White Salmon, WA gold cache

[Tuberale]

Fd. this while searching Oregon Historical Newspapers online. The original has been scanned the the digital image "interpreted" by a computer. Which accounts for some of the odd spellings. Of course, the best source would be to get the original copy and read it for yourself.<G>

From: March 25, 1913 Medford Mail Tribune (Medford, OR), p 4

INDIAN BURIES GOLD
DAMS FLOOD CACHE
WIHTR SALMON, Wn., March SB.
Jnko Hunt, nn aged Indian Is to
day mourning the loss of $1,000 in
gold which he buried in the riverbnnk
at a point just above tho Northwest
ern Klcctrtc eomiwny's dam. After
six mouths absence Jake rode in on
)Mny for more ''chlknmin," he found
that his money was under one hun
dred feet of water.

Hope someone can find this, and more importantly, remember where they heard it from.<G>

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

DR.ÖTEK Metal Detector, Waterproof Gold Detector, Pinpoint & Terrain Modes, Professional Metal Detector - Grab it through Amazon!

[airborne1092]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condit_Hydroelectric_Project

This dam was breeched at the end of October, 2011.

The cache would be at approx. 45.770520, -121.537929

I would be curious to see an aerial photo of the place now, and also perhaps one could find a nautical map from a local bait shop, that would have soundings indicated for depth.

Good luck!

 

[I_Love_Gollld]

Interesting find. I found some before and after photos of the dam and it looks like the part where the lake used to be is pretty mucky. It'd be pretty hard to find a cache in there from the looks of it.

However, I got to thinking about the lower part, underneath the dam after it was breached. This type of flood event could cause some serious re-population of placer gold deposits... assuming there is placer gold in White Salmon River. The river does show up in the Washington State Gold and Fish pamphlet, but other than that I can't find much info on it. Check out google earth at the first couple of bends in the river below the old dam - looks very promising (again, if there is gold in this river)

Maybe someone can chime in if they know of gold in White Salmon River? Thanks

 

[Tuberale]

This was a gold cache, not a placer deposit: not a lost alluvial concentration of naturally-occurring gold, but an intention deposition of gold buried by Jnko (or Jake) Hunt. It would make little difference whether gold had been found in that locale before. The price of gold in 1913 was worth around $21/ounce. $1000 in gold would therefore be worth considerably more today with gold at $1700/ounce. $1000 in gold @ $21/ounce in 1913 would equate to over 41 ounces of gold. At today's bullion prices that cache should be worth $70,000 or more, depending on the price of gold at the moment.

 

[I_Love_Gollld]

Hey Tuberale, I think you may have missed my point. Let me see if I can clarify:

I understand your post about the lost gold cache. What I'm saying is if you look at pictures online of where the lake used to be prior to when they breached the dam, there's about 100 years of silt piled up and it may prove to be difficult to find this buried cache.

Now, let's say you scoured the entire area and were unable to find the buried cache.

My thought is that there may be naturally occurring placer deposits downstream from the dam. Typically flood events cause new deposits of placer gold. The flood event would be the breach of the dam.

To summarize, there could be two treasures here - not just one.

Do you have any plans to try and locate the cache?

 

[Tuberale]

White Salmon River does drain some modest gold deposits. But as you point out the silt will have to be eroded before new concentrations become available. Some flooding this winter. The gold in this area seems to be rather fine, so it may be well out into the Columbia River by now.

Will I be looking for the cache? Anything's possible. Have a friend with a 2-box that should get a good signal from 41 ounces of gold in one spot.

I'm kind of wondering whether Jnko or Jake hid gold dust/nuggets, bullion, or coins myself. If coins, might be worth looking into.

 

[I_Love_Gollld]

The article you posted does say "that his money was under one hundred feet of water".. by "money" maybe they mean gold double eagles? That would be pretty sweet!

Definitely more research needed to validate the story though. I'll see if I can dig anything up in old local newspapers at the library from around that time. I'm guessing maybe the Seattle Times or Portland newspapers might give a little more detail. I'm intrigued!

 

[NWHunter61]

Here is some good additional information and clues on the subject...I am in Yakima...so when you go let me know!

Have to wonder a bit about the 6 months and the dam thing though. Surely if he was local he would have known the dam was going in...there at least should have been activity on the site to have a fully functioning dam in place with a 100 ft. deep lake a mere 6 months later...Heck...here in Yakima they cant even build a one lane bridge in 6 months


http://www.findmall.com/read.php?18,1572710,1573213