Chinese miner cache?

[idowa]

Local legend of a group of Chinese miners in the late 1800s that were working an old mine site and finding lots of gold that the white men missed. White men got jealous and poisoned the entire camp of 30+ miners.

I started researching old newspaper articles and found the approximate location of the camp and some clues that should help me pinpoint the exact location.

I am hoping there may be some gold caches in the area around the camp due to the Chinese habit of hiding their gold. However, I'd be stoked just to find the actual location and maybe some tools.

Any tips on finding Chinese caches?

 

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[Killedseth]

Sounds awesome dude

 

[lastleg]

And how was the poison administered according to the legend? If that detail is left out I would pass.
Most legends contain flaws that defy logic. In the case of Chinese immigrants especially in California
they followed and picked over the leavings of the first wave. And they certainly didn't display their
finds or attract attention to themselves. Also they were not independent but indebted to the San
Francisco Chinese fraternity (tongs) who managed virtually every aspect of their existence.

 

[idowa]

I found multiple articles talking about the poisoning. Strychnine was dumped into their drinking water source.

 

[lastleg]

If those articles were in the Moscow newspaper what dates were they written? I would like to
research this. I'm too far away to ever look myself but this is an interesting piece of history.

 

[idowa]

1988, I believe. The article cited older newspaper articles about the event.

I went out there today and located where I believe the Chinese camp was. However, this happened 120 years ago and the location has been logged 2 or 3 times since then.

Clues given was that the Chines camped near a creek while they worked up in Excavation Gulch. They diverted water from the creek to the camp for their cooking via a hand dug ditch. It was this ditch in which the white miners poured in Strychnine, killing the Chinese.

The nearby creek became known as Strychnine Creek.

I detected the location of the camp and discovered several artifacts that indicated a logging camp in the 1940's had been located there. Found all sorts of tin cans, some with labels still readable, at about 10" deep. Found lots of old bottles, a complete leather logging boot, horseshoe, stovepipe vent for a canvas tent, and some Rainer beer cans from the 50's.

No sign of any Chinese artifacts...

I did not see any trees in the area older than 80 years, with most around 50 years old. My theory is that the original Chinese camp was logged over and used as a logging camp a couple of times, making the discovery of Chinese artifacts very difficult.

Here is the area I was in:

Strychnine Creek...

The ditch dug by the Chinese...

Location of camp obscured by trees. There is a nice level area there as well as a ditch coming off of the creek leading to where most of the artifacts were found. Note the trees there are all fairly young trees, indicating it was logged...

One of the many old bottles found...

 

[lastleg]

Great work. I you find an opium bottle you know you're in the right place.

 

[aa battery]

Great work. I you find an opium bottle you know you're in the right place.

and its worth$$$

 

[maui]

idowa, i did read about the chines being poisend by the water, that is why the creek is names as it is. keep up the good work and hoping it pays off for you.

 

[Hangtown]

http://chinatowngirl.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Qing-Ming-Chinese-Cemeteries-in-BC.pdf

here is a good article about early chinese beliefs during the gold rush, look for any boulders as well in the area with chinese symbols. many chinese symbols are hard to decipher and may mean multiple things. old language is kinda different from current chinese. A remember that most of the chinese that came here were not the wealthy in their homeland, but the poor and eager to stoke it rich. Here in northern California the chinese had many camps that have been found and many that are still lost and may never found, do some research about the california gold rush on the chinese, may be some help…. Good Luck! (ps, the chinese were very smart and prosperous miners, as well as the hawaiians.)