Then why did you highlight the part about the taxes?
There ain't nothin there about washing the gold. I do that when I get home.
An old toothbrush works fine for them little bits of rock.
Everything in there is covered in a grey dust. Some places pretty thick.
The possibility exists that Jake never actually had a box of gold under his death bed. Could it be that any gold supposedly bequeathed was actually gold already possessed by the recipients, but that it was ill gotten and they needed a cover story to have received it legitimately?
It would explain why the census has him as a farmer and why the gold went to a 'surprise' recipient. The ensuing lost mine fuss could have been just a distraction to legitimize the gold and avoid scrutiny. Also explains why he was of modest means, or at least lived so. Explains why the source has never been determined and no mine ever found.
Has this angle been bantered about yet?
Chis, shallowly 'buried' under my bed, yes Was it ever clarified ??
Do we know the elevation of the tree base compared to the normal river level?Clarified? No. But then again its a story.
The page from the book says under his floor. As Hal pointed out he was named Walzer not Waltz in that book. It also says gold ore. Gold ore looks a whole lot different than the gold in quartz that many "believe" belonged to waltz/walzer/waldo.
Being that the flood was 18 feet above normal a small cottonwood tree wouldn't have saved anyone.
The only thing that makes any sense on that page is that they took him to julia instead of taking him to a doctor. (That is if julia really owned an ice cream parlor). I always want ice cream when I'm sick!