My family has camped annually at this reservoir since 1968. My father used to tell us kids a campfire story of buried treasure along the shore of the reservoir and every year my friends and I would go hunting for it. Of course, we had doubts about the validity of his story, but later he showed me an article from an Old West magazine, and since then I’ve seen the story referenced in other publications and web sites. Here’s how the story goes:
In 1870, a man named John Holt and his friend Jack robbed a mail stage carrying the army payroll and a strongbox of gold to the forts in Southern Oregon and Northern California totaling somewhere around $50,000. During the robbery, Jack shot and killed the guard. The two then loaded the mail sacks and the strong box onto their horses and planned to head west towards the Willamette Valley.
Their plans were thwarted as they approached a creek that feeds into the Crooked River valley when they found themselves being pursued by a band of raiding Indians. They were able to stay ahead of the Indians by staying in the brush and willows of the creek bed, but as they reached the Crooked River their situation became dire. Their only hope was to find a place to hole up and stave off the attack. A hill jutting up to their right with a cap rock looked like their best chance, so they decided to make a break up the hill and hole up at the top. As the Indians fired wildly at them, they ditched their horses, grabbed the mail sacks and strongbox and scrambled up the hill. Both John and Jack were shot but able to make it to the rocks at the top of the hill and stave off the attack. Jack soon died from his wound. John decided to hide the body of his friend and also hid the mail sacks and strongbox before slipping by the Indians in the night.
John followed the willows of the Crooked River until he came to the settlement of Prineville. Unfortunately, an army patrol was in town and upon hearing word of a wounded man in town he was arrested and eventually convicted for the stagecoach robbery. By the time John was released from prison in 1923 he was a blind old man. He hired a young man as a guide to search the rock where he had hidden the treasure. Holt tried his best to describe to his guide the area where the treasure was hidden but after several days of searching they gave up. As they were leaving town, the guide told Holt’s story to two young ranchers Elton and Wayne Carey.
The Carey’s found nothing more than half of a human skeleton, presumably belonging to Jack, but no one has claimed to have found the treasure. Perhaps it is still there waiting to be found.
Until then, I thought I’d provide a “strongbox” that you might actually be able to find. I would recommend geocachers use a boat, raft, kayak, inner-tube, etc. to get to Skeleton Rock, hence the 4 terrain rating, as the south side of the reservoir has almost no roads leading near the cache and would involve a very long hike. However you get to the rock, I recommend getting to the top from the backside where there is a more gentle slope.
Original contents: New brass whistle, card deck, wire saw, sharpening stones, new folding scissors, Geocaching compass keyring, GEO sticker, GPS sticker, various wakeboarding stickers, new mini-brite keychain, windsurfing pin, and a huge figurine of Watto.
Good Luck.