Mountain men caches

[Hillbilly Prince]

This is just idle curiosity. When I was young I loved reading about Indians and mountain men and such.
I remember reading about mountain men caching things for later use.
So I wonder if anyone has ever found an old cache or even an old shelter in the mountains which might have been left by those guys. I can't think a great deal of treasure would be in something like that obviously.

 

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[dirtdigginfool]

Hey Hillbilly, I'm no expert on Mountain Men, but one would have to think that if they went on a hunting trip, or a multi-day trip for supplies or simply trekking off to pan gold, that they'd definitely cache their valuables and not just leave them lying out. I can imagine them burying things near trees, rocks, etc...Then you have the scenario of them not returning for some reason or another. So yes...i could say for sure there's probably quite a few caches currently hidden, waiting for someone to come along and discover. Ddf.

 

[GA_Boy]

Robert Redford found a Hawkins rifle.
On a serious note, I imagine most of the stuff would be deteriorated or rusted beyond use.
Maybe a cave or secluded rock overhang, or possibly a hollow tree trunk would be the place to look.
Marvin

 

[releventchair]

[ Lost fur caches have been found in Cache Valley in recent years - a testament to the dicey lives led by the trappers.]

Heartlinks' Cache Valley Page

Louis and Clark had a cache damaged by water. Wonder what they left there......

A proper cache had sticks ,or rocks or similar to allow drainage. Though an ideal site was dry anyways.

 

[Hillbilly Prince]

Fascinating stuff. I was quite caught up by those tales of men wandering alone in the wilderness. Wonder what took hold of such men. Maybe looking around and seeing there was now a population of a hundred folks and hearing talk of a church and maybe a school marm, and deciding it was just getting too crowded

 

[releventchair]

Fascinating stuff. I was quite caught up by those tales of men wandering alone in the wilderness. Wonder what took hold of such men. Maybe looking around and seeing there was now a population of a hundred folks and hearing talk of a church and maybe a school marm, and deciding it was just getting too crowded

This is not the answer...But the first several line lines (or more) of it might.... And has been mentioned in regards before.


The Men That Don't Fit In
BY ROBERT W. SERVICE
There's a race of men that don't fit in,
A race that can't stay still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin,
And they roam the world at will.
They range the field and they rove the flood,
And they climb the mountain's crest;
Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood,
And they don't know how to rest.

If they just went straight they might go far;
They are strong and brave and true;
But they're always tired of the things that are,
And they want the strange and new.
They say: "Could I find my proper groove,
What a deep mark I would make!"
So they chop and change, and each fresh move
Is only a fresh mistake.

And each forgets, as he strips and runs
With a brilliant, fitful pace,
It's the steady, quiet, plodding ones
Who win in the lifelong race.
And each forgets that his youth has fled,
Forgets that his prime is past,
Till he stands one day, with a hope that's dead,
In the glare of the truth at last.

He has failed, he has failed; he has missed his chance;
He has just done things by half.
Life's been a jolly good joke on him,
And now is the time to laugh.
Ha, ha! He is one of the Legion Lost;
He was never meant to win;
He's a rolling stone, and it's bred in the bone;
He's a man who won't fit in.

 

[against the wind]

I don't know how much was hidden and never reclaimed. I have only found one cache in all my years of treasure hunting. It was a compact with 6 pennies buried under a huge tree about 6 inches deep. (4 wheats and 2 memorials) The newest penny was a 1968. I'm sure it was buried by a kid or kids playing some kind of treasure game.
Now to find something that was buried for safekeeping would really spark my imagination.

 

[Holyground]

I live in Idaho now and I have researched an area high in the mountains, near the junction of the California and the Oregon trail. The mountain men all met there and had a serious hoedown every year. Supposedly a few hundred people would attend. Some of them were the scouts that scouted out the Oregon trail. I know there are caches up there but I have't had time to go yet. Just the artifacts would be worth finding and figuring out. It's on my agenda as soon as I finish my current project. I will within the next couple of years, I am sure.

 

[Holyground]

I have every Robert service book he ever wrote. I love it!

 

[pulltabfelix]

twenty years ago I did a lot of research on gold hunting in north Georgia and it was common for miners to bury their stash each night until after a week a two they went to the nearest town to bank it or spend it on drinks or women. They were afraid of getting robbed while they slept. Also in the depression most people did not trust banks (no FDIC insurance back then). they buried their silver and gold dollars in "post hole banks". This was a hole near a fence post that they could see out the window from the main room in their cabin or home. This was so they could keep an eye on the cache for people snooping around since lots of people used the post hole bank method of savings.

It was also common to slide dollar silver or gold coins under linoleum flooring or stair steps or other places to hide individual coins. So keep these things in mind when hunting on old home structures or collapsed homes. When in the woods and you find groups of daffodils or other shrubs or flowers not commonly found in the woods hunt around those areas as a likely old home site. The site may be grown up with trees, but you likely will find some 200-300 year old oaks ringing in an area of 100 year old trees or less and the younger trees are likely where the old home was located. Look for bricks or stack of stones used to prop up a wooden house. Look for nails and broken brick chips or pottery bits. Find any or all of these it is likely an old home site.

 

[johnnycat]

The possibilities are almost endless!! Good for us!