sdcfia,
That I will agree with you on. There are many different tales all called the Lost Adams. Personally, I believe there are many stories from the 1800's that were put together, or called the very same tale by James McKenna when he was writing his books. I, personally purchased several books by varying authors that all claimed the canyon was up north since Adams continually came back to the San Fransisco valley to look for the canyon.
However, there was one chapter... chapter 1 of Jack Percell's book that stood out. Out of all of the books, this chapter seemed like it didn't fit. I must have re-read that chapter over 100 times in the 6 years I hunted for this canyon. Traveled to many canyons during that time and put boots to the ground. Even found many landmarks from the stories, however... no gold.
In that chapter, Adams told R.C. Patterson, when he asked Adams what mountain ranges the guide took them into on the way to the canyon, that they never entered any mountain range until they were at the canyon. He said that there was vast plains on the left and small mountain ranges on the right the entire trip. I struggled with this for quite awhile, having made the trip from either Tucson or Phoenix to New Mexico a thousand times. That description of topology didn't match.
Then I thought, what if either Adams told Patterson the opposite, or Patterson remembered it being opposite, what would that give me. So I flipped the description to being vast plains on the right and small mountain ranges on the left and I realized it described the topology from Tucson to Lordsburg, New Mexico.
Then I remember from one of the many tales that Adams claimed that they traveled up a long incline on the way to the canyon. So I google earthed and found that the incline from Lordsburg into the Burro Mountains is 15 miles long. I would call that a long incline. If that is the way they traveled, they would eventually cross the Continental Divide. Another connection to the story.
Another part of the story Adams told Patterson was that they entered the canyon from the East side through the pines. I couldn't figure out why they would enter the canyon from the east side if they were traveling from the west to the east. Then I remembered, from another tale, that the guide took the men on top of a tall mountain to show them where the canyon was he was taking them to. Another part of an Adams tale, was that Adams believed at one point the guide left the well traveled trail and headed due north.
I started putting things together and realized that after they crossed the Continental Divide, the guide left the well traveled trail, "Mormons Wagon Trail" and headed due north up to the top of Jacks Peak. From there he showed them two peaks, north-east, a days ride away to where the canyon "Sno-ta-hay" was located, but they would stay the night in this canyon. Being that they were on top of Jacks Peak meant they traveled down into the canyon, through the pines.
This now, all made sense. "Sno-ta-hay" is Bear Creek, and Adams canyon is Gold Gulch. Gold Gulch, being 15 miles from the Arizona border, has been mined heavily in the late 1890's, 1930's and then more recently in the late 70's, early 80's. Finding a significant amount of gold. Thompson canyon, was also a popular route the Apaches would take when traveling back and forth to Mexico, would at some time find the men in the canyon.
Granted, you can't really call the two small objects a real waterfall, but we don't know if that is part of the real Adams story, or some other tale from the 1800's. The only part that bugged me about all of this is, based on the dates all of the books placed this at, why they would travel for four days to the fort and four days back to get supplies. Why didn't they just travel for a day into Silver City and get their supplies. That's when I decided the dates had to be wrong.
So I went back to the very first story I ever heard of the Adams Canyon and remembered that Adams met up with the other guys who had just returned from failing at the California Gold Rush. After a little research, I found that the Gold Rush lasted from 1848 - 1855. Now it all made sense. The dates were wrong. The time the men were in the canyon was in the late 50's rather than the late 60's. They had to travel so far because Silver City didn't exist at that time.
To back this up, I started doing research on Jacob Snively and found that he found gold in Arizona, on the Gila River and started a gold rush there in 1858. Spent a couple of years there and was actually the mayor for a couple of years. Then he convinced two other individuals to travel back to New Mexico where they found the gold placers of Bear Creek and staked their claim in La Mesa. By the time they got back up to Bear Creek and started their mining operations, tons of miners started showing up and here begins the gold rush of Pinos Altos.
Again, the only reason Jacob Snively knew where to take his two friends, was because he remembered what the guide showed them on the first journey into the canyon. The zig zag canyon is the little canyon that passes through the mountains from McCauleys head quarters into the valley between Lordsburg and Duncan. I believe Adams and Davidson traveled through that canyon when escaping the Apaches, found the Coronado Trail and headed north where the solders found them up around the Springerville area.
That is why Adams, in the later years, always started up there in his searches. He was trying to retrace his footsteps. However, being so terrified of the Apaches and only traveling at night, and when they were found by the solders almost dies of exposure, he most likely couldn't remember how far they traveled north before the solders found them.
The company my friend worked for, in the 80's was "Bear Creek Mining Corporation". They dredged Bear Creek from where Cherry Creek and Bear Creek meet, down towards Gila. Again, after rolling big boulders out of the way, found gold nuggets the size of a pocket watch.
