Huckleberry Knoll Cemetery
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Another Cemetery cache located deep in the woods on the South Fork of the Sixes River.
I have been looking at this area for the last 10 years and finally got down here with a couple of local cacher's,Trailsailor and Go_Coastal. Thanks guys for the great day of exploration!
This remote very small cemetery is the final resting place of a handful of gold miners unlucky or maybe lucky enough to be interred in this beautiful and quiet location. The trail in is down hill (1400 feet in 2 miles)all the way. On the way down you will pass through several forest types and some truly amazing old growth trees. It is a vertical world down here folks so be prepared.
The story below was found on line a while back. Now we know who the interred souls might of been.
The Lost Mine of Nugget Tom
"Nugget Tom" was a prospector. He had a small claim in Star Gulch near the headwaters of the Sixes River in Curry County. For a long time he had been wondering if there was a ledge above his claim that all the placer gold had come from. If there was, and he could find it, he would be rich man indeed. The only drawback that presented itself was age. Nugget Tom was getting a little long in the tooth, and mountain climbing in one of the wildest and steepest mountain areas in Oregon was a chore and he wasn't sure he was up to it.
Nevertheless, late in the fall of 1871, he decided he had to know.Tom packed his gold pan, pick, shovel and enough food for a week and made his way slowly up Star Mountain at the head of Star Gulch. It was a long and hard job. He hammered and pecked at each favorable looking outcropping. That evening found him high on a lonely mountainside, where he made a dry camp.
The next morning dawned bright and clear, but Nugget Tom didn't feel quite right. He wasn't tired, he had slept well as he always did in the mountains, but he didn't feel quite right. He had an uneasy feeling that someone or something was watching him. He kept on hammering and pecking along, but every so often he would whirl to see if anyone was behind him. He would carefully eye the bushes and other areas of concealment, but he never saw anyone. Tom laughed, and shook his head. He must be getting spooky. He climbed for a spell and started hammering again. Then his hammer knocked off a piece of quartz that took his breath away. It was rich with free gold. He knocked off several more pieces and stowed them in his pack-sack. He felt great. He had hit it. He raised his arms in the air and yelled, and then suddenly whirled around and looked behind him. The feeling wouldn't go away. He continued to look carefully all around him as he made his way back down the mountain to his cabin.
Tom took a break on a ledge and sat for a spell. He told himself there was no one around, but knowing that he had made a strike only made the feeling stronger. Suddenly he was on his way over a ledge and into a gulch below.
The next day a searching party found him. He had been broken up pretty good and was laying at the foot of the gulch, but he was still alive. They carried him back to his cabin and patched him up as best they could. One of the search party noticed a lump in Tom's jacket and reached in and pulled out the richest piece of gold quartz that he had ever come across.
Tom was still unconscious, and could not tell them anything. Two of the boys went back to the cliff where they had found Tom and picked up his pick, pan and shovel. His backpack had opened up when he had hit the ground and the rich pieces of quarts Tom had collected were strewn over the area. The two men gathered up the samples and headed back to the cabin.
The wanted to talk to Tom and learn where where he had got the gold quartz. Then they could stake their own claim, but Tom was still unconscious.
Many days later, Nugget Tom finally opened his eyes and looked around. He couldn't get up. It looked like he would be down for quite a spell. He spent many weeks recovering and thinking about that day on the mountain. He knew he hadn't slipped and fell. He knew someone or something had pushed him over the ledge, but he couldn't recall anything beyond that.
Tom rested up all winter and next spring he sneaked away from his cabin with his pack, pick, pan-- and this time there was a gun. He would be more alert this time and would use the gun if he had to. It had been 6 months since his fall and this time he did not have the uneasy feeling. But maybe the fall was responsible for that because it had also erased his memory of where he had made his strike. Try as he might he could not find that ledge.
Tom was 76 years old, and getting more feeble every day, but he wouldn't give up his search. He kept looking for four more years until he turned eighty. Then he quit and left the country.
In 1899, twenty years later, in the spring of the year, two prospectors by the name of Robbins and Benson decided to make an all out effort to find the lost mine of Nugget Tom. They outfitted for a long stay in the mountains, and started form the head of Star Gulch, they started up Star Mountain.
They studied the mountain for any indications and finally found a small trace that led them up a little stream bed to the source of the spring. a small spring that went dry in the summer. There was plenty of water in it now though. On the ledge above the spring they hit gold, but they knew from where they were at that it was not the mine of Nugget Tom. They worked the claim and carried the crushed rock down to the stream and panned the gold. It was a rich find.
The worked until noon and broke off for lunch. They fried their bacon and bannocks over a little fire and laughed and congratulated each other on their find. After lunch they went back to work Benson got an uneasy feeling that something was watching him. He whirled around and froze in his tracks. He tried to pull his gun but his hand wouldn't move. He watched something throw all their camping equipment over the cliff. It was neither man nor beast. It was big and powerful and stood erect. There was a yellow fuzz all over its body. It ran as soon as they were finally able to get their guns working. They got several good shots off but the bullets did not seem to have any immediate effect on the creature, and the wild man disappeared in the brush.
The two prospectors named their claim "The Wild Man" and sold it soon after. The buyers never came to work it even though there was rich rock showing. The mine was abandoned probably because of the wild man episode which made all the miners more fearful because of a series of unexplained deaths that took place a couple of years after Nugget Tom had left the country. Four men had been buried on Huckleberry Knoll above Bear Pen Flats. Their names were Johnson, McLean, Madigan and Jenson.
The death of these four men occurred over a period of time and exactly what caused their deaths was never determined. It appeared they had fallen off a ledge, but no one believed that these experienced men had carelessly fallen.
There had always been a legend among the Indians about the lost devils that inhabited the area. The Indians called them Swalalahists and said they lived in the upper reaches of the Sixes River. They were so bad that no Indians would go into that country for fear that they would be killed.
The Swalalahists were described by the miners that saw them as standing well over six and a half feet tall. They estimated their weight at two hundred to two hundred and sixty pounds. They had massive jaws, powerful shoulders and torsos and their bodies were covered with a short coat of yellowish hair. Their teeth were catlike and their eyes bulged and were black and seemed to burn right through a man. They could run and jump with the speed of a deer.
It is possible that one of these devils pushed Tom off the ledge. Tom was never positive and never saw what shoved him Robbins and Benson however, never forgot the thing they saw and shot at. Their description was very precise.
One morning, just at daybreak, a man named "Doc' Elgin was heading from his camp to get some water. It was August and the sun was just starting to come up over Rusty Butte. As Doc approached the stream, he couldn't believe his eyes. There, standing at the waters edge, was a creature the likes of which he had never encountered. The thing bounded away immediately. Doc measured the tracks. They were sixteen inches long and a full eight inches across.
The wild man stories have probably helped to keep many miners from the area, but wild man or not, Nugget Tom's lost mine still awaits the man willing to take his chances with the Swalalahists, the devil of Star Mountain. All you have to do is travel up the Sixes River until you come to the South Fork. Follow the South Fork through Hells Gate and past Butcher Creek and Bear Pen Flat. That will just about take you to Star Gulch. From there your on your own. You'd best look over your shoulder now and then if you want to spend all that gold. (*_^)
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ovt Png snprq gerr ba genvy, whfg orybj gur Przrgrel