The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1935-08-22
Golden
PhalltOlllS
FASCINATING TALES
OF LOST MI ~ rs
Gw.nu. Dv Edifhn l.. Walton
100000 In GOLD
nv Edifhn l.. Watson

things. People coming and going
High hopes ebbing and flowing. For
tunes MADE and lost Gold w1steAr
thrown uway. and stolen. Murder, $
robbery. That was what 40 meant to
the West
There are stories enough to FIJI a 4
library about the gold of 40 alone.
People went mad over It. The golden
phantom was ut Its most alluring, and
men followed it crafty, unsweryingly,
determined to gain its promised riches
If they had to kill those who got In
their way. The West was overrun
with bandits who hungered and thirst
ed for gold.
That year, In Sacramento, Call
fornia. there was band OF eight men
who planned to enrich themselves ut
the cost of others. They went about
It In rather haphazard fashion, how
ever. Gold dust may be packed IN
sacks, gold bars are heavy but pre-
cIous, but gold money clInks, and Slides
and takes up extra space-and 1t was
gold money that the thieying octette
stole. One hundred thousand dollars |
In golden coin came into their greedy
hands. Divided by eight. this would
leave each with small fortune. as
computed In those days. And then,
there was always the possibility that
something might happen to remove one
or more of the number.
The guilty eight headed east with
their spoil. Across the Rockies. out
toward the plains, they hurried. Six
OF them fell along the way. Killed by
soldiers who had tracked them Inc
surviving pair hurried ahead. anxious,
desperate.
But they could not escape with their
burden Of gold. 1t must be hidden
somewhere In safety. marked so that
they would not lose the location, anu
left It would wait for them TO come
back to 1t.
So the two, hastily inscriblng false
date on three stones, buried the golu
: IN a guch, marked the spot by the
dated stones. and vanished Into the
East
More than thirty years later, man
! stopped at sheep camp near the
!, nrasent town Of Clifford, in eastern
Colorado. He was, he told the herder,
seeking for the treasure which ne
md hurled In 40. For weeks he
r stayed In the neighborhood, searching
n for that fortune In coIns--searching
. In vain Al last he went back East.
III defeated but before he left ne tolu
( the sheepman Of the three dated ROCKS,
\ with their false inscriptions "lo41.
% Somewhere these three rocks sui lay
/. and within their triangle a RAM
l. golden phantom lowered, guarding the
8, stolen hoard hidden SO long ago.
70 James VIII, the owner Of the sheep
would have been more than human
no had not succumbed to the lure
n that phantom. Others. to whom ~
r. confded the story, hunted also bu
OF no such dated rocks could be found.
IN At last, only few years ago ma
named Elkins discovered one OF IN
nv stones. His find caused scores OF pei
/" sons to flock to the place, dlggn
ck where 1t seemed likely the treasnr
H. had been hidden But nothing cam
m light except roots and rocks, gu
inferred eagerly, thrown down angrh'
,ts by disappointed treasure hunters
ais Then late In November, 1894, Sc
'OO ond stone was found. L Y. hat'o
Tor OF Clifford discovered ia fiat roc
hearing the inscription ID. Grover al
Joseph Fox Luwe-Aug. 8, lS47." Al
NJ, the hunt was on again.
eli. IT may be presumed that Grover al
per Lave we're the fugitiyes VINO ouri'
md the gold, although why they shou
All thus perpetuate their guilty names
an7 not clear.
)O,- Ga far. no one has succeeded In fin
,no tho treasure. VIII the third sto
mp no discovered some day IN the lu'u
IN and will another generation OF Gag
pold.seekers dig over the grounus
perhaps-and yet 1t may have nj
~ nened. also, that the man VINO ca
.or hack In the sos TO search Tor
"a cache found lt--and did not tell
- NAV have moved It, come PACK ia'
and taken 1t away-or even thilu
eis is possble) found that his surViV
mariner in crime had already Deeh
- the scene.
- II is possible, too, that the stran
IT, might have been "spoofing' the she
herder. He could have been look
ash for something entirely different II
nnu hidden, stolen gold. and he could
- Ily have inscribed that peculiar
i''o m the rocks at that time W
s ~, Well why do men enjoy playing p
! a. teal jokesf
: - Still. no one could convince the
No. ple Of Clifford that his story was O
a. than the purest truth. the gol
ons nhantom is one ghostly figure ina
80 delightfully."- easy to believe In.
all, And maybe 1t is all frue-ma
80, some one will dig up that plea'
sum of one hundred thousand dol
,o,rs In gold coin some day-who know
5llect -------
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