![\"Mesquite](\"https:\/\/desertgazette.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/478-sand-dunes-0204-088-v2-300x199.jpg\")
<\/a>Jacob Breyfogle was a prospector who roamed the country around Pioche and Austin, Nevada, with infrequent excursions into the <\/em>Death Valley<\/em><\/a> <\/em>area. He traveled alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Indian George, Hungry Bill, and Panamint Tom saw Breyfogle several times in the country around Stovepipe Wells, but they could never trace him to his claim. When followed, George said, Breyfogle would step off the trail and completely disappear. Once George told me about trailing him into the Funeral Range<\/a>. <\/em>He pointed to the bare mountain. \u201cHim there, me see. Pretty quick\u2014\u201d He paused, puckered his lips. \u201cWhoop\u2014no see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Breyfogle left a crude map of his course. All lost mines must have a map. Conspicuous on this map are the Death Valley Buttes which are landmarks. Because he was seen so much here, it was assumed that his operations were in the low foothills. I have seen a rough copy of this map made from the original in possession of \u201cWildrose\u201d Frank Kennedy\u2019s squaw, Lizzie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Breyfogle presumably coming from his mine, was accosted near Stovepipe Wells by Panamint Tom, Hungry Bill, and a young buck related to them, known as Johnny. Hungry Bill, from habit, begged for food. Breyfogle refused, explaining that he had but a morsel and several hard days\u2019 journey before him. On his burr<\/em><\/a>o <\/a><\/em>he had a small sack of ore. When Breyfogle left, Hungry Bill said, \u201cHim no good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Incited by Hungry Bill and possible loot, the Indians followed Breyfogle for three or four days across the range. Hungry Bill stopped en route, sent the younger Indians ahead. At Stump Springs east of Shoshone<\/a>, <\/em>Breyfogle was eating his dinner when the Indians sneaked out of the brush and scalped him, took what they wished of his possessions and left him for dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ash Meadows Charlie, a chief of the Indians in that area confided to Herman Jones that he had witnessed this assault. This happened on the Yundt Ranch, or as it is better known, the Manse Ranch. Yundt and Aaron Winters accidentally came upon Breyfogle unconscious on the ground. The scalp wound was fly-blown. They had a mule team and light wagon and hurried to S<\/a><\/em>an Bernardino<\/em><\/a> <\/em>with the wounded man. The ore, a chocolate quartz, was thrown into the wagon.<\/p>\n\n\n \u201cI saw some of it at Phi Lee\u2019s home, the Resting Spring Ranch<\/a>,<\/em>\u201d Shorty Harris <\/a><\/em>said. \u201cIt was the richest ore I ever saw. Fifty pounds yielded nearly $6000.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Breyfogle recovered, but thereafter was regarded as slightly \u201coff.\u201d He returned to Austin, Nevada, and the story followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wildrose (Frank) Kennedy, an experienced mining man obtained a copy of Breyfogle\u2019s map and combed the country around the buttes in an effort to locate the mine. Kennedy had the aid of the Indians and was able to obtain, through his squaw Lizzie, such information as Indians had about the going and coming of the elusive Breyfogle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSome believe the ore came from around Daylight Springs,\u201d Shorty said, \u201cbut old Lizzie\u2019s map had no mark to indicate Daylight Springs. But it does show the buttes and the only buttes in Death Valley are those above Stovepipe Wells<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cKennedy interested Henry E. Findley, an old time Colorado sheriff and Clarence Nyman, for years a prospector for Coleman and <\/em>Smith<\/em><\/a> <\/em>(the <\/em>Pacific Borax Company<\/em><\/a>). They induced Mat Cullen, a rich Salt Lake mining man, to leave his business and come out. They made three trips into the valley, looking for that gold. It\u2019s there somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n At Austin, Breyfogle was outfitted several times to relocate the property, but when he reached the lower elevation of the valley, he seemed to suffer some aberration which would end the trip. His last grubstaker was not so considerate. He told Breyfogle that if he didn\u2019t find the mine promptly he\u2019d make a sieve of him and was about to do it when a companion named Atchison intervened and saved his life. Shortly afterward, Breyfogle died from the old wound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Indian George, repeating a story told him by Panamint Tom, once told me that Tom had traced Breyfogle to the mine and after Breyfogle\u2019s death went back and secured some of the ore. Tom guarded his secret. He covered the opening with stone and leaving, walked backwards, obliterating his tracks with a greasewood brush. Later when Tom returned prepared to get the gold he found that a cloudburst had filled the canyon with boulders, gravel and silt, removing every landmark and Breyfogle\u2019s mine was lost again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSome day maybe,\u201d George said, \u201cbig <\/em><\/a>rain <\/a><\/em>come and wash um out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Among the freighters of the early days was John Delameter who believed the Breyfogle was in the lower Panamint. Delameter operated a 20 mule team freighting service between Daggett <\/a><\/em>and points in both Death Valley and Panamint Valley<\/a><\/em>. He told me that he found Breyfogle down in the road about twenty-eight miles south of Ballarat with a wound in his leg. Breyfogle had come into the Panamint from Pioche, Nevada, and said he had been attacked by Indians, his horses stolen, while working on his claim, which he located merely with a gesture toward the mountains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Subsequently, Delameter made several vain efforts to locate the property, but like most lost mines, it continues to be lost. But it was good bait for a grubstake for years and served both the convincing liar and the honest prospector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nearly all old timers had a version of the Lost Breyfogle differing in details, but all agreed on the chocolate quartz and its richness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That Breyfogle really lost a valuable mine, there can be little doubt, but since he is authentically traced from the northern end of Death Valley <\/a><\/em>to the southern, and since the chocolate quartz is found in many places of that area, one who cares to look for it must cover a large territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From:\u00a0Chapter XXII<\/em> The most famous lost mine in the Death Valley area is the Lost Breyfogle. There are many versions of the legend, but all agree that somewhere in the bowels of those rugged mountains is a colossal mass of gold, which Jacob Breyfogle found and lost. Jacob Breyfogle was a prospector who roamed the country around … Continue reading “The Lost Breyfogle Mine”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[215,175],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-death-valley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4198"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4201,"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4198\/revisions\/4201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Resting](\"https:\/\/desertgazette.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/599-resting-springs-j4540-300x205.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"Francis](\"https:\/\/desertgazette.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/francis-marion-borax-smith-213x300.jpg\")
<\/a>
Lost Mines. The Breyfogle and Others<\/em>
Loafing Along Death Valley Trails by William Caruthers<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"