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Columbus -
Near the old remnants of Columbus, is said to be a hidden cache taken
from highwaymen back in the days when Columbus was a prosperous mining
town. Columbus is five miles southwest of US 95. Another
mining operation continues about two miles south of the original site
which houses a few 1950's style buildings. The original town
site is in the nearby hills, where you can find a few foundations
Goldfield - On September 3, 1913, a flash flood struck
Goldfield
and reportedly washed two safes containing hundreds of gold coins down
a gully west of town. The flood created a lot of mud and the two
safes were undoubtedly buried in the muck and the mire. To this
day, they have never been found.
Goldfield
- Twenty sacks of high-grade gold ore valued at $1,000 each were
reportedly buried by two prospectors in 1910 in a mine dump between
Goldfield
and Diamond field. Before they could recover their hidden cache,
both men died and according to the legend, the gold still remains
hidden there somewhere.
Goldfield,
Nevada
in 1907 courtesy Library of Congress
This image available for
photographic prints and downloads
HERE!
Goldfield - During
Goldfield's mining heydays, one of the mines employed a man named
Harry Bishop, a geologist and mining school graduate. During a
cave-in at the mine, Bishop's leg was trapped beneath the rubble and
after having been rescued, his leg had to be amputated. Unable to work
in the mines any longer, Bishop was forced to take a lower paying job
at the smelter.
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Bitter at the loss of both his leg and his
income, the geologist blamed the accident on greedy mine owners.
Finding a way to satisfy his revenge, Bishop began to smuggle gold out of
the smelter in his hollowed out wooden leg The geologist was
eventually caught, arrested and sent to prison. During the
investigation, authorities searched his home, finding some 90 ingots
hidden in a false wall in his basement. Valued at approximately
$50,000, the amount was found to to correspond with the company's, who had
valued its loss at well over $100,000 worth of gold. Bishop never returned
to Goldfield
and many believe it is still hidden there.
Sandspring - In the
1860's, William Henry Knight, a map maker for the United States Department
of the Interior, was gathering data for maps of the Pacific States when he
came upon a cave who's walls were said to have been laced with gold.
But, even a mapmaker can lose his sense of direction in the many mountains
of western
Nevada
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Once he left, he was never again able to find the cave that was allegedly
in a small mountain range near the Sand Spring
known as Painted Hills. Sand spring is on the northeast side of the
White Mountains of Esmeralda County.
Lincoln County
- Lost gold from a Mormon caravan, traveling between Cave Valley and Ash
Meadows near Carp, in Lincoln County, has never been located.
Mineral County
- A payroll intended for workers at the Candaleria Mines was stolen long
ago and is said to be hidden near Mina in Mineral County.
Nye County - One of the more
interesting treasure tales of
Nevada is
the lost Whiskey Cache. Around 1880 a freighter was hauling a wagon
load of 100-proof whiskey casks from
northern
California
to the mining camps of northern
Arizona.
However, when he was about 23 miles south of Beatty he encountered a
terrible sand storm. Taking shelter under his wagon, the storm raged
through the night. The next morning, he awoke to find his animals
gone and after several days made it on foot to a ranch in Oasis Valley.
When he returned to retrieve his wagon, it was gone. Thought
to have been buried on the shifting sands of the dunes, the wagon was
never found. So, what good is a load of
century old whiskey, even if it could possibly still be intact?
Oddly enough, the desert has a way of preserving everything, and that old
load of casks would be worth a lot of money to whiskey connoisseurs of
today.
Pahranagat Valley - About ten miles
south of Hiko,
Nevada in the Pahranagat Valley, $50,000 in gold coins are said to be
buried in several zinc-capped jars. Supposedly this cache was buried
by a camper in 1867 under an old oak grove of trees.
Spring Mountains - Near Mountain
Springs in the Spring Mountains is said to be buried two chests of silver
coins.
Storey County - Long ago a large gold
cache was stolen from Virginia City and is said to be buried near an arch
of stone that stands five feet wide and five feet tall. The arch is
located in the rugged country northwest of Virginia City.
A bank robber's treasure
is said to be hidden near Six Mile Canyon near the road from Carson City
to the ghost town of Ramsey.
Washoe County - In the 1880's a
prospector working near Tohakum peak allegedly hit paydirt and buried some
$250,000 in gold ore. The hidden cache is thought to be located
about two miles northeast of the north tip of Pyramid Lake.
White Pine County
- Pogue's Station, southeast of Eureka, was the only source of water for
miles back in the 1870's. The adobe stage station was built to serve
Pritchard's Fast Freight Route where stock was exchanged and also provided
water to travelers between
Palisade and Pioche. A
man by the name of Jim Pogue was hired as the stationmaster and soon built
a barn, a corrals, and a simple cabin nearby. Though the freight route
continued only into the 1880's, Pogue continued to live there until he
died in 1915. Almost immediately, rumors began that the
stationmaster had hidden a fortune in gold coins nearby. Treasure
hunters flocked to the site, destroying the old station and outbuildings
and pocking the land with holes, only to come up with nothing.
Though the site has been thouroughly searched time and time again, the
legend continues. The site, which has been reduced to nothing more than
traces of the station's foundation, is is on
SR 20, 16 miles south of its junction with US 50
about 67 miles west of Ely.
© May, 2006
Kathy Weiser/Legends
of America
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