Lost mine of Sycamore Creek

Strebs

Jr. Member
May 16, 2014
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127
New Mexico
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Has anyone ever looked into this legend? I've seen two different versions of it.
In Apache gold and Yaqui Silver, By Frank Dobie talked about the "Lost boy mine" that shares many similarities. Orphan boy leaves to silver city through the wilderness, finds a waterfall and golden ledge behind the water. a man of "burbank" in silver city befriends the boy and has the ore assayed for 150,000 per ton. The kid writes to his uncle and then goes missing, the uncle meets Captain Cooney 1892 then Cooney picks up the trail finds an abandoned camp but no trail.

Here is the the Turner version of the story.

"Known only as Turner, the prospector discovered a fabulously rich mine somewhere near Sycamore Creek in the Mogollon Mountains. Turner's strike took place in 1883. Later that same year he mysteriously disappeared into the mountains, never to be seen again. At least alive. In 1889, his skeleton was found in Sycamore Canyon.
Michael Cooney became interested in Turner's lost mine during the 1890's. He thought enough of the story to make numerous trips into the mountains in search of the lost mine. In 1914, Cooney made his last attempt to find the mine. He never came back from that trip. The following year, Cooney's body was discovered in Sycamore Canyon." From: The Lost Mine of Sycamore Creek
 

Tiredman

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Oct 15, 2016
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I find several stories sound much like each other with the work I am doing in Montana. Even articles of the same story done years apart have changes in them. Keep going and chances are you will find a clue or two never pieced together.
 

sdcfia

Silver Member
Sep 28, 2014
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Has anyone ever looked into this legend? I've seen two different versions of it.
In Apache gold and Yaqui Silver, By Frank Dobie talked about the "Lost boy mine" that shares many similarities. Orphan boy leaves to silver city through the wilderness, finds a waterfall and golden ledge behind the water. a man of "burbank" in silver city befriends the boy and has the ore assayed for 150,000 per ton. The kid writes to his uncle and then goes missing, the uncle meets Captain Cooney 1892 then Cooney picks up the trail finds an abandoned camp but no trail.

Here is the the Turner version of the story.

"Known only as Turner, the prospector discovered a fabulously rich mine somewhere near Sycamore Creek in the Mogollon Mountains. Turner's strike took place in 1883. Later that same year he mysteriously disappeared into the mountains, never to be seen again. At least alive. In 1889, his skeleton was found in Sycamore Canyon.
Michael Cooney became interested in Turner's lost mine during the 1890's. He thought enough of the story to make numerous trips into the mountains in search of the lost mine. In 1914, Cooney made his last attempt to find the mine. He never came back from that trip. The following year, Cooney's body was discovered in Sycamore Canyon." From: The Lost Mine of Sycamore Creek

See if you can find a reasonably priced copy of Wilderness of the Gila, by Elizabeth McFarland, which contains a good number of stories concerning this topic. The stories are from interviews with Jack Stockbridge, an old prospector from back in the day. Also, if you feel like doing more digging, the Silver City library has transcripts of additional Stockbridge interviews available.
 

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Strebs

Jr. Member
May 16, 2014
88
127
New Mexico
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Wilderness of the Gila was a great read, silver city library was extremely helpful thank you for the advice. My research has led to some interesting facts. Its always hard searching for something so long forgotten. Most of the miners and geologists of the time period think that gold is not plausible in this section of the mountains. Anyone who seen the mogollons know how rugged they truely are. Hopefully can get some time off this summer n see what i can find
 

sdcfia

Silver Member
Sep 28, 2014
3,650
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Wilderness of the Gila was a great read, silver city library was extremely helpful thank you for the advice. My research has led to some interesting facts. Its always hard searching for something so long forgotten. Most of the miners and geologists of the time period think that gold is not plausible in this section of the mountains. Anyone who seen the mogollons know how rugged they truely are. Hopefully can get some time off this summer n see what i can find

Good luck, Strebs. It's awesome country. Turkey Creek is fairly well traveled, but most of those canyons see very few humans.
 

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