ERNIE PROVENCE

[cactusjumper]

All,

I just got off the phone with a voice from my past. When I got home, Carolyn told me that Ernie had called earlier and left his #. I callled him and we talked for quite awhile. He seemed in good spirits and sounded strong, although he has had some heart problems.

We will talk again soon, and I will pass along anything Ernie says is OK. I will give some of Ernie's history with my family as well.

My thanks to Buscar.......

Take care,

Joe

 

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[cactusjumper]

Guys,

It was a great pleasure for me to talk to Ernie. Memories of my days with Uncle Chuck and Ernie came flooding back. The last time I saw Ernie was around thirty-years ago, when he looked us up at the Italian restaurant we built up in Ramona, CA.

I don't really remember the details of Ernie talking about the cave of gold bars, just that it happened a number of times. I will ask him to tell me what he remembers and get it written down this time. He was also on the search for Bob Brady's cave of gold bars over by Weaver's Needle. Brady said on Bluff Spring Mt., but I am wondering about that these days.

Ernie also had a personal run in with the Black Legion. Interesting story as I remember it.

He said he wants to come down to AJ this winter, so I will do my best to get him out to the Rendezvous. Trust me when I say, that should be a treat for everyone there. He is one of the best story tellers of all time, at least he used to be.

This could turn out to be one of the best Rendezvous' ever. Thomas Glover has told me he will try and make it out this year. If someone could talk Clay Worst into coming back, it would be a barn burner. I am starting to get excited about this years event.

Ernie is trying to get back online, and will likely sign up on Ron Feldman's LDM Forum.
I am not sure if he's aware of TNet, but he says he has been following me on the Internet.

Take care,

Joe

 

[mrs.oroblanco]

Joe,

Just caught this post - that's great news - its always nice to hook up with someone from your past - God knows, as we get older, less and less of them are around.

I hope to see him on the LDM forum, and it would be great if he attended the rendezvous - maybe I can get a little more "buzz" on you, eh?

Beth

 

[cactusjumper]

Hi Beth,

Ernie was an interesting guy, for sure. There are still some folks around who remember him, like Tom Kollenborn, Rick Gwynn and a few others. I think he knew more stories, that weren't in print, than just about anyone.

Ernie was my uncle's partner for many years. They started out from Corning, CA where we all lived for awhile. Ernie was with Chuck and around five other guys on his first exploration of Black Top Mesa. Chuck had worked out the location of the LDM using Storm's information, drawings of Black Top and the hieroglyphics on top of the mountain. It was, basically, a math problem for him.

They started out from the spot that the Cactus Marker used to be, shown to Chuck by Al Morrow, and worked hand over hand towards the hieroglyphics. Chuck had rented a pretty good metal detector, and they started using that as they neared the location he had picked out.

Manual Salado, a butcher from Corning, (Have Knife Will Travel) was working ahead on the line, and said "This is the spot, no need to look farther". They went over it with the detector and it pegged it. They cleared away the rubble and detected that......nothing. Back to the spot, pegged again. They thought the surface was caleche cement.

They went home to Corning, stopping along the way to return the detector. The people at the shop told them, from the readings they had marked down, that they had something the size of a car body about six feet down. I have my doubts that a hand held detector could provide that kind of information in those days, but they were thoroughly convinced.

Over the next number of years they returned with dynamite and a gas powered drill and tried to reach whatever was down there. The rock seemed to absorb the shock of the dynamite and they were getting nowhere fast. Eventually they just walked away from the spot. Chuck finally explained why to me.....many years later.

On one of those trips in we drilled and set off around 3/4 of a case of dynamite. We placed the fuse and lit it, ran back to camp and waited for the big bang.........nothing! Eventually it was decided we would have to go back and see what was wrong. Ernie and I took that little walk and found that the fuse had burned out. We lit it again and ran like hell for camp. It was quite a bang when it went off. Did little damage to the hole.

Chuck and Ernie moved down to A.J. and lived there for many years. They shared many adventures in the Superstitions and Arizona. Some of them I have related here.

Take care,

Joe

 

[BenThereDoneThat]

Good Story....thanks
Tim

 

[cactusjumper]

Tim,

I posted this on the LDM Forum last year:
___________________________________



Joe Ribaudo Post subject: Re: Barry StormPosted: Wed May 26, 2010 10:02 pm


Expert

Joined: Tue Sep 17, 2002 10:36 pm
Posts: 4935 Wayne,

Here is part of the story, which I posted back in 2004:
__________________________________________


In March of 1966 I was wishing I was with my Uncle Chuck, and making the trip into the Superstitions as one of what would have been called the "seven guns" on Black Top Mountain by Glenn Magill. Uncle Sam just did not see it my way.

On March 28. 1966 Chuck wrote the following letter:

"Dear Joe,
Well I recieved your letter and was very glad to hear you are all right.
Yes we came back from Arizona, but are leaving to go back the 1st. of April.
The area has change to such an extent you wouldn't recognize it.
Upon ariving at Apache Junct. we continued our way to First Water Ranch
then straight east across West Boulder & East Boulder Canyon, until we came to Needle Canyon, than north for 3/8 mile.
We Camped under some real nice trees with running water 30 yds. away.
There is a cave to the left of our camp site and actual proof that Jacob Weiser & the dutchman were camped there, because we found square nails in the wall.
Well, the next morning we started looking for the elusive gold.
We went south towards Weavers Needle to a spot that would match where the cactus would be, but we couldn't find it. But on the way to this cactus we found a Spanish muleshoe. At this point I was pretty excited & not thinking to straight.

The next morning I & Dr. Phillips made our way up Black Top Mtn. to where the (petroglyphs) Spanish signs were. Well, they were there so I aligned myself to look S/East to the natural stone face marker & there she was.
Well, I told Tom that what we were looking for lay on that line to the stone face marker. But we had to have an idea of where the cactus with the stones would intersect this line.
In the meantime Manual (That would be Manual Salado) had made his way towards us, from way down canyon and just by fluke luck was on the same line that we were on.
Well, anyway he spoted this ridge & made for it, while we were coming down. So he says, hell! don't look anymore I found it. Tom checked it with the detectron and it went ape shit. But I still wanted to find that Cactus Marker, so I stood at the point where the reading was so high & calibrated my compass to find due east and it aligned up to a crevace on Bluff Springs Mtn.
Any how, we started moving rock away and ran smack into Caliche Cement, with no means of breaking through.
I dropped down about 4 feet to come up underneath it, and found a mule shoe carved into the rock. Manual had the torn shoe on his belt so I asked him for it, and layed it down on top of the carving, well it fit to a tee pointing directly to the opening we had made.

After this we left for home, and returned a week later with, what we thought would get in. But to no avail we were stoped. Well with nothing to do & time runing short, I decided to find that Cactus Marker. We went down to a fellow named Al Morrow who has been in there 12 years, digging in a hole, so I asked him. He was real nice & took me to where it used to be, it had been destroyed & in it's place was a rock with carved out circle & 4 lines. Well I layed my compass down and checked the alignment, it was perfect. The west line ran right through where we were working, so I knew that my figures were correct.
Now were going again but with dynamite & drills to pop it open.
Joe we checked the dirt away from the spot, along with the rocks & could get no reading, then we walked up to the spot & the needle went completely off scale on the low intensity scale.
Fisher Laboratories from Palo Alto checked everything we did & how we used the equipment, his finding's were that there was something very big underneath aprox. 6 feet down the size of a car body!!!!
So there you have it.
I checked my compass near the point in question to find if it was iron or possibly a meteorite. These would effect my compass.
Manual says he found it!
Well, I don't know. Maybe he did, but I do know he would never have known where to start or that it even existed. He says it isn't rough & he could find his way from any direction with no provlems. !Quen Sabe!

Well Joe it's time for me to go, so I will close wishing you the best."
_____________________________________________________

That's pretty close to what he wrote with only a few lines missing, which have no bearing on the content.

That was Chuck's first meeting with Al Morrow, and they became close friends. Al told Chuck "never go into my claim when it's raining, it's to dangerous". Makes you wonder why Al was in there. Quien Sabe?
_______________________________________________________

Even though I have Chucks drawing of how he figured out where he wanted to go from the Cactus Marker, I could never explain it to anyone. My uncle dropped out of grade school and went to work. Later on in his life, he got interested in math and self taught himself out of books. He was very good at it........all the way to advance trigonometry. Chuck was not your usual drop-out.

Hope you found the letter interesting.

Take care,

Joe
__________________________________

That's a little more accurate.

Take care,

Joe

 

[mrs.oroblanco]

Joe,

I do remember you mentioning the name - I just don't remember if it was in person, on the LDM forum or where.

I think its going to be a good Renezvous.


Beth