TREASURE'S SECRETS TAKE SPOTLIGHT.Byline: Jesse Hiestand and Greg Botonis Daily News Staff Writers A Pearblossom archeologist says his ``soul'' led him to a wooden chest filled with $500,000 in gold and silver coins, hidden in a cave 149 years ago by a Gold Rush expedition lost in the desert. New details of the incredible find emerged Monday as archeologist Jerry Freeman described how he and his team found the treasure in November but waited to publicize it for fear it would be plundered. The seemingly unscathed chest was resting on boulders and a board. Nearby they found an ox shoe and a boning knife bon·ing knife n. A knife with a narrow blade and a sharp point, used for removing the bones from poultry, meat, and fish. . The items have been turned over to the National Park Service for authentication. ``We were in tears - everyone was just blown away by this find,'' Freeman said Monday. ``We've all found archeological artifacts artifacts see specimen artifacts. in the desert, but nothing prepared us for this.'' Freeman, 56, believes the find could prove to be the most significant discovery in Death Valley's history. The find has touched off a torrent of media interest. Late Monday, Freeman was asked to go on ABC's ``Good Morning America'' this morning. The chest was unearthed Unearthed is the name of a Triple J project to find and "dig up" (hence the name) hidden talent in regional Australia. Unearthed has had three incarnations - they first visited each region of Australia where Triple J had a transmitter - 41 regions in all. from the deepest of two caves. Freeman's team found a manifest of the trunk's contents dated Jan. 2, 1850, along with nearly 80 pieces of currency, including $5 and $10 gold pieces and a number of silver dollars. None of the money appears to have dates after 1849, Freeman said. He estimated the total worth at $500,000. Also found inside were a small hymnal, a holstered hol·ster n. 1. A case of leather or similar material into which a pistol fits snugly and which attaches to a belt, strap, or saddle so that it may be carried or transported. 2. pistol, a handmade wooden powder horn and a locket adorned with pearls. Photographs, china bowls and well-worn baby shoes were also inside the chest. A knitted shawl covered the items. Among the treasures were journals documenting the wagon train wagon train, in U.S. history, a group of covered wagons used to convey people and supplies to the West before the coming of the railroad. The wagon replaced the pack, or horse, train in land commerce as soon as proper roads had been built. trek of forty-niner William Robinson William Robinson, or Will Robinson or Bill Robinson or other nicknames, may refer to:
Sierra Nevada (syā`rä nāvä`thä), chief mountain range of S Spain, in Granada prov., running from east to west for c.60 mi (100 km), parallel to the Mediterranean Sea. but ended up in the merciless valley. The chest and its treasure are in the possession of the Park Service's office in Death Valley, said Freeman, who last Thursday guided a team of rangers to the site so they could take measurements and soil samples in an effort to follow up on his finding. Freeman said does not want any of the treasure for himself, but rather wants it donated to the museum in Death Valley for preservation. ``I don't want to keep the money,'' Freeman said. ``It doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the country. It's our heritage.'' Freeman said he organized a team of five, including two adult daughters, to follow the route of pioneers who left Salt Lake City in an attempt to skirt the south end of the Sierra Nevada but ended up crossing Death Valley in November 1849. He made his discovery in November during a reconnaissance hike. ``You throw away the maps and you follow the ground the way it tells you,'' Freeman said. ``We all felt it in our soul.'' The team kept the location secret, for fear it would be found. Besides, he said, if untrained people went up there to find it they might perish because of the terrain and weather. Freeman, a semiretired sem·i·re·tired adj. Working only on a part-time basis, as for reasons of ill health or advanced age. sem substitute teacher with a degree in archeology from California State University Enrollment  , Long Beach, said he has always been fascinated with this group of misguided pioneers. Ultimately, they ended up near what is now Valencia, 300 miles southwest of their original destination. ``I consider them some of the most intrepid pioneers in U.S. history,'' Freeman said. A hymnal tucked inside the trunk contained a hauntingly poignant letter written by William Robinson. ``My Dear Edwin,'' Robinson wrote. ``Note, now we should have gone around . . . if I'm not home by February, then I probably will not make it out . . .'' Robinson died 26 days later on Jan. 28, 1850. According to journals, Robinson drank too much cold water at the first spring the party came to at what is known today as Barrel Springs near Palmdale. He laid down to nap and never awakened. Freeman believes the pioneers would have tried to escape Death Valley through snow-capped Snow´-capped` a. 1. Having the top capped or covered with snow; as, snow-capped mountains s>. Adj. 1. Pinto Peak at Jayhawker jay·hawk·er n. 1. One of the free-soil guerrillas in Kansas and Missouri during the border disputes of 1854 to 1859. 2. A Unionist guerrilla. 3. Jayhawker Informal A native or resident of Kansas. Canyon near what is now Lone Pine, a community on U.S. 395. He hiked to Pinto Peak on Nov. 28 and found a boning knife and oxen oxen adult castrated male of any breed of Bos spp. shoe that led him to a ridge with some outcroppings. The Associated Press contributed to this story. CAPTION(S): 2 photos PHOTO (1 -- color) Holly Freeman hands a chest of gold, silver and other items to her father, archeologist Jerry Freeman, in Death Valley. Clay Campbell/Associated Press (2) Holly Freeman examines a chest found last year after it sat in a Death Valley cave since 1850. Clay Campbell/Associated Press |
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