Group 3
Legends of Lost Gold: the Lost Pegleg Mine
(Part of Anza-Borrego State Park.)
Lost gold mine legends abound in Western treasure hunting and mining lore. The man at the center of one of the most enduring lost gold mine myths of the American West was "Pegleg" Smith. Pegleg was a mountain man and fur trapper who lost a leg to an American Indian arrow in the 1820s (thereby earning his nickname). Pegleg has often been described in various accounts as a man of somewhat disreputable demeanor and behavior. Or to put it bluntly, he was a drunkard and a great liar.
The Lost Pegleg Mine legend begins in the early 1830s with Pegleg and an unnamed partner heading for the distant settlement of Los Angeles after a successful pelt hunting expedition along the Colorado River between modern day Arizona and California. At some point along the way near "three buttes" Pegleg scooped up a handful of unusually heavy rounded pebbles coated with black "desert varnish," a sort of oxidized coating created by extreme heat and chemical reaction, something quite common in California's Colorado Desert. The ground was covered with similar pebbles for as far as the eye could see. Scratching the surface of one of these dark pebbles with a knife blade, Pegleg spotted the gleam of an orangish-yellow metal which he assumed was copper. Thinking no more about it, Pegleg shoved the pebbles into his pocket and, with his partner, headed for Los Angeles.
After arriving in Los Angeles and selling off their pelts, Pegleg and his partner went their separate ways. Pegleg, still curious about those heavy metallic pebbles in his pocket, decides to have them examined by an experienced assayer who promptly declares Pegleg's pebbles to be gold nuggets.
Now we fast forward to 1849. Pegleg has been quite busy running a trading post somewhere along the Oregon Trail, but the California Gold Rush has intervened and now Pegleg's interest in gold has been piqued again. He organizes a search party and heads back into the desert to find his "lost mine." The group wanders the Colorado and Anza-Borrego Deserts unsuccessfully for some time until Pegleg deserts the dissatisfied and grumbling crew, and shows up once again in the quaint settlement of Los Angeles where, in 1853, he organizes another unsuccessful search party to locate his black nuggets of gold.
Due to his questionable character traits, many would-be treasure hunters don't place much faith in the Lost Pegleg Mine. However, others believe there is a kernel of truth to Pegleg's story and, as a point of fact, most myths and legends contain such kernels, no matter how outlandish or embellished they become over subsequent years. These latter-day treasure hunters, or "believers," continue to research the legend for additional tips or signs and the hunt for the "three buttes" and desert ground strewn with varnish-coated nuggets of gold continues.
(Part of Anza-Borrego State Park.)
Lost gold mine legends abound in Western treasure hunting and mining lore. The man at the center of one of the most enduring lost gold mine myths of the American West was "Pegleg" Smith. Pegleg was a mountain man and fur trapper who lost a leg to an American Indian arrow in the 1820s (thereby earning his nickname). Pegleg has often been described in various accounts as a man of somewhat disreputable demeanor and behavior. Or to put it bluntly, he was a drunkard and a great liar.
The Lost Pegleg Mine legend begins in the early 1830s with Pegleg and an unnamed partner heading for the distant settlement of Los Angeles after a successful pelt hunting expedition along the Colorado River between modern day Arizona and California. At some point along the way near "three buttes" Pegleg scooped up a handful of unusually heavy rounded pebbles coated with black "desert varnish," a sort of oxidized coating created by extreme heat and chemical reaction, something quite common in California's Colorado Desert. The ground was covered with similar pebbles for as far as the eye could see. Scratching the surface of one of these dark pebbles with a knife blade, Pegleg spotted the gleam of an orangish-yellow metal which he assumed was copper. Thinking no more about it, Pegleg shoved the pebbles into his pocket and, with his partner, headed for Los Angeles.
After arriving in Los Angeles and selling off their pelts, Pegleg and his partner went their separate ways. Pegleg, still curious about those heavy metallic pebbles in his pocket, decides to have them examined by an experienced assayer who promptly declares Pegleg's pebbles to be gold nuggets.
Now we fast forward to 1849. Pegleg has been quite busy running a trading post somewhere along the Oregon Trail, but the California Gold Rush has intervened and now Pegleg's interest in gold has been piqued again. He organizes a search party and heads back into the desert to find his "lost mine." The group wanders the Colorado and Anza-Borrego Deserts unsuccessfully for some time until Pegleg deserts the dissatisfied and grumbling crew, and shows up once again in the quaint settlement of Los Angeles where, in 1853, he organizes another unsuccessful search party to locate his black nuggets of gold.
Due to his questionable character traits, many would-be treasure hunters don't place much faith in the Lost Pegleg Mine. However, others believe there is a kernel of truth to Pegleg's story and, as a point of fact, most myths and legends contain such kernels, no matter how outlandish or embellished they become over subsequent years. These latter-day treasure hunters, or "believers," continue to research the legend for additional tips or signs and the hunt for the "three buttes" and desert ground strewn with varnish-coated nuggets of gold continues.