Henry Gordier’s Cache of Gold
Henry Gordier was a Frenchman who joined the rush of prospectors to the California gold fields in the 1850s. Gordier was one of the lucky ones who staked a claim and managed to extract a sizable fortune in gold. The Frenchman had no intention of remaining in the mines all of his life and in 1857 he purchased a large plot of land in Honey Lake Valley, intent on becoming a rancher. A herd of cattle was soon purchased to graze on his land and he built a ranch house, barns, and the necessities of a working ranch.
Gordier was highly regarded by most of his neighbors with the exception of three living in a nearby cabin situated on Lassen creek. Two of these men were suspected of various nefarious activities and a fourth soon joined them, claiming an interest in acquiring some of Gordier’s herd. This man, William Thorrington, visited the area in the spring of 1858. A known gambler and card sharp, Thorrington did not approach Gordier about buying his cattle, instead, the two men who had originally occupied the cabin, Asa Snow and John Mullen, approached him about a possible purchase.
Gordier declined to sell any of his stock, and in March, Asa Snow moved into Gordier’s home, informing the other neighbors in the area that Henry had returned to France. Later that spring the citizens of the area grew suspicious of the activities of Snow, Mullen, and a third man hiding out with them, Bill Edwards. When Gordier’s body was found stuffed in a bag and sunk into the Susan River, Snow was arrested and hanged after a quick trial. Eventually, the accomplices, including Thorrington, were tracked down and hanged, except for Mullen, who vanished.
Locals were aware of the source of Gordier’s wealth, and that he had brought a large amount of gold with him in the form of nuggets. It wasn’t long after the events of 1858 that those neighbors were exploring the late Frenchman’s property looking for the gold. For many years nothing was found, or at any rate, nobody claimed to have found any gold, until 1877, when several nuggets of varying size turned up near where Gordier’s long-vanished cabin had once stood.
Nothing else has turned up since, though Gordier was known to have about $40,000 worth of gold with him on the property (a little over $1.1 million today). Other than the few nuggets which turned up in the dust in 1877, none of his fortune has been claimed to have been found. It is likely still buried on the property today, though knowledge of the exact location seems to have died with Gordier. It is one of many buried caches of considerable wealth in the west, waiting patiently to create a fortune for some lucky explorer.
Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
“Through the Cumberland on Horseback”, by James Lane Allen, Harper’s Magazine, Vol. 73, 1886
“The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd”, by Richard Zacks, 2003
“Blackbeard: America’s Most Notorious Pirate”, by Angus Konstam, 2007