Ecominer
Banned
- Mar 20, 2003
- 124
- 61
- Detector(s) used
- Fisher Gemini III; Garrett Master Hunter;2009 Minelab Explorer SE Pro; Quantro Discovery Land Tone Magetometer 1A;
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
For years I have hiked the Sandia Mountains following rock markers to a variety of mines. One day I was on a new trail, and when I approached a hill I decided to go over the top of it rather than following the trail around it. I found what looked like a small pointer stone that led me to others and finally to a mine shaft that went straight down. I generally try to carry string or light rope with me to use in finding my way out of a mine if something unfortunate occurs. I reached into my pack pack, took out my string, and tied it onto a rock. I then tossed into the mineshaft the rock and string to determine depth. When I pulled out the rock and measured the string I found the bottom of the shaft was approximately 63 feet deep.
Since this place is a good distance off the road and in the wilderness it took me about a year to decide how I was going to get to the bottom of this shaft. The time it takes to tell this story is short, but the time it took to get me to the bottom of this shaft was quite arduous. I made a rope ladder and tied it off at three locations just in case one site broke free the others would prevent me from falling into the mine and not having a way out. I also tied off on another safety rope just to insure there would be minimal problems.
If you have never been in the deserts of NM it gets pretty hot during the summer time. As I descended into the mine shaft the heat went away and it was similar to someone turning on the air conditioning. I could see the pick marks as I made my way down the shaft and I determined that the way people came into this mine was by what we used to call chicken ladders. Ladders that were made to crisscross their way from the bottom to the top of the mine. The Spanish also used this method to control their workers to prevent them from rebelling at inopportune time. Only one person could come out of the shaft at a time.
When I finally arrived at the bottom of the shaft I found nothing but silt (loess) and rock!! Over the many years since it was built and abandoned, the wind blowing off the dessert gradually started to fill up the shaft. I tried to dig down into the silt, but it was loose, dry, and powdery. As I dug down, the surrounding loess fell into my hole as fast as I dug. It didn't take long to realize I wouldn't be able to get to the bottom of this shaft using these methods.
I thought about it for several weeks, and came to the conclusion that I needed to build a shaft within the shaft so that the dirt would not fall into my hole. I cut up a sheet of plywood and packed it out to my site, dropped it into my hole, and then went in after it. I used two walls of the shaft as part of my shaft and then used the pieces of plywood for the other two sides. Great idea! Right? Wrong.
Apparently this shaft was deeper than my plywood and I wanted to go. I got down about six feet, but the hole was obviously deeper than this. Now remember I have done all this by myself up to this point. When I was standing down at the bottom of my shaft and the plywood started to cave in, I knew it was time to leave! I pulled out my equipment and ropes and went home to try and figure out what to do next.
Well, the only thing I knew about this shaft at the time was that someone went to a great deal of trouble to dig it, haul away most of the tailings, and no one had been in it for years. There is an arroyo near this shaft full of boulders that obviously came from this shaft. Otherwise someone else put them there for some unknown reason and they just look out of the ordinary. The soil type in this shaft is a conglomerate of sand, clay, small to large rocks. It is not solid rock all of the way down to the bottom. The silt I dug into at the bottom was real silty or sandy, and some rocks that apparently rolled down the hill and into the shaft over the years. I don't believe I found any rocks over six inches across. As far down as I dug I never discovered a horizontal shaft. I know the Spanish used to dig vertical shafts over 100 feet deep before digging horizontally.
After taking everything out of the mine and brining it all home I bought a copy of Buried Treasure of the United States by Robert F. Marx. On page 276 of my copy he identifies Placitas as being near the location where some bandits dropped a Wells Fargo box of gold bullion into a mine shaft or a vertical cave. It states the bottom was full of quicksand and the robbers never recovered the loot. This is about as identical to my site as any I have discovered. The problem is how to get the sand and rock out to recover the strong box and possibly go deep enough to find the side shaft to this mine.
If the mine is as old as I believe, it was probably dug prior to 1680 and hidden by the Indians during the rebellion. I know of no one who has found this shaft and if they have, didn't go down to investigate it. There are some old stories floating around about people years ago looking for Spanish mines in this area and never returning. These stories refer to the mine of 'No Return". I could easily see how someone could be careless and slip off of the edge and into this mine if they were trying to see the bottom and were not tied off. This could be the mine, and there could be bodies in this shaft. No one will know until it is cleaned out.
The problem with getting this mine cleaned out are the following: It is in a Wilderness area; there is no power anywhere close; it would be impossible to haul in heavy equipment that far from the road unless a helicopter was used and it was broken down small enough to pack in by horse; and then you have people to contend with that might accidentally come onto the operation.
I have thought about a lot of ways to do the job, but not by myself. To risky, and I don't want to be unaccounted for like the stories of others who never returned. I could see putting in a rope and wheel, and cranking it all up by bucket, but that would be a two man operation or more. I like the idea of using a vacuum and sucking it up like sand off a river bed, but that would be noisy and I don't know where I would find a vacuum strong enough to lift sand that high (possibly a 100 feet).
I would like to take on a partner, but who can you trust? Especially if it is someone who you never heard of before or know their reputation. As most of you know a lot of people are really decent until they get around money, and for some reason the whig out and do all sorts of crazy things. I haven't figured out what to do yet, maybe I will just leave the story and location to my kids or grand kids.
I took lots of pictures of this operation, the hole and the bottom. Someday I may put them on this site for people to review. My wife thinks I should sell the site to someone and let them work out a method of getting to the bottom of this story. Her problem is that she thinks I'm getting old, and I keep telling her that I'm not. I doubt that I will ever win that argument.
So, if anyone has any good ideas on how to clean out this shaft I think this would be a good place to air your views. I don't have a problem in splitting what could be at the bottom of this shaft, since a little bit of something is a lot better than a whole lot of nothing, but it needs to be rather simplistic for this guy to do it. If you are down right determined to do it yourself I'll give you the site for 1500 silver eagles or 20 of those new Buffalo gold pieces the treasury is selling. So take your time, be creative, and think about how you would do this as a one person operation or get your friends involved and enjoy an adventure!
Ecominer
Since this place is a good distance off the road and in the wilderness it took me about a year to decide how I was going to get to the bottom of this shaft. The time it takes to tell this story is short, but the time it took to get me to the bottom of this shaft was quite arduous. I made a rope ladder and tied it off at three locations just in case one site broke free the others would prevent me from falling into the mine and not having a way out. I also tied off on another safety rope just to insure there would be minimal problems.
If you have never been in the deserts of NM it gets pretty hot during the summer time. As I descended into the mine shaft the heat went away and it was similar to someone turning on the air conditioning. I could see the pick marks as I made my way down the shaft and I determined that the way people came into this mine was by what we used to call chicken ladders. Ladders that were made to crisscross their way from the bottom to the top of the mine. The Spanish also used this method to control their workers to prevent them from rebelling at inopportune time. Only one person could come out of the shaft at a time.
When I finally arrived at the bottom of the shaft I found nothing but silt (loess) and rock!! Over the many years since it was built and abandoned, the wind blowing off the dessert gradually started to fill up the shaft. I tried to dig down into the silt, but it was loose, dry, and powdery. As I dug down, the surrounding loess fell into my hole as fast as I dug. It didn't take long to realize I wouldn't be able to get to the bottom of this shaft using these methods.
I thought about it for several weeks, and came to the conclusion that I needed to build a shaft within the shaft so that the dirt would not fall into my hole. I cut up a sheet of plywood and packed it out to my site, dropped it into my hole, and then went in after it. I used two walls of the shaft as part of my shaft and then used the pieces of plywood for the other two sides. Great idea! Right? Wrong.
Apparently this shaft was deeper than my plywood and I wanted to go. I got down about six feet, but the hole was obviously deeper than this. Now remember I have done all this by myself up to this point. When I was standing down at the bottom of my shaft and the plywood started to cave in, I knew it was time to leave! I pulled out my equipment and ropes and went home to try and figure out what to do next.
Well, the only thing I knew about this shaft at the time was that someone went to a great deal of trouble to dig it, haul away most of the tailings, and no one had been in it for years. There is an arroyo near this shaft full of boulders that obviously came from this shaft. Otherwise someone else put them there for some unknown reason and they just look out of the ordinary. The soil type in this shaft is a conglomerate of sand, clay, small to large rocks. It is not solid rock all of the way down to the bottom. The silt I dug into at the bottom was real silty or sandy, and some rocks that apparently rolled down the hill and into the shaft over the years. I don't believe I found any rocks over six inches across. As far down as I dug I never discovered a horizontal shaft. I know the Spanish used to dig vertical shafts over 100 feet deep before digging horizontally.
After taking everything out of the mine and brining it all home I bought a copy of Buried Treasure of the United States by Robert F. Marx. On page 276 of my copy he identifies Placitas as being near the location where some bandits dropped a Wells Fargo box of gold bullion into a mine shaft or a vertical cave. It states the bottom was full of quicksand and the robbers never recovered the loot. This is about as identical to my site as any I have discovered. The problem is how to get the sand and rock out to recover the strong box and possibly go deep enough to find the side shaft to this mine.
If the mine is as old as I believe, it was probably dug prior to 1680 and hidden by the Indians during the rebellion. I know of no one who has found this shaft and if they have, didn't go down to investigate it. There are some old stories floating around about people years ago looking for Spanish mines in this area and never returning. These stories refer to the mine of 'No Return". I could easily see how someone could be careless and slip off of the edge and into this mine if they were trying to see the bottom and were not tied off. This could be the mine, and there could be bodies in this shaft. No one will know until it is cleaned out.
The problem with getting this mine cleaned out are the following: It is in a Wilderness area; there is no power anywhere close; it would be impossible to haul in heavy equipment that far from the road unless a helicopter was used and it was broken down small enough to pack in by horse; and then you have people to contend with that might accidentally come onto the operation.
I have thought about a lot of ways to do the job, but not by myself. To risky, and I don't want to be unaccounted for like the stories of others who never returned. I could see putting in a rope and wheel, and cranking it all up by bucket, but that would be a two man operation or more. I like the idea of using a vacuum and sucking it up like sand off a river bed, but that would be noisy and I don't know where I would find a vacuum strong enough to lift sand that high (possibly a 100 feet).
I would like to take on a partner, but who can you trust? Especially if it is someone who you never heard of before or know their reputation. As most of you know a lot of people are really decent until they get around money, and for some reason the whig out and do all sorts of crazy things. I haven't figured out what to do yet, maybe I will just leave the story and location to my kids or grand kids.
I took lots of pictures of this operation, the hole and the bottom. Someday I may put them on this site for people to review. My wife thinks I should sell the site to someone and let them work out a method of getting to the bottom of this story. Her problem is that she thinks I'm getting old, and I keep telling her that I'm not. I doubt that I will ever win that argument.
So, if anyone has any good ideas on how to clean out this shaft I think this would be a good place to air your views. I don't have a problem in splitting what could be at the bottom of this shaft, since a little bit of something is a lot better than a whole lot of nothing, but it needs to be rather simplistic for this guy to do it. If you are down right determined to do it yourself I'll give you the site for 1500 silver eagles or 20 of those new Buffalo gold pieces the treasury is selling. So take your time, be creative, and think about how you would do this as a one person operation or get your friends involved and enjoy an adventure!
Ecominer
8)
