Lost treasures. Unsolved murders. Disappearances. These stories continue to intrigue lovers
of the Old West. Despite today's technology, many of these mysteries remain unsolved.
This story begins in the gold mining town of Jacksonville, Oregon. In 1853, brothers
James and Henry Wilson set out with a group of prospectors looking for gold. After one
of the men was killed by Native Americans, the Wilsons trudged on alone. They eventually
found a valley surrounded by steep cliffs and built a cabin. Henry discovered a nearby
creek chock full of gold nuggets. With winter on their minds, the boys dug a rock-lined
hole in the floor of the cabin, deposited their treasure, and covered it with two flat
stones. The brothers no sooner set out for civilization
when the natives reappeared and killed Henry. James escaped to northern California. In ill
health, he wrote to his cousin, Ted Harper, about the cabin before dying. Fifteen years
later, Harper and an alcoholic poet, Sam Simpson, went looking for the cabin. All they found
were burned ruins with Henry's body inside. Moments later, Harper allegedly accidentally
shot himself and died at the same spot as his cousin.
A shaken Simpson returned home sans the gold. Later that year, another group of men went
looking for the cabin and missing gold. Of course they didn't find any gold, but they
did discover a national treasure: Crater Lake itself, the deepest known lake in the United
States.
Modern-day Bigfoot tales aside, the big hairy guy has actually been alive and well since
the 16th century when native tribes reported seeing the great "Sasquatch." Bigfoot stories
persist all over the world. In the American West, various newspaper stories from the 1800s,
"[were] brimming with giant wild men, [and] wood apes" who look and sound like the Bigfoot
everyone has come to know and love. Ethnographer George Gibbs started recording
native stories of Bigfoot in Oregon as early as 1865, although the first official record
of sightings was not made until 1904 when one was seen around Sixes River. The Bigfoot
Field Researchers Organization started recording sightings in each state online in 1995.
Currently, Washington state leads with 690, followed by California with 454, and Florida
with 333. Colorado has only 129 recorded sightings, but enough have been reported to merit posting
a warning sign on Pikes Peak.
In 1540, Spanish explorer Hernando de Alarcón sailed up the Colorado River to what is today
known as Yuma, Arizona. But did he make it farther? Some 100 miles southeast around the
Salton Sea, folks began reporting a Spanish ship stranded in the California desert. Some
speculate that it was possibly a treasure ship that was actually in the Salton Sea when
it was stranded by a mudslide. Around 1775, a mule driver for explorer Juan Bautista de
Anza said he saw the vessel, and even carried away some of the treasured pearls he found
aboard. Explorer Albert Evans also claimed to have
found "the wreck of a gallant ship" in 1870. Later that year Charley Clusker claimed to
have found the galleon, a story backed by Philadelphia's Evening Telegraph. Clusker
later disappeared. Others doubt there is a ship, believing that the popular theory that
a massive tidal wave stranded the vessel is simply folklore. A man named Lawrence Justus
was so convinced the story was true though, that in 1974, he tried obtaining a permit
from Anza-Borrego Desert State Park to look for it. Authorities refused the request, but
a file at the park contains a picture of Justus, who, quote, "reportedly found the Lost Ship
of the Desert."
On Feb. 3, 1889, the notorious "Bandit Queen" Belle Starr was murdered by an unknown assailant
in Oklahoma. Prior to that time, the one-time good girl had gone through a string of bad
men: Outlaws Cole Younger, Jim Reed, Sam Starr, and Jim July, each of whom Belle Starr aided
in horse-thieving and robbery. She even served time in prison, all while bearing children
and living on the lam due to her various escapades. Belle's relationship with July was particularly
stormy, to the extent that the man once allegedly offered to pay someone to kill her.
"Nobody can give me orders." "That wasn't an order, just a piece of advice. Adios."
Still Belle remained faithful, accompanying July to Fort Smith, Arkansas, to answer for
charges of horse stealing. But then she inexplicably turned back.
A dramatic account claims that as she traveled home, Belle was shot in the back over 60 times.
More likely though, she was shot only twice as her horse bolted home and alarmed her daughter,
Pearl. Belle was taken home and died an hour later. She was buried in her own front yard.
Who killed her? The suspects ranged from July to a disgruntled neighbor named Watson, to
Belle's own son, Ed, or maybe even Pearl. Of these, only Watson was tried, but he was
found not guilty.
Albert Jennings Fountain was many things: An Army Lieutenant, attorney, newspaperman,
and senator. Until his disappearance he was best-known as the trial lawyer for Billy the
Kid, who lost his case. In 1896, Fountain and his young son, Henry, were in Lincoln,
New Mexico, for a rustling case against cattle baron Oliver Lee. Fountain had many enemies
at the trial, including Lee. No wonder Fountain felt like he was being watched while in Lincoln.
And after receiving a threatening note as the trial ended, the Fountains immediately
started for home 150 miles away. Two days later the pair disappeared. Only
Fountain's carriage was found, along with pools of blood, bullet shells, and Henry's
handkerchief. Even famed sheriff Pat Garrett got involved, to no avail. Although Lee's
hired hands were eventually tried, they were found not guilty. Two confessions came later.
One by James Gilliland in 1937, and one in 1949 when convicted outlaw Sam Ketchum claimed
on his deathbed that it was he and his brother, Tom "Black Jack" Ketchum, who killed the Fountains.
But the bodies weren't where the men said they were. The Fountain case remains the most
famous cold case in New Mexico history.
Tom "Black Jack'' Ketchum may not have killed Albert and Henry Fountain, but he was certainly
found guilty of numerous robberies and murders before he was sentenced to hang in 1901. There
are at least two stories about Ketchum stashing treasure in the years before he died. The
first is that he buried a large treasure in Wild Cat Canyon in the Chiricahua Mountains
of Arizona. More specifically, writes William Ascarza in his book Chiricahua Mountains:
History and Nature, Ketchum stashed several thousand dollars in a cave, which has been
referred to as "Room Forty Four." Another historian offers a second story. A
posse was chasing Ketchum following a robbery in Camp Verde when the outlaw lassoed himself
and some $4,000 in stolen loot to a branch high up in a tree somewhere around Battle
Ground Ridge. Four days later when the coast was clear, Ketchum came down and headed towards
Myrtle Ranch, possibly hiding his cache between there and Gilliland Gap. Neither stash has
been found as far as anyone knows. Today Ketchum is best-remembered for his death by hanging
in Clayton, New Mexico. When the trap door swung open at the gallows the outlaw fell
further than he should have, yanking his head clean off.
History buffs love debating about whether Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid really
died in Bolivia. But the real mystery is what became of their companion, Etta Place. Not
even Pinkerton's Detective Agency knew her real name, although they described her as…
"Classic good looks, 27 or 28 years old, 5'4″ to 5'5″ in height, weighing between 110
and 115 pounds, with a medium build and brown hair."
But that could be about any woman in the Edwardian era. Everything else about Place is purely
speculation. Was she a schoolteacher? Or a harlot from a Texas bordello? Or maybe even
Sundance's cousin? Nobody knows for sure. It’s a fact that Place loved Sundance enough
to accompany him and Cassidy to South America. For a couple of glorious years, the trio robbed
numerous banks, and intercepted one mule train after another carrying gold and money. Although
Place was supposedly killed along with her outlaw men by Bolivian soldiers, others claim
that she was later seen back in America both with and without Sundance. Historian Anne
Meadows maintains that Sundance took Place to San Francisco for a final visit in 1905.
She was also identified as the woman seeking "documents declaring Sundance dead" there
in 1909. Whoever she was, Place took her secret to her grave.
In 1916, the Coconino Sun in Flagstaff, Arizona reported a most chilling find. Alerted by
a terrible odor, authorities found the bodies of madam May Prescott and her husband Fred
in a bedroom at their home. Fred's throat was slashed ear to ear. He'd been stabbed
in the back and shot in the head. May's throat also was cut, and she had been shot twice.
The blood-splattered, bullet-scarred bedroom had been set on fire. Fred also held a gun
with one bullet fired and had left a note that he had violently quarreled with May before
shooting her and then himself. But how does a man with his throat cut wide
open shoot himself in the head and set a fire? For weeks, the coroner poured over tons of
evidence. The jury finally concluded that the couple died from, quote "knife and gunshot
wounds caused by the hands of unknown party or parties." The case was never solved. Surprisingly,
although a portion of the Prescott's home remains under the facade of today's Grand
Canyon International Youth Hostel, it is not mentioned on Flagstaff Downtown's list of
haunted locations.
A true wild child, Pearl Hart was a Canadian native who made it through finishing school
before making a series of life mistakes. She was 17 when she was "seduced" by gambler Fred
Hart, who remained in the girl's life until 1898. Tired of supporting her and two children,
Fred beat her up and split. The next man in Pearl's life, Joe Boot, was her final undoing.
The two embarked on a life of crime but were caught in 1899. Boot was sentenced to 30 years
in prison, though he later escaped, while Pearl got five years.
The public took interest in the woman bandit who dressed like a man. In prison she not
only signed autographs but also began spreading the gospel. Pearl was finally paroled, because
she inexplicably became pregnant while in prison. Governor Alexander Brodie pardoned
her in 1902. What happened to her? It's hard to say. Some
claim that she tried performing onstage as a "Lady Bandit" before being arrested in Kansas
City for buying stolen goods. She was arrested again in 1904, after which she wasn't seen
again until 1924 in Florence, Arizona. Various sources say she died in 1925, or sometime
in the 1950s, or even as late as the 1960s. But nobody knows for sure.
Between 1885 and 1886, eight ghastly murders in Austin, Texas, were attributed to a serial
killer. Of the victims, most were "servant girls." Only one survived. But her daughter,
as well as the companion of another victim, were killed. Six of the victims were Black.
So were three women who were attacked in July, August, and November, but mercifully, they
survived. Then Mollie Smith's axe-mutilated body was found next to an outhouse in December.
The murders were quite grisly. In May 1885 another victim, Eliza Shelly, was found with
her head "almost completely split." The killer was brutal, assaulting his victims with knives,
axes, rocks, and even an iron. Famed writer O Henry accidentally dubbed the
murderer the "Servant Girl Annihilator" - in a letter to a friend, he referred to the serial
killer by that title the name has lived on to this day. Shortly after, Irene Cross, Clara
Dick, and Rebecca and 11-year-old Mary Ramey were attacked. Only Rebecca survived. The
next victims were Gracie Vance and her paramour, Orange Washington. Two more women, Sue Hancock
and Eula Phillips, were murdered on Christmas Eve 1885.
Serial killers were an unknown phenomenon at the time, so while it seems obvious to
us now, authorities at the time thought these killings were actually unrelated.
"How could one individual be this savage?" Then, in February 1886, police killed Nathan
Elgin, who was beating a saloon girl to death. The attacks abruptly stopped; though modern
historians believe he was likely the killer, Elgin has still never been proven to be the
Annihilator.
When it opened for business in 1893, the elite Sheridan Inn in Sheridan Wyoming was so upscale
it even offered electricity. Showman "Buffalo Bill" Cody was on hand at the grand opening
and actually purchased the hotel a year later. His selling of the establishment in 1901 coincided
with the hiring of Catherine "Miss Kate" Arnold, just in from her native Virginia. By the 1910
census, Arnold had moved into the inn, where she worked as a seamstress, desk clerk, housekeeper,
hostess and sitter for the many children who stayed at the Inn with their families. And
she loved her job. During her time at the Inn, Arnold met such
famous guests as Ernest Hemingway, President Herbert Hoover, Bob Hope, and Will Rogers.
Even Annie Oakley stayed there. Amazingly, Arnold remained in the Sheridan's employ until
1965, when the building was to be torn down. But the Sheridan Historical Society was able
to save it, and when Arnold died in 1968, she requested her ashes to be interred in
the wall of her room, 306. Following a small ceremony in the room, her ashes were interred
in the wall. The funny thing is, today nobody seems to know exactly where in the wall the
ashes are. One thing is for sure though: Guests enjoy staying in the room because her spirit
is ever present. Check out one of our newest videos right here!
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