A web site visitor Mitch Caver writes:

The silver mine, according to Big Keys, was worked by the indians for several years. Large quantities of the ore were melted in a hollowed-out rock and molded into large bars in molds made ofstiff clay, and carried to St. Louis and St. Charles, Mo., and traded for blankets and other necessities.

Fearing an attack by Mexicans, all valuables of the little band were placed in the cave and preparations made for a move to a new territory. the entrance to the cave was closed up with rock anddirt scraped from the mountainside, and covered to a depth of several feet...

Big Keys, who was then only a young brave, but now an old haggard Indian, was one of the few that found their way back to Oklahoma. In the last four years Big Keys has made several trips back tothe White River territory in search of the long-lost cave...

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
THE LEGEND OF THE ELUSIVE YOCUM SILVER DOLLAR (http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n39a14.html)