He assisted in the surveys in the southwest part of Scotts Bluff county, and was with the party that found the big cedar with a seven foot trunk. This cedar was so near to a proper corner for a section, that it was so designated. Some years later the timber scavengers cut it, but the perpetrators of the deed were never found. A tree seven feet in diameter should make a large number of posts, and no doubt did do so, and perhaps kept a homesteader's family from dire hunger.

Buried Gold That stump is yet to be found, and near it according to tradition, robbers buried a large quantity of gold, stolen from an overland stage. "Dad" Carr, and others have removed many cubic yards of earth in an attempt to find it. Pitcher received a letter from a party in Denver at one time, which asked him to journey to Gering where the writer would be on hand at a certain date. The letter stated that he had a key to the cache of gold, a certain number of feet in a certain direction from a big cedar tree. Pitcher arrived in Gering at the right time and tarried for several days. He went out and located the stump of the tree, but the other party failed to come. Y\ "hen he got

home there was another letter to the effect that the Denver man had been sick, and it set another date for the meeting, but as Pitcher tersely expressed it: "I had one wild goose chase, and I am not going on another."