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OREGON LOST TREASURE.....

I have been looking for info about the Lost Frenchmen mine That is suppose to be located in the mountains around Oakridge, OR. The story goes like this 2 Frenchmen found a mine in the mountains and worked it for 3 years bringing the gold down in the fall and spending the winter in the Bay area. The last year they came up from Calf. they came through K-Falls picking up a Indian women that was to do the cooking and cleaning. They abused her so she ran away and encountering Captain Sprague of the US Army Company F. He wouldn't go after the the two frenchmen. The Indian went back to her tribe and her brother the chief set out with several bucks. After several days they found the miners killing them. The chief put a curse on the mine that no one was to state where it was located. The chief out lived the seven bucks.
A man in Oakridge was suppose to have found it in 1960 but didn't claim it. He would brag about the mine at the bar giving away large nuggets to prove that he wasn't lying. This man went to his grave not give up the location not even to his children.
 

I'll be searching for that one this summer as a matter of fact, although I don't think the two are connected. They may be, though.

The way I heard the story on the Oakridge fella was this...

He would hike in making sure he wasn't followed and work for a few days, then return with a good poke of gold. Generally gone for about 2 weeks. As he got older, he had a helicoptor pilot drop off his gear for him, and would always backtrack and check to make sure he wasn't followed. He never did reveal the location to his children stating that they should make their own way. The whole story may be a fabrication, everything I have heard has nothing concrete to research. No name, no nothing. You would think that if he had been showing his gold around for so long, at least there would be a name attached to the story!

I have a lot of info on the two frenchmen, but not much more than this on the Oakridge fella.
 

The Eugene Register Guard ran a two page story about this man in Oakridge about 15 to 18 years ago. Time frame is based on the house that I was living in at the time. I've gone to the Eugene public library and gone though the micro film files and still haven't located it. I was trying to see if anyone remembers the story and can narrow up the time line so I can locate the story. Or maybe some one remember the fellows name.
 

I have a friend or two that lives up there and doesn't do dope (shocking, huh!?!) I'll poke around a bit and see what I can come up with, too.

Lets touch base on this-
 

Hey, I live in Springfield, OR. I've read the story about the 2 Frenchmen mine. From what I remember about it, there is supposed to be an old cabin built from two large trees that had fallen, with the trees being used as two of the sides of the cabin. The lost mine is supposed to be within sight of the front of where the cabin used to be. Now, from what I remember, the cabin is around the Hills Creek reservoir area, maybe around the Camper's Flat area. Not sure. I would like to find out more about this myself, but I'm not sure how to find the newspaper article.
 

hello

i live in dexter. a few miles from Oakridge. i have a friend whose grandpa used to drink with the fella. he is very real! what i have heard from many up there. is the fella would walk out of Oakridge. and would return in 3 1/2 days, not weeks. with a quart jar of gold. i always thought it was a jar of nuggets. but apparently a distant relative of the man is or was a member of a local mining club. one of the members of that club. states he has seen a copy of a picture of one of the jars. half of the gold was poured onto a piece of paper and the remaining half in the jar, placed next to it. i have been told that it was little curly-q's. where he scraped the gold from the vain. i have not seen the pic my self. but my friend with the grandpa, also said his grandpa has seen some of the gold. and he also confirms it was not nuggets. the miner had a sister in Roseburg. as his find gained attention we would walk to her place to avoid followers. that could be where the weeks long walks might have came from. i have talked with a couple of old timers with the Bohemia mine owners association. both said sometimes he would walk right up the Bohemia road. he started to draw up a map. but his two sons began arguing as to who would control the map. so dad tore it up, threw it in the fire and said "thats that". as careful as the old fella was about not being fallowed or found. i really doubt he would have any kind of a structure with in sight of the find. my friend has moved to Idaho. so i can't question him about his grandpa any more. i have some ideas, plus i have discovered a few more clues recently. but i am only 52. so my legs aren't ready to give up the search yet. i really feel like i am narrowing it down. one of these days i might share more. i also have a few other lost claims on the list. I'll post about them later.
 

Wow- been so long I forgot about this post. I did manage to find the article and he is very real, you are correct. Still hunting for the Frenchmen and not two days ago came across some info that leads me to believe it may not be anywhere in that area. Need to do some overlays to confirm. If it pans out, the Two Frenchmen may be nearer to the Rogue than the Bohemia area. My son and I are heading out camping this next weekend and if I have my overlays done we may give the new area a shot and see what comes. :wink:
 

I have also heard stories about the lost frenchmen mine. The cabin I heard was a 3 sided cabin that the men had set up close to the mine. My father was telling me an interesting story that he heard from a man working with the forest service out of the Umqua forest that he and his crew were out doing a survey in the calapooya mountains and came across a 3 sided cabin. The supposedly called in the state archeologist because when they investigated the ruins of the cabin they found a bunch of old mining equipment. When my dad pressed him a little further about the location the guy clammed up and my Dad was not able to get any more info out of him. The relics that the archeologist supposedly recovered from there were supposed to go on display at the station there in glide, but he has never seen anything show up. Good luck getting any answers out of the Forest Service about it!
 

Hmmmm...... Thanks for the little hint. So is it really at a museum or in a ranger station display case somewhere? I would love to read that journal! Ahhhh Oregon.... so many unsolved mysteries :D
 

For a reference to where both Fort Umpqua's were, see McArthur's Oregon Geographical Names. It is in most libraries in Oregon.
 

The old man from Oakridge's name was Bailey and the Helicopter dropped him at Bristol Prairie.
 

how do you know for sure?

OregonGold76 said:
The old man from Oakridge's name was Bailey and the Helicopter dropped him at Bristol Prairie.
Click to expand...

There are so many prairies in that area. I was told that the helicopter pilot couldn't remember where exactly, only that it was an area just large enough to land the helicopter. Another story says that the helicopter dropped him off on grass mountain. So where do you get your facts? Id love to hear a response to this. Lol because I have found the spot where the frenchmen where. I have connections with the forest service. And let's just say..... it was found, recorded, and dismantled or torn down. The artifacts went on display at the oakridge museum, which later burnt down. Anyway thanks for getting back a hold of me on how you came up with the whole bristow prairie thing. ramsayjay60@yahoo.com
 

Hi, I'm new to this forum, but am very interested in this gold mine in the Oakridge, Oregon area! I was born there and was raised with the knowledge of this guy. Yes, it was said he left the town and would come back just a few days later, with a jar of gold. He was well known and well liked in town, and even had his own table at the local eatery. I knew of him when he dated my Grandmother off and on up until his death. We knew him as "Uncle Pete", and yes, I also know the last name, I think, but I don't believe it is "Bailey".

As to the location of that mine, my Dad also looked for it, and at one point he and a friend came upon the cabin, and said it was so overgrown, that you could have missed it only an inch or so on either side! The "map" he had, stated something like the actual mine entrance was "20 paces" from the back of the cabin. Well, the trees were growing straight up both sides of the cabin wall they found, and it was late in the day, so they marked their trail, and determined to come back with saws to get around to the back of the cabin. Many times they returned to that area, and NEVER found that cabin again!

My Uncle Jim was also searching for the gold mine, and I think it was the same one. He keep a life long diary of his search, but never really made a big deal out of it. When he went missing while hunting on his 60th birthday, they thought he had finally found the mine and had taken off, leaving his family behind. The family was very upset over this idea, and they did have to produce his diary so they could try to locate him. However, the diary had been stopped about 2 years earlier, and the last entry said, "I found it, well return tomorrow to confirm it". The following spring they found his body, he had apparently died of a heart attack.

My Aunt kept that diary until the day she died, and I believe one of her children has it now. They considered making it into a book, but then decided had he wanted others to find it, he would have told them. No, there was never any large deposits or withdrawals from their banks, so apparently he never took any of the gold out.

So, PLEASE, if anyone has any other information on this subject, let me know! I think this is fascinating! We live so far away, though, that we need to have a lot more information before we take a road trip to my home town to see if we can play around with it! Thank you all!!

You can contact me directly at <thecrystalbunny@comcast.net>, just put Oakridge Gold mining in the memo or I may delete it!
 

I have been reading an awful lot on this and trying to verify a story a close friend told me, he worked for Bohemia lumber and heard this story from an old store keeper. Store keeper tells that a indian woman came into his store barely alive, and he nursed her and her child back to health, to repay him for his kindness she told him the story of the miners and that she had escaped to save the life of her child when the bucks came up to get the women and kill the frenchmen. She also told him four clues to find the mine.
Store keeper is long gone and my friend is pretty old, I am the only one I know of that has this info, I have seen no other post or stories with any of my information, is it real? I would like to get with someone and verify or exchange information.
 

The only lost money I know about is the one from crook county my great grandma said they berried it some where up wild cat. Out side of Prineville
 

I remember reading that Register Guard story back in 78? not sure.
I thought it had said he was walking to Roseburg and found it.
I sorta remember that his kids were fighting about it and him tearing it up.
I've thought about it over the years and I'm thinking of next summer just going up to walk the route.
Well, maybe not the whole route.
Should be fun.
Oh, Hola.
 

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