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43 °F Forecast | Road Cams Sunday, February 29, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find a Rental Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Email Story to a Friend February 22, 2004 Writer is hot on the trail of Oregon’s lost treasures Dan Petchell figures he was bitten by the bug about 20 years ago. The fact there is no cure bothers him not a whit. It happened when the Bend resident went to work at his father-in-law’s mining equipment shop. "These old gold miners would come in with stories that fascinated me," he says. "I got really interested in their tales of lost treasure. So I started researching them." He talked to grizzled codgers hunched over from years of back-aching toil with pick and shovel in search of the mother lode. He pored over old newspaper stories that told of caches of cash in the form of forgotten treasure. "I gathered everything I could find," says Petchell, now 50. "I’ve accumulated hundreds of articles about lost treasure in Oregon." Advertisement Enough, he says, to compile a book on the rich lore of ore. He plans to call it "Oregon Treasure Archives." It will include old stories from many of the state’s major newspapers. You can check out some of the material on his Web site at www.oregontreasure.com . His search for more treasures recently prompted him to contact the Mail Tribune, seeking permission to use nuggets unearthed from its morgue. He is particularly interested in four stories of lost mines in Jackson, Josephine and Curry counties written by a Gold Hill resident named Dale Vincent in the 1940s. An avid horseman, Vincent was saddled with writing a column titled "Beside the Rogue" for the Trib. A talented writer and naturalist, he observed wildlife and people while gathering stories about lost treasure. Vincent made the headlines in the summer of 1948 when he was thrown from a horse, suffering a compound fracture of his right leg. His column on the lures of fishing the Rogue in July ran on the same page. But it was his stories about lost gold mines and buried treasure that hooked readers more than half a century ago. Petchell, originally hailing from the Portland area, believes they will lure Oregonians today. "A lot of people want to read these stories — lost treasure has always interested people," says Petchell, who plans to keep his day job in retail until he strikes pay dirt with his writing and research projects. Vincent’s story of a French watchmaker named Lou Belfils from Jacksonville is certainly enticing. Oregonians with an ounce of state history in their veins will recall that gold was first discovered in 1851 in Jacksonville. The Frenchman stumbled onto a rich deposit of gold in 1855 somewhere in the Illinois Valley after getting lost when he and his mule were spooked at the sight of Indians, Vincent writes. You guessed it: Belfils could never find the gold again, although Petchell believes it’s in the Althouse Creek drainage. Yep, it seems that a lot of folks in Vincent’s day stumbled over golden riches right and left but invariably misplaced the find of a lifetime. Still, it makes for great reading. One of his best yarns is about a leper arriving in Jacksonville in the 1850s. The good townsfolk were horrified. Yet they wanted to be compassionate to the unnamed fellow. The leading citizens met secretly to raise money and form a committee of three. The trio escorted the leper out of town and across the Rogue to the base of one of the Table Rocks. They built the poor fellow a cabin and stocked it with groceries. "The grateful leper promised to live there in isolation," Vincent writes. The committee lowered supplies to the leper each month by a rope dangling down from the rock, so the tale goes. One day about three years later, they dropped the bucket and noticed that the now feeble leper was nearing the end of his rope. But he managed to make it out to the bucket. When they hoisted the bucket back up, they noticed it was heavy. Fortunately, it wasn’t full of spare leper parts. Four inches of the bottom was filled with nuggets and gold dust. Again, you guessed it: The leper kicked the bucket before he could tell them where he found the gold. Vincent acknowledges the leper tale could not be verified through records or witnesses. "But we know that legends are wisps of smoke that have drifted down through the ages from some fire that burned long ago," he concludes. And still fire up the imagination. Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback 3 WEEKS FREE! ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S RESOURCES Oregon Road Conditions & Cams SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Food for Thought Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Prime Times