Old Bookaroo
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Oregon's Lost Blue Bucket Diggins - A Scarce Pioneer Account of the Legend
During the succeeding years, up to 1861, there was little to distract the attention of the pioneers. My time was occupied during that period of time in assisting on the farm during summer and attending the district school during the winter. The loop holes in the wall of the old school house for rifles had been boarded up, and the larger boys no longer “toted” their guns, and stacked them in the corner.
On the east side of the Cascade mountains, however, the gentle savage was lord of all the lands over which he roamed. Here he was yet master, and therby hangs a tale. In 1945 an immigrant train attempted to enter the Oregon by way of the “Meeks cut off.” With them were the Durbins, Simmons, Tetherows, Herrins and many others I cannot now recall. The history of that journey is one of hardship, starvation, and death. After enduring sufferings such as sicken one in the bare recital the remnant staggered in the settlements, more dead than alive.
They crossed the Cascade mountains, coming down the Middle Fork of the Willamette river, and somewhere west of Harney Valley they stopped on a small stream. An old Indian trail crossed at that point, and the oxen in sliding down the bank to water uncovered a bright piece of metal. It was picked up and taken to camp, where a man who had been in the mines in Georgia pronounced it gold. He flattened it out with a wagon hammer, and was quite positive it was the precious metal. But men, women, and children subsisting on grasshoppers and crickets and fighting Indians most of the day, had something else to think about.
The incident, therefore, was soon forgotten amid the dire stress of their surroundings. But when gold was discovered at Sutter’s Fort in California, Sol Tetherow called to mind the finding of the piece of metal on the banks of the stream not far from Harney Valley. He told about it – told and retold the story, and as the stories from California grew, so grew the story of the old man, until finally he declared he could have “picked up a blue bucket full in the bed of the creek.” Hence originated the name, the “Blue Bucket Diggins.”
During the years of 1857-58-59-60 and 61, companies were formed in the valley counties to search for the “Blue Bucket Diggins.” The companies were loosely formed, with little or no discipline, and were, therefore, predestined to end in disaster. After crossing the mountains and seeing no sign of Indians, the officers had no power and less inclination to enforce discipline. There being no signs of Indians, it was useless to maintain guards; they could whip all the Indians east of the mountains, and why attempt to put on “military airs?”
They were destined to a rude awakening. Some morning about daylight, twenty or thirty red blanketed men, with hideous yells would charge the horse herds, while a hundred or more with equally hideous yells would attack the sleeping men. Then would result a stampede, those who had talked loudest and talked most about cowards, being first to lose their heads. The few cool heads would make a stand, while the savages after getting away with the horses, would beat a retreat, leaving the gold hunters to straggle afoot back across the mountains to the settlements.
These expeditions served to work off the surplus energy of the adventurous and restless, until the news arrived in the spring of 1861 of the discovery of gold in the Nez Perce mountains. The reports, as in most similar cases, were greatly exaggerated, but it served to create a genuine stampede, and while yet a boy of 14, I was drawn into that torrent rushing to the new El Dorado. In justice to the good sound sense and mature judgment of my parents, I am compelled to say that it was not with their consent that I was drawn into this wild whirlpool, but, I argued, was I not a man? Could I not ride and shoot with the best of them? And, perforce, why should I not go to the mines and make my fortune?
I went. But by way of parenthesis, will say to my young readers – Don’t.
From Reminiscences of a Pioneer, by Colonel William Thompson (Editor Alturas, Cal., Plaindealer) [San Francisco: 1912]
This excerpt was transcribed from a first edition. The entire volume is available at: http://www.books-about-california.com/Pages/Reminiscences_of_a_Pioneer/Reminiscences_main.html
Further Reading:
Thomas Probert’s Lost Mines and Buried Treasures of the West (Berkeley, CA: 1977) lists almost 3 pages of books, pamphlets, magazine and newspaper articles about the Lost Blue Bucket Diggins. Doubtless most of the items written after 1950 rely heaving on those written before.
Ruby El Hult’s Lost Mines and Treasures of the Pacific Northwest (Portland, Oregon: 1957; Fourth Edition 1974) has a very interesting Chapter Fact and Fiction of the Blue Bucket Mine. Be sure to check her bibliography and sources, as well – far too rare in treasure literature.
Bert Webber’s The Webb Research Group, Medford, Oregon, published a series of very useful pamphlets on The Oregon Trail in general and The Search for Oregon’s Lost Blue Bucket Mine; The Stephen Meek Wagon Train of 1845 – An Oregon Documentary (1992) in particular.
Finally the reliable Harry Sinclair Drago in Lost Bonanzas; Tales of the Legendary Lost Mines of the American West (New York: 1966) places the Blue Bucket Diggins in the Black Rock Desert of northwestern Nevada.
The Blue Bucket Diggins
A brief account from the scarce autobiography
By Colonel William Thompson
A brief account from the scarce autobiography
By Colonel William Thompson
During the succeeding years, up to 1861, there was little to distract the attention of the pioneers. My time was occupied during that period of time in assisting on the farm during summer and attending the district school during the winter. The loop holes in the wall of the old school house for rifles had been boarded up, and the larger boys no longer “toted” their guns, and stacked them in the corner.
On the east side of the Cascade mountains, however, the gentle savage was lord of all the lands over which he roamed. Here he was yet master, and therby hangs a tale. In 1945 an immigrant train attempted to enter the Oregon by way of the “Meeks cut off.” With them were the Durbins, Simmons, Tetherows, Herrins and many others I cannot now recall. The history of that journey is one of hardship, starvation, and death. After enduring sufferings such as sicken one in the bare recital the remnant staggered in the settlements, more dead than alive.
They crossed the Cascade mountains, coming down the Middle Fork of the Willamette river, and somewhere west of Harney Valley they stopped on a small stream. An old Indian trail crossed at that point, and the oxen in sliding down the bank to water uncovered a bright piece of metal. It was picked up and taken to camp, where a man who had been in the mines in Georgia pronounced it gold. He flattened it out with a wagon hammer, and was quite positive it was the precious metal. But men, women, and children subsisting on grasshoppers and crickets and fighting Indians most of the day, had something else to think about.
The incident, therefore, was soon forgotten amid the dire stress of their surroundings. But when gold was discovered at Sutter’s Fort in California, Sol Tetherow called to mind the finding of the piece of metal on the banks of the stream not far from Harney Valley. He told about it – told and retold the story, and as the stories from California grew, so grew the story of the old man, until finally he declared he could have “picked up a blue bucket full in the bed of the creek.” Hence originated the name, the “Blue Bucket Diggins.”
During the years of 1857-58-59-60 and 61, companies were formed in the valley counties to search for the “Blue Bucket Diggins.” The companies were loosely formed, with little or no discipline, and were, therefore, predestined to end in disaster. After crossing the mountains and seeing no sign of Indians, the officers had no power and less inclination to enforce discipline. There being no signs of Indians, it was useless to maintain guards; they could whip all the Indians east of the mountains, and why attempt to put on “military airs?”
They were destined to a rude awakening. Some morning about daylight, twenty or thirty red blanketed men, with hideous yells would charge the horse herds, while a hundred or more with equally hideous yells would attack the sleeping men. Then would result a stampede, those who had talked loudest and talked most about cowards, being first to lose their heads. The few cool heads would make a stand, while the savages after getting away with the horses, would beat a retreat, leaving the gold hunters to straggle afoot back across the mountains to the settlements.
These expeditions served to work off the surplus energy of the adventurous and restless, until the news arrived in the spring of 1861 of the discovery of gold in the Nez Perce mountains. The reports, as in most similar cases, were greatly exaggerated, but it served to create a genuine stampede, and while yet a boy of 14, I was drawn into that torrent rushing to the new El Dorado. In justice to the good sound sense and mature judgment of my parents, I am compelled to say that it was not with their consent that I was drawn into this wild whirlpool, but, I argued, was I not a man? Could I not ride and shoot with the best of them? And, perforce, why should I not go to the mines and make my fortune?
I went. But by way of parenthesis, will say to my young readers – Don’t.
From Reminiscences of a Pioneer, by Colonel William Thompson (Editor Alturas, Cal., Plaindealer) [San Francisco: 1912]
This excerpt was transcribed from a first edition. The entire volume is available at: http://www.books-about-california.com/Pages/Reminiscences_of_a_Pioneer/Reminiscences_main.html
Further Reading:
Thomas Probert’s Lost Mines and Buried Treasures of the West (Berkeley, CA: 1977) lists almost 3 pages of books, pamphlets, magazine and newspaper articles about the Lost Blue Bucket Diggins. Doubtless most of the items written after 1950 rely heaving on those written before.
Ruby El Hult’s Lost Mines and Treasures of the Pacific Northwest (Portland, Oregon: 1957; Fourth Edition 1974) has a very interesting Chapter Fact and Fiction of the Blue Bucket Mine. Be sure to check her bibliography and sources, as well – far too rare in treasure literature.
Bert Webber’s The Webb Research Group, Medford, Oregon, published a series of very useful pamphlets on The Oregon Trail in general and The Search for Oregon’s Lost Blue Bucket Mine; The Stephen Meek Wagon Train of 1845 – An Oregon Documentary (1992) in particular.
Finally the reliable Harry Sinclair Drago in Lost Bonanzas; Tales of the Legendary Lost Mines of the American West (New York: 1966) places the Blue Bucket Diggins in the Black Rock Desert of northwestern Nevada.
As far as I know, no one ever has compiled the stories of the Oregon country.
Enough to make a person nuts!! I need to find some more detailed maps and see the areas he is talking about and see if it makes sense they would be off the red lines to that area. Thanks for your input Oro......anyone else??
