Steve,
The story in Bob Wards book is pretty much what Harry told the folks that were involved in the search. I have that directly from Tracy Hawkins, on tape. That story was also corroborated by personal conversations with my Uncle, Chuck Ribaudo, Ernie Provence and Dale Howard, who were all involved in the search. I believe all of those men held the gold bar in their hands.
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Thanks again, Joe. I wanted to follow up on a previous post. I received a copy of Ward's book and read the Harry France account. I must say, I was a bit taken aback, in that several details in Ward's telling closely matched another "cave of gold bars" search story that I was personally involved with in 1980 near Santa Rita, NM. We got our story directly from a man who himself made a France-like discovery in the 1930s. Following are the matching details from France that matched our witness's story ("he" represents both men, both stories):
1) He was separated from another person whom he was trying to locate in the hills.
2) It rained heavily, causing him to seek shelter.
3) He climbed a hill and found a rock shelter to climb under to avoid the rain.
4) He discovered an opening and began to explore it.
5) After crawling 20 or 30 feet, he was able to stand up.
6) The only light he had was a book of matches.
7) There were stacks of bars as far as he could see.
8) He picked a bar up and it was very heavy.
9) He removed one bar and exited the opening.
10) He climbed up the hill and saw a car way off in the distance.
11) The next morning, he walked toward where he had seen the car.
12) He reached a highway in the afternoon.
13) He had carried the bar in the lining of his jacket.
Rather an interesting set of coincidences, don't you think? There are a number of differences in the story too, but the "discovery framework" listed above is a very close match.