Annie Lydia Rose (1883 – 1972) was a gold prospector and mining entrepreneur active between 1910 and 1972 in Bear Canyon and adjoining Pine Canyon in the north-west corner of the Angeles National Forest. She was uncharacteristically bold beyond her age, gender, and the restraints of the late Victorian era in which she grew up. During her life and now through her legacy, she is considered an authority on the legendary Lost Horse Mine also referred to as the Lost Padre Mine.
Parents and family Her father, William Blackburn Rose (1833–1892), was born in Jefferson, Ohio. Her mother, Anna Rebecca Fink (1849–1936), was born in Hanover, Prussia, Germany and immigrated to the USA in 1864.United States Census, 1910, Anna R Rose household, Soledad, Los Angeles, California, United States; citing enumeration district ED 351, sheet 18A, family, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 87; FHL microfilm 1,374,100. Annie's father was a divorcee (Fannie Vost) and her mother a widower (Henry Christian Woest). Annie's parents married in Bakersfield on 17 July 1876. Their first son, Robert Fink Rose, was born in Bakersfield on 29 March 1879 and died on 24 August 1885 at age 6. Their next child was William Louis Rose (aka "Billy") born on 12 December 1880 in Bakersfield. Three years later Annie Lydia Rose who was born in San Francisco on 27 December 1883.
Annie had a half brother, Heinrich (Henry) Edward Woest (aka "Eddie") born on 9 April 1872 in Manhattan, New York City. Eddie was from his mother's previous marriage to Henry Christian Woest born in Hanover, Prussia, Germany.
Rose Station In 1852, Annie's father William Blackburn Rose moved from Jefferson, Ohio, to the new State of California where he worked for a time on the historic San Emigdio Ranch.
What was originally a vaquero camp on the Sebastian Indian Reservation between 1853 and 1875 known as Rancho Canoa (trough) became a stage stop or way station that was established 1858. The route from Bakersfield to Los Angeles via Fort Tejon was 150 miles and took 32.5 hours according to the Butterfield Stage schedule. In 1875, William B. Rose built an adobe stage station at this site as a water and rest stop for stagecoaches on the old Los Angeles-Bakersfield run.California Historical Landmark No. 300
Rose Station was a stockmen's headquarters, post office, and polling place. It was also a trading post and a center for social activities in the Tejon area.Bakersfield Californian, 17 November 1941 It continued operation until 1942.Described in a poem titled Rose's Station by Annie Rose Briggs dated 1941
Early Residence In 1868, José Juan Lopez built a five-room adobe dwelling to serve as a stopover for herders moving cattle and sheep over the San Joaquin-Los Angeles trail. It was located at what later became the fork of the old Ridge Route and the new US highway 99 near Castaic. Annie's father bought the property and Annie Rose lived there as a child for five years.Ghosts Walk Castaic's Trails, Independent Press Telegram, 6 March 1960 (Long Beach, CA.)
In 1886, William Blackburn Rose also homesteaded in Charley Canyon near present-day Castaic.History of the Santa Clarita Valley by Jerry Reynolds
Annie Rose attended the Castaic School from 1889 to 1895 riding to and from school on horseback despite her young age.Described in a poem by Annie Rose Briggs dated 17 February 1940
Annie's half-brother Heinrich (Henry) Edward Woest (aka "Eddie"), a commercial bee keeper, homesteaded 160 acres acquired under the 1862 Homestead Act with a patent granted on 30 August 1904. The ranch was located in the northeast quarter of section 22 of township 7 North, range 17 West, San Bernardino Meridian. At first it was called the Cienega Ranch which later became the Kelly Ranch and eventually the Knapp Ranch in 1962. This was another base of operations for Annie during her lifetime and provided access to her mining claims.Accession number CA2380—.116, Bureau of Land Management, Land Office Records, 1904
Marriage Annie Lydia Rose married Franklin Adrian Briggs on 9 November 1931. Her husband was born in North Dakota on 22 November 1899 and was 16 years younger than his wife. He was described as tall, thin, frail, and had a cavity in the middle of his chest.
Treasure Story 1916 Annie introduced her remarkable story in a newspaper article in April 1916. She describes meeting a Dr. Bragg in the mountains in 1901 to whom she gave assistance. She would have been 16 or 17 years old at the time. Bragg told her about a lost gold mine from the 1840s known as the "Lost Horse Mine". Years later on his death bed, Bragg "drew forth the withered parchment (map) and bestowed it as a token of appreciation." (Bragg died on 29 March 1915 aged 96). The story goes on to say that in 1911, the young Annie Rose "relocated the mine and filed two claims, 600 by 1000 feet in area. For two years she did the assessment work, and then lack of capital and her mother's illness forced her to stop. Last year she resumed the work and now has a good title". Annie Rose claimed: "The mine from 1842 to 1848 produced $3,000,000 in gold. Then it was closed by order of the Church and the Indians sworn to secrecy, for California lost it sovereignty and became part of the nation."Oakland Tribune, 16 April 1916, page 54
Backstory
A Native American (Soxo) who worked at the Lost Horse Mine in the mid 1840s made a deal with Dr. B. F. Bragg to show him the location of the Lost Padre Mine in exchange for thoroughbred horses. "The mine had been, according to the story, located in 1840 by an Indian and worked by the mission fathers, who in three years, according to the legend, took out a cool million in gold. But one day the tunnel caved in, burying fifteen Indians, and the rest refused to go back. So the padres filled up the tunnel and concealed the entrance to the mine, which remained lost until the doctor made the deal with the Indian 24 years later. The property was relocated and it is declared Dr. Bragg and his associates took out $750,000 in two years. But death again followed the footsteps of the miners, for an Irish foreman went amuck, killed four men and flung their bodies into the shaft. Dr. Bragg escaped, but the mine was somehow lost again. Just before his death Dr. Bragg told Miss Annie L. Rose, now owner of the property, where the mine could be located."Covina Argus, 7 October 1927, page 10
1920s In 1922, the Los Angeles Times newspaper quoted Miss Annie L. Rose as saying she had found the Lost Padre Mine for which she had been searching for 12 years. She said she intended to reopen the mine with a group of investors.Los Angeles Times, 11 June 1922
In 1927, it was reported: "Miss Rose interested certain persons of means some two years ago and about $33,000 was expended in cross-cutting with tunnels in an effort to locate the old tunnel. The work suddenly was abandoned." This is a reference to a partnership with King Gillette, the son of Gillette of razor-blade fame. The son, King Gaines Gillette, had become obsessed with finding old Spanish mines and became active in the Bear Canyon area around 1922. It is not clear if his renowned father was a partner in this venture. Prior to this, they had partnered in a joint mining venture in the Rough and Ready district west of Grass Valley through their company, the California Mining Co.
King Gillette hired workers to dig a tunnel that became known as the Gillette Mine although it did not follow a mineralized seam. Gillette's workers tunneled for over a quarter of a mile along the east side of the canyon. They were trying to intersect an old "Spanish" shaft or hidden vault.
The popular film star, Tom Mix (1880–1940), became involved with prospecting efforts in the same area. Mix was the star of hundreds of early Western movies between 1909 and 1935, mostly in the silent film era. He was dubbed the King of the Cowboys during the 1920s.
There is a story that in 1932 King Gillette hired a seer for $100 a day. After 4 days of hiking around the canyon, the mystic shuddered in the middle of a creek bed, and shouted "It's here; the gold is right under us 17 feet down!" Gillette grabbed a shovel and started digging furiously. The mystic then told Gillette, "Stop. It won't do any good. The spirits of four Indians are guarding the treasure, and they'll move it as soon as you get close."
Not long after Gillette had abandoned his project, Annie Rose started working with a new partner: "B. E. Miller of Pomona got in touch with her and formed the Lost Horse Leasing Syndicate, which leased the properly and began to hunt for the mine."Oakland Tribune, 16 October 1927, page 36
The Los Angeles Times newspaper reported that Annie held 27 mining claims in the north-west corner of the Angeles National Forest. Her half-brother, Henry E. Woest (aka "Eddie"), and her attorney, Gilbert A. McElroy, had an "interest" in some of these claims.Los Angeles Times, 18 September 1930
1930s In 1930, Annie Rose Briggs was back in the news again and said to be still searching for the lost mine. She had found two skeletons, and in a follow up investigation sheriff's deputies had located two more skeletons. "Remains of the other two men, whose ghosts, legend in the district has it, have stalked the canyon since they were slain there in 1878, were discovered last Saturday by Miss Annie L. Rose, who has devoted twenty years of her life in search for the Lost Padre. Yesterday's success in finding the skulls and several bones of the two other victims bears out the stories that have been current in the mountain fastness for half a century of the quadruple murder and the resultant loss to miners of the location of the tunnel from which came $800,000 in nearly pure gold quartz during two years and $93,000 in one strike on the last day it was worked, the day of the murders."
"Everything went along fine until a man known as "Bronco Charlie" Riley - the bad man of the district - came over from his cabin and saw the golden wealth fairly pouring from the bore. Because he was known as a dangerous man Dr. Bragg let Riley act as superintendent over the Indian and the three Mexicans. He thought by letting Riley in on some of the gold he would not attempt to rob the workings. But on the day the $93,000 was known to have been rained the Indian and three Mexicans disappeared. The story of the mine, the murders, and the vast riches close at hand persisted with Miss Rose, never for an instant doubting its authenticity."Oakland Tribune, 28 September 1930 on page 83
"It was Doc Benjamin Franklin Bragg, an associate of "Lucky" Baldwin of racehorse fame, who revealed to Miss Rose in 1915, before he died, the mine's approximate location. Doc had gained riches in the mine but died a pauper, and was afraid to go back. Miss Rose filed claims on the territory and set to work. Two days ago, digging near the site of an old Indian camping ground, she found the skulls."Oakland Tribune, 19 September 1930, page 32