El Diablo, if you are still visiting us here, a belated welcome to T-net!
While many of the claims being made can run to the outlandish, some are backed by real proof, including the clear photos and documents proving ownership, as in the Tayopa example . I once believed that ALL of the treasure tales were just that -tales - but if you do some of your own research, you will find that these stories and reports do not come out of thin air, very many of them are based on very real, and still lost rich gold, silver mines, as well as hidden treasures. If you think I am pulling your leg, don't take my word on it, do your own "homework" digging into the old newspaper archives, courthouse records etc.
And to reinforce that these lost mines are not fantasies, how about some lost mines that are NOT lost? I can list some right off the top of my head, including one that I searched for without realizing that it had been found. Here are a few examples:
- The lost Mojave mine, once one of the most famous lost mines in the southwest, was found by a prospector who trailed the chief of the Mojaves back to the mine. You can stand on Dome Rock road west of Quartzsite AZ today and look toward the cone-shaped mountain, and you can see it. There is pretty much no gold left in it today, and you can even go poke around in it (I would not recommend it, as it has not been maintained in eighty years) and we do not discuss it in the treasure forums because it is not lost.
- The lost Goler diggings, a rich placer found by a prospector named Goler while he was desperately searching for water in the El Paso mountains. While celebrating his having found a spring, he noticed that there were gold nuggets laying in the spring bottom. Goler left his rifle at the spot to claim it (this was required in the old mining law, before the 1878 one we use today) and went out to civilization for supplies and to file his claim. On his return, he could not find the spring or his rifle! Years later, prospectors found the Goler gold diggings in what is today named Goler Gulch, and his rifle was found at the mouth of the canyon. As with the example mentioned above, we do not discuss it today because it is not lost.
- The lost Breyfogle mine of the Death Valley region - you can find this story easily as it is very well known, but anyway Breyfogle came out of the desert with rich gold ore in rose quartz; he spent years and several expeditions trying to find the mine. However, one day he came across the Amargosa mine in the Amargosa valley, and never searched again. The reason, well an expert compared a specimen of the ore brought out by Breyfogle with ore from the Amargosa, and it was a perfect match. Someone else had found the vein and opened it. You can guess why we don't discuss this one often.
- The lost Vekol mine - this one was one of the famous (and hotly debated and denied) old Jesuit silver mines, lost for over a century until the Pima Indians showed the location to their friend and famous Arizona pioneer Dr John Walker as a way to repay him for all the favors and services he had done for their people. (It probably helped a bit that he was also married to a Pima woman) This mine was one of the top silver producers for years, and as you have likely noticed, we don't discuss this one either.
- The Silver King Mine - this was found by a prospector named Sullivan who found some strange heavy black rock, but he left the region and everyone assumed he had been killed by the Apaches, and the vein was lost until four men got together and hunted for it, and this became one of the most famous silver mines of Arizona, and it too was a lost mine!
- The list goes on - the lost Montezuma, Wandering Jew, the "Old Padres" or the famous Josephine mine, all were once in the lost category and searched for by people like us, until they were found. Our friendly resident skeptics usually tend to ignore these found lost mines.
It is good to keep a skeptical mind, not just believe everything that comes down the pike, but also to keep an open mind, do your own research too. These stories of lost mines and buried treasures did not come out of space, they are most often based on real places and real events. We could site some lost treasures too which are found, like the Atocha found by Mel Fisher, or the personal treasure of the emperor of Mexico, Maximilian, found in Mexico city many years ago, but I think you get the picture.
I hope you will go out and hunt for a lost treasure amigo, we only live once, and it is an adventure no matter whether you find anything or not. You will have great stories to tell the grandkids, and memories which we can not put a price on. Besides, even if you went out hunting the Easter Bunny treasure and it is 100% fiction, the fact that you ARE out hunting,
gives you a 100% better chance of finding something great, than any of the people who never would risk the personal ridicule to go on a real treasure hunt.
Good luck and good hunting El Diablo and everyone reading this, I hope you go on a treasure hunt at least once in your life.
Oroblanco
