lost adams ?

[Springfield]

... If you are a serious treasure hunter, then do serious research. Go to the source... legitimate information ...Good luck to those who are serious about their research and the rewards.

Go to the source? Exactly which legitimate information are you referring to? I have 23 different sources of the telling of the LAD, a number of which you are probably familiar with, a number you probably aren't, and a couple private family accounts you will never see - all adamently believed in by their various adherents. 23 sources and, essentially, 23 different stories to varying degrees. Enough confusion to send literally thousands of searchers into every canyon from Globe to Soccorro and from Farmington to Lordsburg (and into the Sierra Madre as well) over the past 140 years with no rewards so far except a hundred claims of discovery in a hundred different canyons, but, unfortunately - no gold to show. If the sources were accurate, there wouldn't still be people wandering in the hills to claim the LAD, such as the most recent kook who, from his sources, "knew exactly where it was" and launched a four day, 200-man search-and-rescue effort near Mule Creek trying to find his lost a$$. It's amazing how many twin peaks there are close to steep canyons with zigzag trails in NM and AZ, not to mention the Chihuahua/Sonora boundary country. Heck, right outside my door I can look up at some classic twin peaks that have a carving on them that says, "ADAMS 1880".

Whatever event gave birth to the LAD legend has not been accurately revealed in the sources available to the public. Hint: yes, if you are dillegent, you can uncover a few old military reports that mention names, places and events that some have tied to the LAD to fortify their favorite version of the legend. This type of 'official' documentation is scant, however. The anecdotal documents passing as legitimate information have only sent their legions of believers in circles, even today.

I not on board with Brewer's LAD explanation either, but his underlying premise is one I totally believe - almost all of the available information on lost mines/hidden treasure is balderdash obscurring the truths of the events that spawned the legends. Disinformation designed to mislead. Things are seldom as they seem. Bottom line: be dilligent and thourough in your research, consider all possibilities and ask yourself, "If I knew the location of valuables free for the taking, what information would I make available and to whom?"

 

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[Springfield]

OK, I for one am interested in the LAD accounts you refer to. Which are they and where can they be obtained?

 

[cptbild]

Mr. PeterM & Mr. Springfield
I am a serious & full time Treasure Hunter & Prospector
I Have Resources and Unlimited Time
Would you care to form some kind of a "Partnership"?
"My!", Partner, "Doc" & I are planning to leave for a 12 month,
OR!
Longer, Trip this year....
We plan to begin in The Caballo Mnts
And!
Work our way WEST!
Starting at This Spanish Turtle

 

[cptbil]

What I mean by "Some kind of partership!"
Is!
If "U" don't care to/want to, travel ? out into the field with us......
If you get a few spare days could visit camp
Any rate....
Doc & I will be out in the camp/field and be in contact with you
By....
Wireless Internet computer from camp, with a web cam, with which to send you "photos" of the area we're in
what we are seeing, etc
& You can direct us from the web cam pictures/topo map(s)

And/Or..
Whatever other arrrangement ?

 

[BLACKFOOT]

the map came from a convict that i wrote in the orginal post that gave the map to my brother in law ...

 

[Oroblanco]

tag and bump

 

[Springfield]

Sorting through some photos and found a couple of Apache Box, which is the destination shown on the hand-drawn map at the beginning of this thread. They were taken a couple years ago while poking around western NM in a small plane. Top pic looking southerly, bottom one northerly. Note twin peaks in background of the top pic.

 

[Oroblanco]

Beautiful photos amigo, thank you for sharing them. It should give our resident skeptics some idea of how something like a gold mine could be lost, and remain so difficult to find even with high technology.
Oroblanco

 

[Springfield]

Beautiful photos amigo, thank you for sharing them. It should give our resident skeptics some idea of how something like a gold mine could be lost, and remain so difficult to find even with high technology.
Oroblanco

It's interesting how easily a person can stumble across something of interest in the great Southwest (or anywhere else for that matter) and not be able to relocate the site later - even seasoned and experienced outdoorsmen who can't believe it could happen to them. I've experience the phenomena myself and it's quite a distubing thing. The problem, IMO, is that the 'finder' makes fundamental memory and/or judgement errors (often of the time and distance variety) between the time of his discovery and the later attempts to return to the site. Therefore, when the original protagonist innocently and ardently provides disinformation, even to himself, the site remains where it always has been while those looking for it are constantly looking in all the wrong places. 'Lost lode mines' can fit this bill, although I believe a number of 'lost mines' never remained 'lost' at all - only abandoned for whatever reason, then relocated by someone different and reworked later. Not only is gold 'where you find it', but in many cases 'where someone else found it'.

Placer deposits are less likely to become lost because their locations are much easier to find. Concerning the 'Lost Adams Diggings', I believe there are several scenarios why the site remains 'lost' for the past 150 years when so many have looked in so many places: a) the diggings were relocated after Adams by persons unknown, quietly exploited and abandoned when they played out (reasonably decent odds); b) the diggings are still lying out there somewhere just as Adams left them (terribly bad odds); c) the stories Adams, a well-documented notorious liar, told were fabricated in order to obfuscate other events he didn't want known (reasonably decent odds for this too). By the way, we don't even know who Adams was for sure - this doesn't help matters either.

 

[Oroblanco]

I agree amigo. Placers are not so commonly "lost" as lodes, and some like Goler's were in fact rediscovered later and are quickly forgotten as ever having been "lost" in the first place. Some rather surprising examples remain lost however like Standoff Bar here in the Black Hills, even the government geologist Prof Jenney knew the location as did apparently "everyone" in the period 1875-78 but a few short years later it is lost and still is. Placers that get lost seem to have a common trait, that the actual placer deposit does not extend far from the discovery site; like the Adams, the gold for whatever reason became concentrated in a rather small area and did not produce the usual type of placer that can be traced for miles or even dozens of miles, like the Snake river.

I love your photos BTW!
Oroblanco

 

[Springfield]

..... I love your photos BTW!
Oroblanco

Thanks. I just photo-edited them to take some of the haze out. You sure get a good view of things from the birds' perspective. I haven't been on the ground in this canyon yet, but it's 'on the list'.

 

[nmth]

Interesting thread, and seems to have some temporal legs. Two friends of mine were held at gunpoint by Brock's daughter in the 70's - they love to tell that story. One interesting note: she was intrigued by their metal detectors and wanted to know if they "worked through water". A mine by the ranch house had a lot of water pouring out of it - I seem to recall it being reported that it was abandoned after they broke through to the spring. I've got some other leads on things near the ranch and the cave where Brock lived before he got all civilized and such. As far as French, he's been publishing in the GPAA magazine a lot lately. I was with him at Mogollon (I pointed out the hand-drill contest rock - new concept to him) and my buddy that spent years at a great Adams prototype (yes, there is Gold) was with him there and at Lake Valley. I'm hoping he'll use my Orogrande pics in a new article - they actually used wooden pipe wrapped in wire to transport the water from the Sacramento River; the steel pipe is more recent. Anyways, I've never been to steeple Rock / Carlisle, so if anybody has tips on that area, it would be great - it is on my list for "soon". As far as the Adams being over there, my other buddy's old (deceased) friend Don Fingado tried that and came up with far less than what my other friend has north of Magdalena - UNM dated many artifacts to the 1600's (of course the Spanish found their own "Gotch Ear" 200 years earlier) and the land status is absolute crap (this is why it's still "Lost"), plus *all* the physical landmarks are there. French ended up working with my buddy (and buddy's deceased TH partner; the first on the scene) as it was the logical continuation of his original search (he ended up at Techado - close, but not close enough). The book is written but not published (French chose a first-person narrative format that the publishers are universally not fond of). One last thing: the Black Range Tales says that all the Adams stories are of one and the same location (why is that such a temptation!?) including the Snivley Diggins and the Ni***r Diggins - the latter is an actual place between Las Cruces and Socorro, and I'm hoping to go there soon. The location has an interesting Spanish name on the USGS Topo map that suggests a small settlement was there. Likely, given the geology and mineral reports, the buffalo soldiers or ex-soldiers working the areas were probably only getting a little silver (argentiferous galena), but it will still be fun to go there for general purposes, and the hike will almost without a doubt be human-free and beautiful. The area is one of the less explored in the state, and there is gold within the range. BTW, thanks for the map! It's a great dream-focus. Cheers, nmth.