BILL MCHANEY and THE MOUNTAIN  It was January in the desert and it was cold. It had snowed two days back and now the north winds were blowing in at a pretty good clip with a lot of cloud cover. Bill McHaney sat the bar in the Oasis sipping a warm cup of coffee cussing the wind. He didn’t mind the snow he knew it would melt in a day or two but the wind; well it just drives a man crazy. The bar was empty except for Bill and Charlie the owner. Charlie hated the wind also. The sides of the bar were not that wind proof and Charlie goes through a lot of wood just to keep the chill off for the customers. The door opens and slams shut with a big bang as Charles Wilson, (aka Johnny “Quartz” Wilson, aka “Chuckwalla” Wilson)  comes in. As Wilson began to peel off layers of clothes to get a bit more comfortable, Charlie got him a cup of coffee with a whiskey shooter. Chuckwalla took one look at Bill and said to himself, somewhat out loud, Bill you look like hell. When was the last time you slept? Chuck, its not that I’m not sleeping, it’s this damn wind it’s got me nervous and all tied up in knots. I just hate it. I want to get back out to my cabin and that mountain (after hearing a story of a rich vein of gold somewhere in the area, Bill McHaney made his home near the south east end of Gold Park for 25 years while he searched for the lost lode).  Yup Bill your right, about this wind and cold weather, it drives me crazy too. Speaking of that mountain, let’s go over to the table by the fire, and talk about it and see if we can warm up some. As Bill and Chuckwalla settled in the weather got worse and it started snowing again although the wind died down. At this point there was no consoling Bill; he was just fit to be tied. Chuckwalla orders Bill and stiff shot and another cup of coffee and told him to take his medicine.   While Bill is trying to recover from the new snow storm, Chuckwalla goes over to the bar and talks to Charlie to see if he has any food to eat. Charlie said that he had a pot of beans in the back with some hard tack. Chuckwalla orders two big bowls of beans and hard tack for Bill and himself.   Wilson goes back to the table and tells Bill that that dinner was on the way. Charlie brought the beans to the table with two cup of fresh coffee and Bill started to calm down. He attacked that bowl of beans like he hadn’t eaten in days. Chuckwalla asks Bill when he ate last and he said, “Three or four days ago. He sad he could not remember”. Chuckwalla ordered two more bowls of beans for Bill and told Charlie that he would cover the bill.  The snow stopped around 8:30pm that night and Bill and Chuckwalla left the bar and headed to their own tents. It took two days for the snow to melt and another three days for the wind to die down. Bill had his gear ready to go and when the wind died down he loaded his two mules and headed out to his cabin in the southeast end of the Gold Park District. When Bill got to his small little cabin, which was hidden back up in a draw, the pack rats had taken over. It took Bill half a day to get things cleaned up and livable inside. Bill didn’t mind the little critters except that they would steal anything that was not nailed down and usually leave a piece of cactus in place of what they took. On the up to the cabin Bill shot two cottontail rabbits so he cleaned them and fried them up with a potato and onion. He figured that it was cold enough that he could finish the rest of it off for breakfast. Bill was glad that he built his cabin back up in this draw; it was out of sight and out of the wind. He had spent about a week digging out the bank for the cabin and corral for the animals. As he was getting ready for bed he put some hard tack out for the pack rats in hopes that they would leave his dry goods a lone. As sleep fell upon Bill he dreamed about finding nuggets on the side of the mountain.  Bill did not have much experience with Indians except the few that hung out at the Oasis. He got to talking to an old Indian one night that was about half drunk and the old man told him about two places he could find lots of gold. One was on scared ground and he should stay away from it but the other one was hard to find but the gold nuggets laid all over one side of this certain mountain. The old Indian agreed to show him where it was at the next day. As agreed, the old man showed up and took Bill and showed him the mountain and than took off toward Music  Valley. Bill made a dry camp that night and the next day located a place to build a cabin and stable.  Bill awoke with the sun and went outside to retrieve breakfast. As he brought it back in he noticed that the small table was covered with cactus and a few very small shiny rocks. He sat the skillet down on the stove, removed the cactus and took a good look at the stones. To his amazement they were not stones at all but small nuggets. As his blood started to pump faster he realized that he was in the right spot. He put on a pot of coffee and re-cooked the rabbit from the night before. After breakfast Bill cut some winter grass to feed the animals and picked up his rake, pick, bag and headed out toward the mountain.  For the next 25 years Bill raked the side of that mountain hand picking the nuggets he saw. Every once an while Chuckwalla would come out and give him a hand. Bill always paid his bill with gold when ever he came to town for goods and a visit. Today you can barely see the rake marks on the mountain and his cabin is pretty much gone. My father related this story to me many years ago yet I’ve never gone looking for any of the gold. Now with the onset of good metal detectors I may just be paying a visit to that mountain in a year or so.  

Copyright 2008

OL’29er