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'49er Treasure Chest Found in
Death Valley Cave is Bogus

National Park Service Reports

By Bob Katz

The National Park Service says that a chest apparently discovered in a Death Valley cave was not left by a member of the Jayhawker party of emigrants who gave Death Valley its infamous name. Items contained in the chest included gold and silver coins, photographs, a pistol, holster, powder horn, ceramic bowls, a hymnal and a hand-written letter.

The chest was turned over to the park service in early January by Jerry Freeman, a California history buff who said he discovered it in late November while scouting in the Panamint Mountains what he believed to be the path the '49ers took out of the valley. He continues to insist that the trunk was left there by William Robinson, one of the gold seekers who took an ill-advised detour across Death Valley in 1849.

But after several days of examination, testing and consultation by experts from the Western Archeological and Conservation Center and the Smithsonian Institute, the National Park Service, announced that the letter was a fake and that other items in the trunk came from time periods later than 1849.

"At this point we know that the chest isn't from the '49ers era," said NPS spokesman Tim Stone, "and whoever wrote that letter, we know it's not real. At present, we have no idea whether (Freeman) put it there or not. We're continuing to follow up." Stone added, then listed a number of instances which indicated that the artifacts were not genuine.

Glue on three items contained 20th century polymers.
Two photos in the chest were tintypes, a photographic process that was not patented until 1856.
A manufacturer's stamp on the bottom of one of the bowls dated from as late as 1914.
Pieces of leather had been recently treated and could not have been drying in Death Valley heat for a century and a half.
Bits of adhesive from a price sticker were found on the bottom of one bowl.

"If it's a fake, I can't dispute it at this point," said Freeman. "They say they found glue, and some things that couldn't have been from that time period. I can't argue with them. But I will go to my grave believing William Robinson left his things in the desert so long ago," Freeman said in a statement he prepared after the park service informed him of its findings.

"Death Valley" History

In December 1849, a group of prospectors heading for the California gold fields via Utah decided to take a southern route through the desert after learning that the direct route through the Sierra Nevadas was impassable until the snowmelt of the following spring.

Within a few weeks, they became lost in the parched wilderness of the Funeral Range and the Amargosa Mountains to the east of Death Valley. On Christmas Eve, they stumbled into the deep barren valley with bitter, undrinkable pools of water.

Of about 100 men, women and children who made this unfortunate journey, at least one died in the valley. William Robinson, so the story goes, perished near Palmdale on January 28,1850, after drinking large quantities of cold water to quench his Death Valley thirst.

Most of the others were saved when they found a way out of the valley through the Panamint Mountains to the west. William Manly, one of the survivors, wrote years later that the party turned for a last look east and "spoke the thought uppermost in our minds: 'Good-bye Death Valley!'"

Sequence of Events

The discovery was made by Jerry Freeman, a 56-year-old Pearblossom, California resident who has been visiting Death Valley since childhood. Freeman, who has an undergraduate degree in cultural anthropology, has long been fascinated with the '49ers' experience in the California deserts.

He said he found the chest November 22 while preparing for a Christmas hike retracing the '49ers' route out of Death Valley. He was scouting a route through the Panamint Mountains near Pinto Peak at about 6,500 feet elevation, when he found an old oxen shoe and part of an old knife. Not far away, he spotted two small caves.

Inside the deepest of the two caves, he discovered a chest propped on boulders against a board. The chest was 31 inches long, 19 inches wide and a foot high. Prying open the lid, he found a knitted shawl covering the items inside the chest, which included a letter folded within a hymnal, from William Robinson, a Gold Rush pioneer who became lost in Death Valley. Excerpts include:

My dear edwin,
knowed now we should have gone around. but am thankful to not Be sick with the agu cause others are worse ofen me.

My last ox falled in his checks afore morn and I caint carry down the steep. the locket was your mahs. The boles and the wagon shrod were the preachers wife. I toted her youngen. If you shoudove already seen my lydia, tell her my heart beets with hers. Kindly leave me a half stake and my short gun. ifen I don't raturn by end of fifty. I wont never come.

Lord Be precious to your soul,
William.

With dark approaching, Freeman says he removed the letter and a coin, taking them home for further examination. He returned with his brother the following weekend, took photographs and replaced the letter in the hymnal.

On Christmas Eve, Freeman, with the help of 4 others, removed the 40-pound chest to Pearblossom, in the Antelope Valley. The National Park Service became aware of the trunk after an Antelope Valley newspaper published an account of the discovery January 1, 1999.

Death Valley National Park officials contacted Freeman, who relinquished the chest and its contents to them few days later. Freeman says he kept nothing and has only retained photos and a videotape of the items, as well as a computer-scanned copy of the letter. Before returning the trunk to Death Valley officials Freeman held a press conference announcing his discovery.

Archaeological Authentication

Freeman later escorted park officials to the location where he says the discovery was made, but the chest's removal from the cave had destroyed what archeologists call provenance, and complicated efforts to determine its authenticity.

"I would like to believe that the entire story is true and genuine," another Death Valley ranger stated at the time, "however, gaps exist in the inability to recreate the site due to the disturbance. The trunk was opened and contents contaminated. Lack of original photos will make it difficult to confirm or deny the placement, ownership, timelines etc. This case will be forever tarnished due to the lack of documentation.

"Please spread the word -- if you find something -- mark it, guard it, protect it in place!!!! Then notify the park service, if on park lands, or BLM. All archaeological finds should be treated as if a crime scene for documentation."

On January 28, Tim Stone concluded that the only authentic items in the chest were coins minted before 1850, probably worth "thousands of dollars." He added that Freeman presently faces no criminal charges, because the trunk did not contain any items protected under the federal Archaeological Protection Resources Act and he, therefore, violated no law by removing it.

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'49er Treasure Chest Found in Death Valley Cave is Bogus

National Park Service Reports By Bob Katz

National Park Service Reports