Rogers Lake Outlaw Cache — Failed Source Review

[UNVERIFIED] The cache claim fails source review. Probert's treasure bibliography lists exactly two sources for Rogers Lake — "Kildare" and Penfield — and Penfield almost certainly took the story from Kildare, which makes it one source, not two. [UNVERIFIED] The outlaws do not appear to exist: a Flagstaff researcher searched for Henry Corey and Ralph Gaines and found no record of either man outside retellings of this story. [CONTESTED] The date is unstable, given as winter 1881 in some tellings and winter 1891 in others. [VERIFIED] Rogers Lake is a Coconino County Natural Area where metal detecting and treasure hunting are both expressly prohibited by posted sign, and enforcement is active. The case is closed on the record and closed on the ground.

Case overview: estimated value Claimed outlaw cache — no corroborating loss record exists; current status disputed; era claimed 1881 or 1891.

Search area: None published. Metal detecting and treasure hunting are prohibited at Rogers Lake Natural Area.

Best modern approach: Documentary only, and not on the ground. Rogers Lake is a protected county natural area with a posted detecting ban. Do not search here.

Evidence and provenance: [VERIFIED] Metal detecting and treasure hunting are prohibited at Rogers Lake Natural Area by posted Coconino County sign, with active enforcement; [UNVERIFIED] Probert lists only two sources, "Kildare" and Penfield; Penfield is not independent of Kildare; [UNVERIFIED] No record of "Henry Corey" or "Ralph Gaines" exists outside retellings of this story; [CONTESTED] The event date moves between winter 1881 and winter 1891 across versions; [DERIVED] Same author as Mexican Pocket and the Canyon Diablo 1881 story — Gladwell Richardson, writing as Maurice Kildare; [SEE] Shared-source analysis at /investigations/kildare-attribution.

Legal notes: Rogers Lake Natural Area, Coconino County, Arizona: metal detecting and treasure hunting are expressly prohibited by posted sign and enforcement is active. Searching here risks citation regardless of what the record says.

Source origin: the earliest traceable published account is Gladwell Richardson (1970) in Lost-treasure magazine; listed in Probert's treasure bibliography. Independent corroboration: none located. Sources that restate one another count as one source, not several.

Why this case is published as a negative finding: Rogers Lake Outlaw Cache — Failed Source Review failed source review, and PinPoint Treasure publishes failures with the same weight as positive results. A grading scale that nothing ever fails is decoration. The page is kept online so the reasoning, the source trail, and the reasons the claim collapsed stay citable.

Reopening criteria for Rogers Lake Outlaw Cache — Failed Source Review: a contemporary record — a newspaper item, court file, shipping manifest, probate inventory, or company loss report dated to the claimed event — that is demonstrably independent of the earliest known teller. Absent that, the case stays closed and no search area is published.