The Lost Pegleg Mine: Flibbertigibbet’s Fancy

Love him or hate him, one has to admit Pegleg’s story is intriguing. It is clear people knew different versions of the same man, as their stories vary wildly. According to On the Trail of Pegleg Smith’s Lost Gold: Legend and Fact Combined to Provide Fresh Clues to the Location of Pegleg Smith’s Famous Lost Mine, he was known as Pegleg or Peg Leg, his real name was Thomas Long Smith.

Some claim he was born in Kentucky, although Smith himself said he was born in Ohio. Pegleg claimed while as a scout for an expedition, an Apache shot him with an arrow in his leg. Gangrene set in, forcing an amputation just below his knee to save Smith’s life. It is said Smith performed his own amputation and almost completed it before passing out from the loss of blood.

However, in 1894 The Los Angeles Herald newspaper reported that Smith was shot in the leg by a drunk French Canadian trader shattering the bone, so others partially removed the leg. said Smith was shot in the leg by a drunk French Canadian trader shattering the bone, so others partially removed the leg.

Later, a 1921 newspaper article said Smith was wounded on a train headed south from Fort Laramie, Wyoming, when a skirmish occurred in Utah from an Indian war party, thus wounding Smith necessitating a primitive amputation performed by Forty-niner Jonathan Tibbet Sr. and a few others. Tibbet claimed he was the one who made a tree branch prosthesis to assist Smith thus earning him the nickname Pegleg, who periodically worked on the Tibbet Ranch near El Monte, California. But that’s far from the end of the story.

Although Pegleg may have fancied himself of the same caliber, famous frontiersman Jedidiah Smith was not in fact his brother, biological or honorary, as author A. J. Burdick opined in his book The Mystic Mid-Region, published in 1906, as did J. Smeaton Chase in California Desert Trails, published in 1916.

Born two years apart in different states, Jedidiah Smith’s death by the Comanche preceded Pegleg’s death by 35 years.

One may surmise the allusion of a familial relationship is not one Pegleg would have denied, and could perhaps even promoted. If you’re wondering why he didn’t claim to be somehow related to Francis Marion Smith, who was born 20 years before Pegleg died, it was because that Smith didn’t become known as the “Borax King” for more than two decades after Pegleg’s demise.

Pegleg Smith’s fame grew faster than his fortune. I imagine there were quite a few peg legs back in the day that spun a yarn or two, way before the advent of social media. Imagine that, Pegleg went viral before going viral was cool. Thus is how legends are made.

Excerpt from The Mystic Mid-Region: The Desert Trails of the Southwest by Arthur J. Burdick, 1906: “In 1837, a one-legged man named Smith found a mine of wonderful richness in the Colorado Desert. He was piloting a party over the desert from Yuma, when he came to three hills which rose out of the plain. Not being sure of his bearings, he mounted the taller of the hills to get a view of the surrounding country. Upon this hill, which seemed to be composed of black quartz or rock, he found out-cropping ore fairly sparkling with the precious metal. He took specimens away with him and learned, upon reaching his destination, that the metal was really gold. The mine became known as the “Pegleg Mine” from the fact that Smith wore a wooden leg and was known as “Pegleg.”

“After conducting his party safely to Los Angeles, Smith returned to the desert to investigate his find. He could not locate it. He could not even find the hills which had been the landmark upon which he depended.

In 1861 or 1862, a prospector passed over the trail from Yuma to Los Angeles. In the Colorado Desert he chanced upon three hills, and upon the larger one he discovered gold. He reached Los Angeles with $7,000 worth of gold nuggets.

He told of his find and described the location. It tallied with the description given by Smith of his find. A party was formed for the exploiting of the mine, and the prospector was preparing to guide his associates to the spot when he was taken ill and died. The mine was again lost and has never been found. Note: “Pegleg” Smith was a brother of the famous trapper, Jedediah Smith.”

In California Desert Trails, J. Smeaton Chase wrote: “Peg-Leg Smith, who might by courtesy be called the patron saint of California prospectors, deserves more than a passing reference. In the course of this journey I came on his tracks so often that at times I felt almost haunted. To be for two hours in company with a prospector and not have Peg-Leg come into the conversation is among the impossible things in life.”

Chase continued, ” This particular Smith, Thomas L., conspicuous among the tribe by the circumstances of a timber leg, was brother of Jedediah Smith who ranks high among Western pioneers. Thomas L. became the leader of one of those bands of trappers who in the thirties and forties roved over the vast spaces of the West in quest of furs and adventure. The peg-leg itself was a souvenir of the adventures, he having amputated the natural member himself when it was shattered by a bullet in the course of a fight with Indians.”

Chase talked about Pegleg’s lost gold mine and surmised, “…the number of those who have gone out on this adventure [seeking the mine] must run to hundreds, and the tale of those who have never returned is tragically long…as for me, though I am not the breed of Peg-Leggers come of, and long ago resolved, following a well-known example, to die a poor man, yet I feel; the fascination of the gold hunter’s game, and have sometimes, over my camp-fire, played with the idea of sudden freedom from impecuniary cares by stumbling on a mine…but then came a soberer thought–of all the poor wretches who had fallen to the lore, “followed the gleam;” and the gleam had them on and on, a little farther, to the next rise, the canyon beyond, til the terrible “bad lands” had them locked in their scorching maze, there to wander till, crazed and raving, they staggered and fell; scrambled with frantic terror to their feet and stumbled on (the thought of gold a frightful mockery now) till they fell once more and did not rise again.” Excerpt from: California Gold Trails by J. Smeaton Chase, 1916.

Among Pegleg’s most notorious accomplishments was that of an expert horse thief. With the assistance of Ute friends, Pegleg is said to have herded 400 head of fine riding horses in 1832, driven before them at the mouth of the Cajon Pass, stolen from the ranchos of the Californios.

Californios were instrumental in settling Alta California, often receiving land grants that allowed them to become wealthy rancheros through agriculture and cattle ranching, particularly during the rancho period from the 1780s to the mid-1800s. 

“They rode up the pass to Cleghorn Canyon, across the ridge and down the Little Horsethief Canyon, stopping behind the big slough near Hawes Meadows. Then across the Mojave to Rabbit Springs they went and via Willis Wells reached Fish Ponds and back over their trail to Utah. This raid opened up a path later known as the Spanish Trail.” (E. Sylvester, Pegleg Smith, El Cojo) Pegleg Smith continued to steal horses in exciting exploits for a decade.

On another raid where Pegleg and his gang of Ute marauders were pursued by irate Californios, “They followed the raiders as far as the Armagosa River south of Death Valley then gave up the chase…Pegleg drove his horses by the way of Morongo Valley and back along the north side of the San Bernardinos to join others who came up through Cajon Pass and Horsethief canyons at Rabbit Springs in Lucerne Valley. Here some 28 Californios found them.” (Sylvester)

This was not the Chimney Rock incident that took place in 1867, the site of the last Indian fight in California.

Desert Magazine, November 1946, page 10.

Someone claimed they found Pegleg’s mine in February 1965 and even sent a small black gold nugget to Desert Magazine, which was confirmed as authentic. The mysterious writer remained anonymous but included photos of alleged gold nuggets covered with desert “varnish” like Pegleg had described.  Many thanks to Dave Williams for reminding us about it.

Update: On April 23, 2024, Myth Hunters and Legend Detectives producer Steve Baldwin (not to be confused with actor Stephen Baldwin) wrote on our website, "My team has tried to track down than man, known as “Mr. Anonymous” and we know he was from El Cajon and we have actually filmed some of the nuggets he sent to Choral Pepper, the editor of Desert Magazine. However, there is no evidence this was Pegleg’s mine. Blackened gold has been found over 20 times all over the desert so it is not unique to Pegleg’s discovery. Moreover, the clues given by this particular Peg leg (sic) do not match the area described by Mr. Anonymous."

Page 26 / Desert Magazine / May, 1968 

Let us concern ourselves only with where [Pegleg] found the gold, not with where he went later. 

The key here is the New River and "bubbling mud marshland." The Salton Sea did not exist in 1829, but the mud pots near the south end of the Sea did exist. So let us proceed westerly and somewhat north of these mud pots, keeping in mind that in those days there were no roads, highways, nor civilization of any sort in this God-forsaken place. 

The first long, low rise in the terrain is a group of low hills just north of Hwy. 78 and partially west of Hwy. 86 (Old Hwy. 99). There are three main hills from one to one-and-a-half miles apart. Their elevation averages only 200 feet. They are covered with small buttes, hogbacks and saddles. Due to the sheer simplicity of their location, could this be the home of gold sought for so many. 

Jack J. Pepper (Editor) 

On August 11, 1960, an article appeared in The Hesperian Independent claiming Hesperia resident George D. Hedrick, a seasoned prospector, believed he found the long lost Pegleg gold mine. While working on some titanium claims in the Galway Dry Lake area east of Bessemer and Kaiser iron mines, Hendrick noted three isolated buttes on the horizon. He recalled Pegleg’s story about the trio of landmarks, so George decided to investigate Black Mountain.

“In little washes south of the mountain he found carloads of black nuggets so encrusted with patina they shined as if polished. When he cracked these nuggets he found almost without exception, they contained considerable gold.” Later analysis revealed they were high in titanium and high grade iron. The majority of the gold claim was within the Marine Corps reservation bombing range, so there’s that.

Pegleg Smith sold maps and claims of the mine until his death in 1866 in a San Francisco hospital, yet a 1930 newspaper article claimed Pegleg died in a bar fight in Los Angeles in 1880. Although nobody has ever re-discovered the fabled mine, Pegleg’s legend lived on in books, television shows, movies and even an Oregon Trails II computer game. Bad fortune fell on whoever claimed they found the lost mine before it could be authenticated.

Pegleg no doubt led a colorful life in his era but it was wrought with an ill reputation that ran the gamut of masterful purveyor of bull excrement, pathological liar, alcoholic, human trafficker, bigamist and the most notorious horse thief in the southwest, depending who told the tales.

The question begs, was there more than one guy named Pegleg Smith? Possibly. Fans continue to embellish his virtues, riddles, and heroic deeds, keeping Smith’s bold-faced whopper legacy alive, and that’s half the fun.

In 1947 “Desert Rat” Harry Oliver established the original Pegleg Smith Monument which was a sign that read “Let those who seek Pegleg’s gold add ten rocks to this pile.” Another memorial was erected by Desert Steve Ragsdale in 1949 next to Oliver’s original monument. The sign instructed anyone who wanted to seek Pegleg’s gold to leave ten rocks on the pile in the back. The mound of rocks continues to grow.

Courtesy, Harry Oliver’s Desert Rat Scrap Book

In 2007, history buff and Lost Ship of the Desert expert John Grasson stated why he believed Thomas L. Smith was not THE Pegleg Smith, based on a thesis from (an unnamed) BYU history graduate student in the 1960s with his take on the Thomas L. Smith and information contained within Philip Bailey’s book Golden Mirages from the early 1940s. The first section dealt with the lost Peg Leg mine in Imperial County, California.

According to the author, the history of the Peg Leg connected to the lost mine continued 10 years after the death of the original Thomas L. Smith, AKA Peg Leg Smith, trapper and prospector.

The grad student disputed Pegleg’s claim that he came down Bill Williams Fork of the Colorado River to Yuma, Arizona, then across the deserts to San Diego. He was also skeptical about Pegleg’s recollection about how he got lost in the desert in 1827 during a three-day sand storm without water and ascended the largest of three knolls to get his bearings where he could see the peaks of the coastal ranges. Twenty two years later, spurred by the Gold Rush of 1849, Smith tried to relocate his bonanza to no avail. Various expeditions failed.

Grasson added, “Gold veins and placers have been worked for more than a century in the immediate vicinity. Just south of Virgin Canyon lay the King Tut placers, in an area so remote that they were not discovered until the 1930s.”

Unfortunately, John Grasson passed away on December 21, 2021. John belonged to a team called Legend Detectives of which former California State Assemblyman, Steve Baldwin, is the organizer. The team is dedicated to researching some of the great Old West mysteries, such as the Lost Ship of the Desert, Peg Leg Smith’s Lost Mine, the Lost Silver Mine of El Cajon Mountain and the Lost Brant Mine. They filmed a pilot episode of a TV reality show, similar to The Curse of Oak Island. Steve, with the permission of John’s family, acquired all of his voluminous research. Two pick-up trucks full to be exact.

Note: For Yuma researchers, Laurie Boone at the Heritage Library is the current curator for the Yuma County Historical Society. The basement of the Legacy branch of the Yuma Library still houses Yuma County historical documents. A call to the Sanguinetti House Museum or to the library can confirm. Carol Brooks is retired long time curator of the Sanguinetti Museum in Yuma. She has researched almost every aspect and significant character related to SW Arizona.

In 2017, True West Magazine ran an article about Tom “Pegleg” Smith in their blog, describing him as “one of the Old West’s toughest mountain men.  A fierce, ask-no-quarter, give-no-quarter fighter, he could let out a blood-curdling war cry that was the envy of any Comanche warrior.  He also had a rascally career as a horse thief.” Later, a Mexican vaquero supposedly found Pegleg’s lost mine but kept its location secret all the way to his grave. Another miner was said to later stumble upon the mine but fell gravely ill. He left his gold-filled saddlebags to his doctor before he died, without revealing the mine’s whereabouts.

The following year True West Magazine ran another blog piece about fur trapper Tom “Pegleg” Smith. It stated “It was in the fall 1827 in North Park, Colorado that Smith was wounded in the left leg during a battle with Indians.  With the help of Milton Sublette and a jug of “Taos Lightning,” a concoction strong enough to peel the hide off a gila monster, the two trappers amputated his leg.  Smith himself cut through the flesh, and then Sublette sawed through then the bone. The wound was then seared with a rifle barrel heated in in hot coals until it was red-hot.” Pegleg Smith’s enduring legacy though was the gold mine he found then lost.

Update: Also on April 23, 2024, Steve Baldwin wrote to our website, "I’m with a historical research team called the Legend Detectives and would like to make a number of corrections here. Pegleg was born in Kentucky. We know exactly where and we have traced his lineage. He never said he was born in Ohio – that was someone else. Regarding his leg being amputated, there are five different accounts of this incident but only one account has been verified by people who were actually in attendance. 

As for Tibbets, he couldn’t have amputated Pegleg’s leg as the amputation occurred in 1827 and Jonathan Tibbets Sr. was a farmer back east at the time. By the time Tibbets claimed to have helped Pegleg amputate his leg, it was 1853, 26 years later and after numerous newspaper accounts were published of Pegleg’s exploits — on one leg — BEFORE the Tibbet incident. But there was indeed a man on Tibbet’s wagon train called Pegleg who lost a leg due to an Indian attack and I have held the saw used by Tibbet to carry out the amputation. We believe this particular Pegleg was named James Smith. 

Bear in mind there are at least four different Peg legs who were involved with prospecting for gold during the 1800’s and at least two of them lost a gold mine. Many men lost a leg in those days and they were commonly referred to as “Pegleg.” However, the original Pegleg, whom your story is about – Thomas Long Smith – never found gold and the famous story of Pegleg finding blackened gold on the top of a butte was never even mentioned by the original Peg leg in the only two major interviews he gave to reporters shortly before his death. 

Moreover there are NO accounts in any books or newspapers about Pegleg finding and losing a gold mine before 1850, which leads us to believe the lost gold stories are all traced to another Pegleg, a man we believe was named John Smith who was active after the original Pegleg was dead. For example, Burdick’s account was written in 1906 and the Stanislaus newspaper account was in 1893. 

When the legend of Pegleg’s gold mine really boomed in the 1860’s, the original Pegleg was on his last legs in a veterans home and laughed when he heard about these stories. We have also tracked down accounts from a half dozen of Pegleg’s friends and acquaintances, including his trapping partner, George Yount, and all have said that the original Pegleg never found gold. 

Nonetheless, the original Pegleg — Thomas Long Smith — was indeed a great American. He was one of the first white men to cross into California from the East. He was a trapper who blazed many of the early trails later used by the hordes of Americans who traveled westward. He started a trading post in Idaho alongside the Oregon Trail which assisted thousands of desperate travelers by giving them food, water, and fixing their wagons. He assisted Brigham Young with the new Mormon settlement in Salt Lake on a number of issues as evident by the correspondence between the two that I have located. 

He stole thousands of horses from the large Mexican haciendas, greatly destabilizing the California economy. This activity, I believe, was encouraged by the US government which was engaged in a number of covert actions to force Mexico out of the Southwest, which, of course, eventually led to the Spanish American war. He was a translator for the US government in a number of Indian peace talks. He was the first whiskey distiller in the West. He avoided publicity so unlike Bridger, Carson and many others, his accomplishments are not well known but there is no doubt he was one of the greatest frontiersmen ever. And you can read more about this when my book comes out!"

Additionally, on the treasurenet.com site, Steve wrote:  "The Legend Detective team acquired the entire Desert Magazine archive and there are indeed, some great pieces about Pegleg, but if you really want to find out more about the original Pegleg, here are some great articles/books/documents:

1) "George C. Yount and his Chronicles of the West," by Charles Camp
2) "Fur Brigade to the Bonaventura: John Work's California Expedition of 1832 for the Hudson Bay Company."
3) "Ewing Young in the Fur Trade of the Far Southwest," Oregon Hist. Society.
4) "Pegleg, Man & Mine," Overland Monthly, Oct 1930
5) "The Two Smiths, The Pacific Historian
6) "Wakara, Hawk of the Mountains," by Paul Bailey
7) Phillip Bailey's notes at ASU
8) Bancroft, "History of California"
9) "On The Old West Trail," and "Reminiscents of a Ranger, by Horace Bell
10)"Gold Rush" by J. Goldborough Bruff
11) "Mountain Men and Fur Trappers of the Far West." This is a ten volume set but Pegleg appears in one Volume. e.
12) "The Old Santa Fe Trail" by Harry Inman
13) "King of the Tulares" by Anne Mitchell
14) The Jimeno document, Nov 10 1841
15) "Notes on the Cockrell Family and Peg leg Smith."
16) Letters to and from Pegleg Smith with Brigham Young, LDS Library
!7) Hutchings California Magazine, "Sketches from the Life of Pegleg," Oct, 1860 - March 1961
18) "History of San Bernardino" by Brown and Boyd
19) "Wild Life in the Far West: Personal Adventures of a Border Man, Capt James Hobbs
20)"Expeditions, Trading and Life of Thomas L. (Pegleg) Smith." Glen Humphreys, BYU


These 20 books, articles and documents will put you on a journey that will inform you about who the real Peg Leg Smith was. Some of these will require contact with libraries, historical societies, visits to special collections and so forth. A few are on-line. Many are hard to find but if you want to be a Pegleg expert, this is a great start. Then, if you want to take this further, subscribe to some of the newspaper archives on-line and print out every newspaper article you can find about Pegleg from 1840 to 1940. I warn you -- we are talking about 300 plus articles."

Great stuff, Steve and thank you for clarifying this information and sharing it with other researchers. We look forward to the publication of your book.

P.S. Steve gave us permission to provide his email address at scbaldwin7@gmail.com if anyone wants to communicate with him about Pegleg.  

Caveat Emptor: While we do have our doubts about the truth behind Peg Leg Smith’s lost gold, we do believe that the lost Mexican treasure of Bromas De Abril exists.

This photograph shows the exact spot where Bromas, lost from his platoon of fellow Conquistadors, found six diamonds of incredible quality while searching for his horse in 1798.

What’s known is that when he reached the Mission San Juan Capistrano several weeks later, De Abril was told the value of the gems.

He was able to draw a map to the location, which over the years has passed through many hands, and now resides with our Desert Way archives. This is a true and accurate account, and we only share it once a year on this day, known as the Día de las Bromas de Abril. Can you figure out the riddle?

Every year on the first Saturday in April, the Pegleg Smith Liars Contest is held at the park in his honor.

California Historical Landmark #750 Directions: From Borrego Springs, the marker is a straight seven miles on Palm Canyon Road (S-22) to the east. At the seven mile mark, there is a signed turnoff for “Pegleg Road.” At this point, the sign, mailbox, and giant rock pile are visible. There are two modern outhouses within an easy walking distance from the marker and ample room for self-contained recreational vehicles. No potable water. The marker is very close to the Clark Dry Lake.

WARNING: Metal detectors are prohibited in Anza Borrego Desert State Park.

Top Photo: ‘An aged prospector’ by C. C. Pierce & Co. (This is NOT Pegleg Smith, and we ain’t fibbin!)

Citations and Resources

The Los Angeles Times, Old Mine Story Revived, 21 Sept 1930, pg 60.


Bailey, Phillip, Golden Mirages The Story of the Lost Pegleg Mine, the Legendary Three Gold Buttes and Yarns of and by Those Who Know the Desert, 353 pages, published by The Macmillan Company, New York, 1941.

Mohahve I Scrapbook of History, Mohahve Historical Society, Victor Valley College, published 1963, page 80.


"Pisgah Bill," First Trek of the Pegleg Gold Miners, Desert Magazine, 1948, pg 18, https://www.swdeserts.com/index_htm_files/194803-DesertMagazine-1948-March.pdf


Southworth, John, New Clues to Pegleg's Gold, Desert Magazine, 1954,pgs 15-17,  https://dhshistoricalsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/196504-Desert-Magazine-1965-April.pdf

Harry Oliver's Desert Rat Scrapbooks RE: Peg Leg Smith's Treasure Map and Peg Leg's mentions https://www.phantomranch.net/hofc/pegleg.htm

Peg Leg Smith, A Short Sketch of His Life, Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 14, Number 2171, 12 March 1858 via UCR Digital Newpaper Collection.

Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 14, Peg leg Smith A Short sketch of his Life, 12 March 1858. 

Sketches from the Life of Peg-Leg Smith,” Hutchings’ Illustrated California Magazine, Vol. V, no. 5 (November 1860), 203–204.

Stanislaus County Weekly News, Peg Leg Smith and His Mine of Early Days, Modesto, California · Friday, June 09, 1893, pg. 6.

Los Angeles Herald,Los Angeles, California · 05 March 1894.

Sylvester, Elisworth A., "Pegleg" Smith, El Cojo," Mohahve IV, Scrapbooks of History, Mohahve Historical Society, pub 1984, pgs 24-25. 

The True Story of Pegleg Smith’s Lost Gold Mine, Los Angeles Herald, Volume XXXI, Number 306, 31 July 1904 https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=LAH19040731.2.319.58&e=——-en–20–1–txt-txIN——–via UCR Digital Newpaper Collection.

The Bulletin, The Real Story of Pegleg Mine,27 Nov 1921, pg 20. (Pomona, CA)

Burdick, Arthur, The Mystic Mid-Region: The Deserts of the Southwest, published 1906.

Chase, J. Smeaton, California Desert Trails, Chapter Thirteen; A Desert Ride: Borrego Springs to Los Coyotes, published 1916.

McKenney, J. Wilson, On the Trail of Pegleg Smith’s Lost Gold: Legend and Fact Combined to Provide Fresh Clues to the Location of Pegleg Smith’s Famous Lost Mine. Palm Desert, CA: Desert Press, 1957. 

Grasson, John, Why Thomas L. Smith Was Not THE Pegleg Smith, via TreasureNet.com, 2009. https://www.treasurenet.com/threads/why-thomas-l-smith-was-not-the-pegleg-smith.145312

Bell, Bob Boze, Tom “Pegleg” Smith https://truewestmagazine.com/article/tom-peg-leg-smith/

Bell, Bob Boze, Peg Leg Smith and His Lost Goldmine https://truewestmagazine.com/article/peg-leg-smith-and-his-lost-gold-mine/

Peg Leg Smith Historical Landmark https://ohp.parks.ca.gov/ListedResources/Detail/750

Brigandi, Phil, Three Buttes and a One Legged Man, The Legend of Pegleg Smith, The Branding Iron, 2012, http://www.lawesterners.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/266-BI_266.pdf

Some Pegleg Smith References, https://www.treasurenet.com/threads/some-pegleg-smith-references.666766/ Note: See comments by Steve Baldwin, dated January 12-14, 2023.

https://thedesertway.com/john-grasson