As far as I know, there is no gold at Bruderlin's "Seven Shafts". The guy who pointed them out to me knew the family. He was also a miner with claims in the area...he said the "Seven Shafts" were prospect holes for copper or maybe silver, most likely from the same era as the rest of those mines around there (1870's-1920's).
Markmar - What exactly have you obtained to come to that theory? Curious. I've not heard of any other reason for the Wagoner's reasons of being back in there other than his bad health.
Oh there sure is placer gold in the area. I grabbed a few buckets of dirt from the water fall from the History Channel series with Wayne, Woody and Frank, took the buckets home and panned them on my patio. Got about 30 bux worth of specs..... This is from the Hewitt Canyon area.
Yes, hiking well worned trails with a small degree of difficulty. In Wagoner's era were not these trails but only the Military, Indian and animal trails. Modern ( 1875-) miners and ranchers, followed those trails and made them what we know today.
I guess Frank has been correct all along - Hewitt Canyon has the 'shiny' just waiting there...
He came west for the weather and not to hike pulling his lungs out of his mouth.
Which trails do you think wagoner took?? Well worn trails......for sure........ You're trying to act like the Wagoner was some "super hiker in the crazy and wild superstition mountains with lions and skin walkers. Its a wonder he even lived!!" But really........He was just a hiker, supposedly.
I would say - Wagoner took what was easy at the time of his era. There's no reason to think - he did anything extraordinary in his choice of path he took. So - in this thinking, his discovery shouldn't be that far off a main (old) trail.
Even to this day, Red Tanks is not a well worn trail. Wagoner had guts to hike that mountain at that time. For this I wrote he was bold.
No, someone told me.
Yes, Wagoner said his mine was one mile south of the Military trail and one mile west from a spring. Take the cards and share again.
He said that right after he pulled the map out of the suitcase he lugged around "Red Tanks," because, you know....when you doctor tell you to go out west to be healthy, you can't do that w/o bringing suitcases on your hike.
Despite what you believe, these clues were proven true.
Proven? I'm not even going to ask. I don't care. Good luck. I hope to see you on the trail!
I like the way you are stirring the story in regards to fit your imagination. IMHO, he brought the two suitcases only in the last trip, see this would make a good balance in carrying them full.
Forgive me..... may I ask. When is the last time you hiked with a suitcase? More importantly....when is the last time you hiked, period?
It could be possible he "used" a suitcase of some sort (more like a napsack) for the last time and grabbed what he could - knowing he wasn't going back in there. I mean, anything is possbile, but is it probable?
Haha, you are acting like a kid who see a movie and is ready to fight the "bad" actor. You have been sucked by this story.
