"A gold shipment of over 200 lbs that amounted to $60,000 in freshly minted coins (about $2.6 million dollars today) was being shipped by the US Government, and the shipment represented several month's of back pay for soldiers at the fort. Masked men ambushed the stage carrying the gold, and made off with the entire payroll about a mile north from the Virginia Dale station. The robbers were chased down and killed by the US Cavalry, the troopers did eventually find the iron strong box in a nearby creek, broken open and empty. The stage line suspected that Slade was the mastermind for the holdup, but were unable to prove it. The owners of the stage line felt they had no other choice and fired him.

This is only one of the stories that the overland stage lines was the focus of. Many a story of indian battles, and stolen loot revolve around US 287."

"The story of Jack Slade is a long one and hard to put into a couple of paragraphs.
Back then Virginia Dale was waaaay out in the country... there was really no place for the bandits to spend any money that wouldn't be immediately noticed.
Jack was the "mastermind" and he moved to Montana where he died pennyless 3 years later when he was hung by vigilanties for being a horse thief. Overland stage agents watched him the whole time... never showed any of the loot... so Jack didn't have it... or the chance to go get it."