Legends of the Lost

egends of the Lost $225,000 in Stolen Stagecoach Loot Eludes Searchers for 115 Years

In the Old Trails Museum on Kinsley Avenue in Winslow, you can see the stagecoach strongbox. A rusted steel and concrete chest 14 inches long, 10 inches wide, and eight inches deep, it sits there on a sturdy shelf. Its lock hasp broken or shot off, its hinges corroded, the 80-pound box seems awfully heavy for its size. Filled with gold bars or coins, it would have taken at least two men to lift it.

Eddie Barnell of Winslow found the box about 30 miles southwest of the town somewhere near Chavez Pass in late February, 1980. While "poking around," as he put it, Barnell saw a dirt-covered unnatural shape under a rock. After a lot of digging, he managed to pull the heavy box free. He then brought it into town and showed it to a friend, Melvin Hunter.

Neither Barnell nor Hunter could tell how old the strongbox was or what it might have been used for. Hunter thought it might take a crowbar to pry the lid open. However, they decided that before opening it they would take the box down to the Winslow City Hall to find out if anyone there could tell them something about it. Witnesses watched as they opened the box. The rusted cover offered no resistance.

The box appeared empty except for some dirt and crumbly concrete. Hunter also saw a few small rocklike objects. Picking one up and rubbing it clean, he realized it was gold. Digging into the box, he came up with seven more nuggets. Gold was selling for $636 an ounce that week in Zurich. City Hall personnel figured the value of Barnell's nuggets to be more than $3,000.

Apparently Eddie Barnell and Melvin Hunter and the others at City Hall didn't know much about the history of Chavez Pass.

One hundred and one years earlier, in March, 1879, a shipment of gold had been robbed from a stagecoach near Pine Springs, about 11 miles west of the pass.

Between 1877 and 1882, the Star Line Mail & Transportation Company ran between Prescott, Arizona Territory, and Santa Fe, New Mexico Territory. Leaving Prescott, the route followed the old Palatkwapi Trail, making stops to change mules, horses, and drivers at Camp Verde, Beaverhead, Pine Springs, Rock Station, and Brigham City, near where Winslow stands today. From there it went eastward to Santa Fe. At Pine Springs, the U.S. government established a post office.

The Prescott to Santa Fe fare for one person was $75, and the coaches, traveling day and night, made the 507-mile trip in seven and a half days.

Most other Arizona Territory stage lines during this period were held up by bandits now and then. But in its first two years this route had no such trouble.

In the early afternoon on a day in mid-March, 1879, stage driver Mose Stacey, running late on a coach headed for Prescott from Santa Fe, approached Pine Springs Station. With him were one passenger, some mail, and three iron boxes filled with $225,000 in newly minted gold coins, a few gold bars, and a small amount of gold nuggets. As Stacey pulled up to stop, two unmasked men with sixguns came out of the station door. Two other armed men emerged from behind one wall of the building and shot and killed the passenger.

The pistols' noise startled the horses, and the team plunged forward. Stacey managed to avoid the bullets. Then rolling off the moving stage, he hid in the dense pine forest surrounding the building. The bolting animals entangled the wagon tongue and the harnesses in the thick vegetation and came to a sudden halt. Hidden in the trees and bushes nearby, Stacey watched the bandits as they removed the heavy steel and concrete boxes and hauled them back to the station. Absorbed in their task, they seemed to have no interest in finding him.

When he felt it was safe, Stacey cut loose the lead horse, Climbed on, and rode bareback westward toward Stoneman Lake. Then less than an hour later he saw about 20 riders coming toward him. They turned out to be a sheriff's posse from Prescott hunting for four desperadoes who had fled Prescott two days before after robbing two stores, a saloon, and a small banking business. Stacey and the posse went on to Pine Springs. They surrounded the stage station and exchanged shots with the outlaws. Only about two hours had gone by since the bandits had seized the strongboxes. Meanwhile the wife of Daniel Henderson, the station master, emerged from the forest and told the men that just before noon the outlaws had killed her husband and the station's hostler. She and the children had not been harmed, and they fled for safety to the springs for which the station had been named, only about 50 yards from the building. Sporadic firing went on throughout the night. The following morning the posse members set the building on fire, forcing out the outlaws. All four were gunned down at once. After putting out the fire, the lawmen began to search for the strongboxes.Figuring the robbers had buried them during the night, they tore up the plank flooring, but found nothing. They searched everywhere around the station but could find no boxes. Mose Stacey, along with Mrs. Henderson and her children, went on to Camp Verde. When officials of the Star Line Mail & Transportation Company learned about the robbery and murders, they offered a $10,000 reward for the recovery of the gold-filled boxes. Hearing about the reward, hundreds of men descended on the Pine Springs area to continue the search, but no one found any trace of the boxes or their valuable contents. Gradually the searchers gave up. In July, 1882, the Star Line stopped its service through Pine Springs, and the post office closed. A short time later fire destroyed the station. In 1889 A.J.T. Mahan set up a homestead not far from the springs, but despite an ongoing search, he never found a clue to the lost boxes. Reports say that over several years, he dug holes 20 feet deep beneath where the station had once stood. He had no better luck trying to be a rancher and in 1893 left the area. Sometime after Mahan's departure, Oliver Hardiwick, a Prescott prospector, came to Pine Springs and began to search for the loot. After eight weeks of excavating, Hardiwick called it quits. Back in Prescott, he gave what information he had about the lost treasure to George Washington "Wash" Henry, a faro dealer in the Palace Bar. Wash also succumbed to the lure of gold, but instead of digging he drilled holes and used explosives to blast out large sections of soil and rocks. He continued his search off and on for several years but had no more luck than those preceding him. There were others, including Frank Ferrill, who had spent his entire life on the Mogollon Rim, and T.R. McElroy,who had helped Wash Henry look for the gold. But again success eluded them. The legend that arose concluded that either federal officials or stage company employees found the boxes, or the boxes were dropped into a volcanic crack that sealed shut when an earthquake in 1885 closed the fissure. But even as late as 1963, McElroy still believed the treasure was out there in the desert somewhere. Today people with metal detectors continue to comb the Pine Springs-Chavez Pass area for the lost treasure. But the strongbox now in Winslow's Old Trails Museum suggests that at one time someone had found at least one of the three stolen chests, hurriedly emptied it of its contents, missed a few nuggets, stashed the empty box, and then went on his way.