Gold in West Pinto Creek

skyhawk1251

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Gold in Pinto Creek

"Searching for Arizona's Buried Treasures", Chapter 44 "Treasure Hunters Hope", pages 177-181, contains the following written by author Ron Quinn.

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I'm wondering if any veteran Dutch hunters have heard any similar tales about gold in Pinto Creek.

This book, by the way, is "full view" and is a free download. Do a Google search for this book's title (books.google.com) and a listing of other books will appear, some of which are also "full view."
 

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skyhawk1251

skyhawk1251

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Nov 9, 2018
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do you know who ron quinn is?

All I know about Ron Quinn is that he died August 30, 2016, age 83. He had lived in Tucson, AZ. He and his treasure hunting team found 82 pounds of Spanish buillion. He authored several books.
 

azdave35

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Dec 19, 2008
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All I know about Ron Quinn is that he died August 30, 2016, age 83. He had lived in Tucson, AZ. He and his treasure hunting team found 82 pounds of Spanish buillion. He authored several books.
yea..thats who i thought he was...there was a big write up on his recovery in the treasure magazines years ago...a couple guys on here have met him
 

sdcfia

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yea..thats who i thought he was...there was a big write up on his recovery in the treasure magazines years ago...a couple guys on here have met him

My old pal from Sonoita knew him well. The recovery was valid, but the gold came from the Mexican Revolution days. A wealthy Mexican rancher who was a Diaz man hid the loot in the USA to help protect it from the Villalistas. Don't know the rancher's name or his fate - probably didn't end well for him.
 

markmar

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Oct 17, 2012
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How ore like Waltz's has been found in Pinto Creek is only to wonder somebody. Maybe the Apache threw it there after the massacre.
At least the story confirmed the Waltz's placer mine has gold in hematite quartz, like I have also mentioned sometimes. The Peraltas started a tunnel below the Waltz's placer mine, so they have a carga or more from that ore. Maybe they collected and the placer from the outcrop above the tunnel. Time didn't allow them to dig more.
 

somehiker

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You mean , they found the LDM ore at the head of West Fork of Pinto Creek, which is east of Iron Mt. like the place the man searched for the alleged source.

I don't mean anything markmar.
Just offered the links for anyone interested who wants to try and pinpoint where they might think the gold was found, and came from.
 

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PotBelly Jim

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I'm wondering if any veteran Dutch hunters have heard any similar tales about gold in Pinto Creek.

Hi Skyhawk,

There is definitely placer in West Pinto Creek. I don't know how hard the old timer's scraped it out, so there may (or may not) be some rich pockets...most of the west branch is in the wilderness so it's not like someone could go in there and dig out any deep spots.

There's also placer in the main branch of Pinto Creek. I hit it pretty hard up towards/closer to Roosevelt and found color. Lots of old hardrock gold mines in the mountains overlooking Pinto as well. The first place to find info on all those old mines is in the newspaper, to get a rough idea of the dates of any discoveries/claims...Pinto was part of Maricopa Co. until Pinal and then Gila Co's. were created...so the records will be scattered across 3 counties depending on date and where on Pinto you're looking.

The above aren't tales, they're in the fact category. For tales about the LDM being near West Pinto, we can rely mainly on Mitchell. I've been unable to find his source, nor have I been able to find "Frank the Carpenter" in the records of the Prescott Pioneer home. Doesn't mean he didn't exist or wasn't there, all I'm saying is I haven't found a good "candidate" for "Frank" in the records.

Here's the relevant part of his Desert Mag article from 1941:

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There's also some good discussions on this and other forums about Frank the Carpenter that you might want to check out.
 

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PotBelly Jim

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I'll add one other thing, which is pure speculation. I wonder if the carpenter story got mixed up, and instead of "Frank the Carpenter", it was actually Jacob Wisner. He was a carpenter, he somehow got dragged into the LDM story, which I've never understood why...and he lived in a Veterans Home at the end of his life.
 

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