The Lost Silver of the Lady Bug Saloon

In the 1840s an Australian miner named Mick Donovan known to his friends as “Red”, was a highly skilled miner in the Burra Burra copper mine. The mine nicknamed as the monster mine was the richest in the world, but the pay in its time of $.75 a day was less than half of what Red

could make working another man’s mine in America.

So Red like many others boarded a ship in Hobart Australia and sailed across the Pacific to South America, rounded cape horn and then north to San Francisco. This was an arduous trip of 4 months and 6 days with violent storms, freezing seas, scurvy, disease, and cramped quarters. After arriving in San Francisco with only a few dollars in his pocket Red negotiated the purchase of a pack mule named Stanley and continued the long walk to his dreams in the Sierra Nevada hills. Red and Stanley became well known working their way through out the gold camps with Reds relentless work ethic a nose for finding gold veins and for moving on

when as he would say that the “ground’s dead as a dingo’s dinner.”

He scratched enough dust for others that when he found himself on the western edge of Death Valley in the Panamint mining district, he staked a piece of a dry diggins for himself that was said to be played out. Locals would talk about the crazy Aussie for several years that would come to town with Stanley to get supplies with nothing but few specks of silver and

rabbit hides to trade.

Then one day Red arrived in town with Stanley fully loaded with what was finally calculated as 5,026.9 Troy ounces of silver or 344.7 pounds. In

1840, this was about $6,650, which today would be $474,000. When asked

if there was more to find he quipped

“I’ve turned more dirt than a wombat and ain’t a speck left for honest

diggin’.”

Red was asked where he was heading to stake his next claim. He replied, “I’ve dug may last hole”. The relentless sun of Death Valley was no longer what he planned to endure anymore. His plan was to build himself a place to “mine the miners” and where he and Stanley could live out the

remainder of their years.

Red had the silver melted down and turned into coins, so he would use that to purchase the land and supplies to build the grandest saloon to be seen

in the Sierra Nevada hills and all of California.

Red purchased a plot of land within the area of Foresthill among the tall pines where he believed he could attract miners, loggers for all to enjoy spirts good food and to catch show by a troop of traveling musicians, thespians or dance hall girls with a fair game of chance. Word traveled fast, and it became the place for everyone miners, clampers, and community socialites alike would gather. It was even more successful than Red could dream. He continued to have his fortune cast into one-ounce coins as a matter of pride and to spread the word what is available at

The Lady Bug Saloon.

One evening mid-April 1859 as the snow begun to melt and while Red was preparing for the coming spring season of travelers to make their way to the saloon, he heard what was three horsed men arriving out front the saloon. So early in season Red was alone but rushed to open the door to welcome the near frozen men to offer them a drink and warm fire. He didn’t realize that these men were no other than the Dry Creek Marauders. Led by Franklin “Half-Cut” Doyle, with Cole “Dry Wind” Baxter and Isaac “Mudheel” Turner by his side. Within moments of being within the saloon, Red realized these men were not there for what he was offering but for what he’d had. Red grasped his trusty pickaxe that he kept above the bar as a reminder of what hard work it took to build his dream.

He fought all three men striking them as if they were the rocks he worked for those many years. Until a single shot rang out. The next day, Red was found with a single shot in his chest as Stanley strolled into town with Red

upon his back.

You see in the scuffle Frank Doyle shot Red as he made one last mighty swing sending Frank to his maker. Cole Baxter and Issac Turner, the cowards they were, grabbed the silver coins Red had in his safe and turned tail. Red then climbed upon the back of Stanley and as instinct would take over, Stanley carried Red into town. Red survived long enough to tell his story and allowing the sheriff to assemble a posey to hunt down the gang. Isaac “Mudheel” Turner knew every gully, bog, and back trail to the foothills which made the man hunt difficult. But when two men were cornered a shootout ensued. Turner was killed on site while Baxter was wounded and brought to town for justice. Even when questioned relentlessly where the silver coins were. Cole “Dry Wind” Baxter, know that he never spoke unless it mattered, stood strong to his name and even when he knew he would see the end of a rope before spending a penny, never even hinted to the

hiding spot of the coins.

The silver coins of The Lady Bug Saloon were never found and assumed lost to the ground they once came. Until recently another relentless miner known by his friends as Blown Up Bill or “BUB” was digging for an outhouse when his shovel struck an iron strong box that had been rusting away in the moist red clay. As he began to unearth what he thought was just more buried trash from a previous moonshiner, the sun gave him a glimpse of the long-lost riches of the Lady bug Saloon.

The coins, simple as they are, represent hard work and grit that built The Lady Bug Saloon and have been authenticated as one solid ounce of silver and the history of Red and Stanley to be told for generations to come.

What say the Brethren’

Credo Quia Absurd