treasure cave by tortilla flat

[azdave35]

this is a story that has never been circulated as i've only told a few people

when i first started treasure hunting i met an old timer by the name of dale...he was a pilot., a crop duster ,an electronics engineer and he owned a small engine repair shop in chandler az. that he started not long after ww2..we ended up being good friends and were partners on a few lost treasure hunting ventures..dale was also a fairly well known dowser and people would often ask dale to dowse maps for them...one of them approached dale in the early 70's and told dale a story about a strongbox he had stumbled onto in a hidden cave close to tortilla flat..more to come later

 

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[dredgernaut]

I am hooked already

 

[Al D]

Dave..... damn, your such a tease

 

[Oroblanco]

Great start - keep going Dave!

 

[bobinsd]

And thennn, and thennn!

 

[azdave35]

this is a story that has never been circulated as i've only told a few people

when i first started treasure hunting i met an old timer by the name of dale...he was a pilot., a crop duster ,an electronics engineer and he owned a small engine repair shop in chandler az. that he started not long after ww2..we ended up being good friends and were partners on a few lost treasure hunting ventures..dale was also a fairly well known dowser and people would often ask dale to dowse maps for them...one of them approached dale in the early 70's and told dale a story about a strongbox he had stumbled onto in a hidden cave close to tortilla flat..more to come later

the story he told dale was that back in the early 60's he had driven up to tortilla flat with a cap and ball revolver with the intent of trying it out..he parked at tortilla flat and took off walking down a wash with the revolver...he said there were a bunch of rabbits running around that day and they looked like good targets for his gun...he had followed one up a side wash and shot at it...the rabbit ran behind a clump of trees close to the wall of the wash.....he thought he might have hit the rabbit so he wormed his way in behind the trees and hidden from view was a small cave in the wall of the wash...he forgot about the rabbit and crawled into the cave...he said there was a big rock that looked like the head of an alligator that kind of jutted out from the wall about a foot and a half off the floor..he could see there was something under the rock so he got a little closer and saw it was an old box with a lock on it..he said he about crapped himself and started trying to drag the box out but it was pretty heavy ..the lock and hasp looked pretty decrepit so he got the bright idea to try and knock it off the the butt of his revolver (the man had obviously been watching too many westerns)...he proceeded to beat on the lock and about the time the hasp broke he heard a loud boom...he was so caught up in what was happening he didn't realize the cap and ball revolver had accidentally gone off ...he popped the lid on the box and was amazed at what was inside...first thing he noticed was quite a few new gold pocket watches and some long skinny sacks that he called wiener sacks...they were about 1.5 inch in diameter and a few inches long...he opened one and it was full of gold dust from a mining operation...he sat back and tried to calm down and before long his leg felt wet....he thought maybe he knelt down in mud or something but it wasn't brown..it was red..pretty quick he figured out it was blood..his and alot of it..more to come later

 

[dredgernaut]

I cant live like this dave. lol.:

 

[Hillbilly Prince]

Got us all excited and goes to bed

 

[azdave35]

the story he told dale was that back in the early 60's he had driven up to tortilla flat with a cap and ball revolver with the intent of trying it out..he parked at tortilla flat and took off walking down a wash with the revolver...he said there were a bunch of rabbits running around that day and they looked like good targets for his gun...he had followed one up a side wash and shot at it...the rabbit ran behind a clump of trees close to the wall of the wash.....he thought he might have hit the rabbit so he wormed his way in behind the trees and hidden from view was a small cave in the wall of the wash...he forgot about the rabbit and crawled into the cave...he said there was a big rock that looked like the head of an alligator that kind of jutted out from the wall about a foot and a half off the floor..he could see there was something under the rock so he got a little closer and saw it was an old box with a lock on it..he said he about crapped himself and started trying to drag the box out but it was pretty heavy ..the lock and hasp looked pretty decrepit so he got the bright idea to try and knock it off the the butt of his revolver (the man had obviously been watching too many westerns)...he proceeded to beat on the lock and about the time the hasp broke he heard a loud boom...he was so caught up in what was happening he didn't realize the cap and ball revolver had accidentally gone off ...he popped the lid on the box and was amazed at what was inside...first thing he noticed was quite a few new gold pocket watches and some long skinny sacks that he called wiener sacks...they were about 1.5 inch in diameter and a few inches long...he opened one and it was full of gold dust from a mining operation...he sat back and tried to calm down and before long his leg felt wet....he thought maybe he knelt down in mud or something but it wasn't brown..it was red..pretty quick he figured out it was blood..his and alot of it..more to come later

it didn't take him long to figure out he was pretty screwed...he was shot in the knee and was about a mile from his vehicle..the box was too heavy for him to move so he grabbed a couple things out of the box..shut it and started to make the long crawl back to his vehicle and hopefully not bleed to death in the process...it was a challenge but he made it and got help...it took a couple surgeries to put humpty dumpty back together again after a 44 to the knee but he recovered and the first thing he did when he could walk again was head back to the cave for the box....only problem is he was a greenhorn with no outdoors experience and he could not remember where the cave was...he made many more trips to the area but no dice......more later

 

[Loke]

I'm all ears - keep it coming!!

 

[Real of Tayopa]

OK Tayopa, finnish the story. Seems that I have a couple outstanding.

 

[deducer]

Very interesting story, Dave. Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to more.

 

[Hal Croves]

Your words obviously carry some weight here azdave35.
Did you ever see whatever it was that he managed to drag back to the car?
The wiener sacks are interesting.

But Tortilla Flats would be the place, IMO.

Great reading.

 

[azdave35]

Your words obviously carry some weight here azdave35.
Did you ever see whatever it was that he managed to drag back to the car?
The wiener sacks are interesting.

But Tortilla Flats would be the place, IMO.

Great reading.

hal..by the time i met him he only had a couple pocket watches..i was also intrigued by the sacks with the gold...i always wondered where they came from..i'll try to finish the story today

 

[azdave35]

it didn't take him long to figure out he was pretty screwed...he was shot in the knee and was about a mile from his vehicle..the box was too heavy for him to move so he grabbed a couple things out of the box..shut it and started to make the long crawl back to his vehicle and hopefully not bleed to death in the process...it was a challenge but he made it and got help...it took a couple surgeries to put humpty dumpty back together again after a 44 to the knee but he recovered and the first thing he did when he could walk again was head back to the cave for the box....only problem is he was a greenhorn with no outdoors experience and he could not remember where the cave was...he made many more trips to the area but no dice......more later

i don't remember how the man heard about dale but he had dale dowse a map for him..dale and him ended up making a few trips up there in the 70's ..nothing ever came of it and the man finally gave up on it...when i met dale in the 80's he told me the story and naturally i wanted to go look for it so he called the man and had him come over...i talked to him for a while and he impressed me as an honest man (plus he was wearing shorts and you could clearly see the scars from the bullet and surgeries)..after he left i was pretty certain that he had found the strongbox just like he said....dale and i made a few trips up there and we did find a cave that fit the description but no box ..we too lost interest in the cave and got busy with another treasure....in the 90's i told a friend and he spent some time looking for it...he too found a cave that fit the description but no box ..so now we had 2 caves in the area that were a match for the treasure cave...we figured either one of the caves were correct but someone else had stumbled onto the box and took it...or there was still another cave out there somewhere with a box full of goodies....if any of you feel lucky give it a try

 

[Hillbilly Prince]

That is a cool story. Wonder if that was loot from a robbery owing to the pocket watches.

 

[Samanthy]

There are lots of caves in Arizona

 

[azdave35]

That is a cool story. Wonder if that was loot from a robbery owing to the pocket watches.

we always thought it was something hacksaw tom stole from one of the stage coaches

 

[Oroblanco]

Side note but the little sacks were "pokes". No prospector would be caught dead without his poke, a little bag for holding gold dust.

Please do continue, that theory of Hacksaw Tom and the stage robberies seems the most likely explanation IMHO.

 

[Al D]

I could not remember his name to save my life, just recall the “hacksaw” lol