Slumach's Gold chronicles what is possibly Canada's greatest lost-mine story. It searches out the truth behind a Salish man's hanging for murder in 1891 and tracks the intriguing legend about him that grew after his death. It was a legend that turned into a drama of international fascination when Slumach - the hanged criminal - was mysteriously linked to gold nuggets "the size of walnuts." The stories claimed that Slumach had placed a curse on a hidden motherlode to protect it from interlopers and trespassers just before he plunged to his death "at the wrong end of a five-strand rope." Although many have attempted to find Slumach's gold over the past 100 years, following tantalizing clues that are part of the legend itself, none have succeeded - or have they?
Rick Antonson, Mary Trainer and Brian Antonson have diligently sifted through history and myth, separating fact from fiction, but leaving the legend intact - along with the promise of gold yet to be found by a future gold seeker.
"A great piece of research that reads like a mystery novel or a CSI episode . . . Slumach's Gold combines legend, myth, documentation and oral history. It's a masterpiece."- Richard Thomas Wright, author of Barkerville and Overlanders
Published October 2007