LUE clue...the Obit of Hardrock Hammond

[Randy Bradford]

A couple of interesting tidbits in here for the LUE and for a couple other treasures.
---------------
WILBUR ALLEN HAMMOND, known around the world as “Hardrock” Hammond, passed away at the Veteran's Hospital at Long Beach, California on 13 July 1968 and was interred at the Veterans National Cemetery in Los Angeles 19 July.

Hammond established his place in American aviation by building and flying his own airplane in Wisconsin in 1911 and was probably the first military aviator in America although he never claimed this distinction. He flew for the British, French and American forces in World War I and then returned to the United States to establish several airplane manufacturing companies and a number of flying schools.

His father was a mine operator in California and Oregon and,, after serving in World War II as an officer and training executive, Hammond returned to prospecting and mining. As a more or less extremely profitable avocation, he engaged in treasure hunting.

Among his more notable accomplishments in mining and treasure hunting he is credited with establishing the firm of 'Hammond and Associates' which located the 'Ajo' treasure cache, the LUE treasure, and the Rosarita treasure cache in Baja California. The term “hammondizing” relates to a process he developed for reducing ingots and amalgam to a natural nugget or coarse form. This process is in worldwide use today.

He was a Master Mason, an Elk, an eagle, a charter member of the Circle of Companions and an honorary member of numerous mining, prospecting and treasure hunting clubs.
----------
This ran in the Nov-Dec 1968 issue of Art Lassagne’s “Gold Bug Newsletter” as well as the November 1968 issue of “The Prospector Club International” and the October 1968 issue of Johnny Pounds “The Treasure Hunter.” All of these obits are identical, though the original source is unstated.

Review of cemetery records suggests Hardrock was born January 23, 1893.

 

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[South Sea mariner]

Interesting post!

Some good sources quoted....

 

[Rebel - KGC]

Well, there ARE indications that Karl Von Mueller wrote the "Obit", according to Dr. Roy Roush (Ph.D.); Karl learned from "Hardrock", & MAY have gotten "Hardrock's" notes & stuff, as they were also friends. Didn't Mueller write "Manuals" or something...? Dr. Roy & Karl were friends & often discussed The LUE; Dr. Roy said it meant Lloro, Urraca, and Enterrari aka the LEAUX Treasure. Karl's REAL name was Dean Miller; his book, TREASURE OF THE VALLEY OF SECRETS (under the "pen name" of Deek Gladson), was revealing... "Scarlet Valley"/"The Scarlet Shadow". Was it a SUNSET in the WEST...? KEY: "IAY-AYAM"... BLACK LAKE WASH in New Mexico...? South of the town of Elizabethtown...? Glorieta Pass, NM...? HH! Good Luck! Coffee...?

 

[Honest Samuel]

Karl wrote 7 editions of Treasure Hunting Manuals. Great interest and a lot of information.

 

[Rebel - KGC]

DO tell!

 

[Randy Bradford]

Well, there ARE indications that Karl Von Mueller wrote the "Obit", according to Dr. Roy Roush (Ph.D.); Karl learned from "Hardrock", & MAY have gotten "Hardrock's" notes & stuff, as they were also friends. Didn't Mueller write "Manuals" or something...? Dr. Roy & Karl were friend & often discussed The LUE; Dr. Roy said it meant Lloro, Urraca, and Enterrari aka the LEAUX Treasure. Karl's REAL name was Dean Miller; his book, TREASURE OF THE VALLEY OF SECRETS (under the "pen name" of Deek Gladson), was revealing... "Scarlet Valley"/"The Scarlet Shadow". Was it a SUNSET in the WEST...? KEY: "IAY-AYAHM"... BLACK LAKE WASH in New Mexico...? South of the town of Elizabethtown...? Glorieta Pass, NM...? HH! Good Luck! Coffee...?

Rebel, some nice detective work and I'll share what I know since you brought it up.

I was just two days ago told that Obit read like something Karl would have written, and this came from someone that probably knew him as well as anyone alive today. Karl also wrote periodically for all three of the papers I mentioned the obit ran in. Karl was absolutely a regular partner of Hammond's and openly stated in Treasure of the Valley of Secrets that the LUE came to Karl by way of Hammond who first had the map and allowed others (including Karl) to copy it before it returned to the original owner who lived in Arizona. Montana Larry, who was reputed to have Hammond's notes to be delivered to Karl, was a partner of Karl's as well. I've intermittently heard that Karl made his LUE recovery at Black Lake, NM with a partner...both Hammond and Campbell were alleged to be that partner. I've also heard from one other source that it might have been Wally McLaren, whom I don't know much about but who was also a known associate of Karl's. I tend to think Hammond was that partner, mostly because he is first associated with the LUE and seems to be the most likely candidate, though that would depend a lot when the recovery was made.

I don't have it handy, but I'm quite sure Karl said in a biography printed in one of the Treasure Hunter's Yearbooks (Published by A.T. Evans who also published the Prospectors Club International newsletter when the Hammond Obit was published) that he (Karl) recovered part of the LUE in either 1957 or 1958. This would put Hammond in contention as a partner for sure as it was 10 full years before his passing.

IAYAYAM is a key that Karl said was used to decipher the LUE, this was included in a very brief description of the map as it was first published in 1966 in the Treasure Hunter's Manual 7. So far as I know, nobody has offered any idea what the IAYAYAM key is.

Dr, Roy's statements about the meaning of the letters in LUE is accurate per information published, though I've never seen anything from Karl himself indicating his as such. Karl absolutely did say the LUE stood for the first three letters of words written on on the map but the only attempt to associate those with Lloro, Urraca, and Enterrari come by way of Boyd Jolley who wrote an article for Treasure magazine on the topic and reported he had a letter from Karl that said that's what the letters represented. It seems likely, however, it's absolutely worth noting that it is an as of yet unverified clue where Karl is concerned.

Black Lake (the area part of the treasure was recovered) is associated with the town of Eagle's Nest. There was also a seperate cache associated with Elizabethtown (among others where caches were alleged to have been recovered).

that's the best I can offer at the moment, all of my notes are at home. Plenty of food for thought there just the same...

 

[Rebel - KGC]

TY, Randy... I also read that Manual # 7 was KEY, & Dr. Roy also stated that Karl recovered some of the Lue; my info came from Dr. Roy's book, HOW TO FIND THE TREASURES of the Knights of the GOLDEN CIRCLE, pg. 65-68. Of course, Dr. Roy thinks the LUE is KGC... LUE map is on p. 67. Dunno.

 

[South Sea mariner]

Rebel, some nice detective work and I'll share what I know since you brought it up.

I was just two days ago told that Obit read like something Karl would have written, and this came from someone that probably knew him as well as anyone alive today. Karl also wrote periodically for all three of the papers I mentioned the obit ran in. Karl was absolutely a regular partner of Hammond's and openly stated in Treasure of the Valley of Secrets that the LUE came to Karl by way of Hammond who first had the map and allowed others (including Karl) to copy it before it returned to the original owner who lived in Arizona. Montana Larry, who was reputed to have Hammond's notes to be delivered to Karl, was a partner of Karl's as well. I've intermittently heard that Karl made his LUE recovery at Black Lake, NM with a partner...both Hammond and Campbell were alleged to be that partner. I've also heard from one other source that it might have been Wally McLaren, whom I don't know much about but who was also a known associate of Karl's. I tend to think Hammond was that partner, mostly because he is first associated with the LUE and seems to be the most likely candidate, though that would depend a lot when the recovery was made.

I don't have it handy, but I'm quite sure Karl said in a biography printed in one of the Treasure Hunter's Yearbooks (Published by A.T. Evans who also published the Prospectors Club International newsletter when the Hammond Obit was published) that he (Karl) recovered part of the LUE in either 1957 or 1958. This would put Hammond in contention as a partner for sure as it was 10 full years before his passing.

IAYAYAM is a key that Karl said was used to decipher the LUE, this was included in a very brief description of the map as it was first published in 1966 in the Treasure Hunter's Manual 7. So far as I know, nobody has offered any idea what the IAYAYAM key is.

Dr, Roy's statements about the meaning of the letters in LUE is accurate per information published, though I've never seen anything from Karl himself indicating his as such. Karl absolutely did say the LUE stood for the first three letters of words written on on the map but the only attempt to associate those with Lloro, Urraca, and Enterrari come by way of Boyd Jolley who wrote an article for Treasure magazine on the topic and reported he had a letter from Karl that said that's what the letters represented. It seems likely, however, it's absolutely worth noting that it is an as of yet unverified clue where Karl is concerned.

Black Lake (the area part of the treasure was recovered) is associated with the town of Eagle's Nest. There was also a seperate cache associated with Elizabethtown (among others where caches were alleged to have been recovered).

that's the best I can offer at the moment, all of my notes are at home. Plenty of food for thought there just the same...

Maybe IAYAYAM it is anagram?

or Letters in place of numbers?

IAYAYAM 9, 1, 25,1 25,1,13



Mal

 

[Rebel - KGC]

COULD BE; Dr. Roy is still alive... ask HIM.

 

[sdcfia]

Maybe IAYAYAM it is anagram?

or Letters in place of numbers?

IAYAYAM 9, 1, 25,1 25,1,13

Mal

Many possibilities, anagrams being only one. Cipher Tools

18 anagrams of 'IAYAYAM'

4 LETTER ANAGRAMS OF IAYAYAM

1.​

maya

2.​

amia

3 LETTER ANAGRAMS OF IAYAYAM

3.​

ama

4.​

aia

5.​

ami

6.​

yam

7.​

may

8.​

aim

9.​

yay

10.​

maa

2 LETTER ANAGRAMS OF IAYAYAM

11.​

mi

12.​

aa

13.​

ai

14.​

ya

15.​

my

16.​

am

17.​

ma

18.​

ay

 

[lastleg]

I am interested only in the E'town reference. I had access to that site for many years. Found one highgrade
gold find. We weren't allowed to prospect, just detect. One time fishing at Eagle Nest a guide said an
older hispanic lady had been at E'town looking for a certain cottonwood tree where he father had planted
highgrade gold and left without recovering. Those cottonwoods are still there but on private property.

 

[South Sea mariner]

I am interested only in the E'town reference. I had access to that site for many years. Found one highgrade
gold find. We weren't allowed to prospect, just detect. One time fishing at Eagle Nest a guide said an
older hispanic lady had been at E'town looking for a certain cottonwood tree where he father had planted
highgrade gold and left without recovering. Those cottonwoods are still there but on private property.

Maybe some one with stumble upon the cache with luck rather than design. I imagine the area has many of those trees. Some times you just have to be at the right place and time.

Mal

 

[Randy Bradford]

I am interested only in the E'town reference. I had access to that site for many years. Found one highgrade
gold find. We weren't allowed to prospect, just detect. One time fishing at Eagle Nest a guide said an
older hispanic lady had been at E'town looking for a certain cottonwood tree where he father had planted
highgrade gold and left without recovering. Those cottonwoods are still there but on private property.

Honestly, there really isn't much to the Elizabethtown reference but I'll share what I have. This comes to us by way of a letter written by May Lou Karsting Phillips to Karl von Mueller and printed in a 1981 issue of the National Prospector's Gazette. The reference reads as follows:

I chased the LUE treasure for 5 years and I didn’t hit, always being a day late and a mile short, but I know people that hit it big, wild, and beautiful. I am still at it in a hobbyish, lackadaisical way. I have had experts work on the LUE map and have come to believe that there has to be at least 15 or more caching places. There were caches at San Francisco Peak, Elizabethtown, Black Lake, Mora, Romeroville, and further north somewhere near Salida, and then the trail of them drifts on south to the Pacific Ocean.

Karl himself confirmed several of these sites, and a new one of his own in a 1981 "Ask Exanimo column published in Western/Eastern Treasures where he was a regular contributor until his death about 10 years later. He does not, however, mention Elizabethtown:

Q: Do you believe that there is any of the LUE treasure left in the ground? I have heard that this was a hoax. However, we stopped at a motel in New Mexico and the owner said he knew for a fact that several people had found what he called “pockets” and had set themselves up nicely.

A: The term LUE was coined from the first letters of three words on the map. This treasure has been described extensively in several of the older treasure books. Several sites have been isolated and caches taken out. It is only the failures that try to discredit the treasure.
Mathematicians who have worked on solving the map say it is one of the most clever maps to come to their attention.
LUE sites recovered were located near San Francisco Peak in Colorado, and in New Mexico, sites near Black Lake, Mora and Carrizozo.

 

[Rebel - KGC]

TY, Randy! Also "read" where the LUE was at several sites... (Dr. Roy).

 

[Rebel - KGC]

Gotta clarify... DO NOT forget the "hyphen"; IAY-AYAM KEY. May well be just, "IAY-AYAM", dunno.

 

[Rebel - KGC]

AND! What is the LEAUX Treasure...? (Dr. Roy). If LUE = Lloro, Urraca, and Enterrari... Is that Spanish...? Look 'em up...? Ll oro sounds like GOLD...

 

[Randy Bradford]

Try the 9 minute mark of this video, speak at length about the possible meaning of the words based on what I have available. I'm at work again, don;t have my notes handy, but this will clarify it to some degree.

 

[Rebel - KGC]

TY, Randy... VERY interesting, indeed.

 

[Rebel - KGC]

According to Dr. Roy, he and Karl looked for the LUE; Karl found more LUE later. Dr. Roy stated that Karl moved from the L.A. area to "a little, old (and mostly ghost town) of Segundo, Colorado, which is located very close to the northern border of New Mexico, in order to search for the treasure." (p.66). SO! HH! Good Luck!

 

[lastleg]

Some think the LUE is related to the legend of Popeye. AYAMwhoAYAM. I'm sure KvM was
in Segundo to be near 3 peaks and also the picketwire stream to try out gold dredging with
his pals. He and Garrett were close friends along with Roy Lagal who knew more about how
to understand what the detector was saying than any of them.