THE $50 GOLD SLUGS OF GRANVILLE P. SWIFT

"Swift was one of the best miners I ever knew," a fellow prospector said. "It seems as if he could almost smell the gold. He made an immense amount of gold. When these three men had worked all winter and fall, I believe they must have made $100,000 apiece and maybe more."

According to an 1875 story in the Sonoma Democrat, Swift left Bidwell's Bar with over half a million dollars in gold. He brought it to San Francisco and had it minted into octagonal slugs, $50 each, with a special mark designating them as Swift's.

Loaded down with gold — and without a banking system to receive it — Swift decided to start burying his haul around the Bay Area, primarily in the Sonoma area. The only problem was, he was very bad at remembering where he'd hidden it all. Although Swift died in 1875, the secret died long before then, forgotten by the scatter-brained settler.

Over time, some of the gold was found. In 1903, a worker on a ranch in Sonoma County dug up $7,000 in Swift's $50 slugs. A year later, $30,000 in gold was pulled from a chimney hiding place on Swift's old ranch near present-day Sears Point.

"While repairing a chimney on the second floor of the place, workmen came across a secret receptacle containing $26,000 in gold coin," the Healdsburg Enterprise reported. "In other places more money was found, the total sum aggregating more than $30,000."

The biggest discovery came in 1914. A.W. Lehrke, a Sonoma Valley rancher, woke one morning with the remnants of a dream still foggy in his mind. The bit he could remember clung to him: He was digging under his home for gold. The thought must have needled him, because he decided to put the dream to rest by doing just that. He descended into his basement and began digging. And there, amazingly, he found $42,600 in gold coins.

"The [cache] unearthed as a result of Lehrke's dream is believed to have contained one of Swift's hidden hoards," the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat wrote.

Since 1914, though, the remainder of Swift's enormous haul has gone undiscovered.

American Numismatic Biographies author Pete Smith writes:

Private Gold Coins and Patterns of the United States author Don Kagin writes:

To read the complete article, see:
A settler forgot where he buried $100,000 in gold around the Bay Area. It might still be out there. (http://www.lmtonline.com/bayarea/article/bay-area-settler-forgot-where-he-buried-gold-1850s-12488116.php) Sonoma Democrat, Number 28, 1 May 1875 - A Checkered Life

To read the original newspaper article: (https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SD18750501.2.16&srpos=6&dliv=none&e=-------en--20-SD-1--txt-txIN-)

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