It has been widely held that the Hand of Providence was originally uncovered in California, but later experts traced the legend to the story of a posse that had, perhaps accidentally, pushed into Oregon territory somewhere in the early 1800s. Neither discovery event had any specific names or dates attached, but the latter story has been vociferously claimed by Infictive County historians, despite the unlikelihood of any American bounty-hunters pressing that far into the disputed territory so early in the westward expansion.
The first known and documented appearance of the Severed Blue Hand was by gold miners at Sutter's Fort, what would become Sacramento. It was contained in a simple closed jar, and shown for a pittance to interested parties by an old trader named David Wallace, who made many miraculous claims as to its power. Later, down on his fortunes, Wallace traded the relic to an E.S. Hardy, a Mormon prospector.
At this point in the documented history, the Hand again went missing, Hardy having been waylaid and killed on his return to Utah by unknown raiders. It would remain unaccounted for another two decades before being rediscovered by Hartwig Emil Hermes, a whisky distiller and gunsmith operating outside Lawrence, Kansas, as part of a cache of barter goods traded to him by unnamed Border Ruffians.
Hermes, a devout Catholic, believed the hand to be a relic of some unknown saint, though this has never been confirmed by the Church, and built a simple chapel to house it. Accounts of odd happenings about the chapel are infrequently mentioned in histories of the Lawrence area, one notable story involving a bullet frozen in the air for some minutes after being fired before disappearing completely.
Following Hermes's death, the chapel fell into disuse and was eventually torn down, the Hand sold to a collector of miscellany named Peter Crump, proprietor of a Libreville, Oregon supply store. The Hand would not be seen in public again, though it is known to have been mentioned in local histories as recently as the late 1950s.
Some Infictive County historians suggest that Crump, and later his son, believed the claims of Hermes, and that the Hand became a focal point of a secret fraternal society they belonged to. This has been denied by later generations of the Crump family, who suggest it was stolen by unknown parties soon after being sold to Peter Crump.
To date, the final whereabouts of the Severed Blue Hand is uncertain.