pegleglooker
Bronze Member
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- Jun 9, 2006
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- Location
- Banning, California
- Detector(s) used
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Thread Owner
Hey gang,
Anybody know this area or has anyone looked for this treasure ??
PLL
Holden Dick's Stolen Loot
In March of 1881, a freight wagon carrying several hundred pounds of gold ore through Modoc County was stopped by a lone bandit. The ore from Nevada was destined for Sacramento and heavily guarded by three men. But, this did not stop the vicious outlaw. Immediately killing two of the three guards, he forced the stage to stop and the remaining guard and driver quickly surrendered. Forcing them down from the stage, he ordered them to set out on foot in a southerly direction. In the meantime, he boarded the wagon, tied his horse to the back and drove north where he is said to have buried the loot on the western slope of the Warner Mountains.
Eagle Peak in the Warner Mountains of California, photo courtesy California Digital Archives
The vicious crime went unsolved for years until a Pitt River Indian known as “Holden Dick” began to trade small amounts of gold ore in Susanville and Alturas. In between appearing in the saloons of mining camps, spending his money freely, the Indian would disappear into some of the most rugged sections of the South Warner Mountains, only to return again with a goodly supply of gold ore.
At first, the locals thought that the Indian was working a secret mine and when in the saloons, they would try, without success, to get the Indian to talk. They also began to follow Holden, hoping to find the mine. On one occasion, when another miner named Samuel B. Shaw was badgering the Indian for the location of his gold, Holden got fed up and shot the man, wounding him fatally.
Holden Dick was soon arrested for Shaw’s murder and locked up in the Susanville jail. On January 23, 1886, four men stormed the jail and dragged the Indian into the street. Beating, whipping and torturing the man, he refused to tell the location of his hidden cache and was finally hanged at the blacksmith shop.
Somewhere along the line, the authorities figured out that the gold ore so freely bandied about by the Indian did not come from a mine, but rather, was the stolen loot taken from the freight wagon some five years previously.
After a little more “digging” the cache is believed to have been hidden in a cave where Holden Dick lived most of the time. The cave was located in one of the many canyons which extend from Eagle Peak on the western slope of the southern Warner Mountains. He was also said to have constructed a crude rock wall at the cave’s entrance, though today it would most assuredly be collapsed. It is most likely that the cave would be located in the lower elevations of the mountains since the Indian lived there year round.
Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, © May, 2006
Anybody know this area or has anyone looked for this treasure ??
PLL
Holden Dick's Stolen Loot
In March of 1881, a freight wagon carrying several hundred pounds of gold ore through Modoc County was stopped by a lone bandit. The ore from Nevada was destined for Sacramento and heavily guarded by three men. But, this did not stop the vicious outlaw. Immediately killing two of the three guards, he forced the stage to stop and the remaining guard and driver quickly surrendered. Forcing them down from the stage, he ordered them to set out on foot in a southerly direction. In the meantime, he boarded the wagon, tied his horse to the back and drove north where he is said to have buried the loot on the western slope of the Warner Mountains.
Eagle Peak in the Warner Mountains of California, photo courtesy California Digital Archives
The vicious crime went unsolved for years until a Pitt River Indian known as “Holden Dick” began to trade small amounts of gold ore in Susanville and Alturas. In between appearing in the saloons of mining camps, spending his money freely, the Indian would disappear into some of the most rugged sections of the South Warner Mountains, only to return again with a goodly supply of gold ore.
At first, the locals thought that the Indian was working a secret mine and when in the saloons, they would try, without success, to get the Indian to talk. They also began to follow Holden, hoping to find the mine. On one occasion, when another miner named Samuel B. Shaw was badgering the Indian for the location of his gold, Holden got fed up and shot the man, wounding him fatally.
Holden Dick was soon arrested for Shaw’s murder and locked up in the Susanville jail. On January 23, 1886, four men stormed the jail and dragged the Indian into the street. Beating, whipping and torturing the man, he refused to tell the location of his hidden cache and was finally hanged at the blacksmith shop.
Somewhere along the line, the authorities figured out that the gold ore so freely bandied about by the Indian did not come from a mine, but rather, was the stolen loot taken from the freight wagon some five years previously.
After a little more “digging” the cache is believed to have been hidden in a cave where Holden Dick lived most of the time. The cave was located in one of the many canyons which extend from Eagle Peak on the western slope of the southern Warner Mountains. He was also said to have constructed a crude rock wall at the cave’s entrance, though today it would most assuredly be collapsed. It is most likely that the cave would be located in the lower elevations of the mountains since the Indian lived there year round.
Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, © May, 2006
