Gypsy Heart
Gold Member
Lamb Canyon Treasure?
Beverly Gardner can think of family legends when she travels Highway 79 down Lamb Canyon between Beaumont and San Jacinto. None of the Lamb family tales are more intriguing than the legend of buried precious coins.
If she ever is worried about driving the modern, four-lane highway in the dark of night, she can seek inspiration from ancestors who faced a lot more challenges traveling the route.
Her great-grandfather, Elijah Lamb, homesteaded the canyon in the late 1800s and hauled mail in his stagecoach that somehow made it up and down the rugged canyon road between Beaumont and San Jacinto. The location of the family homestead can be seen by looking for a stand of trees on the east side of Highway 79, a short distance downhill from the entrance to the Lamb Canyon Landfill.
Her grandfather, Edgar Lamb, lived on the homestead too and continued running the stage line. Gardner, who works as a tax preparer, was born 70 years ago near San Jacinto in a home on the Poorman Ranch where her father, James Lamb, served as foreman. She has listened to relatives tell family stories, including tales about her late Uncle Frank Lamb that probably mixed fact with colorful embellishments.
According to those legends, he lived in caves on the homestead, completely abstained from baths, beat a murder rap as a teen after killing someone in a fight and escaping from prison by posing in a coffin as a corpse and rode a bicycle into the mountains to tend sheep.
Legend also has it that he was a miserly sort who buried precious coins near the homestead. "Everyone was looking for the coins he got on a merchant's ship when he went around the world," she said. Gardner's sister, Mary Flake, wrote in a family history that her Uncle Frank used to disappear during campfire story-telling sessions at the homestead and return with silver coins.
Gardner said her relatives never found the coins. She thinks they may have been discovered and taken by hikers. Maybe not. The Treasure of Lamb Canyon could be waiting to be found.
Beverly Gardner can think of family legends when she travels Highway 79 down Lamb Canyon between Beaumont and San Jacinto. None of the Lamb family tales are more intriguing than the legend of buried precious coins.
If she ever is worried about driving the modern, four-lane highway in the dark of night, she can seek inspiration from ancestors who faced a lot more challenges traveling the route.
Her great-grandfather, Elijah Lamb, homesteaded the canyon in the late 1800s and hauled mail in his stagecoach that somehow made it up and down the rugged canyon road between Beaumont and San Jacinto. The location of the family homestead can be seen by looking for a stand of trees on the east side of Highway 79, a short distance downhill from the entrance to the Lamb Canyon Landfill.
Her grandfather, Edgar Lamb, lived on the homestead too and continued running the stage line. Gardner, who works as a tax preparer, was born 70 years ago near San Jacinto in a home on the Poorman Ranch where her father, James Lamb, served as foreman. She has listened to relatives tell family stories, including tales about her late Uncle Frank Lamb that probably mixed fact with colorful embellishments.
According to those legends, he lived in caves on the homestead, completely abstained from baths, beat a murder rap as a teen after killing someone in a fight and escaping from prison by posing in a coffin as a corpse and rode a bicycle into the mountains to tend sheep.
Legend also has it that he was a miserly sort who buried precious coins near the homestead. "Everyone was looking for the coins he got on a merchant's ship when he went around the world," she said. Gardner's sister, Mary Flake, wrote in a family history that her Uncle Frank used to disappear during campfire story-telling sessions at the homestead and return with silver coins.
Gardner said her relatives never found the coins. She thinks they may have been discovered and taken by hikers. Maybe not. The Treasure of Lamb Canyon could be waiting to be found.
What about that hollowed out teepee looking thing in the mountain? My brother who also grew up here has always heard that early settlers used those to burn trash? I don't know but I am curious! My husband and his friend panned the streams just for the heck of it last weekend to no avail... 
As for the petroglyphs, any idea where they might be? If they aren't covered by SPRAYPAINT? 
