Stephen Meek convinced the immigrants traveling in wagons on the Oregon Trail in 1845 that he knew of a shortcut to the Willamette Valley. Over 200 wagons followed Meek into the Oregon Desert after leaving the main Oregon Trail near the present site of Vale, Oregon. Meek was not as familiar with the interior of the Oregon country as he had told his followers. The wagons wandered, lost for several weeks and met with disaster as water supplies ran out and people become ill. Several members of the party died along the way. The trail roughly came from Vale up the Malheur River to the Harney Basin then to the Wagontire Mountain area. Water was discovered at the head of the South Fork of the Crooked River on the present GI Ranch. At this point the group split with one group heading westward to Bear Creek and then to the present site of Bend and then north to The Dalles. It was during this time in The Dalles that the gold nuggets were discovered in a Blue Bucket. The story goes that the nuggets were picked-up by children in a small creek bed somewhere between Vale and The Dalles. Many articles and books have been written on this legend and much research has been done. So far, no one has come forward that they discovered the "Blue Bucket Mine."

So goes "The Legend Of The Blue Bucket Mine"!