The Lonely Graves near Milllers Flat (Photo: John Douglas)

Follow on down the road from Millers Flat on the true left of the Clutha River, and at 11 km you will come to the site of Horseshoe Bend Diggings. There is little sign of the village now, but the Lonely Graves just further on, are well known and the restored Horseshoe Bend suspension bridge can be accessed by a public walking track.

The story goes (a popular myth, not a fact) that late in 1864, William Rigney found a shivering dog beside the dead body of a good-looking young man. The police were notified but nobody came to claim the body. Rigney dug the grave and everyone at the diggings attended the funeral. The pine slab with these words burned on: "Somebody's Darling Lies Buried Here" marks the grave. When Rigney died in 1912, he was buried alongside as he had wished. His stone was engraved:

"Here lies William Rigney, the man who buried Somebody's Darling."

Most of the very early 1860s mining evidence of the Teviot district has now long gone - destroyed by land cultivation. During the dredging boom of the late 1890s to early 1900s period, gold dredges worked the Clutha River from the present Roxburgh Dam site to below Millers Flat. Dredge number peaked to 30 briefly at the end of 1902. Pinders Pond, an old hydraulic elevation pond, off Teviot Road is about the only major evidence left from that second gold rush period that the public has access to.

Ruins of a stone shelter and the Snow Pole Track on the summit of the Old Man Range, above Gorge Creek (Photo: Mike Floate)

About 23km north of Roxburgh there is a monument commemorating the many unknown miners who perished in the winter snow storms and floods of July and August 1863. Further up the creek above the road, is the site of the former settlement of Chamonix, named after the French alpine resort.

Chamonix flourished briefly during the 1860s, but the little packers town ceased to exist by 1866, although one store that was operated by Johnny O’Briens did remain for some time. Soon afterwards O’Briens shifted his store away from the gorge to run it, together with a hotel, changing place, and stables for Cobb and Co coaches, till the Shingle Creek Hotel was built about 1870. Today the stables survive, virtually unchanged, as part of the woolshed on Gorge Creek Station. No evidence of Chamonix remains today and even its precise location is not known.

Mitchell’s Cottage at Fruitlands (Photo: Department of Conservation)

During the mining period 1870-1910 the settlement was known as Bald Hill Flat. It was named Fruitlands from an orchard scheme there between 1915-1926. The scars of 40 years of mining have all but gone. The roadside Fruitlands Gallery was once a pub, supplying weary travellers. The 1871 stone building has been lovingly restored and now offers food and crafts. Nearby Symes Road leads 1km to the historic 1880s Mitchell’s Cottage. The Mitchells lived in a corrugated iron cottage when they first arrived in the area. This sturdy and compact stone cottage is a superb example of the Shetland Island stone masons’ craft.

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