Victor, CO Train Robbery - No way

[PatrickD]

Hi Everyone,

I was researching some local legends and ran across this one. Am I the only one that thinks this is fiction?

How many different things are wrong with this story?

Patrick

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Victor, CO Train Robbery

During the summer of 1897, four men hijacked five iron chests of gold bullion from a moving train 10 miles south of Victor , Co. The train was on its regular run from the Victor stamp mill to Denver, Co. The four train robbers were killed shortly thereafter in a running gunfight with pursuing lawmen, but none of the gold was recovered. Posse members made a rough search of the area at the time, but there was no sign of the stolen gold. For years afterward, prospectors and treasure hunters searched for the hidden loot, but it has never been reported found.

 

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[jeff of pa]

My first Search was 1897 for any paper in the US
with the Words Victor train & Robbery all within 50 words of each other.

Only Result:
Kansas City journal. (Kansas City, Mo.), 19 Oct. 1897.


so I tried Victor Train Robbery for all years All papers. Too many within 50 Words of each other.

But Within 10 Words of each other I get these 12 from 1895


Search Results « Chronicling America « Library of Congress

So there was a Victor Co Train Robbery

in March of 1895

The sun. (New York [N.Y.]), 25 March 1895.





Search Results « Chronicling America « Library of Congress

But no mention of Iron Chests of gold.

0 Results were found for the search “victor robbery Iron Chests gold” within 100 Words of each other in any Paper

0 Results were found for the search “victor robbery Chests gold” within 100 Words of each other in any Paper

11 results containing “victor robbery Chests ” within 100 Words of each other but unrelated

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/s...&proxdistance=100&rows=20&searchType=advanced

and there were 20 results containing “robbery Iron Chests gold”.
they are worth Reading imo . may be a lead in there somewhere for someone else.

Search Results « Chronicling America « Library of Congress

But Non from Colorado. & nothing of that Magnitude.

So I'm going to guess most likely Exaggeration of the Victor Co Train Robbery
of March of 1895

 

[PatrickD]

Great research! I think you are right. There are enough basic details that it could be the same incident. Sounds like some broke miners hatched a plot to make some quick money.

I just don't believe it happened with the gold and gun battle. Your article is much more plausible. Just another example of how stories can be manipulated and end up in the annals of history as some sort of treasure lead that can be chased down.

You found more that I did on the newspaper end of it. That is a great reference tool to validate things from back in the day.

I just found it hard to believe that four guys could flee the scene with five chests, hide it, then end up in the atypical running gun battle with no survivors.

If it were worth pursuing as a research lead, the next step would be to retrace the steps to the Strong Mine. Hearing that a mob of 2,000 people followed the dog to the culprits pretty much would have ran across anything en route. I am curious how long it took them to get from the robbery site, to Walsenburg for the dog, then back for the hunt. I think that is like a 2 hour drive with some of it through pretty treacherous terrain near Victor.

 

[diggingthe1]

I love this story being so close to home. Great article, I can picture the mob heading up there. I think I will be heading about a mile and a half down below Victor to look for the train locks for the mail and express cars I never pictured the ore carts of gold being still there.

 

[PatrickD]

I love this story being so close to home. Great article, I can picture the mob heading up there. I think I will be heading about a mile and a half down below Victor to look for the train locks for the mail and express cars I never pictured the ore carts of gold being still there.

Hi Diggingthe1,

I was up in your neck of the woods the day before yesterday. I had out of town guests in and we took the Shelf Road 4 wheel drive road. I am just west of Canon.

Can you imagine 2,000 people following a dog out there? I would have loved to seen that.

Patrick

 

[diggingthe1]

Hi Diggingthe1

I was up in your neck of the woods the day before yesterday. I had out of town guests in and we took the Shelf Road 4 wheel drive road. I am just west of Canon.

Can you imagine 2,000 people following a dog out there? I would have loved to seen that.

Patrick

Give me a ring next time your up this way. Have you ever seen those caves at the bottom of shelf road. They were on private property last time I was down there. I love the coal camps down that way. Happy Hunting!

 

[PatrickD]

I haven't seen the caves. But there is some sort of meadow way down at the bottom with a collapsed log structure and what appears to be a drained cow pond or possibly a sink hole. I have been attempting to prospect up and down shelf road and phantom canyon road a half dozen times in the last month or so. Nothing to report as far as results other than an education.

 

[South Sea mariner]

Hello Patrick

You might be on a good hunt. As I read somewhere about the victor train robbery is around 1893 or some thing. The money was allegedly buried up on the snow line near victor and the clue was a lone pine tree.

I should add that was from my poor memory. But it appear there had been a few robberies from around that time. The money was not a fantastic sum but added value of coin in today's market would make it a nice windfall.

Mal