Parents: John Thomas Fish, Mary Elizabeth Marietta Cory
Spouse: Dorcas M Fish
Taken from parts of an article by Scott Anderson, see article for full story:
"Last October, I published an article in Sierra Lodestar called “The Fury of Frank Fish: a true and unsolved mystery.” The piece was the result of exhaustive research into the life and death of Frank L. Fish, author of the cult classic on amateur archaeology, “Buried Treasure and Lost Mines” and curator of the Gold Rush Museum, which was housed in the original stone Wells Fargo building on the old Highway 49 Corridor.
For those who grew up in Amador City, the memory of Fish creaking up and down planks of the jagged boardwalk, a double-barrel shotgun clasped in his battered, puffy knuckles, still invokes midnight images and a few disturbing questions. Such recollections of Fish’s “night patrols,” his human skulls, his pet rattlesnakes, are true and can be verified through photographs of him that still exist. Nevertheless, the photos play into the treasure hunter’s larger-than-life reputation, which now makes it difficult to separate fact from fiction; an issue that is critical to studying the question of whether his shocking death on April 7, 1963 was the result of suicide or undetected murder.
Fish was close with Amador City personalities John Moore and James Jippett. From them and others we know that he claimed to possess gold relics excavated from Costa Rica and one of two existing copies of the Peralta Map, which the international treasure hunting community felt was connected to the Lost Dutchman’s Mine in the Superstition Mountains of Arizona. Fish always carried a silver handgun, vaguely referencing unidentified people he feared were out to take his map and artifacts.
Fish’s behavior played out over time as a human enigma. But what is verifiable about Frank Lawrence Fish? He hailed from Oklahoma and was the brother of Walter J. Fish and the father of John Fish. Existing photographs prove at least some of Fish’s claims about traveling throughout the western United States and countries in Central America. The photos also appear to establish that Fish owned an assortment of Mayan and American Indian jewelry and artifacts
Numerous articles were written about Fish during the 1950s in a variety of publications, though most pieces were authored by the same journalist: Lieutenant Harry E. Rieseberg. The lieutenant was an expert at deep-sea salvage and underwater treasure recovery. He was also a great admirer of Fish’s terrestrial relic sleuthing. Rieseberg wrote 30 different news stories about Fish in one year alone, a shotgun exposure that helped “Buried Treasure and Lost Mines” sell thousands of copies and attract some 38,000 visitors to Amador City in 1961."
Note: he died on April 8, 1963 from a suspicious gun shot wound.
Spouse: Dorcas M Fish
Taken from parts of an article by Scott Anderson, see article for full story:
"Last October, I published an article in Sierra Lodestar called “The Fury of Frank Fish: a true and unsolved mystery.” The piece was the result of exhaustive research into the life and death of Frank L. Fish, author of the cult classic on amateur archaeology, “Buried Treasure and Lost Mines” and curator of the Gold Rush Museum, which was housed in the original stone Wells Fargo building on the old Highway 49 Corridor.
For those who grew up in Amador City, the memory of Fish creaking up and down planks of the jagged boardwalk, a double-barrel shotgun clasped in his battered, puffy knuckles, still invokes midnight images and a few disturbing questions. Such recollections of Fish’s “night patrols,” his human skulls, his pet rattlesnakes, are true and can be verified through photographs of him that still exist. Nevertheless, the photos play into the treasure hunter’s larger-than-life reputation, which now makes it difficult to separate fact from fiction; an issue that is critical to studying the question of whether his shocking death on April 7, 1963 was the result of suicide or undetected murder.
Fish was close with Amador City personalities John Moore and James Jippett. From them and others we know that he claimed to possess gold relics excavated from Costa Rica and one of two existing copies of the Peralta Map, which the international treasure hunting community felt was connected to the Lost Dutchman’s Mine in the Superstition Mountains of Arizona. Fish always carried a silver handgun, vaguely referencing unidentified people he feared were out to take his map and artifacts.
Fish’s behavior played out over time as a human enigma. But what is verifiable about Frank Lawrence Fish? He hailed from Oklahoma and was the brother of Walter J. Fish and the father of John Fish. Existing photographs prove at least some of Fish’s claims about traveling throughout the western United States and countries in Central America. The photos also appear to establish that Fish owned an assortment of Mayan and American Indian jewelry and artifacts
Numerous articles were written about Fish during the 1950s in a variety of publications, though most pieces were authored by the same journalist: Lieutenant Harry E. Rieseberg. The lieutenant was an expert at deep-sea salvage and underwater treasure recovery. He was also a great admirer of Fish’s terrestrial relic sleuthing. Rieseberg wrote 30 different news stories about Fish in one year alone, a shotgun exposure that helped “Buried Treasure and Lost Mines” sell thousands of copies and attract some 38,000 visitors to Amador City in 1961."
Note: he died on April 8, 1963 from a suspicious gun shot wound.
Parents: John Thomas Fish, Mary Elizabeth Marietta Cory
Spouse: Dorcas M Fish
Taken from parts of an article by Scott Anderson, see article for full story:
"Last October, I published an article in Sierra Lodestar called “The Fury of Frank Fish: a true and unsolved mystery.” The piece was the result of exhaustive research into the life and death of Frank L. Fish, author of the cult classic on amateur archaeology, “Buried Treasure and Lost Mines” and curator of the Gold Rush Museum, which was housed in the original stone Wells Fargo building on the old Highway 49 Corridor.
For those who grew up in Amador City, the memory of Fish creaking up and down planks of the jagged boardwalk, a double-barrel shotgun clasped in his battered, puffy knuckles, still invokes midnight images and a few disturbing questions. Such recollections of Fish’s “night patrols,” his human skulls, his pet rattlesnakes, are true and can be verified through photographs of him that still exist. Nevertheless, the photos play into the treasure hunter’s larger-than-life reputation, which now makes it difficult to separate fact from fiction; an issue that is critical to studying the question of whether his shocking death on April 7, 1963 was the result of suicide or undetected murder.
Fish was close with Amador City personalities John Moore and James Jippett. From them and others we know that he claimed to possess gold relics excavated from Costa Rica and one of two existing copies of the Peralta Map, which the international treasure hunting community felt was connected to the Lost Dutchman’s Mine in the Superstition Mountains of Arizona. Fish always carried a silver handgun, vaguely referencing unidentified people he feared were out to take his map and artifacts.
Fish’s behavior played out over time as a human enigma. But what is verifiable about Frank Lawrence Fish? He hailed from Oklahoma and was the brother of Walter J. Fish and the father of John Fish. Existing photographs prove at least some of Fish’s claims about traveling throughout the western United States and countries in Central America. The photos also appear to establish that Fish owned an assortment of Mayan and American Indian jewelry and artifacts
Numerous articles were written about Fish during the 1950s in a variety of publications, though most pieces were authored by the same journalist: Lieutenant Harry E. Rieseberg. The lieutenant was an expert at deep-sea salvage and underwater treasure recovery. He was also a great admirer of Fish’s terrestrial relic sleuthing. Rieseberg wrote 30 different news stories about Fish in one year alone, a shotgun exposure that helped “Buried Treasure and Lost Mines” sell thousands of copies and attract some 38,000 visitors to Amador City in 1961."
Note: he died on April 8, 1963 from a suspicious gun shot wound.
Spouse: Dorcas M Fish
Taken from parts of an article by Scott Anderson, see article for full story:
"Last October, I published an article in Sierra Lodestar called “The Fury of Frank Fish: a true and unsolved mystery.” The piece was the result of exhaustive research into the life and death of Frank L. Fish, author of the cult classic on amateur archaeology, “Buried Treasure and Lost Mines” and curator of the Gold Rush Museum, which was housed in the original stone Wells Fargo building on the old Highway 49 Corridor.
For those who grew up in Amador City, the memory of Fish creaking up and down planks of the jagged boardwalk, a double-barrel shotgun clasped in his battered, puffy knuckles, still invokes midnight images and a few disturbing questions. Such recollections of Fish’s “night patrols,” his human skulls, his pet rattlesnakes, are true and can be verified through photographs of him that still exist. Nevertheless, the photos play into the treasure hunter’s larger-than-life reputation, which now makes it difficult to separate fact from fiction; an issue that is critical to studying the question of whether his shocking death on April 7, 1963 was the result of suicide or undetected murder.
Fish was close with Amador City personalities John Moore and James Jippett. From them and others we know that he claimed to possess gold relics excavated from Costa Rica and one of two existing copies of the Peralta Map, which the international treasure hunting community felt was connected to the Lost Dutchman’s Mine in the Superstition Mountains of Arizona. Fish always carried a silver handgun, vaguely referencing unidentified people he feared were out to take his map and artifacts.
Fish’s behavior played out over time as a human enigma. But what is verifiable about Frank Lawrence Fish? He hailed from Oklahoma and was the brother of Walter J. Fish and the father of John Fish. Existing photographs prove at least some of Fish’s claims about traveling throughout the western United States and countries in Central America. The photos also appear to establish that Fish owned an assortment of Mayan and American Indian jewelry and artifacts
Numerous articles were written about Fish during the 1950s in a variety of publications, though most pieces were authored by the same journalist: Lieutenant Harry E. Rieseberg. The lieutenant was an expert at deep-sea salvage and underwater treasure recovery. He was also a great admirer of Fish’s terrestrial relic sleuthing. Rieseberg wrote 30 different news stories about Fish in one year alone, a shotgun exposure that helped “Buried Treasure and Lost Mines” sell thousands of copies and attract some 38,000 visitors to Amador City in 1961."
Note: he died on April 8, 1963 from a suspicious gun shot wound.
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