselskin and some of his companions ventured into a store in Durango one day and found that the owner of the store had just boiled up a pan of wieners. The proprietor generously handed out a number of them to the eager group, and then was quite surprised when they gave him gold nuggets to repay him for the kindness he had shown them.

For many years the Utes continued to come up to their favorite hunting and herb-gathering spot, but after the white settlers started to settle on the Los Pinos and Vallecito Rivers, things started changing. It became increasingly difficult to get onto their choicest grounds and the Utes graduallly lost their freedom to roam at will. Old Weaselskin died during the influenza epidemic in 1918 while living on his land allotment near the Sunnyside Bridge on the Animas River. This was the bridge that was later re-named "Weaselskin Bridge" in his honor. [Story taken from Vallecito Country, pg. 22, written by Dottie Warlick.]

The Okie Legacy: Vol 7, Iss 33 Hamilton's & 1906 Woods County Atlas...

 

[BuffaloBob]

Marked maps of Endlich Mesa 12,200 ft and Weaselskin Creek from 12,000' to 8,800' to Velocito creek. Wish I had the legs to try it!
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http://www.MyEasyPics.com/is.php?i=1018087&img=weaslecreek.jpg

 

[UncleMatt]

Weaselskin Creek has been searched over and over, and no sign of any gold source yet. It is much easier to get to from the Vallecity Campground than the 12 mile hike up to Rock Creek, so it was focused on much more when people tried to discover the source of the gold the Utes were bringing to settlers and into Durango. Shoot, it connects with the Vallecito right at the trailhead at the campground, thats how accessible it is! I have seen guys with MD's checking it out many times over the years, so I doubt it was the source.

I have done a lot of research on the Vallecito watershed, and there is ZERO gold found in sedimentary analysis anywhere along it by the USGS. There were 2 gold mines on the east side of the canyon in the 1900 to 1930's called the Gold Nugget Claims 1,2,3, and also farther up was the Grizzly/Copperqueen claim. Both produced gold from small deposits of quartz in granite. I hope to visit those mine sites too next year. I doubt the Vallecito watershed will produce many nuggets from MDing though. Some geologists I have talked to about it tell me the current theory about that is most of the gold bearing granite has already eroded away eons ago. This is supported by the fact that even if a quartz gold bearing vein is found in the area, they all pinch off rapidly as you follow them down.

I will be headed for the Rock Creek and Vallecito Creek junction next summer, but this time I am hiring a pack of horses to make it easier and quicker to get up there. I plan on staying several days looking for nuggets and Jim's gold source. I also hope to have my UAV prospecting drone up in the air and operational by then.

 

[UncleMatt]

You know, in the story of the 2 men who supposedly found the Vallecito gold source the Utes were using, there was mention of camping in an area where rocky spires stuck up from the ground. One of the men supposedly placed a white, kidney shaped stone in a crevice of one of these.

The first time I heard about this was from a friend I was fishing with up there in 1985. He told me to be on the lookout for it, but he didn't realize at that time we were still at least 8 miles from that spot. He told me that if he found it he would hide it, and he also told me he threw metal into the stream all the time to discourage people with MD's! You gotta understand the mentality of many of the people in rural Colorado. Many of them are avid "monkee-wrenchers", and back in those days it was common place for sabatoge to occur to development equipment, trees spiked with nails, etc.

 

[BuffaloBob]

The Gold mine was said to have nuggets by the handfuls

Matt based on that, handfuls of nuggets, rather than nugget rich ore, I was thinking he discovered a lost cache, with gobs of nuggets rather than a mine. Nuggets by the handful doesn't sound like a natural feature. My thoughts were a small cave or opening on the way up the canyon to his summer digs. That's what I would look for. A cache. IMHO
I like your idea of the UMV but at 12,000 feet would smaller planes fly?
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[UncleMatt]

I have acquired a RC plane that can fly up to 13,000 ASL with no problem. It is a large flying wing, and has 4 pounds of cargo capacity for cameras and IR. I am in the process of learning everything I need to know to get it operational by next summer for good weather prospecting. It makes for a great winter project, and I have many experts in the field lending a hand who are hoping I will open up a new area of opportunities for aerial drones.

I think what Temple was told about was a very shallow drift, with a very rich vein exosed on the rear wall. If the Spanish opened it up originally, that would have given a lot of time for erosion and freezing processes to have dropped gold onto the floor mixed with quartz. Perhaps those chunks were described as "nuggets" back then, who knows.

An interesting aspect of this is that after Temple was told by his native American friends that the Utes had buried it, no further gold was brought down to Durango by the Utes ever again in the historical record. That lends at least a small flake of credibility to the fact perhaps it was covered up intentionally, and that it actually existed as described by Temple in his book.

At any rate, if it exists as described, you have a very short tunnel that has been covered with logs and dirt. But that happened over 100 years ago. So hopefully there is a depression showing, or perhaps even a void is exposed to find now.

 

[UncleMatt]

Here are some photos several miles up the Vallecito canyon from the campground.









The channel above runs full and fast during spring runoff, but is usually dry at all other times of the year. You can't see it in this photo, but the main river runs in another channel through the granite over to the right. There was a huge storm burst higher up in the canyon though, and right after I took this photo I had to scramble out of the channel because it began to fill with water. That was when I knew I needed to head back down...

Look at those tasty sand bars I was able to image during a short break in the rain. I wanted to hit them with my Infinium, but right after I took those photos, it started raining buckets again.

 

[UncleMatt]

I have posted photos of a cave in another thread "Check my reasoning on this". It is pretty close to the kind of tunnel I think the source of Jim's gold could be in in Vallecito Canyon. It has been surmised that the Spanish opened up the tunnel up on the Vallecito, but maybe it was as natural as the cave I found on Coal Creek...

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[BuffaloBob]

I have posted photos of a cave in another thread "Check my reasoning on this". It is pretty close to the kind of tunnel I think the source of Jim's gold could be in in Vallecito Canyon. It has been surmised that the Spanish opened up the tunnel up on the Vallecito, but maybe it was as natural as the cave I found on Coal Creek...

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Matt from all the chips on the bottom of the opening it looks like man-made. Great find! And nice pics. We all appreciate that.
And you should go back to pan the sand when you get a chance. Nice treasure hunting all around Matt.
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[UncleMatt]

The chips of granite were shedding from the rock both inside the cave and out. And notice how there is sediment inside, even though this cave is a good 60 to 70 feet above the current creek level. That means that dirt had been there a long time, since it can't wash in there with water any more.

Though I could be wrong, it didn't look like it was done by man when I was up close and personal. Everything up there was weird and degraded in appearance. Of course, this was in a completely different area and watershed than the Vallecito. There were no tool marks in the walls of the cave, and you can tell no one had been disturbing the ground inside because the sediment was washed out only around the edges. Even so, I did find some burn marks and graffiti, but not very much of either. No signs of animal occupation at all, and no trash at all. I would love to excavate the floor of this cave and see what it might be hiding. I am sure lots of people have seen this cave up on Coal Creek, its no secret or anything. I just thought it was interesting in that is shows how a natural formation can look like old workings, when it really isn't. And how it might offer a clue of what was covered up by the Utes on the Vallecito.

I also found salad bowls and post holes in the solid granite creek bed up there, that you would swear are man made. One was 25 inches deep, and went straight down, with a diameter of 13 inches. Of course I MDed both of them, but got no signals. Both were created by rocks spinning in the current during spring runoff, but looked like a drill rig had done them.

 

[BuffaloBob]

Forgot the GPS location for Mesa Top:

ACME Mapper 2.0 Print Email Link to this page

N 37.51408 W 107.59735​

6.3 km ExNE of San Juan National Forest CO, 12.0 km S of Windom Peak CO, 12.3 km S of Mount Eolus CO, 12.6 km S of Needle Mountains CO

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[Marmentman]

Hey I know this thread is real old, but I have also been here and to the sheep herders camp I think this story might have some truth to it. Check out lost Bakers seam. Uncle mat I think you right about that cave, been there and doesn't look man made! Have found small showing of gold along that entire creek all the way to the larger creek.

 

[okielegacy]

I'm "okielegacy" and it's been 16 years since I put the "weaselskin Gold Stash" article in my newsletter. The URL and domain name has changed to the following link - https://okielegacy.net/journal/tabloid/?ID=545&vol=7&iss=33 for those interested in the article on Chief Weaselskin's gold mine stash. - Thanks for putting it here. - Linda Mcgill Wagner (okielegacy), Vallecito lake, CO, [email protected]

 

[cyzak]

I have spent some time in that country up there what a unique place it is.