Honey Lake Valley today, courtesy of Welcome to California.
Henry Gordier, a French immigrant, was one of the lucky ones who made his fortune prospecting for gold in California. By 1857, he had made enough money to give up the back-breaking work and bought land on Baxter Creek, North of Honey Lake. In what is now Lassen County, the acreage lay just South of the East end of Bald Mountain.
Settling in, Gordier and a prospecting partner by the name of Isaac Coulthurst decided to buy a herd of cattle from a group of Mormons in Carson Valley who had decided to return to Salt Lake. Gordier took most of the cattle, planning on living the life of a rancher on his newly acquired land.
However, Gordier’s hard work and careful saving would not pay off as he had hoped.
Nearby, in a cabin on Lassen Creek, lived two men named John Mullen and Asa Snow. Both men had terrible reputations, with Snow allegedly killing a man before coming to Honey Valley and Mullen, a suspected cattle rustler. If these two were not enough, along came William Combs Edwards, who had killed the postmaster, Mr. Snelling, in Merced County, California, in the fall of 1857. With a $1500 reward offered for his capture, Edwards fled to Genoa, Nevada, where he became acquainted with a man of means named William B. Thorrington. Most often known as “Lucky Bill,” Thorrington was a “shady” gambler with a reputation not much better than the rest of the men.
After meeting “Lucky Bill,” Edwards hid out at Mullen and Snow’s cabin, working a nearby placer mine. In the spring of 1858, “Lucky Bill” Thorrington traveled to Honey Valley to visit the three men at the cabin on Lassen Creek. Learning of Gordier’s fine herd of cattle, “Lucky Bill” said he would see if he could buy some. However, he headed home without ever approaching Gordier. Shortly after that, Mullen and Edwards began talking to Gordier about selling some of his cattle, but He was not interested.
Despite his disinterest, Asa Snow had moved into Gordier’s cabin by March, and the Frenchman was gone. The three men—Snow, Mullen, and Edwards—told everyone they had bought Gordier’s holdings, borrowing the money from “Lucky Bill,” and that Henry was returning to France.
Gordier was well-liked by his neighbors, who thought it strange that the Frenchman would leave so suddenly without saying a word. When a letter came from Gordier’s younger brother, who also lived in the States, he was informed that Henry had returned to France. But the brother knew this was not true, as his brother would never have returned to his homeland without first visiting him. This further raised the locals’ suspicions, leading them to decide that Mullen and Edwards should be questioned. However, when they heard this, the pair immediately fled the valley.
The locals began investigating and soon found a burned-out fire with metal buttons in the ashes near the Susan River. Also nearby were signs of dried blood on the ground and footprints and hoofprints. They then searched the river, finding Gordier’s body tied up in a sack and sunk to the bottom with a large rock.
Trial.
Immediately, they questioned Snow, who continued to live in Gordier’s cabin. Though Snow refused to admit any guilt, he was taken prisoner. Soon, a trial was held, and a verdict was reached that Gordier had been murdered by Mullen and Edwards, with Lucky Bill and Snow being accomplices. Snow, being the only one in custody, was immediately hanged from a pine tree on the North shore of Honey Lake and buried beneath that very same tree.
The locals then traveled to Genoa, Nevada, where they found Edwards hiding with Thorrington. On June 19, 1858, they placed “Lucky Bill” in a wagon beneath a scaffold, with a noose around his neck. The team started dragging the body from the wagon, and Thorrington slowly choked to death. Edwards was returned to Honey Lake, where he was also hanged on June 23.
John Mullen eluded capture and was never seen again.
Afterward, the locals began searching Gordier’s land, knowing he had brought large sums of money and gold nuggets. Supposing it was buried near his cabin, no one claimed to have found any of Gordier’s hidden fortune.
However, some 19 years later, in November 1877, when Gordier’s cabin was long gone, a woman named Mary L. Dunn found a large gold nugget near where the Frenchman’s cabin once stood. The next day, she returned to the site with two men who found several smaller nuggets. Though they continued searching, those few nuggets were all they found.
Today, the cache, estimated to be worth about $40,000 when Gordier was alive, is still believed to be buried there.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated October 2026.
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