HIGH JACKED MULE TRAIN TO DENVER MINT.

COMPAQKID

Newbie
Oct 18, 2006
3
0
AZ
The High jacked Mule Train, From Gold Mine to Denver Mint.

Around the 1890's three young men came out west to New Mexico to make a new life. However after a while they weren't to lucky at finding a job, so they started small time high jacking and robbing stage coaches. In their idle time they tossed gold coins into the spring at their camp.

One day they heard of a mule train loaded with gold bars headed to the Denver mint. They decided their odds were pretty good to take the guards by surprise. They ambushed the group and in fact did kill all the guards and also lost one of their own and one was wounded. The two then took the mule train back to their camp and unloaded the gold bars into an old prospectors dig at their camp. They took the mules several miles away and shot them.

Now the wounded one died and the lone survivor buried him at the camp. He became scared of the idea of being alone and likely the object of a manhunt for him, so he took off and went back east, where he settled down, married and had at least one son.

Never having told anyone of his exploits he finally broke the silence on his death bed and told his son the story.

In the mid 1950's the son came out to New Mexico and hired a pilot to fly him over the area his father told him about. It was early spring and there was still snow on the ground. The son must have decided give up the idea of finding his father's old camp and went back home.

Now the pilot, having heard this story, didn't forget about it and he and my dad drove several times to the area and confirmed several points of the story. My dad also told an old friend of this and the friend told when he had worked with the CCC crews in the '40's and while improving the springs in that area, had found a spring with old gold coins in it.

However after about 60 years the snow melt can wash a lot of soil down and, while the area has been found, it will likely take a deep penetrating metal detector to locate the gold bars. I spent several weeks at the site the summer of 1961 and we found clues that this was the site, but lacked the equipment to complete any deep searches. We had dug one hole 17' deep at one point and there was not a single rock in the dirt. Also at that depth found chunks of horse manure. Later we started a trench about 6' deep from the hole and ran into a lot of rocks from fist size to 3' dia. This area of the hole fits the description of the location in the story.

I have been there several times with metal detectors, but I think it is too deep to detect.

About the only thing to use now is GPR (Ground penetrating radar.)
I'm trying to find a grubstake to finance this.
Any ideas would be helpful.

I can be reached at e-mail [email protected] for more information. edited 01/13/2015.
 

Last edited:

tinpan

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Sep 4, 2004
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Hi every intersting story and good luck with your hunt.Any chance you could post a link or give me some recorded history of the Mule Train Hijack and i not sure what the laws are about using drilling equipment in national parks is
there


tinpan "happy hunting"
 

MiddenMonster

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Dec 29, 2004
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COMPAQKID said:
Around the 1890's three young men came out west to New Mexico to make a new life. However after a while they weren't to lucky at finding a job, so they started small time high jacking and robbing stage coaches. In their idle time they tossed gold coins into the spring at their camp.

Well, now we know why they had trouble finding a job: They were dimwits. What kind of moron risks life and freedom by robbing people, then tosses the spoils of the effort into a stream out of boredom? If they wanted to be irresponsible with their wealth, they could have taken it to another city and spent it on booze, whores and gambling. If someone is set on being stupid, they should at least have as much fun as they can while doing so. And that brings us to Middenmonster Axiom #3: If you are going to break the law, commit a crime big enough so that you are still filthy rich when you get out of prison.
 

bakergeol

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Feb 4, 2004
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Being legal
You might consider filing a mining claim (20acres) over the area(Check at the BLM office- there may already be a claim over the area). Filing a Plan of Operations would be required for digging exploration holes. Using a metal detector over national forest lands is legal when prospecting(for gold nuggets).

George
 

cptbil

Bronze Member
Mar 27, 2003
1,402
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Az/NM/Ca/Nv/Tx
I've got a portable core drill !
Capable of going down 200+ feet !
I have years of TH'ing
I have unlimited time !
I have all necessary equipment
 

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ColoradoMike

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Apr 4, 2004
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George, not wanting to split hairs but Filing a mining claim will not make it legal. Mining claims only pertain to mineral or a mineable substance. Any treasure would be owned by the state or feds.
You could file the claim for a cover but that is about it. You can apply for a exploration permit under that venue but they may want to come out & inspect the area before you are permitted. We had to have an archlogical survey done once before they would issue an exploration permit. That was in NM too.

Good Luck Guys


bakergeol said:
Being legal
You might consider filing a mining claim (20acres) over the area(Check at the BLM office- there may already be a claim over the area). Filing a Plan of Operations would be required for digging exploration holes. Using a metal detector over national forest lands is legal when prospecting(for gold nuggets).

George
 

T

TreasureTales

Guest
Please do not assume that I am trying to be a wet blanket. I'm just trying to be practical. This is a great story and I hope it is true, but some questions need to be asked.

Are there newspaper articles that cooberate this story? If they robbed several stages it seems likely someone would have written about it at the time, and that there would be territorial records to show that law enforcement was involved. Remember, NM didn't become a state until 1912, so the area would have been a territory and any research should be pursued with that in mind. (In other words, the state archives may not contain anything about these robberies, but the national archives might.)

Is the timeframe accurate? According to some info on the Denver Mint, it wasn't set up for minting coins until 1904. Prior to that (from 1863 to about 1902) it was only capable of doing assay work. So the gold bars may have been on their way to be assayed rather than minted into coins. OR the timeframe is somewhat off, maybe the robbery occured early in the 20th century rather than late in the 19th. So then a researcher would try to determine just when gold mining was in its heyday in NM...19th century or 20th century?

Why wouldn't this robber take one or more of the gold bars with him when he went back East? It just doesn't make sense, but as MiddenMonster said, neither does tossing gold coins into a spring. This part of the story really sounds implausible. Who was this guy? Try to find his name on a census record somewhere and try to then trace him to NM.

Cptbil sounds ready, willing, and able...

Good luck and please update often!!!
 

cptbil

Bronze Member
Mar 27, 2003
1,402
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Az/NM/Ca/Nv/Tx
Treasure Tales:
Believe me!
You are absolutely "RIGHT" when you say, that
"Questions Need to be ASKED!"

Not only of/in this story,
But! Of ANY story!
Anyone who just jumps up and takes off w/o doing so, is going to be doing a lot
of walking and getting no where !
I know of a treasure story that was made up by a famous author....
Who later admitted the farce!
He had people running all over the place !l
Looking for something that NEVER WAS!
That would be the Treasure Story of "Caretta Canyon" (Don't depend on that spelling, I know it's wrong ?)
In Southern Arizona!
It Never was !
There is also another False story out there !
There'd be INSTANT name recognition
This one, by a different person, but, he WAS*! BIG! BIG! in TH'ing !

It has a lot of people, who swear that the story is real!
I know for a fact that it is not !
But!
If I were to reveal what I know, I'd be "run out of town" !
SO!
Let them chase "dust devils" 8) if they like!
All they would have to do is, as you said,
Need to ask a few (detailed) questions! ;D
I can cite a couple of more examples ....
But!
??? I guess that you can get the idea from these ??? ::)

* He died a couple of years back!
 

T

TreasureTales

Guest
Cptbil it's funny that you should mention the hoaxes that have been perpetrated by a couple men who have BIG REPUTATIONS in the world of treasure hunting. I just finished reading about one of those hoaxes, very interesting and enlightening. Yep, gotta do the research before jumping into anything with both feet.
 

bakergeol

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Feb 4, 2004
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ColoradoMike said:
George, not wanting to split hairs but Filing a mining claim will not make it legal. Mining claims only pertain to mineral or a mineable substance. Any treasure would be owned by the state or feds.
You could file the claim for a cover but that is about it. You can apply for a exploration permit under that venue but they may want to come out & inspect the area before you are permitted. We had to have an archlogical survey done once before they would issue an exploration permit. That was in NM too.

Good Luck Guys


bakergeol said:
Being legal
You might consider filing a mining claim (20acres) over the area(Check at the BLM office- there may already be a claim over the area). Filing a Plan of Operations would be required for digging exploration holes. Using a metal detector over national forest lands is legal when prospecting(for gold nuggets).

George

Hi Mike
As in golf there are a lot of Gimmes here. I assume everyone knows that it is illegal to detect for relics or artifacts on Federal lands. I also assume everyone knows that using a placer mining operation as a cover to extract a mult-million dollar cache without the Feds knowledge would be illegal too.

Beeping for gold nuggets on Federal lands which are still open for mining is quite legal. Beeping for gold is what you had better tell that Federal employee if you are found detecting on these lands. However, you will never stumble upon this cache while detecting for nuggets because the guy who owns the placer claim over this property will not permit you beeping over his claim. He has the legal right to beep over his claim- YOU do not. After all you are engaged in prospecting only and not treasure hunting. Detecting on someone elses mining claim in the outback without their permission may end up ruining your whole day.

I imagine this is moot issue because Colorado is full of treasure legends which are enjoyable reading but always questionable?

Who knows- living in Colorado perhaps our paths will cross someday.
Happy Hunting.
George
 

ColoradoMike

Full Member
Apr 4, 2004
115
1
Colorado
Your right on.
With our gear we can shoot it from a distance & we could go on that Placer claim & survey it with the Pulse Induction or EM-83 etc. then file a Lode Claim.
By the way if you can file both you look more like a legit operation. But to be honest most of the time BLM & the like won't pay any attention to you unless you are doing something stupid like bring in a big rig or blast. If you want to drill then just get an exploration permit first & they won't bother most of the time. Fill your holes when your done too.

Good luck guys.



bakergeol said:
ColoradoMike said:
George, not wanting to split hairs but Filing a mining claim will not make it legal. Mining claims only pertain to mineral or a mineable substance. Any treasure would be owned by the state or feds.
You could file the claim for a cover but that is about it. You can apply for a exploration permit under that venue but they may want to come out & inspect the area before you are permitted. We had to have an archlogical survey done once before they would issue an exploration permit. That was in NM too.

Good Luck Guys


bakergeol said:
Being legal
You might consider filing a mining claim (20acres) over the area(Check at the BLM office- there may already be a claim over the area). Filing a Plan of Operations would be required for digging exploration holes. Using a metal detector over national forest lands is legal when prospecting(for gold nuggets).

George

Hi Mike
As in golf there are a lot of Gimmes here. I assume everyone knows that it is illegal to detect for relics or artifacts on Federal lands. I also assume everyone knows that using a placer mining operation as a cover to extract a mult-million dollar cache without the Feds knowledge would be illegal too.

Beeping for gold nuggets on Federal lands which are still open for mining is quite legal. Beeping for gold is what you had better tell that Federal employee if you are found detecting on these lands. However, you will never stumble upon this cache while detecting for nuggets because the guy who owns the placer claim over this property will not permit you beeping over his claim. He has the legal right to beep over his claim- YOU do not. After all you are engaged in prospecting only and not treasure hunting.

Who knows- living in Colorado perhaps our paths will cross someday.
Happy Hunting.
George
 

Old Fart in TN

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Nov 27, 2005
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the story about the mule train sounds familiar, but looked through my files for NM and didn't find anything. If I can locate the story or one similar to it I will post it here. Jeff
 

Old Dog

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May 22, 2007
5,860
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Western Colorado
COOL ...a new Colorado story

But the only story I can find that even comes close is the mule train from the Denver Mint carying a load of Dimes that was hijacked by Gunnison. Some of the dimes were recovered but the bulk of the shipment is still out there.

Old Dog
 

old marine

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May 10, 2011
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Danny Idont mean any offence but why you bring up all these old post . You cant be reading all of them with only 1 or 2 minets between post
 

Old Dog

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May 22, 2007
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The shipment was lost between Delta and Montrose Colorado on the rim of the Black Canyon.

Note
the area is a National Park and conventional methods of hunting are strictly forbidden.
 

Connecticut Sam

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Sep 28, 2007
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I am interesting in updates like most people, who want to know if the treasure in the first comment was found.
 

old marine

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If the treasure was found your not going to hear about it 2 to 6 years later or ever if it is a large treasure
 

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