SPANISH GOLD IN COLORADO MINE SHAFT

[gldhntr]

In the 1580s, Spanish soldier and explorer Juan de Onate established a small settlement in Northern New Mexico hoping to learn more about the region and find gold. Legend has it that Onate’s men found the treasure that eluded so many conquistadors. In the present day San Juan Mountains of Southern Colorado, they found enough gold to make themselves rich men; enough to fund Spain’s European wars; enough to tantalize treasure hunters for centuries.

De Onate's Gold
As is the case with all good stories of Spanish gold, Onate and his men were not able to recover the gold. The local natives disliked the way the Spaniards invaded their territory and attacked, driving the interlopers away. The outnumbered Spanish made careful notes on the location of their find and returned to Spain with the intention of raising a larger force and mining the San Juans. They never did, and the rich mine was forgotten for nearly two hundred years.

A French Expedition to Pagosa Peak
In 1765 a French scholar studying in Spain stumbled across the notes from the Onate expedition. He was so taken by the idea of unearthing the lost mine that he raised money to travel to the American West with a party large enough to properly exploit his discovery. According to W.C. Jameson’s Colorado Treasure Tales, the French miners found the mine and went to work. Using equipment and mules purchased in New Orleans, they excavated nine shafts near Pagosa Peak and accumulated gold that some say would be worth one hundred million dollars today.

Again, the miners were foiled in their quest for treasure. Spain still claimed the region and wanted to expel the French. They were too weak to do it themselves but they were able to convince the Indians (probably Utes) that it was in their best interest to force the French out of the mountains. The French tried to hold out, but they ran low on food, ammunition, and supplies. They hid the gold in the bottom of a deep mine shaft, filled the mouth of the mine with rocks and dirt, and scratched some marks in nearby rocks and trees so they could find it when they returned. Of course, they never did.

Vern Cato's Story
At this point, the story becomes a part of Colorado myth. A man named Vern Cato collected the stories and passed his knowledge on to the Fort Collins, Colorado archive. Cato said that when he was a boy, around 1909, a descendant of one of the French miners returned to the San Juan Range to find the lost treasure. He hid when anyone approached him, earning the nickname “La Sombra,” The Shadow.

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La Sombra failed to find it, but in 1919, two young boys did. While looking for a friend, Fermin Martinez and Santiago Lopez came across a deep hole on the west side of Pagosa Peak. They enlarged the opening and Lopez crawled in to explore. He found enough ore, in his estimation, to load twenty burros. Lopez also found a small furnace and a stack of bricks. Presumably the boys found the place where the French once melted gold out of its ore and into solid gold bricks.

The boys put some of the ore in their pockets and brought it to the nearest town, Pagosa Springs. There, they were told the ore contained gold. They planned to return to the place but apparently never did. The boys’ story was often retold in Pagosa Springs. In 1926, young Vern Cato came to town leading a camping expedition. He heard the story and believed he knew the place the boys found. In his words though “There was also a blonde in camp that was a cousin of my friend and I couldn’t be bothered with buried treasure.”

Again, the treasure was lost. This time it was not lost through Indian attack, but by a young man’s libido. In 1976, when Cato told his story to the archive, he thought the treasure was still there to be had by “a young healthy specimen” willing to search the area west of Pagosa Peak and carry out a fortune in gold. Maybe it still is.

[Tonto]

Thanks for sharing this, gldhntr! I truly enjoyed it...

[Curtis]

Would love to check these stories out! I have a device (new technology) that can locate silver or gold from a good distance..a person could mark the area of in a 1/2 mile grid and work it methodically and would probably find something.

[lastleg]

This is one of those yarns that is only good for one thing, tourism.

[tapoutking]

My parents live near there and I visit every July/August. Never heard this story but will ask around.