Any known Caches in Wyoming?

[LuisTH]

I am trying to find any stories of caches in Wyoming.

Anyone has any good stories?

 

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[Old Dog]

Wyoming is a trove of hidden caches most especialy south western wyoming on the Utah and Colorado borders.

I will give you one ... the rest you will have to find out for yourself.

Sheep Creek Canyon In Daggett County, Utah.

Became prominent in the writings of John Wesley Powell in his 1869 trip down the Green River.

In 1882 a notorious gunhand named Cleophas Dowd took up residence in the canyon, providing a sanctuary for many outlaw gangs such as the "Wild Bunch".
In 1898 a Union Pacific train was robbed by the "Red Sash Gang" and 85,000 dollars in gold was taken and this loot was burried on Dowd's property in the canyon. Shortly after that Dowd was murdered and the gold is still there to find. Because all the members of the Red Sash Gang were subsiquently killed before they could get back to it.

How does that one suit you?

Old Dog

 

[LuisTH]

mrs.oroblanco, thanks a lot for those stories, some of what you said I never heard about and you gave me enough info to start a new search.

Old dog, thanks also for the info. I have been researching the stories of Dowd for about three months now. Not a lot of time, but I was able to find some information at the library in Casper that i could not find online. I am starting to believe that particular cache of $85,000 was not hidden in Dowd's property. I retraced the steps of the outlaws and found a particular story of someone who saw them still with the gold before they were caught by the posse, and the outlaws were nowhere close to Dowd's cabin. The only problem is, "if" it is where I think it is, it's in a State Park... Last i hear we need permission to search in a state park right?

Anyways, supposedly there are other caches close to Dowd's property.

 

[LuisTH]

Anyways, there was another story about a stagecoach robbery close to Glenrock in 1867. I found the story of that robbery online about two months ago. I was researching throughout the night. I felt asleep with the computer on, and I forgot to mark the website. When I awoke the computer had restarted, apparently there was a powerout. i tried to find the website or any other website mentioning that particular robbery, since it is close to where I live, but had no luck. I even tried finding anything at the library in Casper but they don't have any paperclippings, or in their video library anything before the 1910s.......
I am starting to believe that I dreamt the whole thing.

 

[Old Dog]

Louis,

If you are going to try hunting any of the syuff that was cached by the guys using Dowd's place as a refuge....
You may be surprised that your search will take you not only into Utah but Colorado, as far south as Grand Junction and Montrose.

They hid stuff all over

I think you are getting the hang of it, Getting information and sorting fact from myth is as much fun as getting out and searching sometimes.

As far as the Glenrock story try Google and Ask.com

Old Dog

 

[TreasureTales]

Hmmm, I plan to be in Wyoming for a few days - starting late next week. Mostly I want to revisit Laramie since I haven't been there since I was 16 (over 40 years ago). I imagine it's changed considerably.

If you want to know about hidden caches in Wyoming, get yourself some books - Thomas P. Terry's US Treasure Atlas, Vol. 10 and Thomas Penfield's A Guide to Treasure in Montana and Wyoming. Those two books will give you enough ideas to last a lifetime.

Here's one example from the Terry book, page 1118: "253A. In the late 1800's, Ella "Cattle Kate" Watson and Jim Averill accumulated a large sum of money from stolen cattle transactions. Averill built a plank shanty saloon with a corral out back to hold their stolen cattle. He then built a cabin about 1 mile from the saloon, both structures located near the old Bothwell Ranch in Sweetwater Valley. Between $10,000 - $50,000 in profits from their illicit dealings was buried somewhere near the cabin. In 1899, 6 men stormed the house and demanded their stolen cattle or gold coins in payment for damages. When they refused to cooperate, the irate ranchers strung them up and the treasure went unrecovered. The gold coins, buried in several separate caches, remain buried 15 miles W of Alcova."

 

[LuisTH]

Cool, thanks for the info TreasureTales.

Old Dog, i tried using google and ask.com to no avail, that's how i find info on the net. Thanks anyways.

 

[Old Dog]

Louis

When you google use combinations like

Cleophas Dowd Wyoming lost treasure
Buch Cassidy - Wild Bunch Lost treasure
NE Utah lost treasure
NW Colorado Lost treasure

Include lost treasure in the search and a whole new world opens up.

Good hunting
Old Dog

 

[LuisTH]

Thanks for the hints and info.

 

[Timberwolf]

I am trying to find any stories of caches in Wyoming.

Anyone has any good stories?

Luis TH,

You might want to look at the leads on my webpage:

http://myweb.cableone.net/thewitness

I was posting them by request, but that was very time consuming. Now anyone can look at the whole list

Timberwolf

 

[Wildfirefighter72]

Louis,

If you are going to try hunting any of the syuff that was cached by the guys using Dowd's place as a refuge....
You may be surprised that your search will take you not only into Utah but Colorado, as far south as Grand Junction and Montrose.

They hid stuff all over

I think you are getting the hang of it, Getting information and sorting fact from myth is as much fun as getting out and searching sometimes.

As far as the Glenrock story try Google and Ask.com

Old Dog

I am in Grand Junction and if you have a notion to come down this way looking, give me a holler and I will help you out. I'll research to see what I can find out down this way about the caches...

 

[Wildfirefighter72]

Here is a good one:

Jack Slade and the Virginia Dale Stage Robbery

Bandit gangs who regularly terrorized the stage lines, chose several areas that were well scouted to work, one is along the famous Overland Trail in Colorado as hide-outs. The gang felt so comfortable in the remote landscape that they even went so far as to build a cabin. A hideout cabin was built at the top of "Robber's Roost", on Table Mountain, about a mile to the northeast of the Stage Station. The hideout was well placed, with a great 360 degree view it was hard to sneak up on, and it was very difficult to climb because of the rim of shale and practically perpendicular cliffs. It was a widespread rumor that Jack Slade, the Station Master at Virginia Dale was in reality the leader of the gang, and was definitely known to have a close connection with some of the bandits.

A gold shipment of over 200 lbs that amounted to $60,000 in freshly minted coins (about $2.6 million dollars today) was being shipped by the US Government, and the shipment represented several month's of back pay for soldiers at the fort. Masked men ambushed the stage carrying the gold, and made off with the entire payroll about a mile north from the Virginia Dale station. The robbers were chased down and killed by the US Cavalry, the troopers did eventually find the iron strong box in a nearby creek, broken open and empty. The stage line suspected that Slade was the mastermind for the holdup, but were unable to prove it. The owners of the stage line felt they had no other choice and fired him.

Everyone thought it was strange that Jack went very meekly, it may have been that he was tired of the job, or... maybe he simply had stollen enough money and thought it would be a good time to avoid the heat and move to Montana. Because of this suspicious behavior he remained under the watchful eye of the overland stage coach company's agents. Apparently Jack never recovered his loot because he died pennyless a few short years later when he was hanged for horse robbery by vigilantes in Virginia City, Montana, on March 10, 1864. By all accounts the treasure of the lost payroll still lies hidden somewhere not very far to the west of the old Virginia Dale stage station near the Wyoming state line.

 

[Old Dog]

Louis,

Hit the link and scroll down
Wyoming is at the bottom of the page.


http://www.coinworld.com/NewCollector/StateTreasures4.asp

The research is up to you

OD

 

[shadowwalker]

If you get bored and just want something to do. Go south of casper and find the old riverbed of the platte river. You can drypan for gold. It is a good way to spend the day anyway. I went to the spot down from the old government bridge.
Another spot is on the back side of casper mountain. You can also find gold flakes here. And I mean on the north side of the muddy mountain road. About a mile from where it goes into the casper mountain road that goes to muddy mountain. Look for the road that goes deep into the little canyons.

 

[U.K. Brian]

If your leaving the detector behind there are large pieces of jade that have been found in rockpiles in Eastern Wyoming. Several did very well in the early sixties this way.

 

[Cdog68c]

I been interested in this one too since I live close as well same found nothing in library’s and little bits online

 

[Tiredman]

Hmmm, I plan to be in Wyoming for a few days - starting late next week. Mostly I want to revisit Laramie since I haven't been there since I was 16 (over 40 years ago). I imagine it's changed considerably.

If you want to know about hidden caches in Wyoming, get yourself some books - Thomas P. Terry's US Treasure Atlas, Vol. 10 and Thomas Penfield's A Guide to Treasure in Montana and Wyoming. Those two books will give you enough ideas to last a lifetime.

Here's one example from the Terry book, page 1118: "253A. In the late 1800's, Ella "Cattle Kate" Watson and Jim Averill accumulated a large sum of money from stolen cattle transactions. Averill built a plank shanty saloon with a corral out back to hold their stolen cattle. He then built a cabin about 1 mile from the saloon, both structures located near the old Bothwell Ranch in Sweetwater Valley. Between $10,000 - $50,000 in profits from their illicit dealings was buried somewhere near the cabin. In 1899, 6 men stormed the house and demanded their stolen cattle or gold coins in payment for damages. When they refused to cooperate, the irate ranchers strung them up and the treasure went unrecovered. The gold coins, buried in several separate caches, remain buried 15 miles W of Alcova."

For years the two books mentioned where pretty much it. I just released a 5 book Wyoming series on lost treasure. I included caches found and reported search efforts. Of course also covered are lost mines and jade, plus outlaw loot.

 

[Tiredman]

I been interested in this one too since I live close as well same found nothing in library’s and little bits online

What's found online is taken from the books mentioned.