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Seeing potential in the claim, Butler soon borrowed $600 from a man known
as Uncle Pompey and opened another claim a little lower down in the bend.
Butler’s instincts were right, as after a day’s work, his gold pan
would be filled with gold nuggets. Some said that a day’s work with a
rocker would produce as much as $50,000 in gold. As word of the rich
find got out, a number of men, anxious to have a share, hunted down
Butler’s former partners, inducing them to sell their interests in the
claim. This soon resulted in lawyers and lawsuits, all wanting a piece
of the action.
Butler, a simple prospector, was overwhelmed by all the controversy
and soon took sick with a fever and died. Afterwards, it was found
that Butler had about $80,000 on deposit at Mokelumne Hill and a
similar amount at
Sacramento.
However, his friends said that he was often known to bury his profits
close to the site of the claim.
Today, those buried caches are thought to still be hidden in Amador
County.
Gold Coins in Clear Creek
In the 1850’s a group
of Mormon wagons were passing through the fertile valley of Redding,
California
on their way to the tiny settlement of Horsetown. However, in order to
get there, they first had to cross Clear Creek, usually a quiet little
stream. However, when they arrived, Clear Creek was nothing but
quiet; rather, it was a muddy torrent of raging flood waters running
off the nearby mountains. Forced to stop on the banks of the
creek, they waited several days for the creek to settle down to its
normal easily crossable state.
However, they were impatient to get to
their destination and didn’t wait quite long enough. When the flash
flood waters had slowed, but were not yet calm and shallow, they
decided to cross. Most of the wagons made it across the river safely,
but one wagon, belonging to a Mr. Bishop, met with disaster. Entering
the swollen waters just a little downstream from the others, he
quickly found the creek deeper in that particular area.
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