This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: casner CA AZ Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/xBI.2ACIB/98 Message Board Post: The only thing George Casner wanted when he came to this land from California in 1876, fleeing drought, was a patch of cool timber and some good grass for his sheep. What he got was and eternity of wonder about his considerable wealth and his unusual love of gold coins. They say that Casner had a powerful aversion to banks, which forced him to find another repository for his money. His solution was to drill deep holes in pine trees in the precise dimensions of a $20 gold piece. His ranchland, 25 miles south of Flagstaff on what is now Casner Mountain (a designated Wilderness Area), is said to be a kind of natural vault, with many of the tallest pines still jammed with gold coins. Fact or Fantasy, it doesn’t matter. These legends possess power, They burrow into the brain and take hold. It’s how the Haunted Wilderness draws you in. Whether it lets you leave is another matter. * "Haunted Wilderness",by Leo W. Banks, Arizona Highways, September 1994 1