skeleton canyon treasure

[mogollonman]

Does anyone know much about the Skeleton Canyon treasure? Especially about the rock with two crosses chiseled into it.

 

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[pippinwhitepaws]

all i know of the treasure.....people, from somewhere, (calif.) else have moved into the area, blockaded the road into skeleton canyon, key acess only, so one has to go along the border road, nasty, dangerous drive, or go into new mexico to enter the canyon.
i was in the canyon in 1986 when the apache returned, 100 year anniversary of the surrender.

 

[kimmie4476]

Lots of leads on the internet, just google it...The trick is to figure out where Davis Mountain is. It appears as though the outlaws named it themselves, so it makes it kind of difficult to find exactly the spot

 

[pippinwhitepaws]

i spent a lot of time in that area in the late 70's to mid eighties...
i read just about everything i could on that mule train...camped in hell's kitchen...neat area. dangerous.
skeleton canyon is a slash through solid rock...narrow, beautiful...not real deep, but in a flash flood it is a death trap...
if you wanted to ambush a mule train of silver, that is the place.
most of the metal i found was mid 50's-70 beer tops and cans.
the story that stuck with me said that as you rode north out of the canyon you came to a spot where it widened...in the middle of the wash, was a big old cottonwood and they buried the stash there.
there are a few spots like that...not many...the one i lean towards is the ranch house at the top of the canyon...private property.
who knows..have fun...watch the clouds.

 

[Old Bookaroo]

As is so often the case, I think a great many writers used J. Frank Dobie's Coronado's Children (1930) as their primary - if not only - source for the story of the loot from Monterrey. See Chapter X "Los Muertos No Hablan."

Prof. Dobie ("Notes") recommends 3 books about the outlaws involved - including the outstanding Helldorado by William M. Breakenridge (who attended three hangings in his lifetime - none of them with the benefit of judicial order), Walter Noble Burns' Tombstone (great reading; includes a chapter on the treasure; should, however, be considered a novel until proven otherwise); and Lorenzo Walters' Tombstone's Yesterday.

Some researchers have not been able to locate any Mexican government records of a robbery of the Monterrey mint.

The wonderfully-named Zwing Hunt, among other hardcases mentioned in the story, certainly lived. There are 21 references to him in Ramon F. Adams' cornerstone bibliography Six Guns and Saddle Leather (Norman, Oklahoma: 1969). Before you spend too much time with any outlaw or gunfigher book or pamphlet, see what Mr. Adams has to say about it.

Finally there is the fascinating Historical Atlas of the Outlaw West by Richard Patterson (Boulder, Colorado: 1985). Many of the questions asked on the TreasureNet forum could be answered - or at least the answer could be started - by referring to this unique volume. Mr. Patterson's account of The Smuggler's Trail (page 9) relies on "Smugglers' Trail" by Robert L. Thomas (Frontier Times, August-September 1967).

Hope this helps!

Good luck to all,

~The Old Bookaroo