OK Treasure Hunters,
As requested.
Read this and let me know what you think. I was going to drive over tomorrow and check out the area but not now. Let me know if my logic is sound with this one.
Colorado Lost Dimes?
Origin: What is the origin of this treasure lead? I find three or four websites with pretty much the same write up. It shows up in a couple of my treasure books. But, the origin has to be something more tangible than just a treasure lead on a website or in a book.
I searched the newspaper archives at Newspaper.com and cannot find a single reference to the described incident where the wagons went over the side. Nothing about lost coinage or money. Nothing about the mint reporting the incident. I suppose I could send an email over to customer service at the mint. I am sure they would respond with either a polite "go away crazy person" or "here is the information" or "we have no information". Standard form letter response. Regardless, I cannot find the event taking place in history. Maybe one of you can?
Let's pretend for a second. Let's say you and I are two of the drivers in the four (I think four) wagons. And, let's say you are at the opposite end of the wagons when they started going over the edge. Would you have time to react? They definitely were not going that fast on that terrain. Thoughts?
Location? This is what gets a little odd. I pulled up old TOPOs and used Google maps satellite view and tried to reconstruct the route. Coming from the north on that trail is a dead end route. I could not see a single way down without making my way to the road and the bridge. I couldnt find a single way to get down that cliff side with wagons. I also tried to find a way they could make their way down that side and even take Red Rock canyon out. That is a dead end road now and may have made its way down to the highway (before it was a highway) and take that way.
So, what where they doing there?
Then, I find this in my research.
Plans to divert water from the Black Canyon’s more dependable Gunnison River were visionary. Beginning in 1894, surveys eventually revealed locations for both ends of a tunnel (in the canyon and the valley), with the intent of meeting in the middle. A road was scraped into the canyon slopes, descending to the river, and the town of East Portal (also known as River Portal) was born.
Early Exploration
An onsite inspection trip of Black Canyon and the Gunnison River was organized in 1900 under John Pelton, farmer, miner, and head of the local land office. Members included surveyor John Curtis, farmers Erik Anderson and Frank Hovey, and youthful William Torrence, director of the local electric company. The unexplored canyon proved to be a great challenge. At a place called “The Narrows” they abandoned their quest and clawed their way to the rim. However, the trip focused state and national attention on the proposal, and support for it increased.
In 1901, the U.S. Geological Survey sent Abraham Lincoln Fellows and William Torrence into the canyon to look for a site to build a diversion tunnel bringing water to the Uncompahgre Valley, which was suffering from water shortages due to an influx of settlers into the area.[17] Torrence, a Montrose native and an expert mountaineer, had taken part in a failed expedition the previous year, and his experience proved valuable on his second excursion. He opted to bring a single rubber air mattress instead of the heavy wooden boats that had doomed his previous journey into the canyon. They entered the canyon on August 12 equipped with "only hunting knives, two silk lifeline ropes, and rubber bags to encase their instruments." After a harrowing 10 days braving rock falls, waterfalls, and 76 river crossings, they emerged from the canyon with a suitable tunnel site.
Construction on the tunnel began 4 years later... This work required strong, hard-working men. In spite of good pay and fringe benefits, most disliked the dangerous underground conditions and stayed an average of only 2 weeks." 26 men were killed during the 4 year undertaking. The tunnel was finally completed in 1909.
The undertaking proved difficult and gargantuan. The plan called for workmen to dig two portals through Vernal Mesa--one would begin on the canyon floor and the other in the valley beyond-- with the goal of meeting in the middle. But first they had to scrape a road across the rugged mesa to the Gunnison River, roaring some 2,000 feet below the canyon rim. So tall were the canyon walls that they could tower over the Empire State Building. So steep was the road from rim to river that it descended in places at a 30 percent grade. Drilling equipment had to be eased down on skids, and it wouldn’t be until 1932 that an automobile succeeded in getting to the river, although it had to be pulled back up by a team of horses.
At the time, the Gunnison Tunnel held the honor of being the world's longest irrigation tunnel. On September 23, President William Howard Taft dedicated the tunnel in Montrose. The East Portal of the Gunnison Tunnel is accessible via East Portal Road which is on the South Rim of the canyon. Although the tunnel itself is not visible, the diversion dam can be seen from the campground.
https://www.nps.gov/cure/learn/historyculture/eastportal.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Canyon_of_the_Gunnison_National_Park#cite_note-18
https://www.nps.gov/articles/colorado-gunnison-tunnel.htm
OK, Here is what rubs me the wrong way. That irrigation tunnel took 4 years to build and finished in 1909. That means the construction was taking place at the same time this incident with the coins going over the edge. I have been in places like this and it is quiet. You hear everything for a distance. I am sure the sound of wagons and coins going over the edge were heard. Or, were the miners involved?
If it was an inside job, pushing the wagons over and a small amount of the coins would make sense to throw off anyone trying to recover the coins from the cliff at the time.
Not trying to be analytical but there is something in these details that doesn't sit right with me. There was no legitimate reason for them to be on a dead end road at the far end of it.
Anyone care to add some thoughts to this?
Patrick
(unless I'm mistaken..?)
