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THE
LOST JOSHUA WARD SILVER MINE
ã
Jerry
Bowen, Sept. 1993
The
Joshua Ward Cabin where the bodies of Joshua Ward, his wife Abigail and
their two little girls were found in 1908, locked inside the cabin 30 years
after they were murdered by Indians. The ore wagon full of rich
silver ore outside was a tantalizing clue to a lost treasure mine. Photo
courtesy of Jerry Bowen.
The
day was warm as the unrelenting sun beat down on Joshua Ward. It had been a
productive trip to his silver mine.
After a few days rest he would sell the rich silver ore and could finally
buy that team of horses he needed.
Hard work and persistence had paid off and he was feeling the contentment
of a job well done. After filling
the buckets with water at the spring, he headed back to his cabin and
family.
Suddenly,
he felt a searing pain in his back.
Staggering through the cabin door, he realized the cause of his pain;
four arrows were buried deep into his back. Once inside, he quickly barred the door
with the last of his remaining strength then slowly sank to the floor, breaking
the wooden arrow shafts as he fell mortally wounded. Across the room lie the lifeless bodies
of his wife Abigail and two daughters, Sarah and Phoebe.
With
the death of this family another lost mine story was born.
The
mine was not just a figment of a lonely prospectors imagination. It was and is to this day, a silver vein
that assayed at an estimated thousand dollars a ton at 1908 silver prices. The story is supported by verifiable
facts and confirmed by Frank A. Crampton (a self taught mining engineer with
impeccable credentials).
Frank
Crampton was born in 1888, to a prominent New York City family. He grew up with all the social amenities
befitting his family's wealth, but Frank had a restless nature and at the age of
sixteen, he left home. He learned
to "Ride the rods" from his new found friends, John Harrington and John T.
Sullivan (Sully). Harrington and
Sully educated the young Crampton in the hobo lifestyle and introduced him to
hard rock mining. Over the years,
Frank Crampton became well versed in the art of mining and built a reputation
for honesty and hard work, believing nothing was worth while that wasn't earned
the hard way.
During
a business trip to Boston in 1908, Frank was approached by Massachusetts
politician Herman Hormel and Dr. J. E. Meyers. Hormel's relatives had not been heard
from for thirty years and he wanted Crampton to find them. The last known contact with the Joshua
Ward was a letter. It was mailed
from Cherry Creek, Nevada, on August 12, 1878. Early inquiries of law enforcement
agencies and post offices in the area revealed nothing of the family's
whereabouts.
Hormel
produced several letters written by Abigail Ward, which provided several
clues. She described an L-shaped
cabin with an adjacent ox barn they had built in the wilderness near Cherry
Creek. She further described the
location as being in a small, narrow, basin-like valley with cottonwood trees
and a spring at one end. Joshua
had built a road to the cabin, which came over a ridge past the spring at the
upper end of the valley.
Included
in the letters was a crude map. The
map showed the cabin with an arrow pointing south to Hamilton; an arrow pointing
east to Cherry Creek; an arrow pointing north to Humboldt; and an arrow pointing
west to Eureka. No distances were
noted with the exception of "Eureka,
six days".
One
letter told of Joshua leaving for two weeks to mine one wagonload of silver ore
and his of return home. This led
Crampton to believe the mine was somewhere within a ten mile radius of the
cabin. It was his theory that if
the mine had been closer, Joshua would have returned home each
night.
After
studying the letters, Crampton decided the cabin was located about eighty miles
north of Eureka. He surmised the
cabin was closer to Cherry Creek than Eureka, for it was at Cherry Creek that
Joshua bought his supplies.
Frank
sent a telegram to his brother (Ted) in Date Creek, Arizona, instructing him to
buy a reliable vehicle and enough supplies to last for one month. Arriving in Ely, Nevada, eight days
later, Frank and Ted immediately set out north for Cherry
Creek.
Cherry
Creek is a small town about forty-five miles north of Ely. When Ted and Frank
arrived in 1908, it was at the tail end of its third mining boom. After talking to the locals and
obtaining as much information as they could, they left in search of the
cabin.
Nearing
mid-afternoon, they came across the very dim outline of an old road following it
until they came to a deep wash that cut across the road. As they continued on foot, the road
became more visible on the opposite side of the wash. Some twenty miles later they spotted a
cabin about a mile off in the distance, but nightfall had descended upon
them. They decided to make camp and
put off investigating the cabin until morning.
Early
the next morning they broke camp and headed toward the cabin, apprehensive of
what they might find. Passing a
spring they came upon a wagon, its wheels sunk into the soil to the hubs. It was obvious it had been there a very
long time. Its cargo of rich silver
ore lay on the ground below broken sideboards. Nearby in a small shed they found the
bleached bones of two oxen, their skulls crushed by the blow of a heavy
object.
As
they continued on toward the cabin, they could see broken arrows imbedded in the
door of the cabin. Frank tried to
force the door open but it would not budge. They broke through the top section and
it became apparent why the door would not open¾there
were three bars holding it fast.
Reaching inside he removed the bars, opened the door and entered the
cabin. Once inside, his worst fears
were confirmed. Underneath thirty
years of hardened dust were the mummified bodies of the Ward family. Joshua was on the floor near the door
with the broken arrow shafts still in his back. Abigail's body was across the room on
the bed, her skull crushed by a single blow. The daughters, Phoebe and Sarah, were
near the bed on the floor having suffered the same fate as their mother. The family had lain unmolested for
thirty years. Why the Indians had
not forced their way back into the cabin remains a
mystery.
Snow
had begun to fall; Frank and Ted had to complete their business quickly and
return to town. They searched the
cabin for papers and personal items they could send to Hormel. During the search they loosened a stone
in the fireplace and behind it they found $5000 in gold coins. Joshua's mine had been paying well. They repaired the door and carefully
closed up the cabin before they headed back to Cherry Creek. Winter was quickly closing in and they
would not be able to return until spring.
After
a difficult trip back to Cherry Creek, Frank sent a message to Hormel advising
him of their find. Frank and Ted
settled in for the winter and on Hormel's arrival in the spring, they headed
back for the cabin. The bodies and
personal effects were removed and the bodies were sent back east for
burial. Frank searched for the mine
over the next few years but to no avail.
I suspect others made many searches over the years, but I have not found
any evidence to indicate Joshua Ward's rich silver mine was ever
located.
Ref:
Deep
enough; Frank Crampton
United States Treasure Atlas, Vol-6, Terry
Mining Districts and Mineral Resources of Nevada,
Lincoln
Nevada Map Atlas, Nevada Dept. of Transportation
Nevada Ghost Towns and Mining Camps, Paher
Last Updated on 07/11/2001
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