There’s gold in them thar hills! That’s if you believe Buckner W. Trevillian.
Many have looked for the treasure on Buckhorn Mountain above Indian Mary Park in Josephine County.
The way Trevillian told the lost-gold story, some white men had come to the remote Hellgate area of the Rogue River in the early 1850’s and offered to trade guns for gold with the Indians. After the Indians delivered enough gold to load 16 mules, the men murdered them. As the men approached the main trail near the council grounds, the indigenous of other bands chased them away, threw their gold into a ravine and set fire to the forest.
After hearing the account, Trevillian met two men over a period of 30 years who had identical maps leading to the gold. Eventually, Trevillian built a platform in a tree where the gold was said to be at the old council grounds on Buckhorn Mountain. He searched for the gold sporadically from 1907 until the 1960’s.
Though many people have discovered gold in the mountains of Southwest Oregon, no one has located any on Buckhorn Mountain -- not even Trevillian, who had a map.
Source: O'Harra, Marjorie. "Secret of Buckhorn Mountain May Be a Fortune in Gold." Sacramento Bee 23 July 1967: B 5. Print.
