nothing about Slumach’s gold. This suggests that old man Slumach, the man hanged in 1891 for murder, had no knowledge of the bonanza that today carries his name. Death and disappearance Prospector Stanford Corey said in 1926 that in the thirty years he prospected there he had “not seen the marks of any other person ever having entered the land.”[25] The newspapers, however, had a different view: a stream of adventures risking life and limb hunting for the lost treasure. Underlining the dangers of exploration in the Pitt Lake region, newspapers claimed that since 1900 some two dozen prospectors and treasure hunters looking for Pitt Lake’s gold lost their life by natural causes or fell victim to “Slumach’s Curse.” Remarkably only the death or disappearance of five seemed worth reporting. (1910) George Blake. and son George from Coquitlam BC: crushed by a falling tree as they were sleeping in a tent. (1932) Robert Allan Brown alias “Volcanic” Brown: disappeared in an exceptionally heavy snow storm. (1951) Alfred Gaspar from Langley, BC: disappeared. (1961) Lewis Earl Hagbo from Bremerton, WA: died of a heart attack. Possibility of existence The location of the mythical mine remains elusive. There were always skeptics such as Stanford Corey who was an experienced prospector and had searched for minerals in the area between Pitt Lake and Squamish for many years. Corey did not believe there would be a possibility of any great strike in that region. In 1965 a geologist agreed that "...the area around Pitt Lake is not favourable for gold-quartz, and even less so for the placer gold of the legend." Nevertheless, the search continues. Notes Further reading Rick Antonson, Mary Trainer, and Brian Antonson, Slumach’s Gold: In Search of a Legend (Surrey BC: Heritage House, 2007) External links Slumach, contains transcripts of the references and records mentioned. Gold mines in British Columbia Lower Mainland Mines in British Columbia Lost mines Canadian folklore Culture of British Columbia