Loafing along Death Valley trails : $b a personal narrative of people and placesCaruthers, William
History
Loafing along Death Valley trails : $b a personal narrative of people and places
Caruthers, William
Death Valley (Calif. and Nev.)
Crossing the Panamint, Goller, though strong and husky, became separated
from his companions and barely escaped with his life. Coming down a
Panamint canyon he found some gold nuggets and filled his pockets with
them. After crossing Panamint Valley and the Slate Range, he was found
by Mexican vaqueros of Don Ignacio del Valle, owner of the great Camulos
Rancho. After his recovery he proceeded to Los Angeles. In showing the
nuggets to friends he said, “I could have filled a wagon with them.”
Goller, because of his means was soon able to take vacations which were
devoted to looking for the lost location, and though he searched for
years he found no more nuggets. Finally he found a canyon which he
believed might have been the site, but no wagon load of nuggets.
John Goller was a solid, clear-thinking man—not the type to chase the
rainbow. Gold is known to exist in the canyon and some mines have been
operated with varying success, but none have been outstanding. It is
quite possible that cloudbursts for which the Panamint is noted washed
Goller’s gold away or buried it under an avalanche of rock, dirt, and
gravel. Manly, with his forgivable inclination to error refers to Goller
as Galler and discounts the story.
“Some day,” said Dr. Samuel Slocum, a man who made a fortune in gold,
“somebody will find a fabulously rich mine in that canyon.” It is
located about 12 miles south of Ballarat and is called Goler canyon—one
of the l’s in Goller’s name having been dropped.
THE LOST SPOOK. A spiritualist with tuberculosis came to Ballarat and
employed an Indian known as Joe Button as packer and guide. He told Joe
to lead him to the driest spot in the country. Joe took him into the
Cottonwood Range and left him. The invalid remained for several weeks,
returned to Ballarat en route to San Bernardino, presumably for
supplies. He was reticent as to his luck but he had several small sacks
filled with ore and in his haste to catch the stage, dropped a piece of
quartz from a loosely tied sack. It was almost solid gold and weighed
eight ounces.
While in San Bernardino he died. His relatives sold the remaining ore,
which yielded $7200. They tried to find the claim but failed.
Shorty Harris heard of it months afterward and looked up Joe Button.
With his own burros, Joe’s pack horses, and an Indian known as Ignacio,
he set out. Cloudbursts had washed out the previous trails, filled
gulches, levelled hills and so transformed the country that the Indian
was unable to find any trace of his previous course; gave up the hunt
and turned back.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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