The Mystery of the Lost Tent Mine
Twenty-two years after a rich gold strike in the Cascades, a party of prospectors still hunts for their abandoned fortune.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Twenty-two years ago, George Goodwin and his uncles, Bent and Tom, along with John Stevenson, E.P. Boyles, and John W. Beck, were prospecting the upper Naches River. They found a mine of surprising richness on one of the tributaries. The ledge was 100 feet deep and 80 feet wide, tracing for three miles. Suddenly, the party stampeded and fled toward Yakima, leaving behind their camp, tent, and equipment with a pot of beans still on the fire. Though they sent samples to be assayed with excellent results, the death of their expert, Dr. Veach, and ongoing conflicts with Indigenous tribes prevented their return for years. When they eventually attempted to relocate the site, they found it impossible to identify. Mr. Goodwin believes this 'Lost Tent Mine' is the mother lode of the Naches gold and remains convinced that it will one day yield fabulous fortunes.
“They left suddenly while the pot of beans was on the fire, not even taking the time to pack up their tent and fixtures.”
The 'Lost Tent Mine' is a classic example of the boom-time folklore that built the Pacific Northwest. Today, these stories persist in the hiking and hobbyist communities of the Cascades, reflecting a permanent tension between the landscape as a source of environmental wonder and a potential site for speculative wealth.
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