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Pegleg Smith's lost black gold

Documented folklore from the Club 49 map, told straight and sourced.

The story

Mountain man Thomas L. "Pegleg" Smith swore that around 1829, lost between three desert buttes, he pocketed heavy black-crusted pebbles that turned out to be gold under the tarnish. He could never find the buttes again, and neither has anyone since, though the annual Pegleg Liars Contest at his monument keeps the search warm every April. The classic lost bonanza of the California desert.

The ground it haunts

Anza-Borrego desert, Borrego Springs (San Diego County). Source: Documented tale of Thomas L. Smith; Pegleg monument and Liars Contest. The Club 49 map pins this legend at its documented country, beside the real mines, active claims, land status and modeled honey holes of the same ground. Open the free map and go stand in the story.

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