I wanted to start a reasonable, logical discussion about this place.
Does anyone have any information on this mine? I'm lead to believe it's on the NW shoulder of Mount Adams, near the headwaters of the Lewis River. That would place it in the vicinity of the Pacific Crest Trail where it passes by Adams.
Was this a lost mine, worked by a Spaniard?
Was this a mine, located by accident by a lost Spaniard?
Was this mine found by a Spanish explorer, working in Washington State - like back in the 1700s?
Or, was this a mine found by a Spanish guy in the mid 1800s or early 20th century.
I believe answering these questions will better determine the level of legitimacy for this legend.
The documentation of this story is weak. Ruby El Hult has a retelling of this story in her book, "Lost Mines and Treasures of the Pacific Northwest." We don't know if the mine was a hard rock, placer, or a pocket.
According to the story, the miner whose name is unknown would travel down the Klickitat Valley on his way to the Dalles. He would cash in his gold at the French & Company Bank. The dates for this story are uncertain but thought to be sometime in the 1880s. It is possible that the mine was actually an Indian mine, located on the Yakima Reservation. The miner disappeared and it is unknown what happened to him. Skeletons of a man and pack animals were found East of Spirit Lake. It could have been what happened to the miner. In 1922, Charlie Wannassie of the Yakima tribe offered to sell the secret of the "Spanish diggings", but it unknown if anyone took him up on the offer. Like a lot of lot mine stories, the quantity of gold is always exaggerated.
A large area around Mt St Helens was obliterated by the May, 1980 volcanic eruption. Millions of tons of ash covered the landscape and changed the topography of the areas around St Helens and Mt Adams. There were places in Eastern Washington where the ash was over a foot deep, and the ash was carried across the entire United States. Rivers and streams in the area were permanently changed. It is my opinion that search for this lost mine is a waste of time.
There are gold veins and pockets in the coastal mountain ranges from Central America to Alaska. The best chances of a new discovery are in areas that have already produced gold in the past. Some of the best areas are already under claim or have been withdrawn by our Government. It is very expensive to develop a hard rock mine, and there is a lot of red tape and compliance. The hobby miner has a much better chance of finding and working a placer deposit. Black sand deposits along the entire length of the Lewis River contain flower gold. The lucky prospector may find some good sized nuggets in the headwaters of the river. Prospecting on the Yakima Reservation is prohibited.
I have never told this information about the lost Spaniards mine in the mt Adams area to anyone before. The information I have comes from a relative of a gentleman that researched the location back in the 1930s. There were two individuals involved in locating information about this mine. One was a cousin of a co worker (whom I introduced to prospecting back in the early 70s.) The other partner was a photographer. My friend named Jim was discussing prospecting trips we took with his cousin, who went on to tell Jim of this story. He mentioned that after collecting information from various sources, the two spent a lot of time looking for the location of the mine.They finally ended up on the west side of the Lewis river. Back in the 1930s road N90 only went to the east side of the Lewis river.
They found what they believed to be the proper location of the mine and actually found the opening, and went on about their lives. From the information they collected the following was the key to the location
small creek that had steep sides
the mine was at the top of a water fall not at the bottom as believed.
there was two large flat rocks that were used by the Indians to wash their clothes on
the headwaters held a large aquifer that would expell a large amount of water after a heavy rain to the point of safety while being there.
It was in the mid 70s that Jim and his cousin went on a prospecting trip to the area to retrace the location. I was asked to go but at the time i couldn't make it. I did tell Jim that I would go on the next trip. After driving and using an old map from the 30s Jim's cousin felt that boulder creek a tributary to the Lewis river was the probable location.
Jim's cousin went salmon fishing a couple of weeks later , fell asleep at the wheel and was killed returning home. We were devastated by the accident as the next week the three of us were going back to retrace the location.
I had spent many years prospecting the upper reaches of the Lewis river and boulder creek had the most promising mineralized potential. But there was no gold in the creek. It was from my own research that the gold might have came from straight creek which is a tributary to quartz creek. There is evidence of diggings said to be from Indians and later from a mining coop out of Tacoma washington in the 30s called the plamondon Indian mines inc.
The prospectors of long ago were patient and skillful in their activities to locate gold and other minerals. Where gold is not currently found in a creek, it may not be a good indicator. Old water channels and benches sometimes contain more accessible gold than the current streams that contain overburden and mud. Today's prospectors should look for ancient benches and gravel bars above the current stream levels. The finding of rough quartz "float" in stream beds is a good indicator that a quartz lode is near by.
The information available on the "Lost Spaniard Mine" seems to suggest that the miner used placer gold for his purchases. I suspect he was working a placer pocket somewhere on or near Quartz Creek.
I hiked to the Plamondon mine/prospect last summer. It's pretty easy to find. I spent a couple of hours checking things out near the entrance with my metal detector. Didn't go inside as I didn't want to end up having the thing cave in on me. It didn't look that promising as a source of gold, and I doubt that it has anything to do with the Lost Spaniard mine.
Here's a picture of the entrance. It only goes in 10-12 feet.
The lost Spaniards mine was hard rock and behind a waterfall which could be why you say he paid with placer gold if the vein was being hit by the waterfall then thers would be a glory whole of placer gold along witb his hard rock
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