Recently, I recieved a pm from one of my fine readers, asking if I knew of any lost treasures in San Bernardino, CA. Well, I had to admit that I didn't know of any IN San Bernardino, but he caused me to remember one near S.B.
It was about 1964 when I met and became friends with an Apache family living in N. Elmonte, CA. James, the youngest of the male members of the family and I enjoyed panning together in Lytle Creek and at Morman Bar.
One evening, we were sitting by our camp-fire and he told me a story of a "ledge" of gold. It went something like this:
Back in the early 1900s, Native Americans (Indians) were not considered citizens of the USA. Then the Government gave them a way to become "Citizens". Enlist in the military and upon your discharge, you would automatically become a US Citizen.
At that time, there was a local Tribal Chief who (as normal) saw that the needs of his Tribe were taken care of. To carry out his obligations, periodically, he would go alone into the San Gabriel Mountains. A couple of days later, he'd return with a chunk of gold weighing about 5 pounds. He was always escorted to the mouth of a canyon by several warriors, who would wait, making sure no one followed him into the canyon. He was the only one that knew the location of this rich source of gold. He had been shown the location by his father, as had his father before him.
Anyway, when the US became involved in the war overseas, the Chief enlisted in the Army. Before he shipped out, he took his eldest son with him on his last trip into the canyon. In case he didn't survive the fighting, his son would become the hereditary Chief of the Tribe and it would be his responsibility to maintain the secret, and provide for the Tribe.
A couple of years later, the Chief's family recieved notification from the Government that the Chief was "missing in action and presumed dead".
I guess the son of the Chief had no need to go to the canyon for a couple of years, but when he did need to buy supplies for the Tribe, he set out with 5 or 6 warriors just as his father had done. He left the warriors to guard the entrance of the canyon and went on up. After an absence of 4 days, the warriors were beginning to fear that something had happened to him and were discussing who would go into the canyon to try to find him. (A hard decision, since they were forbidden to enter the canyon).
Shortly before dark, the young Chief showed up. He explained that he had spent the time looking for the gold, but evidently, there had been an earthquake in the last couple of years, which had buried the gold under tons of boulders and destroyed all of the land-marks his father had showed him.
So, somewhere in Sphinx Canyon, behind Ontario, CA, there is a rich 'ledge' of gold just waiting for the right person or circumstances to be found again.
From Google Earth, I can see that there has been a lot of building going on. I wonder if there's a house sitting on top of one of the richest gold veins in CA??
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