21 April 2008, 8:31 am
The Tillamook Indians Lost Gold Mine Where: Oregon Coast Range When: 1850-1900 (Store reports below) Evidence/stories: 1)Gales Creek traders would get payment in gold nuggets from local Indians. 2)A store east of Forest Grove owned by Colonel T.H. Cornelius would receive payment in practically pure gold for credit given to the Indians. The Indians would disappear into the hills for a few days than reappear to pay their account. 3)The settlers would try to follow the Indians into the hills but the Indians would loose the settlers west of Gales Creek. 4)A white prospector was able to surprise an Indian and his son carrying a heavy load of gold dust from the mine. The prospector murdered the Indian and his son. Another Indian who worked in the mine was murdered in a Saloon brawl this lead to the thinking that the mine was cursed by evil spirits this left the Indians with a fear of the mine. 5)An old Indian woman was ill and being cared for by a white lady when she revealed that it was the ill woman’s husband and son who had been killed by the prospector. The Indian woman was poor and wanted to pay the nurse, so she wrote the directions down and asked her nephew to go to the mine and bring back some gold to pay the nurse. The old lady’s nephew did not go to the mine. 6)Along a creek on the West Tualatin Plains, Indians would camp on Sol Emericks 160 acre farm. Sol was able to obtain some of the big nuggets and had them made into rings for his wife and himself. One day one of Emericks old friends was dieing and she gave Emerick directions: “Where water runs into a lake in a black canyon, you will find it.” 7)Panning on the coast has produced gold along the Nehalem River.... Read More »
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