Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1896-11-06
1Fa9hin9ton Stau((ara
WORK OF 4 NAN-MOLE.
Mysterious Doinga in q Gulch Near
San Francisco.
a Lone Digger VII" las Uoncvcombed
the CANON WIKI Ills INcayaiions,
All Of " n Have i:cci. S.1dc
lUrta.- H.. -f.-ft-

'r.~... ;if'.,1 mi, - from IAN fran
".-.' L.i hi,!3. II ia ;i.- I,l,a.rc of sur
rounding trees. nesting lchiud The tir-
crowned r.d-t, and ROCKY canyons Of
grim Tana. pals. are Tho fvw scattered
ranch houses which. in the ubiquit-
Gus saloon. constitute the little VIII
lage Of Larll>pur, says the san Fran
cisco Examiner. The road runs along
the bottom Uf the canyon. almost hid
den hy the overhanginr redwood trees,
I'll II lncr-eS into Il mere cattle trail
This wild canyon is known locally as
baltimore pulch.
For fly" wears at least. rs vuuchcd for
10y actual oi~trvatioa. an aged human
mole. III the stiIl watches Of the night.
has silently narrowed and dclved in
the rich brown earth until the sides Of
the canyon are literally honcycombed
with his tunnels and cavcrnS. His
work is carried on always by night,
either by the light of the moon or by
the will-o'- thc-wisp-lillc flicker Of a
rusty lantern. These caves mount up
into the hundreds always near the
roots of 4 tree, some fully fifteen feet
IN circumference and ten feet deep.
The bigger holes are carefully fenced
around with long redwood poles,
around which dead ferns and grass are
twisted, and at the bottom is cross.
Other and smaller holes or caves under
the roots of giant rcdwoods are I'M
s.nced, but filled in with loose earth
9at heaps of dead brush. These, too,
contain the mystic cross. Always the
cross. --t....-. ~, $50, st.{
For five long years this man gopher
has been digging, toiling. Sometimes
working for several days continuous
~, at other times only appearing at
long intervals, nobody has seen him at
work, and what he hopes to find
nobody knows, for no one has watched
him or listened to his midnight mutter-
ings.
A visit to the scene of these mysteri-
Gus holes was made by an Examiner
correspondent one day recently. 1t
was hard trip through the dense
chaparral and closely growing trees.
Hundreds of the filled-in excavations
We're visible, of all shapes and sizes
and in every position. Near one, on
freshly dug earth, footprints were
visible, by another an old sieve was
found nodded with age and exposure.'
Poles, stripped of bark, and masses of
dead brush were seen piled around the
remains of former excavations
A resident of Sausalito, and keen
sportsman, has explored the gulch
thoroughly and has often pondered
over the meaning of the holes, of
whose existence he will testify to. No
body knows where the mysterious
deliver comes from or where he goes
when his nights toll is over Few
have seen him come or go, and those
that have describe him as a wriikled.
bent and weather-beaten old man,
with long white hair and beard. 1t is
hard to find the exact location of these
places unless one stumbled on them
by accident, for though they cover q
vast amount of territory they are hid
den by the dense vegetation. Only q
few days ago his light was seen wan
dering about the hill. ~ - -, -
The labor and expense consequent to
remove such tons Of earth alone and
single-handed, as he has done, and the
care and precision with which the
poles are set around the freshly dug
holes. with the cross always in the
bottom, all done in the dampness and
darkness of night, suggest that there
is some treasure worth hunting for.
About six years ago a man driven
crazy with cancer on the brain wan
dered into the mountainous regions
around Tamalpais and his body was fl
nally found by campers, who had lost
their way, lying in the roots of large
redwood tree. He had come from Lodi,
and Coroner Eden maintains he was
poor, but more than one man tells a
story of his wanderings in there with
twenty-five thousand dollars which he
must have buried, or it may yet be ly-
ing in some rotting sack scattered in
careless profusion amid the rankly
growing herbage.
This may then be the secret Of the
human gopher's' strange work, but the
question still remains unanswered:
why: the cross? ....----.-:.-.S<-a -