pegleglooker
Bronze Member
- Jun 9, 2006
- 1,857
- 238
- Detector(s) used
- ace 250
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
hey gang,
What I'm about to get into could cause some " spirited " conversation. I am only going to tell you what I have been told and what I have learned so far. According to a very reliable and good friend of mine ( who used to be a writer for Desert Magazine ), The story of " The Man Who Found Pegleg's Gold " was a hoax... He told me that during the time that Jack and Choral Pepper owned the magazine, things weren't always great. The cost to produce the magazine versus how many subscribers they had, was leading them to a financial demise. They needed something to kick start their membership, so Jack invented the story, and BOY did the membership jump!!!! The first story appeared in the March 1965, I have tried to place the article here but the file is too big and if I make it smaller it's unreadable.
A month later there is a article from John Southworth ( a friend of Jack and Choral -w/a 3 pg spread ) titled " New Clues to Pegleg's Gold ". People might know John from his book ( Pegleg; To Date – And Beyond; Peglegiana Today ), there was also some creditability due to the fact that John was a noted geologist. I'll get back to him later....Then in 5 /65, Mr Anonymous is back, but this time there is a 5 paragraph disclaimer from Choral stating that they did NOT make this story up ( it's only been 2 months since the original letter, and only one article from Mr A ). But why would you go as far as writing a disclaimer, on something that was barely 2 months old ?? You are probably asking where they got the black nuggets as well...There are many area's in the desert where someone " could " find the black nuggets. And I'm sure someone close to the Peppers may have given or sold 4 or 5 to them. These nuggets were only about the size of a quarter, and gold was not as expensive as it is today.
The next article hit in July of 1965, with Choral again reinstating that she does not know who Mr A is, but has now given him the name Mr Pegleg. She says:
" A few readers have chastised us for making no effort to identify the Real Mr Pegleg. Our stock answer is that it isn't our business who you are.You've been good to DESERT- yours is a great story and you produced the evidence to back it up- and if you desire anonymity, there's absolutely no one with whom we would cooperate in any effort to " flush him out " to use the words of popular newspaper columnist who has just that in mind. "
And then Mr A ( now known as Mr Pegleg ) said:
" I, too, want to make it perfectly clear that other than printing my story and displaying my nuggets I sent in, DESERT magazine has had absolutely nothing to do with the Pegleg black gold. They don't know who I am, and I'm sure they can confirm the fact that each time I've written in I've mailed the letter from different post office in a different town so they couldn't possibly trace me by their subscription list "
I would have never given this writing a second thought... until my friend said to not read the words, rather read the style. What ?? But after a little explaining I understood what he meant and started to see some similarities. Then it took on a whole new meaning. Another thing about this article, if you look at the pic on the top, it just didn't look right to me, the shadows were off. Flip it, and it looks normal.. take a look.
Tomorrow I'll continue..
PLL
What I'm about to get into could cause some " spirited " conversation. I am only going to tell you what I have been told and what I have learned so far. According to a very reliable and good friend of mine ( who used to be a writer for Desert Magazine ), The story of " The Man Who Found Pegleg's Gold " was a hoax... He told me that during the time that Jack and Choral Pepper owned the magazine, things weren't always great. The cost to produce the magazine versus how many subscribers they had, was leading them to a financial demise. They needed something to kick start their membership, so Jack invented the story, and BOY did the membership jump!!!! The first story appeared in the March 1965, I have tried to place the article here but the file is too big and if I make it smaller it's unreadable.
A month later there is a article from John Southworth ( a friend of Jack and Choral -w/a 3 pg spread ) titled " New Clues to Pegleg's Gold ". People might know John from his book ( Pegleg; To Date – And Beyond; Peglegiana Today ), there was also some creditability due to the fact that John was a noted geologist. I'll get back to him later....Then in 5 /65, Mr Anonymous is back, but this time there is a 5 paragraph disclaimer from Choral stating that they did NOT make this story up ( it's only been 2 months since the original letter, and only one article from Mr A ). But why would you go as far as writing a disclaimer, on something that was barely 2 months old ?? You are probably asking where they got the black nuggets as well...There are many area's in the desert where someone " could " find the black nuggets. And I'm sure someone close to the Peppers may have given or sold 4 or 5 to them. These nuggets were only about the size of a quarter, and gold was not as expensive as it is today.
The next article hit in July of 1965, with Choral again reinstating that she does not know who Mr A is, but has now given him the name Mr Pegleg. She says:
" A few readers have chastised us for making no effort to identify the Real Mr Pegleg. Our stock answer is that it isn't our business who you are.You've been good to DESERT- yours is a great story and you produced the evidence to back it up- and if you desire anonymity, there's absolutely no one with whom we would cooperate in any effort to " flush him out " to use the words of popular newspaper columnist who has just that in mind. "
And then Mr A ( now known as Mr Pegleg ) said:
" I, too, want to make it perfectly clear that other than printing my story and displaying my nuggets I sent in, DESERT magazine has had absolutely nothing to do with the Pegleg black gold. They don't know who I am, and I'm sure they can confirm the fact that each time I've written in I've mailed the letter from different post office in a different town so they couldn't possibly trace me by their subscription list "
I would have never given this writing a second thought... until my friend said to not read the words, rather read the style. What ?? But after a little explaining I understood what he meant and started to see some similarities. Then it took on a whole new meaning. Another thing about this article, if you look at the pic on the top, it just didn't look right to me, the shadows were off. Flip it, and it looks normal.. take a look.
Tomorrow I'll continue..
PLL
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