8 lb. Gold Bar Awaits to be Found

Many lost treasure stories are based on lore and campfire stories. This one is based on newspaper accounts of a tragedy.

King Woolsey's 1864 Campaign for Revenge

King Woolsey was away from his Agua Fria ranch, which was located around present-day Dewey. Instead, he was with Governor John Goodwin along the Verde when a messenger came with disturbing news. Fifty Native Americans “made a descent on [his] herd at mid-day, and before the herders could alarm the men at the ranch, they succeeded in driving off all the animals but one or two, which they killed,” the Arizona Miner described. Except for three yoke of oxen that were actively plowing the land, 30 head of livestock were lost.

This was not the first large loss Woolsey experienced, and he vowed to wreak revenge. “He will organize a company to hunt and punish the thieves, and if it is as successful as the party he headed [previously], which slaughtered twenty or more of them, he will have a good revenge,” the paper continued. “He is one of our most daring and skilled Indian fighters, and believes fully…in the extermination policy. And in view of the importance of the expedition, the Governor has made Mr. Woolsey an aide upon his staff, with the rank of Lt. Colonel.” The chance of capturing the 50 Natives who actually made the raid was so slight, it was never even considered, so revenge it was.

Disaster! Four Yavapai County Banks Fail on 11/25/1925

November 25, 1925, was a disastrous day in Yavapai County. Four banks suddenly and permanently closed their doors, and people’s deposits were frozen and unavailable—a mere month before Christmas!

Skull Valley's Heyday

Today, Skull Valley is a sleepy little burg, but there was a time when the town had several area mines, a quartz mill, a dairy, a number of saloons, and a 36-room hotel.

A Christmastime Murder in Bumble Bee

People living in the Bumble Bee district were concerned when Thomas Glasgow, a 60-year-old prospector, missed some appointments. 

“Glasgow…was arrested about two weeks [previous] on a charge filed by [Charles] Wagoner, who claimed [Glasgow] jumped his claims,” the Prescott Evening Courier explained. The case was dismissed, “but bad blood is said to have developed between the two men as a result.” Following the dismissal, Glasgow “told neighbors that if he ever was missing, to arrest Wagoner for murder.” 

The sheriff’s office was called to investigate his disappearance. It was Christmas Day, 1925.

The Embezzling Yavapai County Treasurer

Prescott was aghast when the Yavapai County Treasurer, James P Storm, was found bound and gagged in the county’s vault by his daughter, who heard him kicking the vault door when she arrived for work there on the morning of November 9, 1904.