The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1911-05-12
BLUE BUCKET NINE
MAY NEVER BE FOUND

VIII the faDled Blue Bucket mine
ever become more than a legend OF
eastern Oregon? Will the fabulous
wealth it is said to hold ever be un-
earthed?
This question is half century
old, and more. yet prospectors are
still -rying to answer it. The Blue
Bucket mine was one never found,
never located. and yet more people
are said to have hunted for it than
went in quest of the Holy Grail.
Railroads are building into cent
raj Oregon, taking thousands of set
tiers into the new territory, adding
to the number of visionary pros
pectors who hope to find 1t. They
will chase this will-o'-the wisp as
long as the story Is told OF the
Blue Bucket, the mine that neve,
was.
Briefly, this is what the newcom-
er heard around the compfires and
at the farm house tables of Grant
county. In the late '40s and early
sos. when people were going
through central Oregon, it is said
that one outfit passed that had a
blue bucket tied to the rear axle of
the wagon. 1t was used by the par
ty to dip up water and the children
took it to gather pebbles in their
play along the way.
When the outfit reached it's des-
tination in California and united the
bucket. it was partly filled with!
nuggets that were nearly pure gold.
Where had they been picked up? 1t
was finally decided that the children
had last used the bucket in the
Grant County section, and that the
nuggets had been gathered on Can
yon or Dixie creek or some near
by stream, or perhaps in crossing
the John Day river That party and
other parties and individual pros
peetors without end have ever since
been trying to locate the Blue Buc-
ket mine.
Fortunes have been lost, murders
committed, regulations shattered,
families separated, hopes blighted,
death has taken q heavy toll of the
thousands who have gone in search
of this phantom--this will-o'-the-
wisp, this something that never was,
and may never be.
And the search still goes on. Many
persons maintain they are absolutely
sure they know where to find the
mother lode from which came these
tabled nuggets. More than one has
lost fortune in QUILTING and
hunting. Another, woman, has
gone crazy over the same subject,
and in the prisons, poorhouses and
asylums are those who Joined at one
time or another the horde of seek
ers for the treasure.
Will it ever be found? Did 1t ever
exist? Who knows?
The placers of the Canyon Creek
section have turned out over $685.
100000 since the early gold discov-
cries in that section. The John Day
valley was first settled by people
brought there by the lure of gold,
and many acres OF land are covered
with boulders, remnants Of the old
placer days, when every foot OF
earth was washed away down to bed
rock to CLEAN the yellow particles
from the soil and gravel hiding it.
The mother lode, where supposed
ly all this placer gold came from
has never been found In
the placer ground of Canyon creek
and other creeks the outcropping of
the phantom Blue Bucket and did
these children at play really stumble
upon an Ell Dorado, since lost, that
was the richest gold deposit of the
Northwest country?
Thousands Of people are sure this
is true and that they will find it
tomorrow, ever tomorrow.-Mining
Record.