Why so few threads in the Colorado section?

[UncleMatt]

I am fairly new to this site, but was dumbfounded when I saw how few legends are posted in the Colorado section. C'mon guys, Colorado has hundreds of such legends. Now I have lived in CO most of my life, and understand the mindset of people who look for gold in the Rockies. But still wondering why so many treasure tales are missing from this section that are very famous. I guess I will have to start posting some...

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Cry Of The Eagle: History And Legends Of The Cherokee Indians And Their Buried Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[BuffaloBob]

I am fairly new to this site, but was dumbfounded when I saw how few legends are posted in the Colorado section. C'mon guys, Colorado has hundreds of such legends. Now I have lived in CO most of my life, and understand the mindset of people who look for gold in the Rockies. But still wondering why so many treasure tales are missing from this section that are very famous. I guess I will have to start posting some...

Hey UncleMatt, good question. I will see what I have buried away in my "someday" list.
BB

 

[UncleMatt]

Here is a good tale, found in Golden Treasure of the San Juans by Temple Cornelius: The Cache of Gold on Falls Creek.
The general story is in 1903 a cook on his way down to Durango from the Neglected Mine found a high grade cache. He moved it to a new location not far away, but was never able to locate it again. It supposedly comprises around 700 pounds of high grade ore and nuggets.

I recently visited this site, and spent a whole day scrambling around the Falls Creek watershed in the area described in the book. It was exactly as described, but the terrain was difficult to say the least! I didn't lay foot on a single piece of ground on the downslope that wasn't 45 degrees or steeper! Dense vegetation, fallen trees, and high temperatures made for an exhausting day. Even so, I was able to define an exact area of the watershed where the landmarks mentioned in the book can be seen. My next visit I plan to use a rope tied high up in a tree on the top of the slope to give me more to hang onto than shallow rooted weeds and branches that are dry and easily broken off. Then I will just move back and forth below my tie off point while doing the best I can to get my metal detector near the ground. I use a smartphone app to track my exact search paths so I don't miss anything. If there is any truth to this tale, a good metal detector should have little problem detecting such a a huge mass of gold that is buried under only leaf mold (probably more than that now after so many years).

Some problems I have with this tale after visiting the site:

1) I could not see any "shelfs" on the watershed at all as described in the tale. There were also no "stands of spruce", but there were several lone spruce trees that could be as old as from 1903. The only "shelf" is the top out near the top of the slope, but I wouldn't really call that a shelf unless I was speaking in HUGE terms. And how many trees does it take to comprise a "stand" of spruce?

2) I had great difficulty moving around the slope with just a light backpack on with almost no load. I tried to imagine what a cook would have gone through to move 12 sacks of ore weighing around 60 to 80 pounds each, 300 yards across such a slope. I guess you would certainly be motivated, but supposedly he was able to walk from the mine to this area (several miles), then move the gold, and then walk down to the Animas valley and into Durango, all in one day in October. The days are already getting short by then, so daylight would have been much shorter than in summer. This site is 16.5 miles from Main Street in Durango where 25th Street meets Main, so it is not a short distance. Especially since he supposedly got off the main trail on his way down to avoid meeting anyone whose gold he had just taken. All this sounds a little off, though I guess it is possible if you have adrenaline from finding such a hoard running in your blood all day.

Constructive thoughts or comments?

 

[UncleMatt]

Also wanted to add, I found a grave of some kind at the top out of this slope right near frequently used campsites. The small headstone had a crescent moon etched into the stone. I seem to recall seeing something about this site and grave somewhere on line when someone else came across it as well, but can't recall. Does this ring a bell with anyone?

 

[UncleMatt]

Here is the grave I found at the top of Falls Creek Watershed.

 

[UncleMatt]

Here is the view down the watershed in the clearest part of the slope. Its much worse than this over most of the watershed, I just wanted to show how steep it was. This section was about 50 degrees...

 

[UncleMatt]

Something important to the location of this cache is in this photo. Care to guess what it is?

 

[UncleMatt]

Worst kind of rough on the slope. 3 foot high dense vegetation on top of fallen logs and rotting timbers on a 45 degree slope. Could 12 sacks of ore weighing a total of over 700 pounds be moved 300 yards through this kind of terrain in a small amount of time by a mining camp cook?

 

[UncleMatt]

I have another concern as well. Temple's book came out in early 60's. It was re-printed in the Durango Herald as well. So it has gotten some exposure in the past. If someone had gone up there and found it, and had chosen not to share that information with the world, how would anyone know if it is still there to find? Of course, this applies to just about any treasure.

 

[BuffaloBob]

Worst kind of rough on the slope. 3 foot high dense vegetation on top of fallen logs and rotting timbers on a 45 degree slope. Could 12 sacks of ore weighing a total of over 700 pounds be moved 300 yards through this kind of terrain in a small amount of time by a mining camp cook? [/QUOTE

They were a tough breed. Many, many mining areas were denuded of all trees to make mine timbers. And what they didn't use for that was made into charcoal and campfires. You are talking about tens of thousands of miners all over the state.

Add to that forest fires as well as timber farming, not much looks the same as it did 100 years ago. Except for tailings.

The slopes are about what they used to be. Climbing and carrying stuff was the way it was. If a guy could shoulder 100 pounds he would. Sometimes they had to. They were hired hands after all and did whatever they were told. And 700 pounds in 12 loads is not that much. About 60 ponds per load? Heck I have carryied more detecting & prospecting stuff heavier than that.

And I really don't understand what is in you pic other than tailings. Give us a hint??

If I were really, really serious about detecting the slopes, I would rig a rope sling from the treeline above and swing a detector on the way down. Pull yourself up and move to another spot. Good hunting! I think you are on to something here.
BB

 

[UncleMatt]

Yea, it did cross my mind that I might just be out of shape AND not acclimated properly to being over 10,000 feet in elevation ( I came up from 6500 feet). And I agree that people back then came up harder and were tougher in general.

But not sure how a effective a detector would be slung from trees down the slope as you suggested. With all the brush and logs, you can't get a coil close enough to the ground that way. You have to insert it into any opening you can find and do the best you can on the ground. If that 700 pounds of ore is close to the surface still, I would think my Infinium would signal so loud it would lift the headphones off my head! I am planning on using ropes from trees to keep myself anchored while scanning, but not to sling a detector over the slope.

I won't be able to make it back up there until next year, and in the meantime I am building a large flying wing drone to help me scan high mountain areas like this one.

 

[UncleMatt]

Oh, and there were no tailings in the photo of any importance. What you can see is a cliff in the background with a rockslide coming down off of it. Back in 1903, there was no big rock slide, but you could still see the cliff above it, and THAT is one of the landmarks the cook had in sight from his cache location. And further, the big "V" that you see is created by watershed ridges in the foreground on either side of the cliff/rockslide limits where this cliff can be seen from on the watershed slope...

 

[BuffaloBob]

I am fairly new to this site, but was dumbfounded when I saw how few legends are posted in the Colorado section. C'mon guys, Colorado has hundreds of such legends. Now I have lived in CO most of my life, and understand the mindset of people who look for gold in the Rockies. But still wondering why so many treasure tales are missing from this section that are very famous. I guess I will have to start posting some...

Matt there is just not enough activity on the Colorado site IMHO.
Possibly our T-Netters aren't aware of this sub-site and/or check it out and find posts years old.

There are plenty of Colorado related posts on the main T-Net forums. So we could duplicate what's on other forums (seems silly) or post a thread link on the Colo forum to interesting threads on the main forums? Even that sounds like a PITA. What do you think?
BB

 

[BuffaloBob]

Matt I just did a global search on T-Net for the word Colorado in the post title. Got 315 hits and seven pages. I would recommend utilizing the Global search function. I think you need to be Charter Member to get that but why not. We get a lot of good info here!
BB

 

[lastleg]

Hi Uncle Matt & Bob:

It's been 113 years since this highgrade was moved and hidden so I doubt if anyone could find it even based on the clues. I know how the
landscape can change in Colorado. Temple's stories would make good movies. They have suspense, danger and are believable. I'm curious
about the Neglected Mine, whether it was as rich in sylvanite as portrayed. Any mine records available? Not that I will ever search for it.
I just don't have the lungs for it anymore.

The highgrade part is dear to my heart. I found a small cache of highgrade gold years ago and was always on the lookout for brass cans
afterwards.

 

[lastleg]

Sorry for the poor format, sometimes they edit, sometimes not.

 

[RGINN]

Just saw this year old post, and good job guys. I can't contribute much interesting, but will follow it.