The Lost Blue Bucket Mine

Treasure Found and Lost & Book Giveaway

by Susan Page Davis

The legend of the Lost Blue Bucket Mine has intrigued people for a hundred and seventy years. Is it still out there, waiting to be discovered, or was it real in the first place?

It all started in 1845, when a wagon train got off the beaten track in eastern Oregon. There are several

Photo by James C Davis

versions of the story, and no one has proof of what actually happened. But we know it involved at least one kid, a blue bucket, and some strange pebbles.

A large wagon train had reached eastern Oregon. When they camped for a few days at a hot spring, the travelers were apprehensive about the coming ordeal of rafting down the Columbia River. 

Stephen Meek

A man named Stephen Meek, who was the brother of mountain man Joe Meek, had joined their party. He said he knew a shortcut and could lead them overland, via the “Meek Cut-off,” to the Willamette Valley, their final destination. Some of the families decided to go with Meek. The others kept to the
trail heading for the Columbia.

As the story goes, the travelers realized after a while—some say a week, others a month or two—that Meek had no idea where he was going. He left them on their own in the wilderness.  They had to get through the Cascade Mountains before winter or they might starve to death.

Most versions of the story say children went to the river to get water and returned with a blue bucket full of strange-looking pebbles. To be fair, one version says three young men went in search of some straying cattle and wandered for hours before returning with the famous rocks.

Anyway, the wise grownups of the party puzzled over the kids’ find. The blacksmith put one pebble on a metal wagon rim and pounded it. It flattened easily. They decided it was copper.

Why copper? No one’s really sure. The standard excuse is that it was 1845, several years before the California Gold Rush, and most people had never seen raw gold. Supposedly most of the rocks were dumped, but one woman, Mrs. Fisher, kept one. A few years later, with the advent of the gold craze in California, she had it assayed. It was a gold nugget.

The people who had been on that wagon train started remembering, and prospectors from all over began trying to find the spot. Many people spent years looking for it. Some people found gold in various places in Oregon, but no one was ever sure where the so-called Blue Bucket Mine was.

One clue often cited was that the gold was found three days’ ox team journey from the grave of a
Mrs. Chambers near the mouth of Crane Creek. Well, you can imagine how many people were out there looking for that grave. Supposedly the grave has been found more than once. And another tale says two Frenchmen moved it to keep people from finding the mine. 

Gravestone reads "Mrs. S Chambers Sep 3rd 1845" - found along Meek's Trail. Photo by Lostwagonman (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The woman who reportedly saved one nugget from the children’s bucket plays large in some of the stories. Mrs. Fisher’s story was written down by her grandson, but even this version is riddled with errors. For instance, he said the man who led the pioneers astray was Joe Meek, not his brother Stephen.

The wagon train split at a hot spring about a mile below the present town of Vale, near the Malheur River. Dr. Fisher, who was traveling with the Meek contingent, died and was buried August 12, 1845. The man writing Mrs. Fisher’s story knew several survivors of the wagon train. They named other landmarks they had passed.

So … The wagon train wandered on. Its exact route is a mystery, though many have tried to trace it. Eventually, they rejoined one of the trains they split off earlier. Some settled near Eugene, and some went on to California.

Wagon train using oxen. 1890 photo

 Twenty-five years later, several veterans of that wagon train got together and discussed it. They made a map of the points they knew they had passed and where they thought it most likely the gold had been found. Mrs. Fisher insisted that Mrs. Chambers died three days before the gold was found. Samuel Parker, who was also on the train at the time, said she died three days after. So, within about 100 miles—probably more like 50—in either direction, if anyone knew for certain where that grave was.

The site now believed to be the famous grave of Mrs. Chambers is about six miles east of where Crane Creek flows into the Malheur. If Mrs. Fisher was correct and the gold was found before Mrs. Chambers died, that would put the wagon train in the Willow Creek area. Gold has since been found in that area.

Gold panning--public domain photo

My best guess as to the whereabouts of the Blue Bucket Mine? I think it’s been found, in one of the areas where gold strikes were later made, but the people who found it were never sure that was the exact place.  In 1960 a group of people claimed to have found it and filed claims as the Blue Bucket Group. At least three other gold mines over the years have been named “Blue Bucket Mine,” but none of them had anything to do with the legendary east Oregon find.

One amusing point made by a woman who was part of the Blue Bucket Group: In 1845, about 3,000 traveled west over various routes in wagon trains. By 1850, she said, at least a third of them claimed to have been in the party that discovered the Blue Bucket Mine.

To enter a drawing for a copy of Susan Page Davis’s The Lady’s Maid, a story about the Oregon
Trail, or another book in this series, leave a comment and your contact information. The drawing will be held Nov. 29.

Susan Page Davis is the author of more than sixty published novels. She’s always interested in the unusual happenings of the past. She’s a two-time winner of the Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award, and also a winner of the Carol Award and the Will Rogers Medallion, and a finalist in the WILLA Awards and the More Than Magic Contest. Visit her website at: www.susanpagedavis.com .

Victorian Calling Cards

Hello from Carla Stewart, who is glad that spring is trying to emerge and we are able to bustle about once again and maybe call on a few friends we haven't seen in awhile.

Alas, we rarely do that sort of thing anymore, but rather "meet up" somewhere or "do lunch". Not so for the Victorians both in Europe and in the States as well. People called on each other, stopping in to visit on "At Home" days or just drop a card with an invitation to tea or to extend best wishes for whatever the season might be. And as was frequently the case, the Victorians didn't do things halfway, but elevated it to an art form. And so emerged the calling or visiting card.

Creative commons presented originally by Circuitous Root

Calling cards first appeared in China in the 15th century but didn't make their western debut until the French introduced them in the early 1800s.The custom spread quickly throughout Europe and became quite popular among the "well-to-do" in New England throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century. Syles ranged from simple embossing to hand calligraphy, fringed edges, hidden name cards where the bearers name is imprinted below a Victorian scrap at one edge, photograph cards, gelatine cards which went through a special process and were quite fragile, patriotic cards especially after the Civil War in the US, and every sort of fancy bordered and embellished cards you could imagine. A line or two of poetry wasn't uncommon along with the artwork. Hundreds of thousands of cards were printed from 1800 through the 1890s.

 

Creative commons presented originally by Circutous Root

Old Design Shop free image

Old Design Shop free image

Old Design Shop free image

Both men and women used calling cards. The lady's version was larger and often fancier than the man's card which needed to fit in the breast pocket of his jacket, and cards from the Victorian period were larger than those of the preceding Regency era. Card holders for women became fashionable and were often of filigreed sterling, mother of pearl, tortoiseshell, ivory or velvet. Because cards were often delivered only to a servant, they were placed in special receivers or trays on a table in the foyer. Both fancy glass and sterling receivers were common.

Occasions for using a calling card:

• Ladies made calls and delivered her cards immediately upon moving to a town. Local women could choose to invite the newcomer in when she delivered the card or offer her own card to extend an offer of wishing to further the friendship. If no card was offered, this was considered a rejection.

• Formal calls to offer congratulations or condolensces. Good manners dictated that the call be made within a week of the event, whether an engagement, marriage, addition to the family, or death or illness.

• By the mid-1800s, women could leave both their own card and that of her husband, always leaving two of his - one for the master of the house and the other for his wife.

• Taking leave. For extended trips out of town, it was considered good manners to let friends know of your intended absense.

• Invitations to any sort of occasion, although formal occasions usually had their own invitation that was either hand delivered or posted in the mail.

• Offer of courtship - for gentlemen to request getting to know an eligible woman better.

Presentation of the card could deliver special messages by turning of one corner or another to relay the message:
 

• A folded top left corner meant the visitor had come in person. If unfolded, the card was delivered by a servant.

• A folded bottom left corner meant farewell.

• A folded top right corner offered congratulations.

• A folded bottom right corner expressed condolence.

• A black band around the edge signified the carrier of the card was in mourning.

Like many customs, the folding of the corners fell out of fashion by the 1900s.

Rules for visiting:

• Formal calls following a celebratory event or a condolence made within a week of the event.

• Ceremonial visits (leaving a card only) between 3 and 4 pm the day after a ball. For a dinner party, such visit acceptable within a day or two, and after a small party withing a week.

• Ceremonial calls were made between three and four in the afternoon. Semi-ceremonial calls between four and five, and intimate calls between five and six pm.

• No calls on Sunday as these days were reserved for family and close friends.

• Visits were short, twenty to thirty minutes. If another caller arrived during a visit, the first caller left withing a moment or two.

• The decision of whether to receive a caller is up to the master or mistress of the house.

Men's Calling Cards:

Generally, a gentleman's card was simpler in design with just his name and perhaps an address. A young man didn't preface his name with "Mr." but men in the military could put their rank and physicians could use a professional title. All other honorary titles were verboten. Typically, gentlement inscribed initials on the card that gave the nature of the visit.

p. f. – congratulations (pour féliciter)


p. r. – expressing one’s thanks (pour remercier)


p. c. – mourning expression (pour condoléance)


p. f. N. A. – Happy New Year (pour feliciter Nouvel An)


p. p. c. – meaning to take leave (pour prendre congé)


p. p. – if you want to be introduced to anybody, send your visiting card (pour présenter)


In the US, calling cards were still used until the 1920s although not as extensively as in the nineteenth century. The "death" of the calling card altogether came when Lou Hoover, President Hoover's wife and an activist and promoter in her own right, found the custom time-consuming and old-fashioned. She disliked having to leave calling cards on formal social visits to other spouses of political figures in Washington. She prevailed upon her fellow Cabinet wives to agree to end the custom. Thus ended the calling card tradition.


We've come full circle, though in the twenty-first century where our "calling" cards are now business cards. They're personal and say a lot about the presenter: who she is, her business, how to contact her. Just as the visiting cards of earlier times, both men and women express themselves via the "biz" card.


Do you have a business card? What does it say about you?

Carla Stewart is the award-winning author of five novels. With a passion for times gone by, it is her desire to take readers back to that warm, familiar place in their hearts called “home.” Her newest release is The Hatmaker's Heart. In New York City’s Jazz Age, a naïve, but talented young hat designer must weigh the cost of success when the rekindled love with her childhood sweetheart is lost and her integrity in the cutthroat fashion world is tested. Learn more about Carla at www.carlastewart.com

2015 Oklahoma Book Award Finalist