, Legend Heading
LegendHeading
Recovered Hoard · Sierra Nevada foothills, N. CA (undisclosed)

Saddle Ridge Hoard

Saddle Ridge Hoard: still unexplained.

◆ Evidence tier: TraditionBuried 1800s · found 2013 – present◎ Recently discovered — still growing

The Story

What is claimed · what is sourced · what is still disputed

A couple, a dog, an evening walk on their own land, and a rusted can breaking the surface of a path they had worn for years. Inside: gold. They came back with hand tools and raised eight cans, 1,427 coins, ten million dollars struck between 1847 and 1894. Who buried a fortune on that hillside, and why no one ever returned for it, has never been answered. They had walked past it a thousand times. So, perhaps, have you.

What remains open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.

The lure: $10M (1,427 coins)

How it was found: A California couple out walking their dog in 2013 spotted the rusted lip of an old can poking from the ground. It was full of gold coins, and seven more cans nearby brought the total to about 1,400, the richest buried coin hoard ever found in the United States.

Evidence & Corroboration

Distinct evidence classes that independently agree — never a single score

Historical tradition
Newspaper mention
Scholarly support
Archival evidence
Official map/chart
Corroborated
Verified fact

? Open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.

Historic Maps

Period cartography · Library of Congress & DPLA via IIIF · deep-zoom

◇ No period cartography on file yet. The IIIF map adapters (Library of Congress, David Rumsey, DPLA) fill this automatically when they find charts of this place.

Period Newspaper Coverage

Dated OCR mentions · Chronicling America / loc.gov — a mention proves circulation, nothing more

◇ No dated newspaper coverage yet. Chronicling America runs against this legend automatically and lands dated clips here.

Archival Documents

Manuscripts, government records, company filings · NARA · IIIF · registries

◇ No archival documents on file yet. NARA and national-archive adapters attach primary records here as they surface.

Timeline

Every event source-backed · unsourced events are dropped, never invented

◇ No dated, source-backed events yet. Timeline entries are built only from evidence with a confirmed date -- nothing is estimated or invented.

Sources & Citations

Typed, first-class citations with retrieval provenance

◇ No typed citations compiled yet -- check Historic Maps, Newspapers, and Archives above as they fill in.

From the archive

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Possible connections

Unverified leads, not established facts — legends below share a rough area and a rough era with this one. Worth investigating, not worth citing.