At the time of their appearance on the market, the bars had acquired what may politely be called a legend, that attempted to explain how they were discovered...To a modern reader, it can be read as a marketing tactic designed to give the bars the flavor of recovered treasure (Hodder 1999, 90).
Stories have even attached themselves to genuine silver bars. The Blake & Co. silver bar that was allegedly the gift of Rathdrum, Idaho, is a bizarre example. This bar has an inscription on the reverse: “MRS. E. R. PIPER./JAN. 1. 1868” (Owens 2000, 103).
John Ford points to his records as evidence of the genuineness of the bars. For this Blake & Co. bar, the record reads: Purchased by JJF from Marie Estinson (Mrs. Joseph, Jr.) E. 2321 Sprague, Spokane, Washington, 1/10/66 for HRRLY. Mrs. Estinson writes: “This piece was given my great grandmother, Elida Kirkpatrick Piper for the many civic things she had done for the city of Rathdrum, Idaho.” Mrs. Piper was married to Dr. J. J. Piper in Healdsburg, California, in 1859, and died there in 1868. Dr. Piper died at his home near Spokane, 6/20/1908. One of Mrs. Piper's two daughters, Albertina Jane (died 1901) was Mrs. Estinson's mother's mother. Mrs. Estinson further states: “At one time Rathdrum was an important city in Idaho. It was founded in 1861, and reached its peak in 1865 - Prospectors from the east rode the Northern Pacific railroad west to Rathdrum - and then struck out on foot from there 66 miles to the famous Coeur d'Alene mines” (Coin World, 6 September 1999, p. 3).
Ford's account is a remarkable mélange of fact and fiction. Dr. Piper is found in the Spokane city directories immediately prior to 1908. Dr. Piper is listed at Healdsburg in the 1870 Federal census, but he is the head of an all-male household - there is no trace of the two daughters borne to him by Eliza Kirkpatrick. There is a marriage certificate in Healdsburg for John J. Piper, M.D., and Eliza R. Kirkpatrick, but the date of their marriage was April 6, 1862, not 1859. But allowing for some minor errors with names and dates, the account of the Piper family is close to the truth, so far as it can be checked.
But it all falls apart when we come to the crucial part of the story - Rathdrum, Idaho, being so impressed by Eliza Kirkpatrick Piper's civic works that it gives her a silver bar. For as of January 1, 1868, Rathdrum, Idaho, was not a city. There was just one cabin, lived in by a hunter and trapper. The 1903 history of Kootenai County, Idaho, gives this account:
The first occupant of the lone cabin was a hunter and trapper named Connors who squatted on the land and built the structure in 1861. In 1871 his squatter rights were purchased by Frederick Post, who, after the government survey had been made, journeyed by horse and boat all the way to Lewiston, where a United States land office had recently been established, to file on the claim. Mr. Post's title to the land was afterwards transferred to his son-in-law, Charles Wesley Wood, who still resides on it and who has the distinction of being the pioneer citizen of Rathdrum...Rathdrum was at first called Westwood in honor of her pioneer. In 1881 a post-office was regularly established with Zach Lewis as postmaster. Shortly after its establishment instructions were received from the post office authorities at Washington to give the office a new name. The reason assigned for desiring a change was the existence of other offices throughout the territory bearing names similar to Westwood. Mr. Lewis was unable to choose one to his satisfaction and appealed to M. M. Cowley, ex-president of the Traders' National Bank, of Spokane, then living at Spokane Bridge on the boundary line between Washington and Idaho. Mr. Cowley recited a number of names, among them, incidentally, Rathdrum, the place of his nativity in Ireland. This was selected by Mr. Lewis as a name likely to be sufficiently satisfactory to the Washington authorities and Westwood became Rathdrum. During the [eighteen-]sixties and [eighteen-]seventies there were no permanent white settlers, other than those named, in the vicinity of the Wood ranch. At Bonner's Ferry and at Seneaquoteen were fur trading posts, and in the mountains and along the streams were a few temporary habitations occupied by trappers and hunters. These were usually squaw men who had taken unto themselves wives from the Spokane or Kootenai tribes of Indians, and who took no part in the future development of the country's resources. There were at this time no apparent causes that would naturally produce a commercial and political center in the wilderness...
When the track was laid in July 1881, Rathdrum became a station on the [Northern Pacific Rail]road and in consequence the most important town in extreme northern Idaho. The year 1883 inaugurated a period of marked prosperity for Rathdrum which lasted through the following three or four years... Rathdrum became the outfitting center for the Coeur d'Alene mines... (Illustrated 1903, 781-82)
This period of prosperity for Rathdrum lasted until the Northern Pacific was connected to Coeur d'Alene City in 1886. In 1886-87 the population of Rathdrum dropped from a thousand to a few hundred (Illustrated 1903, 782-83).
It is impossible for Mrs. Piper to receive this bar from Rathdrum in 1868. The account has elements of truth - Rathdrum did go through a period of temporary prosperity after the Northern Pacific was built - but that was in the 1880s, not the 1860s. The one period in Mrs. Piper's life that is crucial to authenticate this bar - the period when the city of Rathdrum, Idaho hands over the bar in gratitude for her civic endeavors - is the one single episode that could not have occurred. The evidence that Ford uses to authenticate the bar does the opposite: the story is impossible.
Other people have raised doubts about this story too. Dan Owens' book says that the bar “may have been presented to a stockholder or a visitor to the district” (Owens 2000,'103). In other words - nothing about Mrs. Piper's civic work for Rathdrum, Idaho. A third skeptic is Thomas K. DeLorey, who has pointed out, very justly, that the Northern Pacific Railroad did not exist in the 1860s (DeLorey 1999).
But if we compare this bar to other Blake & Co. silver bars, the punches match bars that can be traced back before 1950. This is a genuine bar - with a phony story.
The phony stories exist to market the bars. The Blake & Co. silver bar given to Mrs. Piper is not very exciting if it is a New Year's gift from a medical doctor to his wife. But attach to the bar stories of the Idaho panhandle - the silver strike at Coeur d'Alene, the construction of the Northern Pacific - and it ceases to be an emblem of boring domestic bliss, and becomes a relic of “when the West was wild and wooly.” The phony stories attached to genuine bars also muddy the waters. They create a fog of disinformation so that people will not look too closely at the phony stories attached to the phony gold bars.
One major argument that John Ford has made for the genuineness of the bars - the records and stories that accompany them - must be rejected. These stories are bizarre mélanges of truth and fiction.
The Blake & Co. silver bar is not the only instance of a genuine bar - and a phony story. Here are two more examples.
In 1957 John Ford issued a brochure depicting Western Gold Bars (Bowers 1997, 267). It included a bar of L. Kuh, who was described as “a Chinese assayer.” Kuh turns out to have the first name of Leopold - not a common Chinese name. Owens found that Leopold Kuh was a Hungarian, like so many other assayers (Haraszthy, Justh, Molitor, Uznay, Wass)(Owens 2000, 276-78). There is not enough information at this time to decide if the Kuh bar is genuine or fake - but the Chinese assayer story does not help.
Harvey Harris, whose bars are well authenticated, is also wrapped in legend. The catalog of Stack's June 1997 sale calls him, “one of the few Jewish assayers of the period” and adds, “Harvey Harris was the only Jewish Assayer we know of who was active in California.” But in Owens we read, “The burial of the late Harvey Harris took place in Carson on Wednesday...Rev. George R. Davis officiating. A choir of ladies and gentlemen rendered appropriate music, and the coffin was covered with flowers.” These are not Jewish burial customs. His wife's name was Amelia - not a Jewish name (Owens 2000, 186, 192). The claim that Harvey Harris was Jewish is another phony story that accompanies a genuine bar.
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