[music] Howdy. I'm Bob Terry welcome to lost
treasures in the Old West. In this episode we're going to highlight
four very interesting lost treasures. The lost stolen gold that Sam bass took off
the Union Pacific Railroad. Then we're going to look at several wagon loads of
disappearing dimes and a very mysterious stagecoach holdup in Idaho and then
we're going to look at a different kind of lost treasure that you just might
have in your possession already. Up first Sam Bass.
After failing it several legitimate businesses Sam Bass turned to a life of
crime He formed a gang and robbed the Union Pacific Railroad gold train from
San Francisco California Bass and his men robbed the Train on September 18th
1877 at Big Springs Nebraska. They took sixty thousand dollars in gold. In $20
gold pieces. That's about three thousand $20 gold pieces. Each of those gold
pieces today is worth approximately fifteen to seventeen hundred dollars
apiece. That would mean that that treasure today
would be worth approximately five million dollars. This made Sam Bass a lot
of money so he decided to commit lots more robberies. But after lots of
robberies the gang never made more than five hundred dollars at a time on a
single robbery. The gold train was by far the biggest robbery they ever committed.
In 1878 the gang held up two stagecoaches and four trains, within 25 miles of
Dallas Texas and they became the object of a big manhunt from the Pinkerton's and
a special unit of the Texas Rangers. Bass managed to elude the Texas Rangers and
the Pinkertons until one of his men Jim Murphy turned informant.
Jim Murphy one of Bass's gang members had a very ailing father who was taken
into custody by local law officials. The law officials made sure that Murphy got
the message and Murphy gave them some information. Well Sam Bass and his gang
went to Round Rock Texas. They were looking at the Williamson County Bank. On
July 19th 1878 there was a confrontation with them between a deputy William
County sheriff named A. W. Grimes when Grimes approached them and
requested They surrender their sidearms he was abruptly shot and killed. As Bass
attempted to flee there were several Texas Rangers at hand
and they shot Bass. He made it away from the scene but he
was found later in a pasture by a group of railroad workers, who quickly summoned
the authorities. He was taken into custody but the next day after he was
found he died, on July 21st 1878 his 27th birthday. Now a lot of Sam Bass's
treasure has not been found it's rumored buried somewhere around
Denton Texas. There's also rumors that he buried some around Springtown Texas and
that some of it may very well be hidden in Round Rock Texas where Sam bass is
buried. Most of the gold that Sam Bass stole from the Union Pacific Railroad
has never been accounted for. Coming up next we're going to talk about four
wagon loads of dimes that 1907 left the Denver Mint headed from Phoenix Arizona.
Somewhere along the way the wagons the drivers and the dimes all disappeared
never to be seen again. This story really starts with predecessors of the Denver
Mint. In 1858 Austin M. Clark, Milton E. Clark and
Emanuel Henry Gruber founded a brokerage firm in Leavenworth Kansas, and then
established an office in Denver. At the beginning of the Colorado gold rush.
Their idea was to buy gold dust and transport the gold dust back east to the
federal mints but this created a huge transportation cost so the firm opened a
private mint on July 25th of 1860 the mint opened in a two-story brick
building on the corner of market and 16th Street minting $10 gold pieces at
the rate of 15 to 20 coins a minute a private mint would save the
transportation cost and provide a valuable source of local exchange. After
three years of private coining Clark Gruber and company sold their minting and
refining business Uncle Sam in 1862. Established by an act of Congress on
April 21st 1862 the United States Mint at Denver opened for business in late
1863, as a United States assay office. Their operations began in the facilities
of the Clark Gruber & Company building that the government had purchased for
$25,000. Unlike Clark Gruber and company though the Denver plant performed no
coinage of gold at first. One reason given by the director of the mint for
the lack of coinage at Denver was the hostility of the Native American Indian
tribes along the routes, and the civil war, and bad white men along the trail.
The gold nuggets and dusts that were brought there by the miners from the
surrounding area we're accepted by the assay office for melting assaying and
stamping cast gold bars. The bars were then returned to their depositors has
imparted bars, stamped with the weight and fineness of the gold. After years of
this there was a new hope for a branch of mint status when Congress provided
for the establishment of a mint at Denver for gold and silver coin
production. The site for the new mint at West Colfax and Delaware streets was
purchased on April 22nd 1896 for around $60,000 and construction began in 1897.
After a lot of delays the new building was occupied on September 1st 1904 but
coin operations didn't begin until February 1st 1906. About a year later four
wagon loads of Dimes left Denver Colorado for Phoenix Arizona and they
had a treacherous route ahead of them. Now these wagons were hauling freshly
minted silver 1907 barber had dimes and perhaps some 1907 quarters as well. Today these dimes are very special.
Though over 4 million of them were struck from 90% silver and 10% copper
baring the D of the Denver Mint, only about a dozen of these dimes in decent
shape are known to still be in existence today. If you were to locate just one of
these dimes in pristine shape it could very well bring over a thousand dollars. Of course it is possible that the wagon
train met with foul play from bandits along the trail. The most common belief today is that
perhaps because of foul weather or some other reason the wagon train fell victim
to the very treacherous trails along the Black Canyon. Now Black Canyon is a
breathtaking place! In some places the canyons a thousand foot wide and over
2,000 foot deep and it owes its name to the fact that parts of the canyon only
receive about 30 minutes of sunlight per day. That is an amazing place! Now there
are a few theories of what happened to the dimes. Some folks think that the
wagon drivers made a bargain amongst themselves and just decided to ride off
with the dimes and keep them for themselves. Some folks think that they
were set upon by outlaws that knew about the shipment but if either one of those
things would have happened these dimes would have showed up in circulation, and
the 1907 barber head dime is one of the rarest. So that seems very unlikely.
There are also some rumors that a few years ago some hikers in Black Canyon
found the remains of a few wagons and a couple of gallons of these dimes spread
out amongst the wreckage. Could be, but that's just a drop in the bucket
compared to what's missing, so there's still a lot of dimes out there to find.
Next up we're going to talk about a very mysterious not very well documented
stagecoach robbery that happened in Idaho. In this tale
either 90,000 or $40,000 in newly minted gold coins still in their wrappers are
reported to be stolen. Now the area that this robbery was committed in is
straight north from today's arrowrock dam. This robbery is said to have taken
place close to where Grimes and Moore Creek
come together. Three men stopped the stagecoach and relieved them of their
strongbox. Now the guard on the stagecoach, it was his job to protect
that money and now he was furious. Now he saw the trail that the outlaws is taken
and he knew that trail very well and he knew the country very well and he knew that
they can take that Coach and get on a ridge overlooking the trail as it doubled
back. Well that's just exactly what they did. When he got on that trail he took care of
those outlaws. The guard shot three times before the outlaws could even have a
chance to shoot back and killed them. There was a problem though when they got to the
bodies, the gold wasn't there! Somewhere in that very
short distance between the time the stagecoach was held up and under that
Ridge where the robbers were shot the gold had come up missing.
There are several stories about this and it does not seem to have been well
documented in any newspaper articles that can be found. There's rumors that
it's buried in a cave on Rye flats. Also there's numerous caves and canyons along
Grimes Creek Road. Literally just to the north of the
entrance to the road is a cave along the cliffs. Rye flats is now a tree farm, and
it's owned and operated by the Bureau of Land Management. It would seem that the
outlaws could not have had time enough to stray too far off the trail to stash
the loot if that indeed is what they did. Since the legend has it that the coins
were newly minted and still in their wrappers that would make one think that
the stagecoach was headed north towards Idaho City. Since the coach driver was
able to climb to the flats above the confluence of Grimes Creek and Moores
Creek to shoot the robbers it would seem that they headed towards Boise after the
robbery and doubled back. The only real place for the robbers to climb up to the
flats by horseback would have been on the old Adams ranch trail. That trail is
about two miles south of the confluence. They would have probably rode off at a
gallop. With excessive weight on the horses getting the horses winded
climbing the steep trail to the flats. There is lava rubble that they could
have hid the loot in. The Adams ranch trail used to be a shortcut for those
folks that were headed to Atlanta, it was still very visible several years ago but
now there's a dirt road cut through the heart of it. The trail used to drop off
into Thorn Creek area. Now there's all kinds of theories of
what happened to the gold. Some folks think that there was a partner somewhere
on the trail that they met, gave all the gold to that partner and planned on
splitting it up later. That could be possible, or that the Gold's buried in
one of the caves that's around there. A lot of people searched for it for a good
while and never found it. Some folks think that the guard on the coach
somehow hid the gold kept it for himself. But that's hardly possible. That's a lot
of gold to hide and with the driver and passengers how are you going to be
secretive about something like that? Up next we're going to talk about a
different kind of treasure. We're not going to talk about an outlaws stolen
hidden gold or a lost silver mine. But we are going to talk about something that's
very much part of the Old West and something that depending on the
condition it's in could be worth a little bit of money all the way up to
thousands and thousands of dollars, and this is something that could be hidden
in your attic or maybe even in the back of your closet and you don't even know
it. We're going to talk about Levi Strauss &
Company bluejeans. Levi Strauss was born in Bavaria on
February 26th 1829 to Hearst Straus and his second wife Rebecca. Levi
had three older brothers and three older sisters. In 1846 Levi and his sisters
immigrated to New York where they were met by his two older brothers who owned
a New York wholesale dry goods business named J Strauss brother and company and
young Levi soon began to learn this business trade himself. With the
California Gold Rush on Levi journeyed to San Francisco California in 1853
hoping to make his fortune, and that he did, but not panning for gold.
Levi established a wholesale dry goods business under his own name and served
as the West Coast representative for the family's New York firm. Levi eventually
renamed his company Levi-Strauss and company. Sometime
in the early 1870s Levi received a letter from one of his customers a
tailor named Jacob Davis out of Reno Nevada in his letter
Davis described the unique way he made pants for his customers through the use
of rivets at points of strain. This made the pants last longer. Davis wanted to
patent his new idea but needed a business partner to get the idea off the
ground. Levi was very interested in this idea and a patent was granted to Jacob
Davis and Levi Strauss and company on May 20th 1873, and this is when blue
jeans were born. To begin with these new pants were called waist overalls or
overalls. The original company model number for
these pants was the double X model but in 1890 they were renamed the 501 model.
These rugged trousers were very popular with Miners and with Cowboys. Levi
Strauss & Company business was growing in leaps and bounds and Levi's was a
good business man he brought in his nephews to help with the business and by
the turn of the century it was a very successful business. But in 1902 Levi Strauss passed away at
the age of 73 years old. He never married so he left his business to his four
nephews Jacob, Sigmund, Lewis and Abraham Stern. The sons of his sister Fanny and her
husband David. At this time Levi's fortune was
estimated to be around six million dollars the brothers did well with the
business. The whole world was going through some amazing changes in the
early 1900's and San Francisco was a busy place. By 1906 the San
Francisco based Levi Strauss & Company was a booming business with a huge
demand for their clothing! The film footage you're seeing is actual footage of a
very bustling 1906 San Francisco California. The existence of this film
footage is amazing because this film footage was captured just days before
disaster struck San Francisco. In 1906 on April 18th at 5:12 a.m. San Francisco
was changed forever. Now the San Francisco earthquake of 1906
devastated the whole city and in with that devastation was the Levi Strauss &
Company buildings. Everything their furnishings their archives their records
their factory everything was destroyed. The earthquake didn't get them but the
fire that lasted three days did! It destroyed all of it. San Francisco was in
ruins but not only was the Levi Strauss & Company business so stable that it
could recover but they also loaned money to other merchants and helped other
merchants get back in business as well. As the new century advance they continued
to grow. By the 1930s Levi Strauss and company realized that there was a market
that was largely being ignored and they could probably double their business. By
marketing Levi's to the ladies, and even Hollywood realized that a pair of Levi's
could be a very important part of a wardrobe. Now with the Hollywood Cowboys
wearing Levi's, Levi Strauss and company didn't take long to launch an
advertising campaign to cash in on this rugged romantic image of the West. Because of the extreme popularity of
Levi's products even Levi's advertising memorabilia has become highly
collectible. Levi Strauss and company invented blue jeans, and blue jeans have
not only become a staple of America but of the whole world. So as a result
vintage Levi Strauss and company products have become extremely valuable
and the most valuable are the ones that are the oldest, the rarest and in the
best condition. In 2008 while exploring a Rand mining district mine, in the Mojave
Desert a pair of Levi trousers were discovered in a mine shaft.
They were found next to a paper bag bearing the name of a local shop
frequented by miners which stopped trading in 1898. These ancient Levi's
were quite a discovery since Levi Strauss and company didn't even have a
pair this old, because of the San Francisco earthquake. The owner while
exploring the mine was hoping to find something of value and he did find
something of value. An old pair of Levi's jeans he put them on an online auction
and these Levi's sold for over $17,000. These Levi's are in pretty good shape.
But there's no telling how much a pair of this age, in brand-new condition would
be worth today. In 2003 Levi Strauss and company closed
their last remaining American manufacturing plants, thus ending an
American tradition that had been in place since the 1850s. As a result
anything made by the Levi Strauss and company that bears the made in USA label
has become much more valuable. For instance if you were to locate a pair of
Levi's that are brand new old stock, still with the manufacturers labels and
all the tags still on them and they were made as late as the 1960s, they're worth
well over a thousand dollars. Thank you for joining us for lost treasures of the
Old West where we're here to tell you about lost treasures that are waiting
out there to be found by someone. Maybe by you. I'm Bob Terry have a great day
and we hope to see you again on down the trail. [music] [music] [music]
