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THE OTHER LOST Cabin story involves a miner who decided that, rather than wandering all over the backcountry digging holes and hoping to find gold in them, he’d dig someplace where he KNEW he’d find gold: In the strongbox chained to a Wells Fargo & Co. stagecoach. This miner — whose name I have not been able to learn — was in Boise City when he somehow learned that a particular stagecoach would be transporting a big haul of cash and gold along a trail that ran through country he knew well. The temptation was apparently just too much for him. So a few days before the run, he saddled up, loaded his pack horse with provisions and equipment as if going into the mountains to prospect, and told everyone he knew that he was headed into the wild country around Silver City to look for gold. A few miles outside town, he turned around and headed back to the stage road, to a spot at the base of a steep climb where he knew he could stop the stage. The coach got there just around dusk, and the miner got the drop on the driver easily. He tied him up securely and gagged him, tied the team to a tree, and then used his miner’s pick to “prospect” in the strongbox. Not surprisingly, he immediately struck pay dirt. The robber loaded down his pack horse with 100 pounds of gold, stuffed all the banknotes in his pockets, and slipped away, leaving the driver helpless. The next day, the coach having failed to arrive, riders went out to search, and easily found the tied-up driver. But they were almost too late. It was late afternoon on a very hot day, and he had been lying in the scorching sun all day. He very nearly died, and was too delirious to say anything for several days as he recovered. By this time, the robber was in The Dalles, prospecting around a bit to maintain his cover, and keeping an eye on the Boise newspapers whenever he could. In this way, he learned that a partner of his, who had set out on a prospecting trip a day or two after he had, had been arrested for the robbery. Then the partner was convicted and sentenced to eight years for it. Conscience-stricken, the robber nearly decided to give himself up; but instead, he went into the mountains and built himself a little cabin and lived in it as a hermit. The stolen gold he cached under a stump nearby. After half a dozen or so years of total solitude, the robber emerged, and traveled back to Boise City. There he found that no one remembered him or suspected him of anything, and his partner’s prison term was nearly up. But before the robber could do anything else, he got very sick. On his very deathbed, he wrote out a confession, exonerating his partner and giving detailed directions for finding the stump under which he’d stashed the stolen gold. The problem was, the directions started from the cabin door; and he didn’t mention where the cabin was. All anyone knew was that it was somewhere in the mountains of northwest Oregon. This kicked off a miniature gold rush in The Dalles and points east. But, so far as is known, nobody ever did manage to figure out where the robber’s secret cabin was. The cabin, of course, is long gone. But the possibility remains that somewhere up there in the High Cascades, under the forest duff where 150 years ago a tree grew, nearly $3 million worth of gold ingots are nestled snugly in the dirt.
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