In the 1860’s, William Henry Knight, a map maker for the United States Department of the Interior, was gathering data for maps of the Pacific States when he came upon a cave who’s walls were said to have been laced with gold. But, even a mapmaker can lose his sense of direction in the many mountains of western Nevada. Once he left, he was never again able to find the cave that was allegedly in a small mountain range near the Sand Spring known as Painted Hills. Sand spring is on the northeast side of the White Mountains of Esmeralda County.