Part IV: Hall, Thompson, and the First Trail Back

The Legend of Oregon's Lost Cabin Mine

Part IV: Hall, Thompson, and the First Trail Back

While prospecting parties continued exploring the mountains of Southern Oregon, another account was quietly taking shape farther south in the Siskiyou country.

Years later, Colonel Samuel C. Hall would preserve one of the earliest detailed recollections connected to the Lost Cabin. Published in the appendix of The Hermit of the Siskiyous, Hall's account is particularly valuable because it names individuals, describes a search conducted during the early mining years, and records information reportedly obtained from a man who claimed firsthand knowledge of the discovery. (Laurenz, The Hermit of the Siskiyous, Appendix.)

According to Hall, he met D. V. Thompson during the summer of 1852. Thompson claimed he had been one of three men who discovered an extraordinarily rich deposit of gold somewhere within the Siskiyou Mountains. Their account described a cabin built near the workings, abundant coarse gold, and every intention of returning after winter. Before leaving, they reportedly stored mining tools at the site and left written directions inside the cabin, believing the route would be easy enough to follow the following season. (Laurenz, Appendix.)

Hall found the story convincing.

Rather than dismissing it as another mining camp rumor, he organized an expedition and asked Thompson to guide the party back to the location. Like many searches of the period, the journey relied on remembered landmarks, creek crossings, mountain ridges, and experience rather than surveyed maps. In country where one timbered canyon often resembled the next, confidence sometimes arrived several miles before certainty.

The search continued throughout the summer.

Despite Thompson's recollections and Hall's determination, neither the cabin nor the rich workings could be relocated. The expedition eventually returned without finding the mine, adding another unsuccessful search to a story that was already beginning to spread through the mining camps of Northern California and Southern Oregon. (Laurenz, Appendix.)

Hall's account is significant for another reason.

Unlike many later retellings, it does not attempt to embellish the story. Hall carefully distinguishes between what Thompson told him, what he personally observed, and what his own expedition failed to accomplish. That measured approach gives his recollections unusual historical value and places them among the earliest surviving descriptions connected with the Lost Cabin tradition.

His search may not have found the cabin, but it accomplished something equally important.

It preserved the story.

Over time, Hall's recollections would become one of the principal historical sources linking the earliest searches to later generations of researchers, ensuring that the legend survived long after the original miners had disappeared from the record.

The story, however, was spreading faster than anyone could have anticipated.

By the time newspapers began reporting on the Lost Cabin, the search had grown far beyond a handful of prospectors following old directions into the mountains.

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References

Primary Sources

Laurenz, Henry. The Hermit of the Siskiyous. The West Shore. January 1887, Appendix.

Hall, Samuel C. Account reproduced in the appendix of The Hermit of the Siskiyous.

Additional Sources

Del Norte Record. January 18, 1883.

Hult, Ruby El. Lost Mines and Treasures of the Pacific Northwest.