Mohave County miner., 1911-05-27
Mines That Never Was.
Editor MoHAvE COUNTY MINER;

treatise upon the "Blue Bucket Dig gings" as they are called in all the traditions of the north west.
 Since your article is copied from the Mining Record you cannot be held for it's imperfections, so for your informa- tion I will make a brief statement of the case as know it.
 In 1903 or O4 I wrote an article upon the Blue Bucket Diggings" the lost mine on the old Meeks' Cutoff trail, which ran in the Molheur River from Snake River through the Honey val ley to Crooked River, down Crooked River to the Deschutes River, down the Deschutes to the Columbia River. The article was one of about 2.000 words covering the subject quite thorough and can be found in the archives of the Oregon Historical Society.
 The finding of gold on the old Meeks' Cutoff, is DO myth, except as to gu lntity of gold really found; about handful would cover the actual amount and specimens of it were in existence in Oregon these many years.
 The writer's grand father, Jas. B. Riggs, who settled in Polk Co, Oregon, and was the pioneer merchant of Dal- les, where he died in 1889, was Captain of a wagon train of Missouri emigrants and in conjunction with Dr. Wilcox, a pioneer of Salem. Oregon, who was also Captain of an emigrant train, in lS45, threw their trains together upon Snake River and started to follow Steane Meek, plainsman, who was to show them a route into the Willamette Valley, l4 days drive with OK teams shorter than the regular route down Snake River and the Columbia.
 My father, the late Wash L. Riggs, who resided here in Mohave County in 1874, 75 & 76, was a lad IA years old at the time, and my informat on comes from him. Meeks' Cutoff was failure as a shorter route.
 The failure of this route was not Meeks' fault, it was owing to the emigrInts, losing faith in him and abandoning him and returning to the old trail. wish to say this much in the interest of truth, although con- yrary to excepted family tradition, personally went over the route in is on horseback to learn these facts.
 here was but two trains ever used eks' Cutoff, the Riggs trains and
 Ter that followed it explained by
 'etheIo and these people mostly
 in Polk Co.,, neighbors to our
 1ple. This train, explained by Sol
 hero was the train that found the
 gets and they did not know it was Jid until they saw gold dust from the California mines four years later.
 In the mean time the hoards of Indians in Eastern Oregon had gone upon the war path and it kept Uncle Sam busy protecting the Emigrant Trail which left the Honey valley and Deschutes country absolutely in their possession.
 l5 years after that gold discovery, Milt McMurry, my cousin, with a party of 60 men well armed, went back to find the "Blue Bucket" east of the Deschutes R yer. The Indians lined up in such numbers that they dared not give battle to them right out in open country, but situated in Willamette valley. This condition existed for 20 !eIrs and in that time changes occur.
 The train that found the gold met with disaster in trying to cross the Cascades at the 'Three Sister" peaks at the head of the McKinsey river, as wagons could not be gotten down the west slope of the mountains, they had to abandon their wagons, their goods and chattles and made their way in on foot, driving their loose stock. Many died of hunger, exposure and hard ships. The old runs of their wagons were not found until about 1890. The section where the gold was really found was the extreme north west end of the Honey basin, and would be perhaps nearer to Painsville than to Honey. The one thing that has confused every tradition of these mines and that tangled up every man who ever hunted for them, is the fact that those emigrants all mistook Crooked river for the John Day river. My father