Just found this site the other day! Been reading this thread and several thoughts come to mind. If this treasure has been found, most finders would not publically tell about it for the obvious reasons. Odds are it was found years ago, and the luckly finder kept thier mouth shut about it. Of if the fellow who started this thread found it, then he should/would have kept his mouth shut too for obvious reasons.
This story reminds me of the lost stagecoach gold shipment that was robbed near Silver City Idaho back in the late 1800's.
The story goes that a gold shipment was being taken out by stagecoach from Silver City to Boise, and the bandits that did the deed got wind of it and hit the stagecoach about 10 miles out of town. But soon there was a posse on thier trail and they had to bury the gold, but did get caught and shot/hung/imprisoned (take your pick). The gold was not found, and ever since folks have speculated/hunted/failed to find the strong box.
Think about this for a minute- if you did find the gold soon after, would you have told anyone? Especially if no one knew you had found it? Or maby 50 or 75 years later you found it? Again, would you keep your mouth shut and your good fortune to yourself? Now if I were to stumble on that cache after all these years, I sure would keep my mouth shut and go quietly about my business for 'obvious reasons'!
So- who knows if this cache still exsists or not? And if the expert and his gold detection device pin-pointed where the gold supposedly was, why did this thread poster not dig there and find it at the time? Maby he did and has kept quiet about it, smart move!
Or- maby he is was/just having some fun with all of us with a tall tale?
Anyway, years ago I knew C.E. 'Rick' Ricketts who wrote 'El Lobo and Spanish Gold' about his experiences in Mexico as a mining geologist. I still have an autographed copy of the book which I treasure. Rick always said that yes, there is still treasure out there to find- and looking for it can sometimes be better the finding it. (I'm not sure about that, I'd like to find a big one and see for myself if that is true!)
The point is, sometimes looking and spinning a good tale can be alot of fun for all of us, but the truly lucky ones who do find 'the big one' probably keep quiet about it.
For many years since the late 1800's another good story concerned the lost gold mine of the Minam river in NE Oregon's Wallowa county. It seems that some of the original Nez Perce Indians would disappear at times and come back to town with nice nuggets to purchase horses, pay thier store bill, etc. They would never reveal the source of the 'mine' even when offered great inducements. Some of the old timer's would follow them but the Indians always gave them the slip. Folks have been looking for this likely gold placer deposit for years with no luck. Is there really a deposit somewhere up the Minam river?
I have panned and found nice color and even a few 'picker's' on the Imnaha River- even found one of the original mine sites but have never found the 'mother lode' even though the old timer's claim to have found nice nuggets.
I could go on and tell alot of interesting stories, I've been doing this type of thing since the early '70's but I might just add fuel to someone's fire to get out there and start looking! And that's what alot of it is about, right?
