Abandoned chiefly because the old miner who had lived there died one day, and left behind him all the marks of having died from starvation, mostly.

A cursory examination of his few belongings had revealed much want, but no gold save a little coarse dust in a small bottle.
"About enough to fill a rifle ca'tridge," detailed the teller of the tale.

"He'd pecked around that draw for two, three year mebby.

Never showed no gold much, for all the time he spent there.

Trapped some in winter--coyotes and bobcats and skunks, mostly.