The Tale of Thomas Schofield and The Lost Dutch Oven Mine

When constructing their transcontinental networks, railroad companies faced significant challenges in securing water supplies for their workforces. Large wagon trains were often required to transport enough water to sustain work for a week at a time. Even after the railroads were completed, difficulties persisted in obtaining sufficient water to supply the engines and the small stations needed at every siding.

To ensure a plentiful water supply, the Southern Pacific Railroad initiated a project to bore a tunnel through the Clipper Range, located in San Bernardino County, approximately 8 to 10 miles northwest of Danby, where the water would be piped if found in large quantities. This undertaking was completed within two decades. Thomas Schofield of Los Angeles, a skilled miner familiar with shaft sinking and tunnel boring, volunteered to lead the work.

Perched on an elevated ledge, he was encircled by towering rock walls. Through various gaps in these barriers, he observed that a ledge was situated approximately 500 feet above the ground. Access to this small plateau was solely through a narrow opening in the split rock where he discovered a long deserted camp. Scattered around the camp, Schofield found rusty mining tools, pots, pans, fragments of a bedroll, and an old iron Dutch oven.

Also on the shelf was a mine shaft, in which he found the skeletons of seven burrows. Next to the shaft was a mine dump that contained numerous stones still containing rich gold quartz. By the time he had finished exploring the campsite he realized that it was too late to return to his base camp. Cold and hungry, he bedded down on the shelf planning to leave at daybreak. In the morning, as he was leaving, he tripped over the Dutch oven and out tumbled a mound of pure gold nuggets. Shocked, Tom gathered as many nuggets as he could carry and returned to his base camp.

From there he caught a train to Los Angeles, where he spent the next two months in a drunken frenzy, gambling and living the highlife. After squandering all the money from the sale of the gold nuggets, Schofield found himself sober and completely broke. It would be two years before he was able to make his way back to the Clipper Mountains to search for the "Dutch Oven Mine." 

Try as he might, it seemed to him that everything had changed and he was completely unable to retrace his steps. He finally gave up the search when he could not even find the same canyon and water as he found two years earlier.

In 1936, when Schofield was 84, he was interviewed by Walter H. Miller and George Haight. Living in an abandoned store in the Mojave Desert outside Danby, California, Scofield was at first hesitant to tell his story. After having been hounded for four decades by treasure hunters wanting more information about the mine, he had long tired of the story even though he continued to insist that it was true.

Today, the Dutch Oven Mine continues to be lost, or at least no one has ever claimed to have found it. The Clipper Mountains are located in the Mojave Desert of southeastern California. The range is found just south of Interstate 40 and the Clipper Valley, between the freeway and National Old Trails Highway, northwest of the small community of Essex. The range is home to at least three springs, as well as the Tom Reed Mine. 

Solved!

I'm still amazed that no one has figured this one out yet as it was fairly easy to solve. Lost Treasure Hunter will not give the exact location of where we believe this is so as to not start a mass visit to the area. We will share it when the time is right.

Firstly, this is just one of many narratives—our research has identified and analyzed at least 25 distinct versions. Numerous other variations of the story exist, each offering unique clues. Some accounts even suggest that Tom worked for the Santa Fe Railroad instead of the Southern Pacific Railroad. According to the original writings of Karl Von Muller (KVM), Schofield confessed that he fabricated the entire tale to spite an arrogant reporter and received $50.00 for his story. Given Karl's fame from his books and articles, and his status as a revered figure among both past and present treasure hunters, his statements were often accepted as absolute truth. I believe that Karl could easily mislead his competitors simply by denying the existence or presence of something, and his word would be taken as fact. KVM's influence remains profound among dedicated treasure hunters.

For the most part, the original story is all you really need to analyze to solve this mystery.

A clue!

Obtain work records from The Southern Pacific Railroad Archives identifies the exact area that Tom was working in and his reports of his spring water findings and land survey records back to the company.

* Partial Guide to the Southern Pacific Railroad Company Records, 1895

Repository: Stanford University. Libraries. Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives.                                   

Creator: Southern Pacific Railroad Company

Title: Southern Pacific Railroad Company Records,                                                                                  
Date:  1895

Extent:  ca. 2829 linear ft.

Collection number: Special Collections M1010

Language English.                                   

* This document serves as an introductory guide and it's important to note that the event in question occurred in 1894, not 1895. This example illustrates that the relevant records do indeed exist, but locating them requires specific knowledge of what to look for and where to search.

Additionally, our archives contain maps detailing nearly every railroad track in the United States, along with their water sources, for each year since the inaugural railroad charter was awarded to John Stevens in 1815. This marked the genesis of the railroad system in the United States. Subsequent grants were issued to others, which led to the construction of the first operational railroads that extended to the West Coast and more.

With a general starting point, use topographical maps with ground overlays and terrain gridding as shown.

It's possible to fly over the area and use False Color Infrared Photography to identify the rock house foundation and trail. However, we choose to engage in ground-based research as it presents more of a challenge and offers a learning opportunity. Additionally, not everyone who is learning our techniques will have access to this specialized equipment.

The next thing we did was determine the approximate 12 miles Tom covered and his elevation from where he was working before he started exploring.

Figuring in that Tom was on foot from the base of the mountain and in decent physical shape, we can calculate that he hiked /climbed approximately 40 minutes per mile, times 12 miles or around 6 hours.

This would have also required that he would have needed at least 2 litters of water to stay hydrated. This information gives us a pretty good idea where he ended up. 

Another clue here is that he states " he could see that the "shelf" he was standing on was around 500 feet above the ground below". This is where the Topographical maps come into play. Also, from another version of the story, he talks about how black the surrounding rocks were. He also mentions the large boulder that was as "big as a house".

Using the software program below we can zoom into the actual location with Longitude and Latitude coordinates that we can now follow on the ground when we are in the field using Real Time GPS.

Our research tells us that Tom was not in the Clipper Mountains as he thought he was. But, he was close. We believe this is one reason that he could never retrace his steps.

Now let's have some fun using some general information from the story and by showing you how part of the process works.