Mose, the old prospector by the well in Last Chance, staked a claim forty years ago and lost the map in a card game. He remembers the spot: between the salt pan and the Broken Wheel Arch a rock stands up on its own, thin as a needle. At four in the afternoon its shadow stops on his claim, and the ground there is redder. Dig there with a pickaxe and bring Mose the stake.
Quest item: 
Mose's Claim Stake
Reward
200 gold and XP (and the gold ore in the ground)
Dialogue
Starting it
- “Forty years ago I staked a claim out in the badlands. Best ground I ever saw. Then I lost the map in a card game.”
- “Then I lost the card game. Then I lost the fella who won it. He went out looking for my claim and the desert kept him. So it's still out there. So's he.”
- “I could dig it up myself. But if I dig and find nothing, I was wrong for forty years. If you dig and find nothing, you were digging wrong. That one I can live with.”
- “I remember the spot. Mostly. Between the salt pan and the Broken Wheel Arch there's a rock stands up on its own. Thin as a needle.”
- “Four in the afternoon, the Needle's shadow stops right on my claim. And the ground there's redder. Like it's embarrassed.”
- “Take a pickaxe. Bring me back the stake. Whatever else is down there, you keep. I don't want the gold. I want to be right.”
Talking to them again
- “Four o'clock. Not three, not five. At three it points at nothing. At five it points at the fella who won my map. Leave him be.”
- “Between the salt pan and the Broken Wheel Arch. The rock that's thin as a needle. The ground's redder. You'll know it. It knows what it did.”
Handing it in
- “That's my stake. Look at it. Rusted clean through. Forty years in the ground and it never moved. Wish I could say the same.”
- “I'll nail it up over my door. Then when somebody says I made it all up, I point. You can't argue with a stake. People try.”
- “Here's a bit for your trouble. I don't need gold. I needed somebody alive to know I was right. That's you. So don't go dying.”
After it is done
- “Got the stake nailed up over my door. A fella asked me what it was. Told him the whole story. Took four hours. He won't ask again.”
- “Forty years I was right and nobody knew. Now one person knows. Turns out it feels about the same.”
At the hand-in without the item
- “No stake? Then you dug wrong. That was the deal, remember. I'm still right.”
When your bag is full
- “Your bag's full. Make some room. I waited forty years, I can wait while you throw out a rock.”