Blue Bucket Mine
The Lost Blue Bucket Mine is a well known lost mine located near John Day in Oregon.
However, there are also reports of a Blue Bucket Mine in the Black Rock Desert.[1]
Drago tells a story about how in October 1845 40 wagons were led by Captain Elisha Sowers who got lost in the Black Rock area while looking for the Applegate Cutoff As they went along, children threw rocks into the blue buckets attached to the wagons. After the wagon party arrived in Yreka, the rocks were found to be gold. Drago mentions a prospector named Peter Organ who said he knew where the gold was. Organ was associated with Hardin City.[2]
There are a number of problems with Drago's story.
- The Applegates started their journey to develop the trail on June 25, 1846.[3] So, the October 1845 date is implausible.
- No references were found for Captain Elisha Sowers, though there was an Elisha Sowers who was born in Kentucky in about 1816 and who was registered to vote in Guinda, California in the 1890s.
- No references were found for Dr. Henry Dane of Yreka.
- Drago's story states that the wagons split up at "Garvelly Ford" (typo for Gravelly Ford, located near Beowawe) and that more than half went down the Humboldt to California and the others went northwest through the Black Rock region, "Granite Springs" and on to Oregon. Why would a wagon train split up so far east when both would need to continue down the Humboldt to what was later known as Lassen Meadows at present day Rye Patch? Drago points out this inconsistency. Also, where is "Granite Springs?"
- Dane and 14 others returned to the area and east of "Granite Creek" they were attacked and only two survived. No mention of this attack has been found.
- Drago discusses the slaughter of Chinese men at Humboldt House after being deported from Unionville around the time of the completion of the railroad. No references have been found for this, though that does not mean it did not happen.
Items that are factual in Drago's story.
- George Rose was a Humboldt County Sheriff and a newspaper publisher. Oddly, Rose tells a different story about the Blue Bucket Mine in 1925 that involves a blue bucket at the bottom of a mine shaft.[4]
- Peter Organ was a prospector associated with Hardin City.
- There was a man by the name of Jim Minor in the area.
References
- ↑ "Lost Bonanzas; Tales of the Legendary Lost Mines of the American West," Harry Sinclair Drago, pp 157-166. 1966.
- ↑ "Prospector Finds Rich Ore Near Harden City," Reno Evening Gazette, February 2, 1938, p. 7.
- ↑ "Brown's Political History of Oregon: Provisional Government," J. Henry Brown, p. 292, 1892.
- ↑ "Who Knows Location Blue Bucket Mine," George Rose, Nevada State Journal, March 30, 1925, p. 3.