Fort Moore Hill as it was cut down in 1949 for the Hollywood Freeway. This hill was where miners dug for gold 16 years prior.
(
Mildred L. Harris
/
Los Angeles Photographers Collection / Los Angeles Public Library
)
Topline:
During the Great Depression, Angelenos and the government alike were in search of money. That led to a trio of miners who, with the county’s approval, tried to find gold in downtown L.A.
How did this start? This farfetched idea started with G. Warren Shufelt, a mining engineer who claimed downtown had millions in gold. He and his partners joined forces to dig into the hill behind the Hall of Justice in search of Spanish doubloons.
What did they use? The trio got creative. They used Shufelt’s “doodlebug,” a gadget he made that was supposed to be able to see where precious metals were in the ground. They also had an ancient map at hand that was supposed to show where early Spanish settlers left gold behind a hundred years prior.
Did it work? Shufelt and his team came up empty each time, but they convinced the county to let them dig one final time because of an old myth. Read on to learn more.
During the Great Depression, Los Angeles faced a widespread economic downturn. Local leaders were grappling with how to help Angelenos facing poverty while also having lower revenue.
Everyone was strapped for cash. That kind of desperation can lead to some questionable ideas — like hunting for hidden treasure. That’s what occurred when L.A. County was offered a strange but compelling proposition: Allow the digging up of parts of L.A. in hopes of finding millions in gold, and take a share of the bounty.
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How the county hunted for mythical gold buried under L.A. 5,000 years ago
It sounds like something out of a movie — but it actually happened.
Downtown’s gold legend
The saga revolves around a man named George Warren Shufelt, a mining engineer who was fascinated with hunting for gold. He was by no means the only person trying to strike it rich in those days, but his methods were pretty unconventional.
In 1933, he and his crew, Rex McGreery and Ray Martin, believed a fortune lay under downtown, deep inside Fort Moore Hill behind the Hall of Justice. They claimed it was chock full of old Spanish doubloons and gold bullion, supposedly left behind by early settlers a hundred years prior.
Mining engineer George Warren Shufelt with his radio X-ray device in Los Angeles., circa 1934.
(
Courtesy UCLA Library Digital Collections/Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection
)
The land was L.A. County property, so they somehow convinced the Board of Supervisors to let them dig. In February that year, they entered into a contract that exchanged digging permission for a split of the bounty: Half would go to the three of them and the other half to the government.
News reports breathlessly followed the developments with headlines like “Treasure hunt on hill to reach climax today.”
New ploys
Finding that gold was a moving target.
The crew dug shafts like gophers. In early March 1933, the machine showed there was a stash 28 feet down. But as they got closer to the end, with no gold in sight, Shufelt changed the plan.
Now, the search was for a tunnel leading to a long lost treasure cave on the map, roughly 9 feet down a different shaft. Changing direction didn’t help — no gold was found.
Later that month, after an earthquake, the search was halted as the county ordered their diggers to stay out of the shaft. But once it settled, he fought to get the contract renewed for 30 days.
This time, he argued a thorough survey of the hill showed a “labyrinth of tunnels” with at least 16 places where gold was buried or in vaults. But while the county approved it, the miners seemingly gave up on the dig just a few months later.
A last ditch effort
In November of that year, Shufelt came back with yet another elaborate tale.
He said Little Chief Green Leaf, a Native medicine man in Arizona, told him about a legend of buried gold under the Hall of Justice and the Central Library, which was left 5,000 years ago by a tribe of humans called the Lizard People, a more technologically advanced community than modern society.
It was supposed to be laid out to resemble a lizard, the community’s symbol of long life. The tail should’ve been below Fifth and Hope streets, with the city’s “key room” under South Broadway and Second Street. Gold tablets inside there were supposed to have the origins of the human race.
Shufelt said his gold-finding machine had taken X-ray pictures of these tablets, but he told the L.A. Times “the legendary story must remain speculative until unearthed by excavation.” This time, they wanted to dig 1,000 feet down.
If there was any truth to the riches, Shufelt never knew. The search was called off in February 1934 with the belief the gold must’ve been deeper than expected.
And that hotspot, Fort Moore Hill? That would later be cut down anyway to make way for the 101 Freeway.
