Full ArticleBoxes Found on Desert
Source: Oakland Tribune - Oakland, CADate Published: 1905-09-07
BOXES FOUND ON DESERT
ROBBERS LEFT EMPTY TREASURE BOXES NEAR SCOTTY'S HOME.
GOLDFIELD, Nev., Sept. 7. -- Hidden far under a huge pile of rocks and sagebrush smoothed into as close a resemblance to undisturbed nature as possible, and within a few feet of what has been positively identified as Walter Scott's home, sixty-five miles south of the Funeral range, there has been unearthed three of the money chests of Wells, Fargo & Co., broken open and rifled of all their contents.
John P Poe, a one-time famous football player of the Princeton team, made the discovery, and upon his return to Rhyolite confided it to John T Overbury, a prominent and well-known mining man of the southern districts, whose word is absolutely reliable. According to Poe's story, while prospecting on the desert he met Zeifle, who is one of the first discoverers of Walter Scott's hidden home. Zeifle was most enthusiastic over having found the dwelling place, and, feeling that he was hot on the scent of the mysterious mine, he urged Poe to accompany him in the search.
The spirit of adventure that made Poe an idol of the football field urged him to accept, and the two turned back upon a quest in which so many have lost their lives. They reached the cabin in the desert, and with it for a base of operations began prospecting in an ever-widening circle. Throughout the immediate neighborhood pieces of broken boxes led them to suspect hidden workings, and with ever-increasing excitement they continued the search.
At last the climax was reached, and at the bottom of an immense pile of boulders, sagebrush and indiscriminate rubbish was exposed to view the three great boxes, one apparently recently opened, lay uncovered in the sun. A fact which caused the men to glance significantly at each other was that the boxes gave evidence of having come from the Santa Fe Railroad and were evidently too large to have been used on a stage route. Broken bits of the boxes were found collected in a pile and buried.
Overbury stated that Poe seemed to be a man of his word and added that his story was accepted as bona fide in Bullfrog. Poe left Zeifle in the canyon near the scene of the find and returned for supplies to Rhyolite. He will rejoin his companion at once.
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Submitted: 12/17/09 (Edited 01/02/10)
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