Siegfried Schlagrule said:
Why look for the Adams when Gotch Ear said that the other site was even richer? The other site is now on patented ground but you could use it to find the Adams. It is also said that you'll need to reverse the "Z" to find it as that is the way it lays out. Over the years I've read many accounts of the Adams and many claims to have found it. Since you're near the malpais why not look for the $250,000 in long green in the crashed Lockheed vega? Good luck whatever you decide to do. Best Regards, SS
The $250,000 on the crashed Lockheed Vega is supposed to be on Mount Taylor, somewhere. Just about every inch of Mount Taylor was chipped, dug, checked for radioactivity by prospectors during the early '50s uranium rush to this area. Maybe there's nothing left of the Vega to find, or maybe the pilot died of drinking too many Marqueritas 20 years later in BananaLand. But if that plane is up there somewhere it's almost a lead-pipe cinch there's nothing left of the $250 large.
As for whether the Adams is on patented land or not, I've never seen any evidence anyone really knows exactly where it is. If it ever existed it's probably still out there, as, probably, is the other one near the twin peaks of the legend.
I've known where it was a hundred times or so until I got there, followed by a return to research and poring over maps until I could know where it was again. There's a lot more to the Adams mystery than you get from Frank Dobie or the rest of us who have written books about it, and there's new information cropping up all the time. 10 years ago no one seemed to know the meaning of the word, Sno Ta Hay. Then an obscure book by an Apache named Nino Cochise came to light. A decade ago the location of the pueblo where John Brewer found succor after his escape was a mystery. No existing pueblo met his description. Then it showed up on an 1864 military map, nailing down his route to the Rio Grande. 20 years ago the identity of the 'German' or 'Dutchman' of Adams lore was not known. Now it is. Those are just a few of the 'new' items of information that weren't available to the searchers of the past.
If the Adams was ever out there, it still is. And it probably stands the best chance of being found by a modern searcher than any other lost mine around, just because there's now so much information available about it.
Incidently, the offer for a free ebook version of
The Lost Adams Diggings - Myth, Mystery and Madness in Adobe pdf format for any new research documentation related to the Adams is still open. The offer is posted on my website and one person has collected. If the info is good enough I'll change that offer to a paperback version, signed, sealed and deeelivered to anywhere in the US.
Also, Sid Grover: You're listed in the acknowledgements for the great info you furnished a couple of years ago, but if you're still around out there I'd like to give you a gratis copy, now that the book's in print. I blush to admit I don't have your address anymore.
Jack