Daryl Friesen
Sr. Member
The Gold of Corbold
When Seekers of Gold, Chapter 1, was first published on the Internet and I just moved to Joyce Street and was working like mad trying to sell it for a living on the net, I was contacted via e-mail by a mysterious prospector calling himself Acorn Bob and claiming to hold the secret to the location of the Slumach–Jackson Lost Creek gold mine. He then told me he had a skill-testing question to ask me and if I answered it correctly that he would let me further in on the secret... I of course agreed to his terms. The question he then asked me was the following:
When Shotwell went in to search for the gold, what was the name of his partner?
For me this was not much of a question, as I was very familiar with The Golden Mountains, which, I was to learn, was one of Acorn Bob’s Bibles.
My answer to Acron Bob was, "Harrington,"
and I passed his test. The next thing was a phone call from Acorn himself.
"Hello," I answered the phone nervously.
"Hello, Daryl," a very deep, commanding voice said. "I have been following your activities for some time online and I you do get around."
"Well, I have been on the search for most of my life," I answered.
"I see that. Now tell me, Daryl, where do you think the lost mine is?"
"Terrarosa Glacier," was my answer.
"WRONG," he replied.
“You have heard of Stuart Brown, right?” I asked.
"Stuart found something, but it was not where he told that cocksucker Don Waite it was," Acorn said with anger in his voice.
At this point in my life Don Waite was a good friend. He had opened up to me tons about the lost mine and shared his info with me and was in my eyes kind of a mentor. He would of course ruin this down the road. It turned out, as I was to learn, I was not the only one who he would hurt in his own quest to record this legend.
"Don Waite showed me tons of info about the lost mine."
"You know him," Acorn says with mistrust in his voice.
"Yes, I have met him many times, and why do you think Terrarosa is the wrong location?” This was my faith and belief at the time, so hearing doubt about it broke my heart a little.
"I talked to Stuart Brown on the phone myself. I interviewed him. Listen to his voice—does he sound like someone who is not telling the truth? I can play you the conversation if you want," I said.
“Well, let me tell you something, Daryl, what if I told you that Stuart Brown was using Terrarosa Glacier as a front? His real destination was actually Corbold Creek.”
“Corbold,” I said, “that’s where they were first looking for it. W.A. Macdonald,” I said, “the guy who claimed to have found Jackson’s location, but there was no gold in the Corbold area.”
"He was lying. He found gold,” Acorn said.
"I am looking where no one is looking; now that’s not to Stu Brown’s "red herring" Terrarosa Glacier. Also Tiny Allen, the guy who claimed to look down into the canyon and saw a massive tent-shaped rock, as Jackson described. He was looking into Corbold Canyon. As well as Clayton Gatsby.”
When I said the name Clayton Gatsby the line on the phone went silent.
“I met him once,” I then added. Then I remembered it. A secret that I myself had been sitting on since the early winter of 1992.
"Yeah," he said, “and what happened?”
"Well, maybe we should meet in person and discuss it.”
“Listen, Daryl, I will be home tomorrow evening. My address is … blah blah. Can you come out here? My car is having issues.”
“Sure, I can do that. I will see you then.”
“OK,” he said, hanging up quickly.
The following evening I drove out to Matsqui and the little beach trailer park where Acorn Bob was living. It was a cold evening; heavy clouds hung over the snow-covered mountains. As I drove by and looked at the mountains, I thought about all the secrets that they were hiding. I thought back to my lost friendship that started on this quest (see Seekers of Gold) as I was driving. Images of a giant rock and being pummelled under a waterfall came into my mind. As I approached the little beach resort that was not really a resort but a run-down trailer park next to the now frozen, muddy Hatzic slough, I turned off on a gravel road, looking for the mobile home that was Acorn Bob’s house and I found it tucked away beyond trees in a small frozen forest. A very old Monte Carlo sat in the driveway. I had flash backs of my own Monte Carlo, a car that I drove long ago through the storms of the winter of 1996 after having broken up with that beast I was going out with at the time.
As I pulled into Acorn Bob’s driveway and my headlights lit up his trailer, I saw his shadow at the door. I saw an old man. As I got out of the truck and walked towards the door, I was very nervous. He opened the door.
"Hello, Daryl,” he said, looking at me. He looked frail, but he had a determination in his voice. “Come in,” he said, showing me off to the side of his house and into his office, which was like a collection of things from his life. The room was old, it felt damp and smelled of cigarette smoke. Not that I minded—I was smoking at the time—and when he lit one up, I didn’t mind. I sat down and took one out and had a smoke with Acorn Bob in silence for a few moments.
"Nice to met you, Daryl. You look fatter then in your picture.”
"Thanks. You look older and meaner than you sound.”
He looked at me and started to laugh loudly.
“You can call me Kaiser,” he says now. “Now how the **** did you meet Clayton Gatsby?”
"While I was tracking down everyone about the lost mine, he was the last one I tracked down. It was the winter of 1992. My old prospecting partner Shawn Gryba and I had just finished staking Spindle Canyon and next year was going to be the year of Terrarosa. That was never to happen. But I met Clayton and he told me something. I already knew the location of where Clayton was working from claim charts you could get from the mining office downtown Vancouver. As a matter of fact, I think I have the original claim chart right here.”
I reach into my bag and pull out the map showing it to Kaiser, who looks at it with great wonder.
"You see, Daryl, when Gatsby was going in there, he was using his claim for a front. He was tapping the gold on the other side of Old Pierre Mountain, which is right here. Then he made it look like he was taking gold out of his claim here.”
"Well, he told me about something else that he found when he was in there and he swore me to secrecy and that I could not talk about until he had died.”
"And what might that be?” Kaiser looks at me with a smug look, taking out a cigarette and lighting up.
"Go on, I am listening," he says, sitting back in his chair.
“Well, he told me when he was in there that he found a cave and inside the cave he found bodies. More than one body. There were dead prospectors in there. Gold pans and picks scattered across the floor. He said as he looked around in amazement at what he found he started to feel weak and dizzy, and being a man of underground knowledge he was being poisoned by carbon dioxide. The invisible gas is known to collect in caves. As he looked around he saw skeletons and bones. Was one of these skulls Volcanic Brown’s?
Are these the caves..
He then told me he had a picture and that he could show it to me for only a second. He had an old school slide projector and he showed me one pic very quick and what I saw was a backpack, a ribcage and a skull, as well as what looked like a gold pan. But it was mind blowing and I was convinced he was telling me the truth.”
"That is a great story, Daryl. How many people have you told about this? You should keep your mouth shut from now on," he says, giving me an evil look.
"Want a smoke, Daryl?” he says, grinning and giving me a roll-your-own cigarette.
I was not smoking at the time but I soon cracked and lit it up and man, was it ever good.
"But what I am not convinced of is that Stuart Brown was ever there."
“Yeah, he was,” Kaiser says sounding confident. “Read the letters. There is the one that mentions that he saw vehicles with American plates near the location. Can you drive close to the location on Terrarosa? Do you know a location on Terrarosa?”
"Yes, I do. I met one of Stuart Brown’s old prospecting partners, Rob Nicholson. He showed me the location. It’s a hell of a hike from Fire Lake. He also had an interview with Stuart Brown that tells a hell of a lot. But Stuart acts like he does not know who Jackson is or that Jackson is not important, nor really is the so-called tent-shaped rock. Also an inspection of the Terrarosa location via air recon. Shows it’s not really a canyon, but the quartz and the rust and the rock dam where Stuart claims you can pull nuggets from behind of is there. This location does not look like it was the one found by Jackson. Well, you know there is such a place. If you read his letters (google Stu brown letters Slumach), but you read them close. He was nowhere near Corbold. Why try and take Don Waite in through Fire Lake like he did? Fire Lake is nowhere near Corbold; it’s up over near Terrarosa where he was taking Don...”
"Here we go Don Waite again. I hate that ****er!” Kaiser curses.
"He has the location of the mine right in front of him and he doesn’t even know it. He even took a picture of it and does not know it, the *******. HAHA..." Kaiser laughs. “Don Waite, the backstabber, you know he stabbed Stu Brown in the back in the end too.”
"Yes, I know Stu told him not to publish his letters and he went ahead and did it anyway. Well, you know, it was a huge story to sit on."
"He stabbed him in the back."
“Imagine if he hadn’t. Maybe Stu’s letters never would have got out. Think about how much they have made the legend grow. How they have helped you believe in the lost mine.”
"You have a good point, but Don Waite is still a ****er. He has this ****ing CDROM that has a pic of the location on it? Why has he not gone in for the gold? Like Stu before me I have seen it on stereoscopic photos.”
"Where in Corbold do you think the mine is? Because when you fly over Gatsby’s claim you can clearly see what he saw, and what he saw is what Jackson saw. When Jackson says he buried part of the gold next to a large tent-shaped rock he was telling the truth. When you fly over this location, there is a giant tent-shaped rock in there that you can’t miss. Clayton saw this from the air and concluded it to be Jackson’s location. We have been over it as well. Here is a pic.”
"The location that I have, Daryl,” Kaiser explains, “is on the other side of what is known as Old Pierre Mountain, and tell me why, by accident?” Kaiser asks as he takes a long drag from his cigarette and I do from mine.
"Well before he died Slumach told and drew him a map of where he found the gold. Don Waite’s interview with Amanda Charnley.”
"Yes, I am familiar with Waite *******’s claim to fame.”
“I think the answer is clear: the old Katzie Shaman Peter Pierre was with Slumach in his last days. Old Pierre Mountain is called that because Peter Pierre knew where the gold was. He knew it was Jackson’s canyon below the mountain. But the canyon found by Gatsby is not the main gold vein; it’s over on the other side of the mountain from where you think it is, Daryl.
“When I was flying over the area there was a massive quartz vein on the mountain going over towards your side.”
"I can’t just give up my baby; let’s just say Old Pierre Mountain is the key.”
“You figure it out, you tell me where the mine is. What about the tent-shaped rock? The Bill Cull tent-shaped rock. Is it near your location?” I asked.
To be contuined...
But please watch the vid of the caves mentioned..Just found this summer but not yet explored...
Seekers of Gold-The search for Slumach's Gold by Daryl Friesen
When Seekers of Gold, Chapter 1, was first published on the Internet and I just moved to Joyce Street and was working like mad trying to sell it for a living on the net, I was contacted via e-mail by a mysterious prospector calling himself Acorn Bob and claiming to hold the secret to the location of the Slumach–Jackson Lost Creek gold mine. He then told me he had a skill-testing question to ask me and if I answered it correctly that he would let me further in on the secret... I of course agreed to his terms. The question he then asked me was the following:
When Shotwell went in to search for the gold, what was the name of his partner?
For me this was not much of a question, as I was very familiar with The Golden Mountains, which, I was to learn, was one of Acorn Bob’s Bibles.
My answer to Acron Bob was, "Harrington,"
and I passed his test. The next thing was a phone call from Acorn himself.
"Hello," I answered the phone nervously.
"Hello, Daryl," a very deep, commanding voice said. "I have been following your activities for some time online and I you do get around."
"Well, I have been on the search for most of my life," I answered.
"I see that. Now tell me, Daryl, where do you think the lost mine is?"
"Terrarosa Glacier," was my answer.
"WRONG," he replied.
“You have heard of Stuart Brown, right?” I asked.
"Stuart found something, but it was not where he told that cocksucker Don Waite it was," Acorn said with anger in his voice.
At this point in my life Don Waite was a good friend. He had opened up to me tons about the lost mine and shared his info with me and was in my eyes kind of a mentor. He would of course ruin this down the road. It turned out, as I was to learn, I was not the only one who he would hurt in his own quest to record this legend.
"Don Waite showed me tons of info about the lost mine."
"You know him," Acorn says with mistrust in his voice.
"Yes, I have met him many times, and why do you think Terrarosa is the wrong location?” This was my faith and belief at the time, so hearing doubt about it broke my heart a little.
"I talked to Stuart Brown on the phone myself. I interviewed him. Listen to his voice—does he sound like someone who is not telling the truth? I can play you the conversation if you want," I said.
“Well, let me tell you something, Daryl, what if I told you that Stuart Brown was using Terrarosa Glacier as a front? His real destination was actually Corbold Creek.”
“Corbold,” I said, “that’s where they were first looking for it. W.A. Macdonald,” I said, “the guy who claimed to have found Jackson’s location, but there was no gold in the Corbold area.”
"He was lying. He found gold,” Acorn said.
"I am looking where no one is looking; now that’s not to Stu Brown’s "red herring" Terrarosa Glacier. Also Tiny Allen, the guy who claimed to look down into the canyon and saw a massive tent-shaped rock, as Jackson described. He was looking into Corbold Canyon. As well as Clayton Gatsby.”
When I said the name Clayton Gatsby the line on the phone went silent.
“I met him once,” I then added. Then I remembered it. A secret that I myself had been sitting on since the early winter of 1992.
"Yeah," he said, “and what happened?”
"Well, maybe we should meet in person and discuss it.”
“Listen, Daryl, I will be home tomorrow evening. My address is … blah blah. Can you come out here? My car is having issues.”
“Sure, I can do that. I will see you then.”
“OK,” he said, hanging up quickly.
The following evening I drove out to Matsqui and the little beach trailer park where Acorn Bob was living. It was a cold evening; heavy clouds hung over the snow-covered mountains. As I drove by and looked at the mountains, I thought about all the secrets that they were hiding. I thought back to my lost friendship that started on this quest (see Seekers of Gold) as I was driving. Images of a giant rock and being pummelled under a waterfall came into my mind. As I approached the little beach resort that was not really a resort but a run-down trailer park next to the now frozen, muddy Hatzic slough, I turned off on a gravel road, looking for the mobile home that was Acorn Bob’s house and I found it tucked away beyond trees in a small frozen forest. A very old Monte Carlo sat in the driveway. I had flash backs of my own Monte Carlo, a car that I drove long ago through the storms of the winter of 1996 after having broken up with that beast I was going out with at the time.
As I pulled into Acorn Bob’s driveway and my headlights lit up his trailer, I saw his shadow at the door. I saw an old man. As I got out of the truck and walked towards the door, I was very nervous. He opened the door.
"Hello, Daryl,” he said, looking at me. He looked frail, but he had a determination in his voice. “Come in,” he said, showing me off to the side of his house and into his office, which was like a collection of things from his life. The room was old, it felt damp and smelled of cigarette smoke. Not that I minded—I was smoking at the time—and when he lit one up, I didn’t mind. I sat down and took one out and had a smoke with Acorn Bob in silence for a few moments.
"Nice to met you, Daryl. You look fatter then in your picture.”
"Thanks. You look older and meaner than you sound.”
He looked at me and started to laugh loudly.
“You can call me Kaiser,” he says now. “Now how the **** did you meet Clayton Gatsby?”
"While I was tracking down everyone about the lost mine, he was the last one I tracked down. It was the winter of 1992. My old prospecting partner Shawn Gryba and I had just finished staking Spindle Canyon and next year was going to be the year of Terrarosa. That was never to happen. But I met Clayton and he told me something. I already knew the location of where Clayton was working from claim charts you could get from the mining office downtown Vancouver. As a matter of fact, I think I have the original claim chart right here.”
I reach into my bag and pull out the map showing it to Kaiser, who looks at it with great wonder.
"You see, Daryl, when Gatsby was going in there, he was using his claim for a front. He was tapping the gold on the other side of Old Pierre Mountain, which is right here. Then he made it look like he was taking gold out of his claim here.”
"Well, he told me about something else that he found when he was in there and he swore me to secrecy and that I could not talk about until he had died.”
"And what might that be?” Kaiser looks at me with a smug look, taking out a cigarette and lighting up.
"Go on, I am listening," he says, sitting back in his chair.
“Well, he told me when he was in there that he found a cave and inside the cave he found bodies. More than one body. There were dead prospectors in there. Gold pans and picks scattered across the floor. He said as he looked around in amazement at what he found he started to feel weak and dizzy, and being a man of underground knowledge he was being poisoned by carbon dioxide. The invisible gas is known to collect in caves. As he looked around he saw skeletons and bones. Was one of these skulls Volcanic Brown’s?
Are these the caves..
He then told me he had a picture and that he could show it to me for only a second. He had an old school slide projector and he showed me one pic very quick and what I saw was a backpack, a ribcage and a skull, as well as what looked like a gold pan. But it was mind blowing and I was convinced he was telling me the truth.”
"That is a great story, Daryl. How many people have you told about this? You should keep your mouth shut from now on," he says, giving me an evil look.
"Want a smoke, Daryl?” he says, grinning and giving me a roll-your-own cigarette.
I was not smoking at the time but I soon cracked and lit it up and man, was it ever good.
"But what I am not convinced of is that Stuart Brown was ever there."
“Yeah, he was,” Kaiser says sounding confident. “Read the letters. There is the one that mentions that he saw vehicles with American plates near the location. Can you drive close to the location on Terrarosa? Do you know a location on Terrarosa?”
"Yes, I do. I met one of Stuart Brown’s old prospecting partners, Rob Nicholson. He showed me the location. It’s a hell of a hike from Fire Lake. He also had an interview with Stuart Brown that tells a hell of a lot. But Stuart acts like he does not know who Jackson is or that Jackson is not important, nor really is the so-called tent-shaped rock. Also an inspection of the Terrarosa location via air recon. Shows it’s not really a canyon, but the quartz and the rust and the rock dam where Stuart claims you can pull nuggets from behind of is there. This location does not look like it was the one found by Jackson. Well, you know there is such a place. If you read his letters (google Stu brown letters Slumach), but you read them close. He was nowhere near Corbold. Why try and take Don Waite in through Fire Lake like he did? Fire Lake is nowhere near Corbold; it’s up over near Terrarosa where he was taking Don...”
"Here we go Don Waite again. I hate that ****er!” Kaiser curses.
"He has the location of the mine right in front of him and he doesn’t even know it. He even took a picture of it and does not know it, the *******. HAHA..." Kaiser laughs. “Don Waite, the backstabber, you know he stabbed Stu Brown in the back in the end too.”
"Yes, I know Stu told him not to publish his letters and he went ahead and did it anyway. Well, you know, it was a huge story to sit on."
"He stabbed him in the back."
“Imagine if he hadn’t. Maybe Stu’s letters never would have got out. Think about how much they have made the legend grow. How they have helped you believe in the lost mine.”
"You have a good point, but Don Waite is still a ****er. He has this ****ing CDROM that has a pic of the location on it? Why has he not gone in for the gold? Like Stu before me I have seen it on stereoscopic photos.”
"Where in Corbold do you think the mine is? Because when you fly over Gatsby’s claim you can clearly see what he saw, and what he saw is what Jackson saw. When Jackson says he buried part of the gold next to a large tent-shaped rock he was telling the truth. When you fly over this location, there is a giant tent-shaped rock in there that you can’t miss. Clayton saw this from the air and concluded it to be Jackson’s location. We have been over it as well. Here is a pic.”
"The location that I have, Daryl,” Kaiser explains, “is on the other side of what is known as Old Pierre Mountain, and tell me why, by accident?” Kaiser asks as he takes a long drag from his cigarette and I do from mine.
"Well before he died Slumach told and drew him a map of where he found the gold. Don Waite’s interview with Amanda Charnley.”
"Yes, I am familiar with Waite *******’s claim to fame.”
“I think the answer is clear: the old Katzie Shaman Peter Pierre was with Slumach in his last days. Old Pierre Mountain is called that because Peter Pierre knew where the gold was. He knew it was Jackson’s canyon below the mountain. But the canyon found by Gatsby is not the main gold vein; it’s over on the other side of the mountain from where you think it is, Daryl.
“When I was flying over the area there was a massive quartz vein on the mountain going over towards your side.”
"I can’t just give up my baby; let’s just say Old Pierre Mountain is the key.”
“You figure it out, you tell me where the mine is. What about the tent-shaped rock? The Bill Cull tent-shaped rock. Is it near your location?” I asked.
To be contuined...
But please watch the vid of the caves mentioned..Just found this summer but not yet explored...
Seekers of Gold-The search for Slumach's Gold by Daryl Friesen
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Gold---adventure---mystery---sooooo cool-thanx for the fix this am-John
