Some New AZ Leads, add info if you know more about them

[GoldBack]

Here's a couple of new leads in AZ that I wanted to share with you all just for the fun of it.

Black jack Ketchum was a rather famous outlaw in the Arizona area. It is said that he stashed a large amount of booty in a cave. The treasure is buried in the cave located in Cochise County, in the Chiricahua Mountains about 40 miles north of Bisbee in Wild Cat Canyon.

The bandito Bonita reportedly buried $22,000,000 in gold and silver in a place called Meadows of Gold on the southwest slopes of Mount Graham near the town named after him, Bonita. This area is located in Graham County about 30 miles southwest of Safford.

The two miners were traveling through the east side of Bronco Canyon and needed to hide the gold nuggets they were carrying. They found a rock the looked like a toadstool near a small spring. Making note of the shape of the rock, the spring and the general part of the canyon they were in, they buried the nuggets (about $75,000 worth) under the rock.
Apparently they did not give enough notice to where they were, they were unable to ever find the location again. Bronco Canyon is in Maricopa County about 30 miles northwest of Fort McDowell.

This has also been referred to as the Ajo Treasure. It is said that church valuables including gold and silver bullion have been hidden along the roadway between Sonoyta Mexico and the Tumacacori Mission. The old road was called Carretta Road. (Not so new but still a good one)

The Cienega Brothers were bandits in the 1800s. They stole an army payroll of about $75,000 in gold coins. They buried the money near the old La Cienega Pony Express Station in Santa Cruz County. The station was in Pontano Canyon between Tucson and Benson.

In 1861, Union soldiers burnt the fort to the ground in order to keep it out of Confederate hands. They rebuilt it again in 1863 and used the fort until 1890. There is supposedly a large cache of gold nuggets buried under to old carpenter’s shop on the north side of the Fort.The Fort is located in Mojave County close to Mojave Springs about 20 miles east of Lake Havasu.


This is another Jesuit lost treasure. Said to be a great amount of gold church treasures and gold bars. It is said that the treasure was buried on Mission grounds. The mission is located near Calabasas, northeast of Nogales in the San Cayetano Mountains.

It is said that a $100,000 of gold that was stolen off a Wells Fargo shipment in 1865 was buried near Vail in Santa Cruz County about 17 miles southeast of Tucson on US 10.

[maui]

goldback, thanks much for your sharing, interesting.
take care. ron

[Gork]

Here's a couple of new leads in AZ that I wanted to share with you all just for the fun of it.

Black jack Ketchum was a rather famous outlaw in the Arizona area. It is said that he stashed a large amount of booty in a cave. The treasure is buried in the cave located in Cochise County, in the Chiricahua Mountains about 40 miles north of Bisbee in Wild Cat Canyon.


The bandito Bonita reportedly buried $22,000,000 in gold and silver in a place called Meadows of Gold on the southwest slopes of Mount Graham near the town named after him, Bonita. This area is located in Graham County about 30 miles southwest of Safford.

The two miners were traveling through the east side of Bronco Canyon and needed to hide the gold nuggets they were carrying. They found a rock the looked like a toadstool near a small spring. Making note of the shape of the rock, the spring and the general part of the canyon they were in, they buried the nuggets (about $75,000 worth) under the rock.
Apparently they did not give enough notice to where they were, they were unable to ever find the location again. Bronco Canyon is in Maricopa County about 30 miles northwest of Fort McDowell.

This has also been referred to as the Ajo Treasure. It is said that church valuables including gold and silver bullion have been hidden along the roadway between Sonoyta Mexico and the Tumacacori Mission. The old road was called Carretta Road. (Not so new but still a good one)

The Cienega Brothers were bandits in the 1800s. They stole an army payroll of about $75,000 in gold coins. They buried the money near the old La Cienega Pony Express Station in Santa Cruz County. The station was in Pontano Canyon between Tucson and Benson.

In 1861, Union soldiers burnt the fort to the ground in order to keep it out of Confederate hands. They rebuilt it again in 1863 and used the fort until 1890. There is supposedly a large cache of gold nuggets buried under to old carpenter’s shop on the north side of the Fort.The Fort is located in Mojave County close to Mojave Springs about 20 miles east of Lake Havasu.


This is another Jesuit lost treasure. Said to be a great amount of gold church treasures and gold bars. It is said that the treasure was buried on Mission grounds. The mission is located near Calabasas, northeast of Nogales in the San Cayetano Mountains.

It is said that a $100,000 of gold that was stolen off a Wells Fargo shipment in 1865 was buried near Vail in Santa Cruz County about 17 miles southeast of Tucson on US 10.

Two of these are historical inaccurate. $100,000 of gold from an 1865 Wells Fargo shipment being buried near Vail could not have happened in 1865. The Butterfield Overland Mail Company closed in March 1861 because of the impending Civil War. Stage lines did not return to Arizona until early in 1867. There are many references for this, but a good one is in The Arizona Miner, May 18, 1867. The article tells of lines finally returning to Arizona and one line states "This will complete the service on the old Southern, or Butterfield, overland, and will greatly invigorate and accommodate lower Arizona."

The next is the one about the Cienega Brothers. There was no Pony Express Station in Pontano (Pantano) Canyon between Tucson and Benson. The Pony Express never existed in Arizona. The famous Butterfield Seneca-Cienega Stage Station was located at the junction of Davidson Canyon and Cienega Creek near present day Pantano. This stage station was destroyed in 1862 and later rebuilt when stage lines returned to the area in early 1867. The reference for this is The Butterfield Trail and Overland Mail Company in Arizona, 1858-1861, published in 2011.