Nevada Lore Series: The Buried Treasure of Carson City's Prison Hill
Submitted by Kelsey Penrose on Thu, 08/16/2018 - 10:11am
In the days of covered wagons, copious amounts of gold and silver, and dastardly highway bandits, the legend of the Prison Hill Missing Treasure still lives today, and people often comb the sides of Prison Hill in Carson City searching out the lost Wells Fargo gold for themselves, but it has yet to be found to this day.
The Comstock Lode was discovered in 1859 by Peter O’Riley and Patrick McLaughlin, and Virginia City was built overnight on top of it as one of the most impressive boomtowns of the West.
The Comstock Lode was the first major silver deposit ever discovered in the U.S., but gold and precious metals were plentiful as well. Gold was first found in 1850, in Gold Canyon outside of Dayton.
The story goes that in 1885, a Wells Fargo stage coach was heading to Carson City from Virginia City to deposit $62,000 worth of gold coins and bullion to the U.S. Mint.
The driver’s name was William Manners. He was in charge of six horses pulling the coach, with guard Mike O’Fallon alongside, his eyes trained on the horizon for both bandits and beasts alike. Inside the coach were civilian passengers hitching a ride down the mountain, and atop the wagon, the strongbox containing the gold.
On the way, they saw the Mint in the distance and pulled over in the tiny town of Empire to give their passengers a chance to stretch their legs, and give the horses a chance to water and relax.
Soon after, they started off again, and were nearly to Carson City when four bandits accosted the coach and held O’Fallon and Manners at gun point.
They untied the gold and instructed the passengers to hand over their valuables.
The stolen goods from the passengers alone accounted for $2,000, which was no small amount in the 1850s.
For perspective, in 1850 you could buy an Oregon Trail pack horse for $25, a pound of coffee for $0.80, and a brand new house in New York for $2,500.
The bandits took the strong box and the sack of jewelry and coins out to the desert, leaving the passengers, O’Fallon and Manners by the ransacked coach.
As soon as they made it to Carson City, the sheriff was found and within a half hour a posse was rounded up and headed into the desert to hunt down the bandits.
The bandits were quickly found — however, the strong box was nowhere to be seen. When the bandits saw the posse coming for them, they drew their pistols and opened fire.
The posse took cover and began firing back, and a battle ensued. Not a single posse member was injured in the fight, despite the dozens of shots that were fired upon them.
Three of the bandits were killed in the fight, but the fourth survived.
The unlucky fourth bandit was notorious Manuel Gonzales, who was captured and taken to the Carson City Jail.
He was interrogated for days by both the sheriff and Wells Fargo agents, but he never said a word.
Gonzales was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his part in the robbery, despite the lack of gold or jewels recovered.
He often would brag to both fellow prisoner and guard alike that he could see where the treasure was buried from his window in the prison.
After serving eight years, Gonzales was released on good behavior.
However, almost immediately Gonzales mysteriously died of “natural causes,” and the missing gold was never found.
The prison closed in May 2012. It’s said that some of the prison guards then had searched for the missing gold in their off time, using the view from Gonzales’s window as a map.
To this day the gold has never been recovered.
— The Nevada Lore Series focuses on the legends of Nevada and the surrounding areas that help build our culture, from ancient Washoe stories, to Old West ghostly visions, to modern day urban legends.
