Treasure Mountain, CO - Lost Frenchmens Gold

[mdog]

 

[mdog]

The link goes to a closed blog that only allows you to access if you have permission. Can someone send me the link to these documents please? I looked in the 200 Trails to Gold and the documents are not in there.

You will have to sort these out and enlarge them yourself. I never found the source but there was a book and I think the title was something like 30 Years Searching for Frenchmen's Gold, they might have come from that book. Somebody posted about the book in this thread. I've never read the book though. Let me know what you find. I have an interest in Louis de Villemont.

 

[sdcfia]

You will have to sort these out and enlarge them yourself. I never found the source but there was a book and I think the title was something like 30 Years Searching for Frenchmen's Gold, they might have come from that book. Somebody posted about the book in this thread. I've never read the book though. Let me know what you find. I have an interest in Louis de Villemont.

Thanks for posting the documents mdog. It'd be interesting if the alleged original French documents still survive.

 

[mdog]

Thanks for posting the documents mdog. It'd be interesting if the alleged original French documents still survive.

You are welcome, SDC. I hope Joshua will give us some information about the documents.

 

[Elliott_C]

I cannot find any material prior to the early 60's when Temple published his books about La Ventana. If you know of something I might have missed, please step forward.

There is a very recent post in the Colorado forum; it contains a newspaper article about an attempted treasure recovery in the San Juans. The article predates Temple's book by more than 30 years.

 

[Elliott_C]

Also this article may be of interest in the Weekly Ignacio Chieftain, September 24, 1915

View attachment 1302519

Amy

I don't think Amy posts here anymore, but this article is interesting, if not a bit conflictory. A quick google search doesn't turn up any Truchas peaks in Colorado north of Ignacio. There are Truchas peaks in the southern Sangre de Cristos range in New Mexico, but that wouldn't jive with the article.

EDIT: Nevermind. I just now see the Sante Fe, NM publication location. I was going off of the newspaper's location. It makes sense now.

 

[Age_Romero]

Theres a thread on this site of a feller who found a map on the bottom of a rock here in the slv n it had a star on it I wonder if it could all be tied together somehow also when I did time in Durango I talked to the utes about this story n they said there ancestors robbed some french dudes for there gold and that where they rehid it that it's protected by a giant snake probably referring to a big river it does make sense to me too that the French guys could have amassed that much gold just out of the summit ville platoro area alone I'm sure there was gold everywhere in the rockies back than n that it's very likely that the Spanish n french had struck it rich n had lots of mines n cache sites all over the San Juan n sangre de Cristo mnts the conejos river was full of placer gold all the tributaries that fed it platoro was big time gold silver mine alamosa canon silver mnt telluride mnt summitville area was full of minerals alamosa canon was one of the orginal anchient routes used by peaple as a pass to get through the mnts than the rio grande creede lake city to the north the lagorita mnts were all rich with minerals furtger north u get into buena vista leadville red ckiff battle mnt

 

[cyzak]

Theres a thread on this site of a feller who found a map on the bottom of a rock here in the slv n it had a star on it I wonder if it could all be tied together somehow also when I did time in Durango I talked to the utes about this story n they said there ancestors robbed some french dudes for there gold and that where they rehid it that it's protected by a giant snake probably referring to a big river it does make sense to me too that the French guys could have amassed that much gold just out of the summit ville platoro area alone I'm sure there was gold everywhere in the rockies back than n that it's very likely that the Spanish n french had struck it rich n had lots of mines n cache sites all over the San Juan n sangre de Cristo mnts the conejos river was full of placer gold all the tributaries that fed it platoro was big time gold silver mine alamosa canon silver mnt telluride mnt summitville area was full of minerals alamosa canon was one of the orginal anchient routes used by peaple as a pass to get through the mnts than the rio grande creede lake city to the north the lagorita mnts were all rich with minerals furtger north u get into buena vista leadville red ckiff battle mnt

Its to bad that fellar never made any more comments on that map he found on the underside of that rock. I have a sneaking suspicion that it was located around the La Garita area were he found the map rock. So if the Utes re hid the stash what would have stopped them from recovering at a later time. It seems I remember the Utes telling a tale of a big snake that was below Grand Mesa and some Thunder Birds.

 

[John2]

Its to bad that fellar never made any more comments on that map he found on the underside of that rock. I have a sneaking suspicion that it was located around the La Garita area were he found the map rock. So if the Utes re hid the stash what would have stopped them from recovering at a later time. It seems I remember the Utes telling a tale of a big snake that was below Grand Mesa and some Thunder Birds.

Hello Everyone,

Noob here: John2

This winter I am planning a return trip to the mountains of Pagosa Springs, Co. So now, I’m beginning the sorting of notes and photos from those times.

I recently discovered this thread (Treasure Mountain, CO, Lost Frenchmen’s Gold) and have been reading about Summitville and it’s environs there. It came up in a search for Sheepherder’s Gold.

The purpose of this trip is to see if I can re-locate a tree with the “signature” of TH Cornelius on it.

Seriously.

I have a photo of this “signature” mounted and framed. It wasn’t an actual signature really. I’ll call it an autograph.

See, I had stumbled across a used copy of Temple’s book (late 1970s), and had taken it seriously. Off I went.

I was living in Denver at the time, so the repeated drive over Wolf Creek was a chore. Nevertheless, I made dozens of trips over ten years or so.

Early in this quest the autograph was discovered. That was when something like gold fever set in.

I eventually abandoned the search when I found that empty hole. Anyway, that’s another story.

I had become intrigued with what I called sheepherder graffiti. I photographed some. I think the oldest was GARCIA JULIO 1903. Anyway, I took to looking for more of these. So I had had lot of practice seeing them by the time I saw Cornelius on that tree. I thought “I know that name. I have his book. It’s in the car. He was here. Right here!”

I was absolutely floored! I understood at the time that this autograph could have been sort of a claim marker; to a salvage claim so to speak. That’s what I would have done anyway.

I snapped a few shots of it. I blew one up and framed it, and created a contact sheet of the entire roll of film. I still have these, but the negatives of the tree with the autograph is still missing. Still looking. I wanted to post one for you.

I remember that just a year or two after the first discover, I visited again to find the autograph had been badly disfigured by a gnawing animal (porcupine?). I could still recognize it, barely, but sadly, little was left. Didn’t snap a pic of it.

Now, or rather next summer, I plan to return.

I believe I can walk right to it.

Just like the first time.

This is exciting!

Is the road up Little Pagosa Creek to Black Mountain still open summers?

Glad to find you all.

John2

 

[cyzak]

Its the west trail head to Pagosa Peak. I have not been in the area in 10 years but I have been all over that area. As far as access in there I have no idea I suppose it is still open. All you need to do is get a hold of the Forest Service there in Pagosa and ask them they are right down town.

 

[3fan]

This article quotes information from Sheepherder Gold without citing it as a reference. It gives the geo zone as a reference, but they got all of that from Temple's book! Poor form on their part.

I have looked for a very long time, and have never been able to find another source for all the claims made in Sheepherder Gold. Literally everything we think we know about the mine near Ventana comes from Temple Cornelius.

If anyone can prove me wrong about that, I welcome it, and look forward to seeing what you have on that.

Hi Matt,

I'm sorry, I'm a little late to the post. Please forgive me if your research has already found the following information. Perry Eberhart refers to the same story (Cornelius tells), in his book Treasure Tales of The Rockies. Story #30 "The Lost Ute Mine" is covering the same story. Eberhart's first edition of Treasure Tales of the Rockies was published in 1961.

 

[Dirt1955]

There is a very recent post in the Colorado forum; it contains a newspaper article about an attempted treasure recovery in the San Juans. The article predates Temple's book by more than 30 years.

3fan, regarding "La Ventana", (The Window) Maynard Cornett Adams wrote a book published in 2004. It covers the time period 1684 -1770.He also wrote the Citadel Mountain series, 4 books covering subsequent time periods. I have not compared his book to Perry Eberhart or Temple Cornelius stories. I have all 3 books so a little reading is in order!
Dirt

 

[cyzak]

Can we please keep the LUE off this thread. If you want jump on Sergei3 thread he has a lot of some type of info on it.

 

[Dirt1955]

Can we please keep the LUE off this thread. If you want jump on Sergei3 thread he has a lot of some type of info on it.

cyzak, my apologies, I've taken down my response to the LUE.
Dirt

 

[Gare]

Treasure Mountain, CO - Lost Frenchmen's Gold

Hoping someone on the forum can help me solve a small mystery, while at the same time generating some interest in and old story that isn't quite as well known as many. I will provide all of the detail I can scrape together and hopefully someone will be able to answer the one question I have:

Where does this story originally come from?


Allegedly posted in a Colorado newspaper in the early 1900s, I can find plenty of references to the article but no conformation that the article in fact exists r a specific bibliographic clue to point me to the original article. The story has been retold for nearly a century, but the original story eludes me. Can anyone help?

Have you tried doing research on "Newspapers.com" ? There is also old newspapers on LOC Library of Congress

 

[cyzak]

cyzak, my apologies, I've taken down my response to the LUE.
Dirt

Thank you appreciate it greatly any info about Treasure Mountain is always welcome.