GOLD RUSH CACHE DISCOVERED DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, Calif.

An archaeologist has found a wooden chest filled with gold and silver coins that may have been hidden during an ill-fated Gold Rush expedition across Death Valley.

Archaeologist Jerry Freeman uncovered the treasure in November as he recreated the steps of a group known as The Lost Pioneers of 1849. He and four others retraced the entire journey in December.

"I was just blown away," Freeman said this week. "Nothing prepared me for this." The chest was in a cave, propped up on boulders and a board and in mint condition. The find is worth an estimated $500,000, said Freeman, a 56-year-old Semi-retired substitute high school teacher.

The National Park Service is examining the find to determine if it is authentic, but has not raised any questions, Freeman said he hopes to donate the find to a museum. Chest filled with gold and silver coins is found in a cave in Death Valley. With the coins were wen-worn baby shoes, photographs and a letter documenting the wagon train trek of '49er William Robinson, who was among some 100 men, women and children seeking the gold-laden foothills of the Sierra Nevada. The group wound up in the merciless California desert. The letter was tucked inside a small hymnal "My Dear Edwin," Robinson wrote. "Knowed, now we should have gone arownd .... Ifen I don't raturn by end of fifty I wont never come."

Robinson died 26 days later on Jan. 28, 1850. According to journals, Robinson drank too much cold water at the first spring the party came to at what is known today as Barrel Springs near Palmdale. He lay down for a nap and never awakened.

The group, well-known to historians, was originally from the Midwest. The pioneers started out from Salt Lake City in October 1849, on an ill-conceived attempt to skirt the southern end of the Sierra Nevada and ended up crossing Death Valley.

Most of the rest made it to what is now Valencia, in Los Angeles County, some 300 miles southwest of their destination. Freeman said he believes 13 died on the trek.

The team found a manifest of the trunk's contents dated Jan. 2, 1850, along with nearly 80 pieces of currency, including 85 and 810 gold pieces and a number of silver dollars. None of the money appears to have dates after 1849, Freeman said. There was also a holstered pistol, a wooden powderhorn, a locket adorned with pearls and china bowls. A knitted shawl covered it all.

EARLY DREDGE PERMITS FOR Memorial DAY WEEKEND OUTING:
Clarence Mohr received a letter from DEQ stating that they would like all applications for early dredge permits to be sent in all at once. So please come to the April meeting and sign up for yours. If by chance you can not be there, you can five Clarence Mohr a call at.(503)645-4244.

CLUB OUTINGS:
The next outing will be April 24th at the club’s claim on Willow Creek. Terry and Dale said we could park and camp on their claim.

NEWS ABOUT CLUB MEMBERS:
Jack Lord has returned from Arizona and he has received the paten on his rocker box. He is now making plans to sell it to any club members interested. More details later when the plans are finalized.

NEWS, APPRECIATION’S, AND GENERAL INFORMATION:
A suggestion was made to have a coffee stop at our Starduster claim outing over Memorial Day week-end. For those wanting to dredge over Memorial Day, don't forget to apply for your early dredging permit right away.

The Board will be going over our Club Guide Book to get information together to do an update on our book. Any information that you would like to see added, changed, deleted or updated please contact a board member with your suggestions. If you DO NOT have a yellow Club Guide and are a paid member of our club, please contact Sue Buchholz @ (503) 324-0170 to get one. Each family should have one book.

Marlene Worley, our librarian, has a new assistant. Her name is Louise Clemons. Hopefully, this will alleviate any problems of returning your library items with someone there at each meeting.
Also, any newsletters that are received from other clubs are available in our library for those who want information on what other clubs are doing.

If you happen to work the Sportsman Show at our booth, or just attend, any suggestions are welcome in improving what we are trying to get across to the public as far as education in working with the environment.
A special THANK-YOU to Duane Flackus for letting the club use his brand new Gold Buddy at the Sportsman Show for demo purposes. He just won it at the meeting held on Thursday, February 4th.
A special THANK-YOU, to Mojave John at the Lifestyle Store in Hesperia, California for getting us the Gold Buddy to raffle off and in getting our supplies for the Sportsman Show so we can get more people interested in prospecting.
Al Worley is contacting the head of Vancouver Heritage Days, which is held the second week-end in May, to do a demo. We did one two years ago at the Vancouver Water Resources building with a lot of interested people wanting to learn how to pan for gold.
A special THANK-YOU to Clarence Mohr for his donation of a scoop that had to be replaced for the Sportsman Show.
A BIG THANK-YOU to Hayden Piper, Al Worley, Ron Buchholz, Clarence Mohr and Duane Flackus who came early on the day before the board meeting in order to mix the gold with the concentrates for the Sportsman Show. Also for helping in getting the fallen tree out of the driveway after the meeting.
A VERY SPECIAL THANK-YOU TO DAWN FREDRICKS for volunteering and taking the reins of handling the Sportsman Show. This is not an easy task and working with Dawn found her to be open to suggestions and making lists of how to improve things for next years' show.
To ALL THE VOLUNTEERS who donated their time and effort so that our club could bring the art of prospecting to those who are interested. Even a few hours from each of you, helped us make the public aware of what we do and how we do it. Without each one of you, the interest in prospecting could die.

At our next board meeting, we will be taking an inventory of what the club has and what is needed. It has been brought to the boards attention that several items that belong to the club have been borrowed and not returned. If you have any of these items or know where something is located, please contact a board member so that it can be picked up and returned.

The Club will be putting on a demo at Vancouver Heritage Days on Saturday, May 8, 1999 from 9 am to 5 pm at the Water Resources Center in Vancouver. Volunteers will be needed for this panning demo outside and display of gold prospecting items inside. There will be a sign-up sheet and further information at our April meeting. Please plan to help if you can.

If you plan on dredging at the Club outing over Memorial Day week-end at our Starduster claim on Quartz Creek, please contact Clarence on obtaining your early dredging permit. He will have info at our April meeting.

The Board had there monthly meeting at the hall. Everything was taken out of the storage area, inventoried, and then boxed up so we can find items we need quickly. Thanks to all those who helped in getting the job done.

Dawn Fredricks went to the Rice Museum Northwest on a tour. She is getting information for sometime in June hopefully, for those who are interested in our Club to take a tour. She will have more information at our April meeting.

Duane Flackus is making more shelves for the storage area so we can keep our monthly items more accessible and store our items that are only used once or twice out of the way.

Sue is making a list of items that will be in our store for sale. Prospecting time is getting close at hand, so if there is anything you need or would like to see for sale in our store, please let Sue know.

A BIG THANK-YOU to Gunnar Matsen for bringing his fathers' album to the meeting and sharing the stories with us. (How many went home and checked their cattle’s' teeth?)

Marshall Tarrents has graciously offered to cover Washington State memberships, while Sue Beard-Buchholz will be covering Oregon State memberships. If you have a question concerning your membership or know someone who would like to become a member, contact the appropriate person. Membership time is fast approaching so pay a little early and avoid the rush at the meetings in May and June. It would be greatly appreciated by Lloyd.

Several items were discussed to improve on our Sportsman Show demo. Purchasing tickets from a cashier to free up the panners, better lighting, changing the color of the pans we use and using a coarser black sand were a few of the suggestions. If you have any suggestions bring them up at the next meeting or contact Dawn Fredricks.

FUN ACTIVITY FOR THE MONTH OF APRIL:
Our fun activity for the April meeting is to wear a "Cotton-tail" in sight somewhere on your person. It will be interesting to see whose cotton is where!!!

WEB PAGE ADDRESSES:
NWMPC Web Page:
http://www.Geocities.com/Yosemite/Gorge/6503/
NWMP Ore/Wash Gazette Newsletter:
http://www.Geocities.com/Yosemite/Gorge/7278/
OIM Web Page:
http://www.grantgg.com/-oim/

Tales are unearthed on the city park's 50th anniversary
By TERRY RICHARD of The Oregonian staff

As boyhood pranks go, the joke Hank Schroeder played on a neighborhood kid nearly 60 years ago was pretty mild -- until the police got involved. "It's too bad the cops went and dynamited the entrance to the mine," said Schroeder, 71, recalling his youthful adventures in what would become Forest Park. "It was solid rock and seemed perfectly safe, but I guess they were pretty mad."

As Portland prepares to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its largest park on Saturday, Schroeder shared a personal bit of its history with two of his grandsons: the tale of the lost mine of Forest Park. On a hot summer day, Schroeder brought the boys to the park's Thurman Street entrance and began walking up Left Erikson Drive. He turned south of the Wild Cherry Trail and scouted for the entrance to the mine, which he hadn't visited in more than a decade. It was still vivid in his memory. A haft-dozen species of ferns, blackberries, vine maple and Douglas fir now masked evidence of the old mercury mine. Schroeder scouted around for a while before locating the mine's brush-covered tailings pile a few feet off the Wild Cherry Trail.

"This must be it. Let's see if we can find any traces of mercury," said Schroeder, a retired maintenance man for a Portland dye casting company. His grandsons, Jason Schuman, 10, a student at Alameda Middle School, and Jessie Schuman, 14, of Grant High School. eagerly followed him into the thick undergrowth.

Opened in the late 19th century, mine had sat deserted for years before Schroeder explored it as a boy. Back then, it was 51/2 feet high and knee deep in water a hundred feet back -- the outer limit of a 12-year-old's nerve.

"That's as far as I would go, but the police had to search for two days all the way to the end," he said.

An amateur rockhound, Schroeder pulled out a rock hammer and began digging. He cracked open a few rocks but didn't see the bright pink specks that would betray the presence of cinnabar and mercury.

Schroeder's grandsons settled for tale of the police search in 1939, which dated by nine years Forest Park's dedication, on Sept. 26, 1948.

"Our family used to live at the edge of the park," Schroeder recalled, wiping his brow on the muggy day. "The forest was a wild place back then. We spotted elk and cougar tracks all the time. Nobody used to go there, except for a few of us kids. We'd follow the old road up to the mine."

One day, while combing the sand along the Willamette River, Schroeder found an old bone and decided to have some fun with a neighbor boy. "He was more gullible than most," Schroeder said. "I told him I found the bone in the mine and that a human skeleton was buried there. He took the bone home and showed his mother."

Schroeder's practical joke took an unforeseen turn at this juncture. It wasn't just his credulous friend he managed to fool with his alleged discovery.

"When the cops got word, they came and got the bone and wanted to know who was involved," he said. "They stormed up to the mine. A bunch of them spent two days searching the old shaft trying to find the skeleton. Of course, they didn't find a thing. "Three days later, a detective came to my folks' house and asked for me. It scared me to death. But that was the end of it, until the cops dynamited the entrance shut. They were just ticked off. The mine was solid rock and was perfectly safe. People had gone in there for years." Despite his brush with the authorities, Schroeder continued to frequent the park. He remembers peeling bark from the park's cascara trees to earn money for ice cream.

"It makes a good laxative. They still use it today," he said. Before long, America entered World War II, and interest in parks was diminished. Near the end of the war, Schroeder was old enough to join the U.S. Merchant Marine. Bill Keil, 72, of Portland, was the city's second forester for Forest Park. He said the stow of the mine's demise, which took place 13 years before his service in the park began in 1952, was new even to him.

"It has taken Portland a long time to discover Forest Park," Keil said, "but I'd say it's pretty well discovered now -- what with all those bikers and runners on Leif Erikson Drive on weekends.

"For the longest time, people saw all the green in Portland's West Hills but didn't realize it was a park. They thought it was a bunch of steep, vacant land that nobody had built houses on."

Keil became park forester the year after a wildfire most likely started from a campfire that burned 800 acres. During his first summer, the city designed and built the park's system of firelanes that have helped prevent a repeat occurrence.

"I'm most proud of helping build 10 miles of the Wildwood Trail," Keil said. "Portland is the only city in the country where you can hike 30 miles in what amounts to a wilderness. I never thought I'd live long enough to see it finished."

The Wildwood Trail begins near the Oregon Zoo. After three miles, it crosses West Burnside Road and enters Forest Park. The trail grew to 30 miles this summer when its far north end was extended 1.8 miles to firelane 15. Completion of the last half-mile of trail, beyond the park boundary to Newberry Road, awaits approval from Multnomah County. Schroeder said he never visited the far reaches of the future park as a boy because there were too many closer areas to explore. His grandson Jessie carries on the tradition of visiting the park because his father operates a business within bicycling distance. His brother might join him as he gets older.