| Bigfoot Encounters Tom & his claim in Star Gulch, Sixes River, California 1871 Claim Jumpers, Dreams, Fortunes Lost and Found |
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One newspaper article mentions claim jumpers. A meeting was held and a committee appointed to return the claim to its rightful owners. The claim jumpers weapons were taken away and they were given a specific date to be gone from the area. During my research I ran across an interesting headline which might easily discourage claim jumpers. "Is Nugget Tom's Lost Gold Ledge Haunted?" the article read. To save time, I will give a shorter version of the story. It starts in 1871. Tom had a gold claim in a place called Star Gulch near the Sixes River. Like most miners, he felt if he could find the main source of the gold in his claim he would be a rich man. Tom knew he was to old for mountain climbing, but he packed up his tools and provisions and set out in the late fall. Tom took his time looking all about him as he went. Nightfall found him setting up camp on the side of Star Mountain. The next day Tom continued on. Everything was going well, but Tom kept feeling as if someone were watching him. After turning around and checking his back trail several times, he laughed it off, his feelings dismissing them as an over-active imagination. Shortly, everything else was forgotten about as Tom found a quartz ledge loaded with free gold. It was so easy to take sample after sample, which he carefully loaded into his backpack. Tom, with his precious heavy load, headed back home. Soon Old Tom came to a sheer cliff overlooking the gulch where his home was, and feeling everyone of his years, sat down to rest. As he sat like a king looking out over his home, his mind full of rich discoveries, someone, or something pushed him from behind. A search party found Old Tom alive, but pretty well gone. The next day, the party carried "Tom," still unconscious, to his cabin where they fixed him up as best they could. Tom remained unconscious for several days and couldn't tell anyone where he had found all those rich samples. Tom wouldn't talk, even when he did regain consciousness. While Old Tom recovered all through the winter, he thought over and over what had happened to him. He knew someone or something was responsible for his fall. One Spring day Tom packed a pan, a pack, a pick and a gun and slipped away from camp, determined to stay alert for any dangers and find his ledge. While Old Tom never again felt he was being watched, something had happened to his memory. He carried on the search for four more years, but never again found his hidden, protected ledge again. At 80 years of age old Tom gave up his hunt and left the country. Twenty years later two more prospectors set out to find Tom's ledge. After eating they headed back to the ledge and arrived in time to see a large powerful creature that was neither animal or human. The creature, standing upright, was covered with yellow fuzz all over its body, and proceeded to go through all their camp supplies and tools over the cliff edge. As the creature ran off, they fired several shots. Either they were shaking too bad to shoot, or their shots didn't affect the creature, they couldn't say. The creature or "Wild Man", quickly disappeared into the forest, apparently unharmed. The prospectors, Robins and Benson, named their mine "The Wild Man" and sold it as fast as they could. Over the years, no matter who owned the mine, they didn't seem interested in working it, even though the ledge is reputed to be loaded with rich rock with gold almost falling off it. As if the wild man story and Nugget Tom's experiences weren't enough to scare a person off, 4 more deaths occured in the middle 1870's, after Nugget Tom left the area. The 4 men, named McLoan, Madigan, Johnson and Jenson, were buried on Huckleberry Knoll, overlooking Bear Pen Flats. Whether they died of natural causes or were murdered was never figured out for sure, although certain evidence points towards the "Wild Man" possibly having a hand in their deaths. The Indians have an old legend of a tribe of Indian devils, living far up the Sixes River, in the same general area we are talking about. No self-respecting Indian would go into the area for fear of death at the hands of the Swalalahists, or Wild Men. The Indians' description of the creature is much more detailed than that of the miners. Swalalahists, so the description goes, are well over six and a half feet tall. They weigh between 200-260 pounds. They are powerfully built with massive jaws. Their teeth are wicked looking, like a cat; they have bulging black eyes and are covered with a short coat of yellow hair or fur. They can move fast with the agility of a deer. One man, after sighting
one of the creatures, measured a track left behind. He recorded the
track at sixteen inches long and eight inches wide.This story came with
a map showing where Nugget Tom's ledge of gold is supposedly located, |