The Ghost Gold of the Walla Walla River
After decades of myth and failed searches by mechanics and clairvoyants, a farmer finally unearths a long-lost cache of scout gold.
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.
During the last 50 years, a myth circulated among residents of the Walla Walla River country that a large sum of money had been buried in the vicinity by an old scout during the Indian wars. The exact spot could not be ascertained until a clairvoyant visited the city and claimed she could locate it. The first person to solicit her help found nothing and gave up in disgust. The next victim was a well-known local mechanic who combined business with pleasure by going to the river with the clairvoyant. Though they dug a hole 14 feet deep over the course of several trips, they found nothing. It will undoubtedly make the mechanic feel very sore to hear that the treasure was recently unearthed by a farmer who had been searching for it, and who has since transferred a portion of the fortune for 100 acres of wood land on the Walla Walla river. The treasure was found on the old Baker estate, about one mile below where the clairvoyant had initially located it.
“For some unknown reason they did not make a search that day but marked the location of the treasure.”
Treasure hunting myths are a staple of frontier history, often serving to mask deeper anxieties about land ownership and sudden wealth. The ‘old Baker estate’ remains a local touchstone, connecting current Walla Walla residents to the speculative fever that drove 19th-century settlement.
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