Newspaper Clue Search
The Grant County newspaper corpus runs to thousands of OCR'd pages. Use these phrase-based clue patterns to surface the gold quickly — each card hits every chunk where the matching phrases appear, with year and page citations.
For programmatic search: GET /api/old-west/v1/newspaper-clues?q=...
🧭 Treasure
Phrases that hint at mines abandoned or rumored — the "the old workings," "the lost ledge," "rich float" newspaper-language for prospects that never got relocated.
matches: "lost mine""lost ledge""rich float""old workings"+2 more
Buried-gold lore, cache rumors, "treasure said to be" phrasing. Heavy on hearsay — useful for surfacing legends that may have a documentary substrate.
matches: "buried gold""buried treasure""hidden cache""treasure said to be"+3 more
"Made his pile", "struck it rich", "biggest strike" — the rags-to-riches register that signals where the camps actually paid out.
matches: "struck it rich""made his pile""made his fortune""biggest strike"+2 more
⚔️ Crime
Stagecoach robberies, hold-ups, masked men, lost-mail dispatches. The Wells Fargo / Adams Express era.
matches: "stage was robbed""highwayman""masked man""wells fargo"+3 more
Frontier-period conflict reportage. Period-correct vocabulary — primary-source value despite contemporary biases.
matches: "apaches""apache raid""depredations""raiding party"+3 more
🔥 Disaster
Major fires that erased records or moved settlement footprints — useful for explaining record gaps and dating photographs.
matches: "destroyed by fire""reduced to ashes""great fire""conflagration"+2 more
👪 Genealogy
Missing-person notices, "last seen," "any information," "any kin." Genealogy gold for tracking disappearances.
matches: "last seen""has not been heard from""any information""any kin"+3 more
Probate notices, estate sales, executor appointments. Direct date hooks for death and family connections.
matches: "estate of""last will and testament""administrator of the estate""probate court"+1 more
🏪 Commerce
New saloon, new store, "removed his business," "succeeded by" — pins commercial operating periods.
matches: "opened his""opened a new""removed his business""succeeded by"+2 more
🛤️ Travel
The "Personal Notes" column. "Arrived in the city," "left for the East," "is visiting friends" — the genealogy column before genealogy columns existed.
matches: "arrived in the city""left for the east""is visiting friends""returned from"+2 more