Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1886-1927, 1903-11-05
HISTORY IS OVERLOOKED
First Gold Discovered on Pacific
Coast Was Found In Oregon.

lne following artlCle ON tne famous
"Blue Bucket" mine appeared in Sun
days Oregonian;
History records the fact that gold
was first discovered ON the Pacific
Coast by John Marshall. at Suffers S
mill, in what is now El Dorado
County, California, in ls4S.
As matter of fact gold was found
by an immigrant train on the old
Steve Meek's Cut-of, in Crook or
Harney county in Eastern Oregon,
between the Malheur and Deschutes
rivers in 1916. This fact can be yet suf-
ciently attested by living witnesses.
The Native Sons and Daughters of
Oregon should see to 1t that such is
done in honor to their state.
Before touching upon the story of
ha lost Blue Bucket diggings, wish
to remark that l am aware that any
man, woman or child, norgo, Indian
or Chinese who attempts to particu-
larize either as to the supposed
location of this lost mine, or as to the
quantity OF gold will rise storm of
protest and contest, such as no man
would desire. Personally the writer
has investigated at least two score of
versions of both, and no two of them
agree in detail, but all correspond in
the essential fact, that gold was ac-
tually found.
In giving my version of the Blue
Bucket diggings, as they are familiar
ly called, will explain how it comes
to me and by whom. My grandfather
and his family were in the train that
broke the trail afterward known as
Meek's Cut.Of. My father was at
TIA time a boy IA years of age. He
told me the full particulars in a
different country, having permanently
removed from Oregon in 1869 1t was
not the .rain he was in that found the
gold, but one following them, aud he
repeated to me from memory. the
story as told at the time, being un-
mixed with versions of modern years.
The train encamped on small
stream somewhat along the rim of the
Harney Basin, there being hills to
the northward and the level
stretch of the desert to the south. A
freshet had sluiced out the gulch,
leaving the bed rock bare. A lady
passing over this bare bed rock,
picked up some pieces of yellow metal
and came into camp, carrying it in
her apron, and called attention to it.
No one seemed to know what it was,
and when she was asked how much
of the metal she could have picked up
if size wished, she pointed to a wood
en- water bucket painted blue and
replied she thought she could have
picked up that bucket full in a little
while; hence the name given this
lost mine, 1.-THE Blue Bucket dig
9ings
The suggestion being made by some
that it might be gold brought the
wise man to the fore He is ever with
us, and it is upon these special ocoa.
sions that he is wont to exhibit his
marvellous wisdom. He explained
that gold and silver were the only
metals that had natural ring to
them. (he had evidently forgotten that
it was the alloy in coin that gave it
its "ring. - He forthwith hammered
a piece out fat upon the wagon tire
and tested it for the ring As it would
not ring he promptly pronounced it
brass; Che had evidently also forgot
ten that brass was not specific
metal, but composition) hence some
times called the Wagon Tire diggings
Some Of this gold found its way in
to the Willamette valley, being pre-
served as curios, but it was not until
after the discovery Of gold in Califor-
MIA that those people knew what they
had found and lost upon the old inn
migration trail
The old Blue Bucket has not been
re-discovereJ A much-credited YER
sion that Canyon City was the place
is undoubtedly orroneouI After a
personal examination of the country,
1 am confident upon this point
Another error made by these old
pioneers, and it is still extant, is the
confounding Of Crooked River with
the John Day River They struck
Crooked River near Prinevillo and
mistook it for the John Day They
did not touch the John Day, leaving
it to the north and eastward OF their
route. JOHN. l.. RIGGS.
Merlin, Ore, Oct 20, 1903.