airborne1092
Hero Member
While working in Idaho several years ago, my 80-something year old barber told me a legend that he's known since he was a child. Said barber had grown up in/around Kellogg-Osburn area and was told a story by his father or grandfather, from years before.
Apparently after the rail lines were complete in and around Murray/Wallace area, some of the Chinese workers that had worked on the lines, headed out and made a camp for themselves for gold prospecting. A posse of miners and rail workers were fairly incensed at their audacity, and visited the camp, warning them that they need to clear out or next time they paid a visit, they wouldn't be so pleasant. Their warning went unheeded. When the posse returned several days later, they razed the camp, and beat or killed the Chinese they found there, running them out of the area never to return.
I forget the exact name of the creek, (China creek?) but a search of Google maps finds it easily from memory. ( 47.65706, -116.0555 ) Basically, head north up Coeur d'Alene River road from Kingston about 14 -15 miles, to National Forest Dev. Rd 620, on the left (south.) I went here with a co-worker once, but we didn't stay too long. There should be a creek running parallel to the FS road, that travels under the CdA river Rd and empties into the CdA River. We couldn't spend too much time here, we simply wanted to check it out to confirm it exsisted, and try and come back later. The creek looked pretty promising, with fairly decent flow, and many minor terraces and cracks where one might find placer gold. We never did see any evidence of a camp even though did drive down the road to the first major bend to the east. The actual location of the camp may have been quite some distance down the draw to the south.
One other thing to note, While we had no special gear to actually investigate, there was a large, 3-4 foot diameter culvert that passed the water under CdA river road. The water fell a little to the lip of the culvert and created a small pool before emptying into the culvert. Also, the water falling out of the culvert into the CdA river was a 12-18 inch drop and created a nice deep pool with quite a bit of sediment before being mingled and swept away with the river. These are two excellent spots IMO to look for nuggets. If you'll remember, a Dept of Highways worker in Idaho found a huge nugget in a culvert during spring clean-out several years ago around Wallace. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a real treat around here. One last thing to note about the creek and surrounding area - Be sure to check first, I'm sure quite a bit of these areas are 'claimed' out already.
If anyone decides to head out here and check it out, I wish you the best of luck and be safe!
Apparently after the rail lines were complete in and around Murray/Wallace area, some of the Chinese workers that had worked on the lines, headed out and made a camp for themselves for gold prospecting. A posse of miners and rail workers were fairly incensed at their audacity, and visited the camp, warning them that they need to clear out or next time they paid a visit, they wouldn't be so pleasant. Their warning went unheeded. When the posse returned several days later, they razed the camp, and beat or killed the Chinese they found there, running them out of the area never to return.
I forget the exact name of the creek, (China creek?) but a search of Google maps finds it easily from memory. ( 47.65706, -116.0555 ) Basically, head north up Coeur d'Alene River road from Kingston about 14 -15 miles, to National Forest Dev. Rd 620, on the left (south.) I went here with a co-worker once, but we didn't stay too long. There should be a creek running parallel to the FS road, that travels under the CdA river Rd and empties into the CdA River. We couldn't spend too much time here, we simply wanted to check it out to confirm it exsisted, and try and come back later. The creek looked pretty promising, with fairly decent flow, and many minor terraces and cracks where one might find placer gold. We never did see any evidence of a camp even though did drive down the road to the first major bend to the east. The actual location of the camp may have been quite some distance down the draw to the south.
One other thing to note, While we had no special gear to actually investigate, there was a large, 3-4 foot diameter culvert that passed the water under CdA river road. The water fell a little to the lip of the culvert and created a small pool before emptying into the culvert. Also, the water falling out of the culvert into the CdA river was a 12-18 inch drop and created a nice deep pool with quite a bit of sediment before being mingled and swept away with the river. These are two excellent spots IMO to look for nuggets. If you'll remember, a Dept of Highways worker in Idaho found a huge nugget in a culvert during spring clean-out several years ago around Wallace. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a real treat around here. One last thing to note about the creek and surrounding area - Be sure to check first, I'm sure quite a bit of these areas are 'claimed' out already.
If anyone decides to head out here and check it out, I wish you the best of luck and be safe!
