Hermann Wolfe's Trading Post Cache

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A mountain man and beaver trapper of Prussian origin named Hermann Wolfe (also recorded as Herman Wolf and Johann Hermann Woolf) was said to have accumulated and stashed away in the ground approximately $250,000 to $350,000 in silver and gold coins buried in easy-to-remember locations with landmarks and along old fence lines in cans, glass jars, buckets, and pots near his old Indian trading post on the Little Colorado River east of Flagstaff, Arizona.

Although he supposedly confided in a close friend shortly before his death regarding the whereabouts of some of his buried treasure, the only caches known to have been discovered include a 1901 find of a small jar containing 20 gold coins and a 1918 find of an old metal bucket that was filled with silver Mexican pesos, both near his old store and not in the vicinity he had indicated to the friend, which led to a brief "rush" of treasure hunters who failed to find anything else, although it is believed much more remains to be discovered.

To give you a little background on the man, his life, and the history of the region which may help in your research and treasure hunting, Wolfe was believed to have been born around 1805, and fled Germany after he was involved in a duel.  He joined Christopher "Kit" Carson's mountain men in 1838 shortly after Kit's Indian wife died and at the time of a severe economic depression following the Panic of 1837 with William E. "Billy" Mitchell of Ohio, Fred Smith of Texas, and W.C. Seifert.  He was described by Smith in a letter to his sister as a 6' tall, prematurely grey, moody, silent, and a skilled top-notch gunslinger who didn't back down from any confrontation.  

Beaver had become a scarce commodity in the north from over-trapping and the days of the fur brigades in the Rocky Mountains were over, but when the U.S. Army acquired the southwest territory which also opened up Arizona for settlers, and they started rounding up the native Indians for removal, Wolfe headed down the Little Colorado River channel surrounded by cliffs 1,000 feet high in spots between Grand Falls and Winslow  on the western edge of the Melgosa Desert (the upper region of the Painted Desert) where he discovered an abundance of beavers living amongst the willow trees that lined the banks, which he proceeded to trap for their meat and valuable furs to trade, as well as started trapping along several of the other small tributaries of the Grand Canyon.  

Beaver hunters would often follow the old Santa Fe trail that led to Taos, New Mexico on trapping expeditions, traveling in groups for mutual protection from rogue Indian attacks, but while alone on one of his first such ventures in the Spring of 1848 headed for Santa Fe, Wolfe was ambushed by a group of Apaches who relieved him of all of the furs loaded on his two pack mules, but they let him leave with his life.

Wolfe moved around quite a bit before settling down permanently along the Little Colorado River.  He was reportedly trapping in Utah at the Valley of the Green River in 1857, in New Mexico in Taos in 1859 which had come to be known as the capital of the fur trade in the southwest, then returned briefly to Arizona where he managed to avoid further Indian confrontations and befriended the Navajo people who had taken refuge and hunted in Canon Diablo, and who afforded him protection, and then went back to Taos, Santa Fe, and St. Louis, Missouri from where he disappeared for five years beginning in 1861 at the start of the Civil War, so it is assumed he entered the military service although no credible record to my knowledge has ever been found. 

I might mention at this juncture that besides Hermann Wolfe's treasure cache, many men who had traded with the Navajo in Canon Diablo had reported the Indians paid them with large gold nuggets found somewhere in the canyon, but they would never reveal the source.

After the Civil War ended, Wolfe re-emerged in the Fall of 1866 along the Little Colorado River again near Rio Puerco, and by the Spring of 1867 had successfully acquired many furs despite roving bands of marauding Paiute and Apache Indians.  It was then that he built his first small crude cabin on the north side of the river along the old sand-swept emigrant trail lined with cottonwood trees and steep pink and gray cliffs in about 1867 which was nicknamed Beaver Hogan or Chi Bogan by the nearby Navajo (translates to Beaver House) as there were always Beaver plews (pelts or skins) leaning against the walls around the entire outside of the house drying.  They also referred to Wolfe as "Hostiin Chaa" which means Mr. Beaver.  

The cabin was located about 2 miles north of the now-dilapidated river ford that crossed the deep sandstone gorge and came to be known as Wolf Crossing near the modern-day Indian mission ghost town of Tolchaco (established 1900) on the Navajo reservation (which is Navajo for "River Ford" - on modern maps Tolchico), previously referred to as Hopi Ford as it led to Hopi land in the eastern desert, and Wagon Wheel Crossing by the Mormons who later traversed it.. The Little Colorado River has also had many names, including being in the past called the Flax River, the Salt River (where the Hopi came to their sacred mines to get salt), and the Colorado Chiquito.  

Wolf's Crossing has often been confused with Volz's Crossing which was located further north, and Volz also ran a trading post near his crossing and near present-day Leupp in Canon Diablo, although later from 1886 to 1910, so its possible there was confusion because of the similarities between these two men. 

According to "In and Around the Grand Canyon," by George Wharton James, "We passed on the west side of Volz's Crossing where once I had a party delayed for nearly two days, owing to a ten-feet rise in the river during the night, and on to Wolf's Crossing..."

All that remains of Tolchico/Tolchaco, which burned in 1918 necessitating that the community be moved 10 miles south to Old Leupp, are two stone-walled ruins of a building and a well, and for many miles along the west bank of the river scattered remnants of ancient adobe ruins also can be found dating from around the year 600 to 1400.  Old Leupp still has remnants of an old Indian boarding school today and is located about 2 miles southwest of present-day Leupp.

In the Spring of 1868, the Apaches caught up with Wolfe and surrounded him in Tucker Flat between Winslow and the river, but Wolfe fought his way through them to the north side of the river, shooting and killing four of the Indians and miraculously escaping with his pack animals and furs intact. 

After leaving the region briefly in the early summer of 1868 and returning with three Mexican workers and a herd of mules and horses, Wolfe proceeded to move further south down the Little Colorado River to erect his post.  This may have been partly to improve his business position and partly for safety reasons, as a military post had been constructed near his old cabin about the same time.  On an island in the middle of the river a fort was constructed under General Fremont in 1868 between Black Falls and Grand Falls (taller than Niagara Falls, but dry except in the Spring) with 3-foot thick walls containing defensive gunholes spaced four feet apart, and troops stationed there were charged with maintaining peace and order among the Navajos after they were recently released from captivity at Fort Sumner at the end of the war.

The "Beaver House" nickname carried over to Wolfe's large stockade picket trading post, the first in the region, built on a high bluff on the opposite south side of the river about "12 miles below the Hopi Ford" (now Wolf Crossing) near the California-Santa Fe Trail that headed west at the northern end of Canon Diablo and near present-day Leupp. His trading post was also often referred to simply as Wolf Post.

It was built from willow and cottonwood logs which were plentiful at the time in the area before the region dried up set vertically into trenches.  It had one comparatively large open room measuring about 20' x 40', a flat roof made from poles covered with red clay, and there were no windows -- just a door, with the only other openings being several narrow slits just wide enough to fire a rifle through to defend the post from bandits or hostile renegade Indians.

The first Indians who traded at Wolfe's post were from the Hopi villages 50 miles to the north, and the Havasupais and Paiutes followed suit. The freed Navajos that returned to Canon Diablo after the war carried on trade with Wolfe and provided Indian guards to accompany him for protection on his trips eastward when more goods were needed.  

Once the Apaches learned of his permanent trading post they began throwing raiding parties against it which lasted from the late 1860's well into the 1870s, repelled by Santa Fe workers and increasing numbers of Navajos who rallied together to help drive the enemy away. 

Needless to say, Wolfe ran a profitable trading post for 30 years, did good business, had protection from his Navajo allies, and accumulated great wealth, much of which has never been found.  There has been controversy as to whether or not treasure was buried at his original cabin site and the crossing near Tolchaco or near the site of his trading post near Leupp, which the latter seems more likely.

In the October 16, 1894 issue of The Arizona Republican newspaper of Phoenix an encounter with Wolfe, whom many had thought might not still be alive after Wolfe's brother had inquired of him, was described by a man who had been aided by Wolfe after becoming lost as a man of  "education and culture, which long years among the savages had failed to corrode."  

Some stories say that Wolfe had intended in 1899 to go to town in Flagstaff and deposit $100,000 of his money into the bank but never made it there before he died, but that does not appear to be entirely true.  He did make it to Flagstaff, where he sometimes went to order merchandise, and spent several days there in 1899 awaiting his brother's arrival, as is explained below, dying shortly after he returned home. Although he could have made a bank deposit then, it does not appear he ever did based on his probate records.

Hermann Wolfe died the evening of September 3, 1899 at his trading post after a brief illness. His age was not known, but old pioneer settlers who knew him for years claimed they believed him to be in his 90s.   Shortly before he died, he had traveled in his freight wagon to meet his brother in Flagstaff who had finally found him and had not seen him in many years, a retired Major General in the German Army named Franz Wolfe from Dresden, but his brother was delayed. Wolfe was not feeling well, gave up waiting, and decided to return home.  His brother finally arrived but by the time he reached the trading post accompanied by a Dr. Miller from town it was one day too late and he missed seeing his brother who had passed away the night before.

Herman Wolfe's body was transported by the undertaker Edgar Whipple to the Boot Hill Cemetery at the edge of Canon Diablo for burial, and a tombstone was later placed there (although hard to read with the age apparently incorrect provided by the doctor), the only one remaining today.  He was the 36th person buried in the cemetery, and the 35 who came before him had all died violent deaths.  Although a ghost town now in part of the Navajo Reservation, 50-mile-long Canon Diablo, which was on the stage route from Flagstaff, had during the 1880s become a dangerous wild west camp with about 2,000 crew men working for the Atlantic & Pacific railroad building a bridge over the canyon full of tents and shacks selling merchandise, food, and liquor, 14 saloons, 10 gambling halls, and 4 brothels.  Gunfights, robberies, and murders were not uncommon.  There were more men killed here in one year than in Tombstone, Abilene, and Dodge City combined.

Wolfe's probate records revealed he also had a sister named Frau Geheimrathin Becker, and that his siblings were both originally from Kelbra am Kyffhauser, Prussia.  His estate consisted of  Navajo blankets, pelts, wool, hides, and other merchandise valued at that time at $5,328, a far cry from the treasure he had amassed that still remains lost today.

Although there are directions to Wolf Crossing online, and Wolfe was early on said to have a cabin in that area on the north side of the river across from what would later become Tolchaco, the assumption has been that this was his trading post, which I don't think is true.  There was another post in the area owned by someone else later, and there was a military camp in the vicinity, which could explain the artillery shells, but no one seems to have found the exact location of his actual large stockade trading post near Leupp, and I have seen no indication as to where the previous two finds were recovered specifically, whether it was near Tolchaco or Leupp.  

When I mapped about 12 miles below Wolf Crossing and about 2 miles below modern-day Leupp on the south side of the river per instruction in old documents (and considering the river may have shifted), near two side canyons that allow access to Canon Diablo coming from the east, including Long Canyon, said to have been used by traders in the past, the only thing I see of any apparent significance from an aerial view at that location without being able to zoom in sufficiently are remains that could be remnants of a stockade perimeter, which I've included a photo and link to below. This may also be a more modern structure of the Navajo Indian Reservation, remains of a fort, or ancient ruins, but I believe it is in the correct general vicinity based on the directions.

http://terraserver-usa.com/tile.ashx?t=1&s=11&x=1264&y=9754&z=12

If you would like to physically check out this site to see if the remnants of the large old stockade trading post are at this location or, if not, to see if other remains are in the vicinity, from Leupp Rd (Rt. 15/CR-505) north of Leupp, go south on Rt. 99 in the Navajo Indian Reservation for about 3 miles (which takes you about 2 miles south of Leupp), turn left onto Rt. 2/71 going east for about a mile, and then on the left there appears to be a dirt road that leads to this structure. 

If you would like to also explore Tolchico and Wolf Crossing they can be reached by going back to Leupp Rd (Rt. 15/CR-505), turn left/west, turn right at about the 4th street on your right (local unmarked? - see map) going 0.3 mi, bear left onto BIA-6910 and follow it north 6.8 miles into old Tolchico.

Happy hunting for Hermann Wolfe's hoard of lost treasure!

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