Re: How for find cache leads.
Surprised no replies to date.
A lot of my leads come from old books. One I am reviewing now is called The Oregon Trail, c. 1939, compiled and written by the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration, published by Hastings House, New York.
Here are some of the treasure leads I found by doing just a cursory (very fast) partial read:
WYOMING
p. 89
ROCK RIVER, 39.2 m. (6,892 alt., 260 pop.), is a livestock-shipping point and a trade center for many ranches. Here in 1916 two cowboys, while excavating a caved-in cellarway on property owned by a man named Taylor, unearthed glass jars containing several thousand dollars’ worth of old gold coins. Taylor claimed the money and recovered it through legal proceedings that were carried to the Wyoming Supreme Court. According to one theory, the money had been hidden in the cellar by an innkeeper who had occupied the place and who was not seen after he was reported to have left for a visit to his homeland, Germany. Another theory was that the coins were loot from a stagecoach robbery.
At 42m. (L) is the SITE OF THE WILCOX ROBBERY of a Union Pacific train. On June 2, 1899, two men flagged an express train, pointed revolvers at the engineer, and ordered him to take the train across the bridge beyond Wilcox and stop. The men blew up the bridge with dynamite in order to prevent the arrival of the second section of the train, which was due in 10 minutes. They then forced the engineer to raun the train two miles farther west, wher they looted the cars, blew optn the express safe, and escaped with $60,000 in unsigned bank notes. More than a hundred pounds of dynamite were found near the scene on the following dayl. Though pursued by a possee, the robbers made their escape on horseback into Montana. “Flat Nose goerge” Currie was supposed to have been responsible for the crime.
Wyoming
p. 91
At 87m. is the junction with a dirt road.
Left on this road to DANA, 0.5 m., a small station on the Union Pacific R.R., near which in 1934 an attempt was made, by an ex-convict named Lovett, to rob the Portland Rose Overland limited. Lovett succeeded in derailing the locomotive, a baggage car, and on coach; but owing to the fact that the coach was filled with marines, who swarmed outside as soon as the wreck occurred, he beat a hasty retreat without robbing the passengers. the fireman on the train, who was almost totally buried under the coal, was quickly extricated by passengers. Lovett was subsequently captured.
Wyoming
p. 94
...Bridger Pass, used by the Overland Stages after 1852, is about 25 miles southwest of Creston.
Left from Creston on State 87, which has an oiled gravel roadbed and runs due south through a land of sagebrush and cactus. BAGGS, 51 m. (6,245 alt., 192 pop.), named for Maggie Baggs, an early settler in the valley, is on the banks of the Little Snake River near the Colorado Line.
Owing to its isolated position, Baggs, during the 1880’s and 1890’s, was a favorite rendezvous and hide-out for badmen of every description - train and stage robbers, horse thieves, bank robbers, and killers.
The notorious Powder Springs gang of outlaws, led by Butch Cassidy, came to the town to celebrate successful hold-ups in surrounding States. Their biggest haul, about $35,000 in gold taken in Winnemucca, Nev., caused a celebration lasting several days. The inhabitants, while not terrorized by the outlaws, nevertheless experienced considerable uneasiness until the event was over. Baggs, like other Snake River towns of the area, profited by the celebrations because the gang, even when engaged in amusing itself, took no unnecessary risks, including that of wearing out its welcome in the towns where it loafed. On reaching Baggs, the leaders would appoint one man to care for the horses and to keep them ready for a quick get-away, if that should be necessary; another would guard the arms and ammunition, which was stacked in an orderly fashion. The leaders took turns in remaining sober during the spree in order to prevent excesses that might cause innocent bystanders to suffer. And it was a rule that ample compensation must be made to the owners of local property destroyed by accident.
Powder Springs, the gang headquarters, was on a mountain side about 40 miles to the west. Cassidy and Longabaugh in time fled to South America, where they are said to have been killed after a pack-train robbery.
Idaho
p. 106:
At 97m. US 30N turns north and follows the Portneuf River and Canyon, With its abrupt walls and innumerable crevices cut in limestone and shales, the canyon was formerly a favorite hide-out for bandits as well as Indians. It was here in 1865 that a stage carrying several passengers and $60,000 was betrayed by its driver to a gang led by Jim Locket, a notorious bandit. Two passengers were killed and their bodies buried in a gulch near the scene of the crime. Another robbery of the period occurred not far south of Pocatello in a grove of trees near the Big Elbow of the river; ten robbers held up the Wells-Fargo stage, murdered six of the seven passengers, and escaped with $110,000 in gold dust.
Idaho
p. 110-111:
SILENT CITY OF ROCKS, Idaho
It is believed that treasure is buried here. When a stage from Kelton to Boise was held up in this city in 1878, $90,000 in gold is said to have been taken. One of the bandits was slain, and the other subsequently died in prison; but before his death he revealed that he had buried the treasure among five junipers. Five cedars growing in the shape of a heart were found in the city long ago, and frantic excavations were undertaken, but the treasure has never been found.
Oregon
p. 130
MEACHAM, 157.7 m. (3,681 alt, 70 pop.), was named for Col. A. B. Meacham, a member of the Modoc Peace Commission. The ill-starred Hunt party, after its wanderings in the Snake River wilderness, passed this way. It was near here that the Dorion child, born a few days earlier, died. across this region covered wagons creaked and men and women trudged, sustained by the nearness of their goal. Later, stage drivers cracked their long whips above plunging eight-horse tams to hurry them to the Meacham Tavern. So recklessly did they drive that passengers were often injured, and Meacham’s coachmen figured in editorial diatribes of 50 years ago. Two large trees that formerly stood near Meacham sometimes concealed bandits, who preyed on the stage passengers. A series of bold robberies, including that of the Wells Fargo Express, occurred at this point.