Camp fire tales of lost mines and hidden treasure

[DeepseekerADS]

https://ia600300.us.archive.org/32/items/campfiretalesofl00ferg/campfiretalesofl00ferg.pdf

Published 1937

Writes about 11 lost treasures - plenty I'd never heard of

Villa's Three Million Dollar Gold Cache.
Bense' Lost Silver Mine.
The Lost Planchas de Plata Ledge.
Following "Mose."
Golden Inca Sungod.
Lost Ledge of the Lone Ace Desert Rat.
Old Pass Doubtful.
Ben Sublett's Lost Placers.
Lost Dutch Oven Mine.
Lost Arch Placers.
Maximillian's Buried Fortune.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A History of Mining on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska - Grab it through Amazon!

[patiodadio]

Thanks for posting the link...

 

[DeepseekerADS]

The lost treasure of Dutch Oven Mine.

THE LOST TREASURE OF DUTCH OVEN MINE

As the tale goes, Tom Schofield who was a railroad worker was surveying close to Clipper Mountains in northwest Essex, California when he took a break from work to do a bit of exploring on his own. He went up the mountain about three miles when he found an old stone house. It was abandoned and looked to be built several years before. He kept on hiking up the mountain for about nine miles when it came upon a mountain spring. He found a trail near by and followed it over a hill. He then saw a large rock atop the peak that was as he described “as big as a house”. The large rock was broken into and the path went through this monstrous rock. He decides to keep traveling on the path and learn what lay ahead. On the other side of the large split rock, he found seemed to be an old Spanish camp.

He looked around a bit and found that he was standing on a high shelf with mountains of walls all around him. Through gaps in the rocks, he could see that the shelf he was standing on was around 500 feet above the ground below. There was no other way to reach this shelf except through the split huge boulder that he had followed. Throughout the camp, he found pots, pan, and pieces of bedrolls, mining tools, and old iron Dutch oven.

He was amazed when he also found a mineshaft on the shelf with skeletons of seven donkeys. Close by the mineshaft was dump that had several stones lying around that contained gold quartz. He became too tired after searching through the camp to go back down the mountain to the base camp, so he decided to stay the night. The next morning as he started to leave, he tripped over the Dutch oven and out spilled a large mound of pure gold nuggets. There were so many nuggets that Tom could not carry them all back to his base camp, so he gathered as many as possible.

After he arrived to the base camp, he went by train to Los Angeles and spent two entire months spending the gold nuggets on gambling, drinking and living, as tomorrow was the end of the world. At the end of the two months, he found himself, broke, sober, and unemployed.

After about two years, Tom Scofield finally made it back to Clipper Mountains to search for what he called the Dutch Oven Mine. He tried repeatedly to find the mine but could not even find the path through the large boulder. He finally gave up searching for the mine.

As far as anyone knows, the Dutch Oven mine has never been found or at least know one has mentioned finding the mine. If you decide to go searching for the Dutch Oven mine, the Clipper Mountains are located in the Mojave Desert in southeastern California. The best way to find the mountains is by taking Interstate 40 and the mountain range in between the freeway and the National Old Trails Highway.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Pancho Villa's Hidden Loot

The Lost Treasure of Mexico

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Prescott, Arizona History: 20 Buried Treasures Near Prescott That Have Yet to be Found

 

[DeepseekerADS]

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Lost Arch Placers

The Lost Arch Mine

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Maximillion?s Millions | The Life of Adventure

 

[Old Bookaroo]

The "Campfire Tales" are just that - yarns that are mildly entertaining, but far removed from fact.

For example - I wouldn't spend too much time looking for the "Lost Dutch Oven Mine." If I may quote myself from a thread started here a few years ago:

The two most interesting items, however, are letters to the Editor reprinted in GOLD! in a regular column titled “Pieces of Eight.” The first was submitted by the wonderfully named “Horse Face” Lassiter of Wise, Kansas, in response to an article written by Chick Oldham (“The Lost Dutch Oven Mine,”Frontier Times, Vol. 33, No. 4 – Fall 1959). Mr. Lassiter said the story was fiction created by Tom Scofield and sold to a newspaper for $50. And that Mr. Scofield confessed to the hoax to West Coast newspapers in [19]’45.

The second letter was written by Charles Millen, following up on Horse Face’s epistle. The most pertinent sentence is “He (Tom Scofield) confided in Bill [“Hardrock” Hammond] and Karl [von Mueller] that the Dutch Oven was a figment of his imagination dreamed up during an interview with a ‘smart aleck’ reporter from the Los Angeles Times.” Mr. Millen goes on at some length about the successful treasure hunting exploits of KvonM.

There's another thread on the Lost Arch I recommend (and not because I started that one, as well). I'm working on a brief update to it.

Good luck to all,

The Old Bookaroo

 

[Randy Bradford]

The second letter was written by Charles Millen, following up on Horse Face’s epistle. The most pertinent sentence is “He (Tom Scofield) confided in Bill [“Hardrock” Hammond] and Karl [von Mueller] that the Dutch Oven was a figment of his imagination dreamed up during an interview with a ‘smart aleck’ reporter from the Los Angeles Times.” Mr. Millen goes on at some length about the successful treasure hunting exploits of KvonM.

There's another thread on the Lost Arch I recommend (and not because I started that one, as well). I'm working on a brief update to it.

Good luck to all,

The Old Bookaroo

Fred, do you know offhand what issue that second letter was printed in? I'd be interested in reading what was written about von Mueller.

 

[Old Bookaroo]

Howdy, Randy!

Probert says GOLD! Summer 1971 (Vol. 3, No. 3). Page 42. I didn't drag out my set to check, but he wasn't wrong about much (I've used his fine book for years and only found a few minor errors).

The letter from "Horseface" is in the same issue. I'll edit the Lost Dutch Oven thread to include this information - sorry I didn't provide it the first time.

Good luck to all,

The Old Bookaroo

 

[Oroblanco]

Lost Arch Placers

The Lost Arch Mine

Yeah these stories are all "campfire tales" and "yarns".

 

[Randy Bradford]

Howdy, Randy!

Probert says GOLD! Summer 1971 (Vol. 3, No. 3). Page 42. I didn't drag out my set to check, but he wasn't wrong about much (I've used his fine book for years and only found a few minor errors).

The letter from "Horseface" is in the same issue. I'll edit the Lost Dutch Oven thread to include this information - sorry I didn't provide it the first time.

Good luck to all,

The Old Bookaroo

I agree with your assessment of Probert's book...it's never far from my desk and usually right next to John Reed's and Journals of El Dorado. Have all my bases covered that way. I did a write up in Paul Tainter's Treasure hunter's Express talking about my opinions on available treasure bibliographies about a year ago.

I'll check my copies of Gold! tonight, probably going to start a thread soon about von Mueller based on his obit and biography as it appeared in the Treasure Hunter's Yearbook. Always interested in whatever interesting bits I can dig on on con Mueller and first hand sources are getting harder and harder to find these days.

 

[Rebel - KGC]

Maximillion?s Millions | The Life of Adventure

1867, eh...? Jesse James; MAYBE Knights of the Golden Circle (from TEXAS). Hmmm... COULD be the "source" of MEXICAN coins of the Beale Treasure; Beale PAPERS Pamphlet (aka "The Job Print") was published in 1885...

 

[Rebel - KGC]

I agree with your assessment of Probert's book...it's never far from my desk and usually right next to John Reed's and Journals of El Dorado. Have all my bases covered that way. I did a write up in Paul Tainter's Treasure hunter's Express talking about my opinions on available treasure bibliographies about a year ago.

I'll check my copies of Gold! tonight, probably going to start a thread soon about von Mueller based on his obit and biography as it appeared in the Treasure Hunter's Yearbook. Always interested in whatever interesting bits I can dig on on con Mueller and first hand sources are getting harder and harder to find these days.

Randy, Dr. Roy Roush (Ph.D.) knew von Mueler... Dr. Roy is still alive, as far as I know.

 

[ECS]

1867, eh...? Jesse James; MAYBE Knights of the Golden Circle (from TEXAS). Hmmm... COULD be the "source" of MEXICAN coins of the Beale Treasure; Beale PAPERS Pamphlet (aka "The Job Print") was published in 1885...

Mexican coins in the 1820's Beale treasure?
That is not mentioned in Ward's 1885 Beale Papers.
Now Mexican silver dollars WERE part of the Confederate treasury that were on the Danville train and in Danville when CSA President Jefferson Davis and cabinet were in Danville.

 

[Old Bookaroo]

Randy:

We can close the loop with the observation that Hosstail Small reprinted Ferguson's collection of treasure yarns in GOLD! I believe in that same issue (Summer - 1971; Vol. 3, No. 3).

Good luck to all,

The Old Bookaroo

 

[Randy Bradford]

Randy, Dr. Roy Roush (Ph.D.) knew von Mueler... Dr. Roy is still alive, as far as I know.

Spoke with him on the phone some time back...wonderful conversation that got me out of both church and Sunday School...also attracted the ire of my wife. I didn't realize at the time how much Dr. Roush had been involved with writing for Treasure magazine.