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Dominic the Donkey LbNA #59649

Owner:Martini Man
Plant date:Sep 4, 2011
Location:
City:Spearfish
County:Lawrence
State:South Dakota
Boxes:1
Found by: LeTaS Swamp K
Last found:Jul 8, 2016
Status:FFFFFF
Last edited:Sep 4, 2011
Last checked/found: 4-SEP-11

Distance: 1.2 miles round trip and ~900 ft. elevation gain.
Time: 60–90 minutes
Terrain: Hilly with dirt underfoot
Stamp carved by T3

My name’s Nathan Pomeroy, but most of my mining friends called me Griz or Nate. I came out here in early ’76 to try and get in on the taking before other prospectors got in and sucked up what was left for claims. My luck on placer was not so good, but the little I found made me think there was a vein at the bottom of Spearfish Canyon, south of Spearfish itself.

So I took meself and my trusty donkey, Dominic, down the 14A road toward Savoy and where’s there’s now this fancy “lodge” named after the canyon. Before that fancy-pants place was there, I found the start of a trail and I called it the ’76, in honor of my date of arrival in these parts. Well, I decided that this might be worth exploring, so Dominic and me started up that trail one fine autumn day.

It wasn’t overly long until we found some bench-like construction on the right of the trail. I figured Custer’s guys left it here for their stock (or their backsides) when they came through earlier. That cranky burro and me continued upwards and passed two more on the left, than another on the right. After some wheezing and puffing, the critter and me made it to the top of a pretty lookout over the canyon where yet a fifth of those sit-me-downs (that’s what I used it for) was located. We took in the views and started to head back down a bit to start looking for this motherlode I was hoping for.

I noticed some rocks and stuff like that located off 210° from the fourth step going down. I was going to head that way when I took a tumble and scared up a snake. That put old Dominic’s wind up and he took off in that same direction and last I saw him he had ducked down between a big and small boulder surrounded by bushes and such. I hit the snake with a shovel that had fallen off of Dominic and went looking for the stupid animal.

I never could find him or that motherlode of gold I had hoped for. So I went down in a snit and decided being a dry goods grocer was more my style. I didn’t make a fortune but I did OK. But to this day, I wonder what happened to that consarned donkey. Maybe someone else can find a trace of him up there.

Send me a message to let me know if you track him down.