The American West has long been a place for cowboys, gunslingers, and hidden treasure. Its history is rife with tall tales of murder and hidden treasure. But keeping track of all the details was of low priority while the sheriff was busy fending off cattle rustlers and other outlaws.
Some of these mysteries, lost to the ages, have never been solved.
Number One: Butch Cassidy
The most famous version of the story is the one that was immortalized in the movie starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford as the infamous outlaws. According to that story, and other accounts, the pair fled from the United States to Bolivia when the heat from their 1890s spree of robberies got to be too much. It was in Bolivia that they were supposedly killed in a shootout.
That is absolutely not the final word, though.
According to Cassidy’s sister, Lula, she had heard stories of a number of his acquaintances who had run into him well after the reported date of his death in 1908. This included herself. In 1925, Cassidy supposedly appeared at a family reunion that included Lula, their brothers, and their father.
Documents uncovered by historical researchers suggest that the confrontation with Bolivian authorities happened in a home while Cassidy and his gang were sorting through the spoils of a payroll heist. Two men were dead in the end, but it has been suggested that neither of them was actually confirmed to be Cassidy or the Sundance Kid.
Some believe that Cassidy shot his longtime partner rather than see them go to jail. Other stories say that he escaped, gave up his life of crime, and lived either in Paraguay, Chile, or Spokane, Washington for decades. That idea is given a bit of credence by the research of Bolivian President Renée Barrientos, who concluded that the story of the shootout was completely fabricated.
Among those who did not believe it were the Pinkerton Detective Agency, who searched for the outlaws well past 1908 and believed they were killed in Uruguay. Cassidy’s sister maintained that he died in Washington in 1930 of pneumonia.
Number Two: Chief Cochise
Chief Cochise is one of the most well-known figures in the conflict between the Native American people and the European settlers who constantly pushed westward. For someone so prominent, whose name is so well known, he is a figure shrouded in considerable mystery. Almost nothing is known about his life before the middle of the 19th century, when he was already established as the leader of the Chiricahua Apaches in the areas of northern Mexico and Southern Arizona.
Decades of raids and conflicts between the Apaches and the settlers in the area ultimately led to the creation of a reservation on the southeastern edge of their territory. Cochise died in 1874, only two years after the establishment of the peace he had rarely seen. The location of his traditional burial, somewhere in the Dragoon Mountains, was known only to a handful of his contemporaries, who never divulged the coordinates.
Several legends have grown up around the burial of the great leader. According to the story, Cochise’s dog and horse were both shot to be buried with him, to keep the animals from being a public reminder of him and his death.
Number Three: The Lost Cement Mine
Though accounts disagree about how exactly the Lost Cement Mine was discovered, there is one point of agreement between all the stories: the site was loaded with gold. One account of the mine, written in 1879, says that it was discovered by two men headed to California in 1857. They broke away from their caravan, sat down by a stream to rest, and saw a massive amount of gold.
One of the men, the other could not believe it was gold, took about five kilograms of it with him. By the time he had reached California, he had become incredibly sick. He used the gold in a map to pay for his treatment.
The other account was written by Mark Twain. According to that story, the finders were three brothers from Germany who were hiding in the mountains to escape an attack on their caravan when they found the gold. Either way, countless prospectors descended on the area looking for the mines.
While the Lost Cement Mines have indeed taken on something of a legendary status, there are records of a Dr. Randall finding red rock that was rich in gold in the area in 1869. Two men arrived in Stockton, California.
They replenished their supplies, then headed out again. Between 1869 and 1877, they returned each year with a sizable amount of gold.
It was not until the fall of 1877 that one of them told an incredible story to a priest before he died. He said that he and his companion had been mining up on Mammoth Peak, then known as the Pumice Mountain. They had found the legendary gold and mined somewhere in the neighborhood of four hundred thousand dollars’ worth of it over the years.
He did not say any more about it, aside from the fact that they had shored up their spot and hidden it from other prospectors before he died. It might seem like the stuff of fairy tales today, but Bodie, California, one of the areas explored in the hopes of finding the Lost Cement Mines, was the site of the discovery of gold deposits that ended up totaling more than 28,000 kilograms.
Number Four: Albert and Henry Fountain
Albert Fountain was an educated man, a former soldier for the Union Army, and later a state senator for Texas. He was educated at Columbia College in New York. He was also a judge, a district attorney, a lieutenant governor for Texas, and a journalist.
In a nutshell, he was a man who made a lot of enemies. Fountain disappeared in February 1896. He and his eight-year-old son, Henry, were heading from Lincoln, New Mexico, to Mesilla.
He had been involved in the prosecution of cattle rustlers, and everyone who knew him feared for his safety, except for Fountain himself.
According to a mail carrier who had seen Fountain and his son, he also mentioned that there had been a group of riders behind them, but knew nothing more than that. No physical traces of Fountain or his son were ever found, although his wagon was recovered along with a blood-soaked handkerchief. No charges were ever made in the disappearance of Albert Fountain, although there was speculation about what happened.
Some people blamed associates of the cattle rustlers, while others pointed the finger at Black Jack Ketchum. Other theories put the blame on a part-time United States Marshal and land developer named Oliver Lee, who was eventually tried and acquitted for the disappearance of eight-year-old Henry.
Number Five: The Lost Ship in the Desert
If there is any place you do not expect to find a lost Spanish galleon, it is probably the Colorado Desert. But in the 1870s, there were rumors galore about the lost ship. According to the Los Angeles Star, a treasure hunter finally found what he was looking for in November 1870.
On December 1st, a man named Charlie Clusker claimed to have found an extraordinarily well-preserved Spanish galleon. But nothing was ever brought back from his expeditions into the desert. The ship was a pirate vessel, and the treasure was still on board.
It might sound insanely far-fetched, but there is a small possibility that there actually was truth in the story. The Salton Sink is a massive depression created millions of years ago in the Colorado Desert, a depression that has been known to turn into a lake. Evidence of flooding includes the presence of oyster beds high in the San Felipe Mountains.
It is possible the pirate ship made its way up the Gulf of California and then ran aground. The crew would have ultimately died, leaving the galleon baking in the sun. Whether or not that is really the case is still up for debate, but the sheer number of reports about a lost desert ship are enough to spark the imagination.
It is clear that history has left us with countless intriguing stories and enigmas. As we continue to uncover new information and dig deeper into the past, perhaps one day we will finally unlock the secrets behind these mysteries. Until next time, keep your curiosity alive and keep exploring the mysteries of our world.
Take care and see you soon.
