In the winter of 1880 there
were three prospectors prospecting two miles north of what would later become
known as Dead Man Camp…as they were working, the sky threatened an oncoming
blizzard so they quickly looked around for shelter…seeing a small opening in a
rock wall across the canyon, they made their way through the opening, lighting
several torches. Though the passageway was narrow and less than four feet high,
they were surprised to see that it opened up into a large room…shining the light
around, one of them found the first of five skeletons scattered around the
dusty, dark cavern… While exploring the cavern, they located several tight passageways
extending into the mountain…choosing one, they followed the tunnel deeper into
the mountain until it too, opened up into a large vault-like chamber…it was
there that they were shocked to discover that the stone was actually a crude
bar of gold…after the threat of snow had passed, the three gathered up five of
the bars and headed into a nearby town to have the bars assayed, where the bars
were appraised at $900 apiece… they made plans to return to Dead Man's Cave in
the spring….in the early spring, they made their way back to Dead Man Cave…they
thought the cave would be easy to find again but when they returned, there were
many places that looked the same as the area in which the cave containing the
gold had been found...over the years, they kept going back to the area but they
never again found the cave…to this day, the gold has never been found.
