The Coolidge examiner., 1935-08-23
GOLDEN
PHANTOMS
Fascinating
Tales of tai,h, w,,,o.
Lost Mines S1xU
100000 IN GOLD

AtNM tAi~ tt AhAf3 AiAAf anu a"0As
Gold wasted. thrown away. and
stolen. Murder. robbery. That was
what 10 meant to the West.
There are stories enough TO hu
a library about the gold of 40
alone People went mad over lt. The
golden phantom was at It's most
alluriug. and men followed II
crafty. unsweryIngIy. determined
to gain It's promised riches II they
had 10 kin those who got In their
way. The West was overrun with
bandits who hungered and thIrsted
Tor gold.
That year IN Sacramento, Calf.
there WAS a band of eight men who
planned To- enrich themselves at
the cost Of others They went
about In rather hnphazard fashion.
however. Gold dust may be packed
In sacks, gold bars are heavy hat
precious. but gold money clinks.
and slides. and takes up extra
space-and Il was gold money that
the thleying octette stole one
hundred thousand In gold coin came
into their greedy hands. Divided
by eight. this would leave each with
"a small fortune. as computed In
those days And then. there was
always the possibility that some
thing might happen to remove one
or more of the number.
The guilty eight headed east with
their spoil Across the Rockies.
ont toward the plains. they hurried
Six 90 them fell along the way.
KILLED by soldiers who had tracked
them. The surviving pair hurried
ahead. anxious. desperate.
But they could not escape with
their burden ~ gold. II must be
hidden somewhere In safety. marked
80 that they would not lose the 10
cation, and left. II would walt for
them to come back 10 H.
So the two, hastily Inscriblng
false date on three stones. buried
the gold In a gulch. marked the spot
by the date stones. and vanished
into the East
More than thirty years later. n
man stopped at a sheep camp near
the present town of clifford In
eastern Colorado lie was. he told
the herder. seeking for the treas.
ure which he had buried In 40 For
weeks he stayed In the nelghbor-
hood searching Tor that fortune In
coins searching In vain AZ last
ne went back East. defeated. but
before be- left he told the sheep.
man % the three dated rocks. with
their false inscriptions ISL"
Somewhere these three rocks stlll
lay. and within their triangle a
faint golden phantom lowered,
guarding the stolen hoard hidden
so long ago.
James VIII. the owner Of the
sheep would have been more than
human II be had not succumbed to
the lure OF that phantom Others.
To- whom he confded the story.
hunted also. But no such dated
rocks could be found.
At last. only a few years ago. a
man named Elkins discovered one
~ the stones. His ind caused scores
~ persons 10 dock 20 the place. dig
ging where II seemed likely the
treasure had been hidden. But moth
lng came To light except roots and
rocks dIslnterred eagerly. thrown
down angrily. By disappointed treas
ure hunters.
Then late In November. 1894, a
second stone was found. r. {. Hat
cor OF Clifford discovered lt--a fiat
rock bearing the inscription ID.
Grover and Joseph Fox Lave
Aug. s. 1S4S." And the hunt was
on again.
II may be presumed that Grover
and Lave were the fugitiyes who
buried the gold. although why they
should thus perpetuate their guilty
names Is not clear.
So far. no one has succeeded In
ending the treasure. VIII the third
stone be discovered some day In
the future, and will another gen
Grafton OF eager gold-seekers dig
over the ground?
Perhaps-and yet 1t may have
happened. also, that the man who
came back In the sos to search for
the cache found it-and did not
tell. lie may have moved Il. come
back later. and taken II away
- even (and this is possible) found
that his surviving partner in crime
had already been on the scene.
1t is possible. too. that the
stranger might have been spool
ing" the sheepherder He might
have been looking for something
entirely different from hidden,
stolen gold, and he could easily
have inscribed that particular date
on the rocks at that time. Why
I Well, why do men enjoy playing
practical jokes?
/ still. no one could convince the
people of Clifford that his story
!.