Joaquin Murrieta was a legendary figure in California during its Gold Rush days of the 1850's. When he tried to make his living in mining, he faced racism and discrimination. Forced to turn to a life of crime, he was seen by some as as a Mexican patriot, resisting the white settlers' domination. Others saw him simply as a bandit. Murrieta became the leader of a band called The Five Joaquins, who were said to have been responsible for the majority of cattle rustling, robberies, and murders that were committed in the Mother Lode area of the Sierra Nevadas between 1850 and 1853. One of those robberies was a wagonload of gold that the Joaquins had stolen from the northern mines. However, when members of Murrieta's gang were driving the load along the hills east of the old Carrizo Stage Station they were ambushed by Indians.
According to the tale, the gold, as well as other items taken from the gang, were hidden in an old burial cave under a projecting rock ledge. No doubt Murrieta would have soon gone after the lost loot, but he was killed by the California Rangers before he could retrieve the gold. The Old Carrizo Stage Station which once served the Butterfield Stage Station is located in the Anza Borrego Desert.
Joaquin Murrieta, photo courtesy San Joaquin Valley
Library System, California Digital Archives
Eagle Peak in the Warner Mountains of California, photo courtesy
The vicious crime went unsolved for years until a Pitt RiverIndian known as "Holden Dick” began to trade small amounts of gold ore in Susanville and Alturas. In between appearing in the saloons of mining camps, spending his money freely, theIndian would disappear into some of the most rugged sections of the South Warner Mountains, only to return again with a goodly supply of gold ore.
At first, the locals thought that the Indian was working a secret mine and when in the saloons, they would try, without success, to get the Indian to talk. They also began to follow Holden, hoping to find the mine. On one occasion, when another miner named Samuel B. Shaw was badgering theIndian for the location of his gold, Holden got fed up and shot the man, wounding him fatally.
Holden Dick was soon arrested for Shaw’s murder and locked up in the Susanville jail. On January 23, 1886, four men stormed the jail and dragged the Indian into the street. Beating, whipping and torturing the man, he refused to tell the location of his hidden cache and was finally hanged at the blacksmith shop.
Somewhere along the line, the authorities figured out that the gold ore so freely bandied about by the Indian did not come from a mine, but rather, was the stolen loot taken from the freight wagon some five years previously.
After a little more "digging” the cache is believed to have been hidden in a cave where Holden Dick lived most of the time. The cave was located in one of the many canyons which extend from Eagle Peak on the western slope of the southern Warner Mountains. He was also said to have constructed a crude rock wall at the cave’s entrance, though today it would most assuredly be collapsed. It is most likely that the cave would be located in the lower elevations of the mountains since theIndian lived there year round.
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