Columbia City Oregon

[Gypsy Heart]

In 1841 legend has it, a Spanish bark left Columbia with one nasty crew of sailors. The officers knew they needed to watch the crew closely,as they were carrying a costly cargo. No sooner than the anchorchains had run out, the crew fell upon the captain and killed him. Taking what they could ,the crew of cowards made way to shore, killing several of their own comrades and taking their share of the plunder. Because the Indians were also a unruly bunch,it was decided to bury their loot and this was done on a plot of ground owned by Hez Copier, a farmer. As soon as the treasure was in the ground, a group of Indians appeared in large numbers and began setting up camp. The mutineers watched them for several days ,but when it looked like they had no intention of leaving, they had no choice except to row back to their ship and leave the booty. After two years, the mutinous crew returned, including one of the men who had buried the loot. After diligently searching the area, they could find no trace of the treasure. The men returned to the ship, only to find that the man who had supervised the burial, was mysteriously missing.
More than forty years later, a group of spiritualists met in Columbia City and a medium announced that she had received a revelation of the exact spot the treasure was buried. A company of searchers went to the place and after some considerable digging found a spot where a quanity of broken stone was laid. While removing the stone, one of the party fell dead. The medium explained that the spirit of the murdered Captain had claimed him. This caused so much fright among the party that the search was abandoned.
In 1890 another party took up the digging. After removing the broken stone, they found several skeletons, perhaps the slain mutineers who died over greed. Upon examination of the bones, another of the party fell into a fit of raving madness.This again caused the search to cease. Will you be the one to break the curse?

As read in Charles M Skinners " As to Buried Treasures Waters Cliffs and Mountains" Vol. 9

 

[Badbaja]

I'm going to try to get some dirt time in today looking for this treasure. I actually found a couple more stories that do give this a little more authenticity. There is some inaccuracies in the story that you posted that would make it difficult to find more information. I will post that information after I get some time out in the field a little. It's nothing groundbreaking that a person could not find but would help in the search I'm sure. I don't know if tuber might have more information on this story also.

 

[Al D]

Just being in Oregon is enough to drive a person mad.

 

[Dirt1955]

Alan m, agree. My family (both sides) home steaded Illinois Valley (Grants Pass) and Green Springs (Ashland). I left in 1974 never to return. It is like being on a different planet today compared to when I grew up there.

Dirt

 

[Badbaja]

That's why we have a big mote called the Columbia to keep us from the Oregonians. But someone needs to lift the draw bridge permanently. Lol

Back to the story. I am having trouble finding the property lines of around that first time line of 1840s. That and I searched news papers around the same time and cannot find anything until 1890 about the ship or murdered captain.