Post by Jessie Desmond on May 1, 2015 9:44:50 GMT -9
Unsolved Robbery, Victors Landing.
One of the few unsolved robberies in Alaska took place on the Yukon River. In early 1901 a steamer left Fort Yukon heading down stream with a large shipment of gold. A watchman had been hired to guard the shipment. When the ship reached Victors Landing, the watchman and gold had both disappeared. A search was made and the watchman was found hiding behind the boat landing, Victor, the owner of the landing, was suspected of having planned the theft of the gold with the help of the watchman. Victor had developed some placer claims and it was believed by authorities that he intended to claim the gold came from his deposits. The watchman was taken to Fairbanks and tried for the theft. Although he claimed to be innocent he was given a long jail term. The jury agreed that Victor was innocent and that the watchman must have thrown the gold overboard with some kind of marker near Victors Landing. He evidently planned to retrieve it later. If the jury’s conclusion is correct (and it seems to be the only answer) then somewhere near Victors Landing, under a few feet of water, a fortune in gold is still undiscovered. A diver with metal detecting equipment could get lucky on this one.
________________________________________
Yukon Robbery, Fort Yukon.
Most Alaskan miners were honest about how they obtained their gold, but a few would stop at nothing in their lust to acquire the yellow metal. . . Two such men were Frederick Wright and R.P. Quinn. Both men were disappointed prospectors who in 1907 hatched a plan to hijack a shipment of 83 ounces of dust from the Steamer SEATTLE #3. To this end, both men signed on as deck hands before the steamer left Fort Yukon. The plan was, simply, that they would loot the shipment enroute, and then dispose of it by throwing it in the river, marked with a buoy, just upriver from xxxx Landing. Later, when the ‘heat’ had died down, they could return and recover the gold at their leisure. The first flaw in their plan occurred when xxxx Landing showed up before they were ready. As a result, the bag of dust was quckly collected, cord wrapped, and then thrown overboard. . . so quickly in fact, that the cord attaching the heavy bag to the marker buoy parted even as it was thrown in the river. The second flaw happened when Wright panicked and left the steamer at xxxx Landing. This hasty departure aroused the ships officers suspicions and they quickly discovered the theft of the gold. Of course, Quinn was also suspect since he had often been seen in the company of Wright. With Wright being captured on shore, and Quinn being held aboard the steamer, it didn’t take long for authorities to elicit a confession. . . At the trial, Quinn received five years and Wright only one. Wright even helped deputies search the river for the missing bag of gold. . . but it has never been recovered.
DISTANT JUSTICE also SEWARD WEEKLY GATEWAY newspaper for September 14th, 1907
________________________________________
Hidden Caches, Iditarod.
Iditarod ( now a ghost town ), on the Iditarod River between the Yukon and Kuskowim Rivers, reached a peak population of 2,000 people during the Gold Rush and was widely known as a gambler’s paradise. Over $18.5 million dollars was removed from area mines from 1910 to 1942. Lots of caches are rumored to be hidden nearby.
________________________________________
Lost relics, Anvil Creek.
The legendary Gold Rush of 1898 took place along Anvil Creek, 4 miles N of Nome. A tent city stretching for 15 miles along Nome Beach sprang up. The number of ruins in this area are uncountable and is a paradise for relic and coin cache hunters.
________________________________________
$40,000 Stolen!, Fairbanks.
A guard, on a steamboat carrying $40,000 in gold dust and nuggets, stole the sacks from the ship’s strong room in the 1890’s and buried the gold ashore while the boat was tied up at the Fairbanks
wharf. He was found out, tried and sent to prison where he died without ever recovering the treasure.
________________________________________
Lost in the River, Tanana & Kokrines.
Two men robbed a riverboat steamer of $13,000 in gold dust and nuggets, contained in an iron box, around 1890. Aboard the boat as passengers, they stole the chest from a locked room at night, tied a rope around the chest at one end and a life preserver at the other end. Making careful notes of landmarks, they pushed the chest overboard in the river ( between Tanana and Kokrines ) where the Tanana River joins it. They disembarked at the next rest stop and returned to the site, but could not find the chest. Somehow the life preserver had come loose from the rope and the chest was lost in the river. The men were later captured, but the chest of gold could not be found.
________________________________________
Seal Pirates, Adak Island.
In 1892, $1 million face value of gold coins were buried on the island of Adak by illegal seal pirates. The coins were placed in small food tin cans cached in numerous shallow deposits near the shoreline of the island. Nearly all of the cans have yet to be recovered.
________________________________________
They Never Came Back, St.Elias Mtns.
In 1884, three prospectors traveling across the St. Elias Mtns., near the Yukon River, came to a small lake where they found the bar literally covered with gold nuggets. They stored over 1,000 lbs. in a nearby cave. Indians killed two, one escaped & never returned for the gold.
________________________________________
Northern Marie, Anchorage.
A good sunken treasure ship for divers to investigate is the Northern Marie, which sank with 32 gold bars worth an estimated $820,000 (when gold sold for $35 an ounce) packed in wooden boxes. In 1979, divers managed to retrieve six of the bars, worth over $1,000,000 at that time. The remainder of the gold lies approximately ten miles off the coast of Cape Junkin and off Anchorage County. With the modern methods of salvage today, the other 26 ingots could be recovered.
________________________________________
Government Money Lost In Boating Accident, Eagle.
Travel in Alaska has always been trecherous, and never more so than during the early part of this century.
. . . The following news article appeared in a local Valdez newspaper in the early 1900′s:
"United States Commissioner Graff and party were in town today, after losing several hundred dollars of government money in the rapids on xxxx River. They were on the way from xxxx Creek to xxxx when their boat struck a rock in the rapids and broke into pieces. The party reached shore safely, but lost the money they were carrying."
Editors note* You will have to decide for yourself if you want to go after this one. . . Samuel M. Graff did exist. He was the Commissioner at Jack Wade during 1903. His superior was Judge Wickersham who was stationed in Eagle. Apparently one aspect of Graff’s job was to inspect mines and to issue mining licenses. Graff was eventually dismissed by Judge Wickersham for not issuing a license that had been paid for. Probably the rapids being referred to in the news article is the xxxx Rapids, where boats have met misfortune before. . . Many stories exist of gold miners floating down the xxxx, and losing everything in the rapids. The Valdez News Saturday August 29th, 1903.
________________________________________
Gold Poke Lost on Trail, Kenai.
"An elderly miner named ‘Scotty’ who works for Herndon and Jacobs on xxxx Gulch, lost a poke containing nearly $400 worth of gold dust on the trail from the xxxx Creek roadhouse several days ago. . . He set out from the house early in the morning and didn’t notice the loss until he reached the roadhouse at mile xxxx. He thinks he may have lost it when pulling a plug of tobacco from
his pocket. It has not been found." SEWARD WEEKLY GATEWAY newspaper September 25th, 1909
________________________________________
Gold Found on AK Railroad, Kenai.
During construction of the Alaska Railroad early in this century, much of the land along railroad right of way was closely inspected for minerals. Sometimes, minerals were even discovered by accident, as related in the following news article.
"Railroad employees of the Alaska Central at camp xxxx on the Kenai peninsula made a startling discovery while cleaning ash from their stove. . . . A quartz rock they had picked up and put in the stove to protect the bottom from heat contained much gold. In fact, when crushed, it gave up $4 worth." (editors note* Keep in mind that in 1906 gold was selling for only $12 per oz. Thus, $4 worth of gold would represent approximately 1/3 oz.) "Camp xxxx was located two miles above the glacier, and it is believed that the specimen must have come from the glacial moraine on Mile xxxx just above camp. Other quartz gold specimens have been found in the past along nearby xxxx river"
SEWARD WEEKLY GATEWAY newspaper for August 11th, 1906
________________________________________
Lost Ben French Mine, Valdez.
In the early part of this century a trapper and prospector named Ben French trapped near the headwaters of the Upper xxxx river. . . French was very ‘close mouthed’ as people who live alone sometimes are. Always he would pay for his trapping supplies with gold, but never would say where he got it. French lived a harsh life, and died on his trapline during a blizzard. He was known to own two cabins. One below xxxx mountain on the xxxx and another smaller cabin on the middle fork four miles above its confluence with the main fork. . . . Many oldtimers familiar with this story, believe that somewhere near the headwaters of the xxxx river is a "lost Ben French mine"
________________________________________
The Islander, Stevens Passage.
The steamer ‘Islander’ went down on August 15, 1901 with $3,000,000 in gold onboard between Admiralty and Douglas Islands in Stevens Passage.
________________________________________
John Vial Treasure, Prince Wales Island.
The following treasure could very well be worth searching for. This cache of 18 sacks of gold ore, that was hidden in an Alaskan log cabin by a high grader named John Vial, is in or near the Harris Mine, located on the east coast of Prince of Wales Island, in south coast Alaska. Vial was an Italian who had worked around Juneau, Alaska, before coming to Hollis, the town that served the Harris mine and other mines in the area. Like many miners, Vial did a little high grading when he was working in rich ore. He would pick out rich quartz samples showing free gold. He put these into sacks and hid them under the floor of the log cabin where he lived. In 1927 a rock slide caught Vial and he was hospitalized for over a year. When he returned to work he was too weak to remove the heavy sacks of ore without getting caught. So the cache was left under the cabin. The mine is located on the north side of Harris River, about three-quarters of a mile from the mouth. The cabin was located in the same area. Years later Vial told another prospector about his hidden ore. This man did not try to recover the cache because the mine was considered to be worked out and had been closed, and the cabins had all been torn down. According to the story, somewhere around Vial’s old cabin, near the Harris mine, 18 sacks of high grade gold ore wait to be discovered. A metal detector could find this cache.
________________________________________
Missing Safe Deposit Box, Juneau.
A missing safe deposit box in Juneau is said to contain a number of rare national currency $10 notes from that city, stashed away many years ago by a mine owner
________________________________________
Whiskey Flasks of Gold, Juneau.
"During construction of the xxxx highway near Juneau, workers were astonished to uncover three whiskey flasks full of gold dust and nuggets. Construction came to a standstill as, for a time, the project turned into a treasure hunt." ANCHORAGE TIMES newspaper for September 11th, 1939
________________________________________
Frank, Klondike.
A young prospector, remembered only as "Frank", accumulated a great number of fruit jars full of gold dust and nuggets during the gold rush in the Klondike around 1897. He took a dozen jars home with him on a trip to Welsh Hill, PA, but when he returned to the Klondike he mysteriously died. His intentions had been to pick up the remaining fruit jars filled with gold and sell his claim near Dawson. The jars must still be there.
________________________________________
The Otter, Southeast.
The Otter was on a trading expedition in Southeast Alaska carrying goods for Tlingit Indians when her lookout spotted what appeared to be a log floating out to sea, but as the vessel grew closer, he could tell it was a canoe and inside the canoe the figure of a man. Seamen from the Otter brought the unconscious man onboard. In his pocket was a small poke containing gold - $1,500 worth - a small fortune in 1867. As Fred Culver got his strength back, he told how Indians had killed his partner and that he barely made it to the canoe they had hidden along shore, but not before he had been wounded.
One of the few unsolved robberies in Alaska took place on the Yukon River. In early 1901 a steamer left Fort Yukon heading down stream with a large shipment of gold. A watchman had been hired to guard the shipment. When the ship reached Victors Landing, the watchman and gold had both disappeared. A search was made and the watchman was found hiding behind the boat landing, Victor, the owner of the landing, was suspected of having planned the theft of the gold with the help of the watchman. Victor had developed some placer claims and it was believed by authorities that he intended to claim the gold came from his deposits. The watchman was taken to Fairbanks and tried for the theft. Although he claimed to be innocent he was given a long jail term. The jury agreed that Victor was innocent and that the watchman must have thrown the gold overboard with some kind of marker near Victors Landing. He evidently planned to retrieve it later. If the jury’s conclusion is correct (and it seems to be the only answer) then somewhere near Victors Landing, under a few feet of water, a fortune in gold is still undiscovered. A diver with metal detecting equipment could get lucky on this one.
________________________________________
Yukon Robbery, Fort Yukon.
Most Alaskan miners were honest about how they obtained their gold, but a few would stop at nothing in their lust to acquire the yellow metal. . . Two such men were Frederick Wright and R.P. Quinn. Both men were disappointed prospectors who in 1907 hatched a plan to hijack a shipment of 83 ounces of dust from the Steamer SEATTLE #3. To this end, both men signed on as deck hands before the steamer left Fort Yukon. The plan was, simply, that they would loot the shipment enroute, and then dispose of it by throwing it in the river, marked with a buoy, just upriver from xxxx Landing. Later, when the ‘heat’ had died down, they could return and recover the gold at their leisure. The first flaw in their plan occurred when xxxx Landing showed up before they were ready. As a result, the bag of dust was quckly collected, cord wrapped, and then thrown overboard. . . so quickly in fact, that the cord attaching the heavy bag to the marker buoy parted even as it was thrown in the river. The second flaw happened when Wright panicked and left the steamer at xxxx Landing. This hasty departure aroused the ships officers suspicions and they quickly discovered the theft of the gold. Of course, Quinn was also suspect since he had often been seen in the company of Wright. With Wright being captured on shore, and Quinn being held aboard the steamer, it didn’t take long for authorities to elicit a confession. . . At the trial, Quinn received five years and Wright only one. Wright even helped deputies search the river for the missing bag of gold. . . but it has never been recovered.
DISTANT JUSTICE also SEWARD WEEKLY GATEWAY newspaper for September 14th, 1907
________________________________________
Hidden Caches, Iditarod.
Iditarod ( now a ghost town ), on the Iditarod River between the Yukon and Kuskowim Rivers, reached a peak population of 2,000 people during the Gold Rush and was widely known as a gambler’s paradise. Over $18.5 million dollars was removed from area mines from 1910 to 1942. Lots of caches are rumored to be hidden nearby.
________________________________________
Lost relics, Anvil Creek.
The legendary Gold Rush of 1898 took place along Anvil Creek, 4 miles N of Nome. A tent city stretching for 15 miles along Nome Beach sprang up. The number of ruins in this area are uncountable and is a paradise for relic and coin cache hunters.
________________________________________
$40,000 Stolen!, Fairbanks.
A guard, on a steamboat carrying $40,000 in gold dust and nuggets, stole the sacks from the ship’s strong room in the 1890’s and buried the gold ashore while the boat was tied up at the Fairbanks
wharf. He was found out, tried and sent to prison where he died without ever recovering the treasure.
________________________________________
Lost in the River, Tanana & Kokrines.
Two men robbed a riverboat steamer of $13,000 in gold dust and nuggets, contained in an iron box, around 1890. Aboard the boat as passengers, they stole the chest from a locked room at night, tied a rope around the chest at one end and a life preserver at the other end. Making careful notes of landmarks, they pushed the chest overboard in the river ( between Tanana and Kokrines ) where the Tanana River joins it. They disembarked at the next rest stop and returned to the site, but could not find the chest. Somehow the life preserver had come loose from the rope and the chest was lost in the river. The men were later captured, but the chest of gold could not be found.
________________________________________
Seal Pirates, Adak Island.
In 1892, $1 million face value of gold coins were buried on the island of Adak by illegal seal pirates. The coins were placed in small food tin cans cached in numerous shallow deposits near the shoreline of the island. Nearly all of the cans have yet to be recovered.
________________________________________
They Never Came Back, St.Elias Mtns.
In 1884, three prospectors traveling across the St. Elias Mtns., near the Yukon River, came to a small lake where they found the bar literally covered with gold nuggets. They stored over 1,000 lbs. in a nearby cave. Indians killed two, one escaped & never returned for the gold.
________________________________________
Northern Marie, Anchorage.
A good sunken treasure ship for divers to investigate is the Northern Marie, which sank with 32 gold bars worth an estimated $820,000 (when gold sold for $35 an ounce) packed in wooden boxes. In 1979, divers managed to retrieve six of the bars, worth over $1,000,000 at that time. The remainder of the gold lies approximately ten miles off the coast of Cape Junkin and off Anchorage County. With the modern methods of salvage today, the other 26 ingots could be recovered.
________________________________________
Government Money Lost In Boating Accident, Eagle.
Travel in Alaska has always been trecherous, and never more so than during the early part of this century.
. . . The following news article appeared in a local Valdez newspaper in the early 1900′s:
"United States Commissioner Graff and party were in town today, after losing several hundred dollars of government money in the rapids on xxxx River. They were on the way from xxxx Creek to xxxx when their boat struck a rock in the rapids and broke into pieces. The party reached shore safely, but lost the money they were carrying."
Editors note* You will have to decide for yourself if you want to go after this one. . . Samuel M. Graff did exist. He was the Commissioner at Jack Wade during 1903. His superior was Judge Wickersham who was stationed in Eagle. Apparently one aspect of Graff’s job was to inspect mines and to issue mining licenses. Graff was eventually dismissed by Judge Wickersham for not issuing a license that had been paid for. Probably the rapids being referred to in the news article is the xxxx Rapids, where boats have met misfortune before. . . Many stories exist of gold miners floating down the xxxx, and losing everything in the rapids. The Valdez News Saturday August 29th, 1903.
________________________________________
Gold Poke Lost on Trail, Kenai.
"An elderly miner named ‘Scotty’ who works for Herndon and Jacobs on xxxx Gulch, lost a poke containing nearly $400 worth of gold dust on the trail from the xxxx Creek roadhouse several days ago. . . He set out from the house early in the morning and didn’t notice the loss until he reached the roadhouse at mile xxxx. He thinks he may have lost it when pulling a plug of tobacco from
his pocket. It has not been found." SEWARD WEEKLY GATEWAY newspaper September 25th, 1909
________________________________________
Gold Found on AK Railroad, Kenai.
During construction of the Alaska Railroad early in this century, much of the land along railroad right of way was closely inspected for minerals. Sometimes, minerals were even discovered by accident, as related in the following news article.
"Railroad employees of the Alaska Central at camp xxxx on the Kenai peninsula made a startling discovery while cleaning ash from their stove. . . . A quartz rock they had picked up and put in the stove to protect the bottom from heat contained much gold. In fact, when crushed, it gave up $4 worth." (editors note* Keep in mind that in 1906 gold was selling for only $12 per oz. Thus, $4 worth of gold would represent approximately 1/3 oz.) "Camp xxxx was located two miles above the glacier, and it is believed that the specimen must have come from the glacial moraine on Mile xxxx just above camp. Other quartz gold specimens have been found in the past along nearby xxxx river"
SEWARD WEEKLY GATEWAY newspaper for August 11th, 1906
________________________________________
Lost Ben French Mine, Valdez.
In the early part of this century a trapper and prospector named Ben French trapped near the headwaters of the Upper xxxx river. . . French was very ‘close mouthed’ as people who live alone sometimes are. Always he would pay for his trapping supplies with gold, but never would say where he got it. French lived a harsh life, and died on his trapline during a blizzard. He was known to own two cabins. One below xxxx mountain on the xxxx and another smaller cabin on the middle fork four miles above its confluence with the main fork. . . . Many oldtimers familiar with this story, believe that somewhere near the headwaters of the xxxx river is a "lost Ben French mine"
________________________________________
The Islander, Stevens Passage.
The steamer ‘Islander’ went down on August 15, 1901 with $3,000,000 in gold onboard between Admiralty and Douglas Islands in Stevens Passage.
________________________________________
John Vial Treasure, Prince Wales Island.
The following treasure could very well be worth searching for. This cache of 18 sacks of gold ore, that was hidden in an Alaskan log cabin by a high grader named John Vial, is in or near the Harris Mine, located on the east coast of Prince of Wales Island, in south coast Alaska. Vial was an Italian who had worked around Juneau, Alaska, before coming to Hollis, the town that served the Harris mine and other mines in the area. Like many miners, Vial did a little high grading when he was working in rich ore. He would pick out rich quartz samples showing free gold. He put these into sacks and hid them under the floor of the log cabin where he lived. In 1927 a rock slide caught Vial and he was hospitalized for over a year. When he returned to work he was too weak to remove the heavy sacks of ore without getting caught. So the cache was left under the cabin. The mine is located on the north side of Harris River, about three-quarters of a mile from the mouth. The cabin was located in the same area. Years later Vial told another prospector about his hidden ore. This man did not try to recover the cache because the mine was considered to be worked out and had been closed, and the cabins had all been torn down. According to the story, somewhere around Vial’s old cabin, near the Harris mine, 18 sacks of high grade gold ore wait to be discovered. A metal detector could find this cache.
________________________________________
Missing Safe Deposit Box, Juneau.
A missing safe deposit box in Juneau is said to contain a number of rare national currency $10 notes from that city, stashed away many years ago by a mine owner
________________________________________
Whiskey Flasks of Gold, Juneau.
"During construction of the xxxx highway near Juneau, workers were astonished to uncover three whiskey flasks full of gold dust and nuggets. Construction came to a standstill as, for a time, the project turned into a treasure hunt." ANCHORAGE TIMES newspaper for September 11th, 1939
________________________________________
Frank, Klondike.
A young prospector, remembered only as "Frank", accumulated a great number of fruit jars full of gold dust and nuggets during the gold rush in the Klondike around 1897. He took a dozen jars home with him on a trip to Welsh Hill, PA, but when he returned to the Klondike he mysteriously died. His intentions had been to pick up the remaining fruit jars filled with gold and sell his claim near Dawson. The jars must still be there.
________________________________________
The Otter, Southeast.
The Otter was on a trading expedition in Southeast Alaska carrying goods for Tlingit Indians when her lookout spotted what appeared to be a log floating out to sea, but as the vessel grew closer, he could tell it was a canoe and inside the canoe the figure of a man. Seamen from the Otter brought the unconscious man onboard. In his pocket was a small poke containing gold - $1,500 worth - a small fortune in 1867. As Fred Culver got his strength back, he told how Indians had killed his partner and that he barely made it to the canoe they had hidden along shore, but not before he had been wounded.