Where is the lost Treasure in the Cement gold mine?
During the 1850s, it was very common for men and teams
to travel westward close to California especially, in the search of gold. Two
German men were on such a mission with a group of other prospectors when they
decided to separate from the group and go their own way. They came to the area
of Mono Lake, in northern California, when the two men, weary from their
travels, stopped to rest by a small stream. They were very close to the Owens
River when one man noticed a ledge, made from red lava nearby and inside that
ledge was a lump of gold ore that seemed to have cemented itself together.
There was so much gold cemented within the ledge
however that one of the men didn’t believe that it was real gold. The man who
knew treasure when he saw it spent much time pounding away at the gold. His
efforts were rewarded with approximately ten pounds of the gold to take with
him. He also drew a map of the area, for he was determined to come back and
retrieve the rest of the treasure. The man who did not believe that the gold was
real soon became sick and died along the way of their journey. The man who held
onto the gold was in fine health momentarily however, the gold became too heavy
for him to keep carrying around with him so he tossed it along the rest of his
way.
When he arrived in Millerton, California, he became
very ill as well and needed to make his way to San Francisco in the hopes of
receiving medical help. Once in San Francisco, he was diagnosed as having
tuberculosis by a man named Dr. Randall. The man however, had no money to pay
for his treatment and was far too sick to be travelling back to the gold to
retrieve more. As payment for the treatment Dr. Randall gave him, the man gave
him what little gold he had and the map that he had drawn of how to get to the
location.
In 1861 Dr. Randall called together a few people to
come and help him find the treasure. Randall’s group, which grew in numbers once
the prospecting began and their focus was mainly on the area known as Pumice
Flat. People began to learn of the cement gold treasure that lay in wait for
someone to discover it and soon, many hunters were combing the area trying to be
the first to find the gold that looks like cement.
Some believe that two men from Dr. Randall’s group
did in fact find the treasure and had it on them when they died. It was a bad
time to be in the area. The Owen Valley Indian War had just begun and the
Indians weren’t happy that the white men were coming to find camp all around
their land. Some Indians who were particularly angry with these men found the
two men from Dr. Randall’s group who had found the treasure and had them killed.
Of course, these men died before they could reveal where the gold-filled ledge
sat.
The treasure is thought to still be there today.
Given details from the story, it’s thought to be located near the particularly
dense woods near the headwaters of the Sierra Mountain.
