While many of the “lost mine” tales of the southwest are regarded as pure fiction, there are many living prospectors who believe that the old Breyfogle ledge in southern Nevada actually exists.
In the spring of 1863, three prospectors, Breyfogle, O’Bannion and McLeod, stopped at a Las Vegas ranch in southern Nevada. After refreshing themselves for a few days at the cool springs in the shade of the cottonwoods, the three partners started out across the burning sands of the desert to the south.
Several weeks later Breyfogle returned alone. He was in an exhausted condition and was suffering from a fractured skull. In a red bandana handkerchief he carried several pounds of rich gold ore. When his wound had been dressed and he had been given food and water he told his story.
Three days after leaving the ranch he and his partners established camp at a small spring high up on the side of a mountain range at the end of a narrow box canyon. One day three Pahute Indians came into camp and told of a rich gold ledge about three miles away. Breyfogle went with the Indians to see the mine and get samples of the ore. On the way back an walking behind Breyfogle felled him by a blow on the head with a tomahawk leaving him for dead. During the night, Breyfogle regained consciousness and found his way back to camp where he found his two partners murdered. Their provisions and firearms were gone.
Breyfogle in a dazed condition and suffering from his head wound made his way back across the desert to the Vegas ranch arriving there three days later. When he was well enough to travel he again headed out across the great desert in the direction of Austin, Nevada, where he organized several expeditions to search for the little spring and the outcropping of pink quartz. He was never quite right in the head after receiving the blow from the Indian and was unable to locate any place that even looked like the one shown him by the three Pahutes.
The most likely location for the lost ledge seems to be in the McCullough mountains a few miles north of Crescent, Nevada. At a small spring high up on the west side of the McCullough mountains, ruins of a deserted camp was found including some badly rusted cooking utensils. Above the fireplace at the base of a perpendicular rock, in a crevice was found about ten pounds of the same kind of ore that Breyfogle had left with Mrs. Stewart at the Vegas ranch. The dim trail led out from the spring toward the northeast and evidently had been well traveled.
The vein has never been relocated since Breyfogle left. The samples found in the crevice above the old fireplace assayed $6,780 per ton in gold.
