Most people like a good lost treasure tail and I do to but I also prefer something that has a little proof or background to the story and a real chance in finding something. After all that's what makes a story a legend and keeps people hunting and telling the tail.
We have all heard of the usual “Oak Island Money Pit” and so on but I tried to find five not so popular but never the less legendary treasure tails and wrote about them. They might not be as popular or mysterious but they still are legends and some have a real chance on still being discovered.
Although I researched these to the best of my ability, I cannot be a 100 percent they are totally accurate. Enjoy!
Genoa Nevada, Nail Keg Cache
This is Genoa, Nevada in 1890. Only thirty years before this picture in 1860, the town's residents and payroll employees where constantly subjected to getting robbed while delivering payrolls and other goods.
In late 1860 one employer thought he came up with an idea that would fool criminals that tried to rob his payroll shipment. He loaded what at the time was $20,000 in gold $20 dollar coins into a barrel labeled “Nails or Steel Nails” and shipped it simple freight. Well his planned failed because sure enough the barrel was stolen off a stagecoach by 2 men wearing masks that rolled it off into the bush.
Soon after the golden coins where forgotten about or considered gone until somewhere in 1870 or later, a miner laid dying in a Montana boot camp or jail had confessed to robbing the stagecoach with another man back in 1860. He claimed him and his partner robbed the coach, rolled the barrel into the woods and opened it. They each took out $1000 and buried the remaining $18,000 by a tree in the woods. Word reached Genoa Nevada and people went literally nuts almost digging holes near every tree in the area.
In 1882, a large avalanche hit Genoa destroying almost half the area leaving many people to believe the treasure would now be lost for good.
Now this would be the end of the story but it is said in 1916, a blacksmith and his son where out searching for the gold and came across a small broken chest containing $2000 in gold twenty dollar coins. Then in 1948, some people where excavating a spot for a basement and said to have come across an unknown amount of gold twenty dollar coins. Finally in 1961, the last discovery of gold was made. A man had found over 100 gold twenty dollar coins in the hillside near Genoa.
So according to history and stories there sounds like to me there's a really good chance that the hills in or around Genoa Nevada you still possibly hold a treasure just waiting to be found!
William Pogue's Lost Fortune
Here's another almost forgotten treasure tail from Nevada. The man in the picture above is William Pogue or the “Miser” of Little Smokey Valley. Back in the 1895 when trading was fairly busy, William Pogue had managed to find a spring well along a popular trade route in Nevada. It is said he had realized he had the only spring water on the way to Nye County and with that he constructed more buildings. The buildings could house horses or people overnight and he also feed visitors.
William basically was running his very own bed and breakfast and watering hole. He eventually secured a contract to feed and water to the stage line and then convinced Nye County to pay him to maintain the road in front of his watering station. If that wasn't enough it is also said that William had also found a small mine which he worked from time to time that paid pretty well. His estimated yearly wage from the city and water alone was $25,000.
This is one of the buildings that William had built. He operated his business in these buildings for over 20 years without ever having a problem or being robbed until May 15, 1915 a traveler passing through the area decided to stop in. He found William lying on the floor paralyzed from the waist down. The traveler made him as comfortable as possible and then went to the nearest town to seek help. By May 19thonly 3 days after being found, William Pogue had died at 75 years old.
Everyone that had known William had also known that he was a “Miser” who didn't spend a cent except on goods and materials for his business. It is said that he hid his fortune estimated around $200,000 somewhere in the desert which along with his gold mine has never been found.
