-
Roy Gardner was a train robber and gun runner who started his crime career in
1906. He concealed $16,000 in gold coins in the cone of an extinct volcano
near
Flagstaff before he was captured during a train robbery in 1921 and sent to
prison. His cache was never recovered.
-
In 1878 a wagon train was attacked in Chavez Pass 30 miles S.W. of Winslow and
everyone except two of the party were massacred. The two survivors said all
of the valuables and cash of the wagon train were buried the night before the
attack near the campsite and never recovered after the melee. Even though the
remains of the burnt wagons were found, the treasure wasn't.
-
A cache of gold dust and silver coins was secreted by Apache Indians after
they attacked a wagon train a few miles N.E. of the stage station at Mountain
Springs. The dutch oven containing the treasure is hidden behind two rocks at
the point of the Winchester Mountains N.E. of Wilcox.
-
Two heavy bags of gold were buried by outlaws after a robbery. Captured and
sent to jail, they admitted the crime and gave these directions to the cache:
from Douglas, go north on a country road for 18 miles. Where the road forks
take it to the left leading in a westerly direction and continue for about 5
miles, then turn north again. Straight ahead is a corral. Go through two
gates and follow this road 8-10 miles to a goat ranch. From goat ranch:
about 200 yards up a canyon is a spring and old campsite. Up this canyon,
towards a dike, is the area where the loot was hidden.
-
Profits from the 250 acre Spade Ranch, established in 1883 by William Craig
and Paul Vogel, are believed buried somewhere on the property located in a
meadow on Webber Creek below the Mogollon Rim and near Pine.
-
In 1903, Jake Johnson and his brother were taken to a treasure cave, by a
Paiute Indian, containing a vast quantity of Aztec gold and silver, from the
south rim of the Grand Canyon. They were blindfolded one day's ride S of Pipe
Spring and rode another 4 days. At the base of the Grand Canyon they entered
the cavern, where their blindfolds were removed. The two men were allowed to
take all the treasure they could carry, in return for their help in saving the
life of the Indian's wife. They searched for years and could not find the
cavern.
-
The Nazi Germany war regime is said to have cached upwards of $300 million in
the area of Chloride.
-
1870s---2 bandits robbed a stagecoach of an army payroll and stole $72,000.
The loot is believed buried in the vicinity of Canyon Station.
-
Indians planned and made several attacks on emigrant trains in Secret Pass and
buried a large store of weapons in a concealed cave. The cave is located at
the western or Colorado River side of Secret Pass where Thumb Butte is a
prominent rock formation nearby.
-
Spanish priests, in charge of a wagon train enroute from Mexico to
California, were loaded with everything needed to establish a new mission
including, chalices, candlesticks, crosses, vestments and other church
articles. Indians forced them to conceal the treasures in a cave in the area
of Secret Pass and then the party was attacked and massacred. Two nuns
escaped the foray and returned to Mexico to tell of the tragedy.
- In the
1880's, 5 bandits robbed a saloon in the booming mining camp of Mineral
Park.
While escaping, they robbed a stagecoach of a strongbox containing 400
pounds of
gold bars, dust and nuggets and the passengers of additional valuables.
The
strongbox was too heavy to take with them and in their haste, pushed it off
to
the side
of the road and covered it with dirt. A posse caught up with the gang
shortly
afterwards and killed them all. The posse found the stagecoach and its
passengers not far from Topock and all made a thorough search for the gold,
but
nothing
was ever found. The location is along the Yucca-Needles stage road to the W
of the Yucca Stage Station.
-
The above coins may or may not have come
from a cache made by 4 outlaws who robbed the Sante Fe train in 1889, 34 miles
E of Flagstaff. The loot was taken up Canyon Diablo to a cedar thicket
where the spendable loot was divided and the diamond jewelry and separated
rifles and watches buried on the rim. The outlaws then separated.
-
"Long
Tom" Watson found some old papers in 1910 in a cabin written by outlaws
that
told of a cache of gold nuggets hidden behind a waterfall that exists only
in the spring of the year in the vicinity of Havasupai Village in the
Grand Canyon. The site is W of the old Tanner Trail in the Grand Canyon,
about 4 miles N of Hwy. 64. He began his search in 1912, and after 2 years
of futile searching was on his way out of the canyon to the Arizona
strip via the old Horse Thief Trail from Morgan Point where he saw a
falls. Behind it was a cave and, inside, a bushel of gold nuggets. As
he was about to leave, he fell and broke his leg, but managed to get to the
Buggelin Ranch, leaving the treasure behind. When he recovered, he made
numerous attempts to relocate the cave and waterfall, but failed. In
disgust, Watson later committed suicide and the story became legend.
-
The owner
of an Indian trading post N of the peaks from Flagstaff during the 1800's
buried
the profits from his store in jars and cans around the fences on his
property. The caches are believed to have numbered in the hundreds, many of
which are still awaiting discovery to this day.
-
An outlaw
cave is located to the W of this trading post, possibly in the North Frisco
Peak
region, where it it believed a large cache of gold coins remains unrecovered.
-
$100,000
in outlaw loot was buried by Curly Walker near his stone fort-like
headquarters in the N end of the Painted Desert. The ruins are still visable
and, somewhere nearby, the unrecovered cash.
-
In the
1880's, 7 outlaws of the Valenzuelo gang were killed by lawmen at Mexican
Pocket S
of Flagstaff and another five bandits escaped, only to be killed later. The
12 bandits buried their shares of loot from series of rich hauls in separate
caches
and
contained in saddlebags here and were never able to return to recover them.
Shortly
after the shooting spree, 2 separate caches were found; one contained
$5,000 in
gold and silver coins, a few years later, $8,000 was found in saddlebags in
another cache in the same area. It was presumed that another 10 caches of
outlaw loot with a face value of some $80,000 remains buried in separate
places in
Mexican
Pocket.
-
A cache
of stagecoach loot was buried by a lone bandit at Viet Spring near
Flagstaff. The outlaw was killed in a gunfight and the treasure was never
recovered.
-
On May
10, 1881, 5 outlaws robbed the Canyon Diablo-Flagstaff stage about 30
miles E
of Flagstaff. Two mail sacks were taken containing two 5-gallon oak kegs
packed
with a Wells Fargo shipment of gold ingots and coins cosigned to a San
Francisco
bank. The gold was worth $125,000. The bandits made good their escape and
holed up in a log cabin at a place later called Viet Spring. A posse trailed
the gang and trapped them at the cabin. In the shootout, all the bandits
were killed and a search of the area made, but no gold was found. Many
fruitless searches have been made for this cache over the years until a
local man, Jim McGuire, suddenly started spending $50 gold coins at the
saloon. McGuire was not a wealthy man and boasted that he "found" the coins.
When he died suddenly, a search of his cabin turned up nothing and it is
presumed that he had indeed found the stagecoach loot but only took a few
coins from the cache at a time. The treasure still awaits recovery.
-
Roy
Gardner was a train robber and gunrunner who started his crime career in
1906. He
concealed $16,000 in gold coins in the cone of an extinct volcano near Flagstaff
before he was captured during a train robbery in 1921 and sent to prison. His cache
was never recovered.
- In
1878, outlaws attacked a packed train loaded with silver bars enrouted from
the Stonewall Jackson Mine at McMillenville. Each of the 25 mules carried 2
huge ingots which weighed 190 pounds each. Taking over the mules, they turned
NW from the Globe Trail and moved the train into the Mogollon Moutains in
Navajo County . Seeing that they were being followed by Indians, the outlaws
led the caravan to the area of Little Valley ( Clark Valley ) where the silver
was cached in an old 40-foot-deep mine shaft on the side of the slope and
covered over. The bandits were killed in an shootout and the treasure was
never recovered. The search are for this hoard is believed to be within 1 mile
of the lower end of Lake Mary on the rim of Little Valley in the San Francisco
Mountains.
- During
the winter of 1881, outlaws Henry Corey and Ralph Gaines stole 8 gold bars,
each 3 feet long by 4 inches, from the old Tip Top Mine near (GT)
Gillette. They holed up in an abandoned cabin on Rogers Lake and buried the
bars near the cabin. They went to Flagstaff, held up a stagecoach of $25,000
in gold and silver coins and returned to the cabin. They dug up the gold bars
and, together with the stage loot which was placed in wooden kegs, they
chopped a hole in the ice and lowered the treasure into the lake. When the
sheriff learned that the pair was at Rogers Lake, a posse set out to capture
them. At their approach, Corey and Gaines managed to make a hasty escape,
leaving the treasure behind. Gaines was killed in a brawl and Corey was
arrested during a holdup near Globe and sent to prison. When Corey was
released 24 years later, he and a friend made repeated searches for the loot
but it was never found. Corey died in 1936. During certain times of the year,
a search can be made on the dry lakebed.
-
In 1879,
four outlaws robbed a stage near Gila Bend and made off with $125,000 in
gold coins and 22 gold bars stamped "AJO". The next day, the same gang
robbed another stage near Stanwix Station obtaining 2 chests containing
$140,000 in gold coins and $60,000 in currency. Fleeing northeastward when
the posse trailed them into the Tonto Basin country, than northwestward when
the posse finally overtook them. In the shootout, 2 of the gang were shot
and killedand the other 2 escaped, making their way to Holbrook where they
waited for things to quiet down. Here, one of the bandits was killed in a
poker game and the other, Henry Tice, in a fit of anger, shot and killed the
gambler. An irate made a quick job of justice and killed him.
The search area for this
huge store of treasure has centered around the cliffs between Mormon Lake
and Flagstaff. All efforts to locate this hoard have failed.
- William
Ashurst owned a ranch near a good spring, now known as Ashurst Run, 25 miles
SE of Flagstaff. He is known to have buried a number of 5 and 10 pound lard
cans full of gold coins somewhere on the property that were never recovered
after his death.
- Outlaws
headed by Henry Seymour robbed a stagecoach in 1879 of $225,000 in
newly-minted coins contained in 3 boxes at the Pine Spring Station located
between Beaverhead Station and Brigham City. They took the gold into the
station where they holed up just as a 20-man posse arrived. After a day long
standoff, the posse set fire to the rear wall of the structure and routed the
outlaws who were gunned down within a few yards of the station. The posse then
put the fire out and searched for the gold, but it was never found. The hoard
of gold coins remain buried somewhere in or near the old Pine Springs
Station.
- Herman
Wolf operated a trading post for 30 years on the Little Colorado River between
1869-1899. The highly profitable business brought him tens of thousands of
dollars in gold and silver coins. During all of this time, he is known never
to of banked a single penny, but in 1899, Wolf decided to bring $100,000 in
gold to the Flagstaff bank for deposit, but died before he did so. His 30-year
accumulation was estimated to total some $250,000 and remains buried somewhere
near his old store on the Little Colorado River just off the California-Sante
Fe Trail near Canyon Diablo.
Only small portions of his hoard has ever been found, and that nearer to the
store than the location which he confided to a close friend not long before he
died. A bucket of Mexican silver and 20 U.S. gold coins were found in 1966 and
1901 respectively and is but a mere part of his
treasure. The main cache still eludes seekers.
-
East of
the Canyon Diablo trading post on the other side of Hwy. 40 near the Meteor
Crater is Diablo Canyon which stretches about 50 miles N and S and ends in
the San Franciso Wash. In the northeastern area of Diablo Canyon, about 7
miles S of Two Guns in the late 1920's, an old Apache Indian told the story
of an old Indian ambush on a group of white miners near Meteor Crater and
killed them all. After the attack, no gold nuggets were found and the
Indians presumed the hoard cached before or during the battle. The aged
Indian told of a stone corral and a stone structure, some sort of cabin.
In the 1930's another
Indian reported seeing the stone corral and cabin but was unaware of the
treasure and did not search for it.
- In
1878, a wagon train was attacked in Chavez Pass, 30 miles SW of Winslow and
everyone except 2 of the party were massacred. The two survivors said that all
the valuables and cash of the train were buried the night before the attack
near the campsite and never recovered after the melee. Even though the remains
of the burnt wagons were found, the treasure wasn't.
- A
treasure known as
the Lost Ledge of the Lone Ace Desert Rat is located near Skull Valley NW of
Prescott.
- An
early resident of Chino Valley, about 20 miles N of Prescott, is believed to
have buried a large quantity of gold coins and nuggets somewhere in or near
his cabin before he died. His treasure has never been recovered.
-
Mose
Casner operated a ranch in Beaver Creek Canyon near Rimrock and accumulated
a fortune of $100,000 which he buried on his ranch in 5 dutch ovens, each
containing $20,000 and each buried in separate locations. Casner died
without revealing the location of his money and it was never recovered.
Another source claims
that Casner bored holes in several pine trees and cached hoards in his "tree
banks," then plugged the holes. This source claims that one such tree near
his house yielded $1.000 in gold coins and another, in Beaver Creek Canyon,
contained rolls of currency.
- For 50
years during the 1800's, Sycamore Canyon was used as a hideout by outlaws and
cattle rustlers. It is believed that a large number of treasure caches from
these sources remain buried and hidden in this vicinity.
-
Numerous bottles filled with gold were hidden in an orchard in Cottonwood
during the peak of the Jerome mining days by two miners by the name of Marvin
and Dreher. 3 of these bottles were found by a young boy in 1961, but it was a
small sampling of what remains.
- 38 bars
of gold, stolen in Mexico by a man named Hashknife Charley, were buried
somewhere between a spring and the boundary line between Arizona and Sonora
near Sonoyta on the Arizona side of the border. The valuable cache was never
recovered as Charley died in jail while serving a prison term for stealing
horses.
- The
Treasure of Zonia, a hoard consisting of bars and bullion from a Mexican pack
train and sacks of Mexican gold and silver coins and some church treasure, is
buried in the vicinity of Yava between Kirkland and Hillside on Hwy. 96. It
has never been recovered.
- In
1876, 2 bandits robbed the stagecoach from the Vulture Mine of $40,000 in gold
bars which they sawed into chunks in order to carry it. Government men were
immediately on their trail and the outlaws were shot and killed in Thompson
Valley. Part of the loot was recovered several days later and indications are
that the remainder was hidden in the mountains somewhere between the Vulture
Mine and where the town of Hillside is located today. It has yet to be found.
- The
Golden Cup Treasure is located on Rich Hill.
- While
being pursued by lawmen, 2 Mexican outlaws dumped $30,000 in raw gold on a
pinnacle between Japanese Wash and Weaver Creek near Stanton. The hoard was
never recovered.
-
Precillano Ruiz had a rich placer mine somewhere near Wickenburg in the Black
Rock Mining District. Over a period of time he extracted $50,000 in gold and
silver which he kept hidden in or near his mine. He was killed around 1890 and
his claim taken over by others. His cache of treasure was never found and
remains somewhere near his mine, now known as the Monte Christo, a short
distance from the Constellation Mine in the area near the Bradshaw Mountains
and adjacent to Rich Hill, Stanton, Weaver and Octave.
- In
1870, bandits attacked a pack train carrying silver bullion from border
smelters at Coalmine Springs near Alto. The bullion has never been recovered
and, beacause of the weight of the treasure, it is believed to be cached
somewhere in the area of the holdup.
- The
stongboxes of at least 2 stagecoach robberies are believed buried somewhere on
the slopes of Granite Mountain NW of Prescott.
- In the
1800's, a party of successful prospectors were returning from the Big Sandy
River to Prescott with a considerable amount of gold dust and nuggets
contained in canvas bags. Stopping at Granite Dells for water in a spring that
was located down in a ravine, they were attacked by Indians. The gold was
hastily buried near the spring as the battle went on. All of the men were
killed except one who made good his escape. The lone survivor returned to the
site on several occasions with a search party later, but they never found any
signs of the gold cache. It is surmised that the Indians dug up the tresure
and reburied it somewhere else in the same area.
- The
treasure known as Yaeger's Lost Gold is located near Yaeger Canyon in Javapai
County.
- "Red"
Jack Almer buried $8,000 in gold coins in the vicinity of Prescott.
- A chest
containing some $100,000 in gold was buried by a miner being folowed by
hostile Indians under a boulder shaped like kneeling man. The site was near a
spring at the foot of a mountain past which a stream flowed into a small
valley near Prescott. In a tree a few feet away he marked a cross above a half
circle. The cache of gold has never been recovered.
- $75,000
in gold bars is buried in the area of Prescott.
- Oscar
Johnson was a recluse-miner living in McCabe. He hoarded his wealth and buried
it somewhere in or near his cabin. Johnson mysteriously disappeared and
neither he, nor his money, was ever found. Most all agree that his treasure
remains buried somewhere near the cabin and yet to be found.
- In
1864, miners struck a rich placer of gold desposit on Lynx Creek E of
Prescott, washing out about $30,000 in nuggets packed in 5 buckskin pouches.
Between Lynx Creek and Prescott, the party was attacked and killed by 2
Indians who took the gold and headed for the mountains. Within 3 hours, a
posse set out after them, and about 10 miles from the scene of the attack,
overtook and killed them. The posse did not find any gold and they believed
that it had been buried or hidden somewhere enroute by the robbers. It has yet
to be found.
- Some
legends say that Montezuma's Aztec treasure hoard, removed from Mexico during
the Cortez conquest in the 1500's, is buried in a great sink hole known
locally as Montezuma's Well, near the ancient cliff dwelling's known today as
Montezuma's Castle.
- A
treasure known as the Silver of the Dead Apache is located in the Bradshaw
Mountains E of Prescott.
- 200
pounds of raw gold lies at the bottom of a creek near the junction of Slate
and Sqaw Creeks close to (GT) Bumble Bee.
-
An Apache Indian living in Bronco Canyon often traded gold nuggets at the
store at Fort McDowell. Two prospectors went to the canyon and set up camp
in Bronco Canyon and
prospected the area. One day they found a rich vein of gold quartz showing
signs of having been worked. The men worked the vein, taking out between
$70,000 and $80,000 in gold which they stored under a huge rock near their
camp. Preparing to leave the site because winter was upon them, a party of
Apaches swooped down and attacked killing one of the men while the other
managed to escape. The survivor waited until the Indians were subdued but by
that time he was in his 80's. Before he could return to the site, he fell ill
and on his deathbed told of the story of gold and rich mine. Several years
later, a Mexican sheepherder told of finding the campsite in Bronco Canyon but
didn't know of the mine or treasure cache. Others, too, have reported seeing a
crude arrastre in the same region, but the mine and cache, located about 4
miles E of (GT) Bumble Bee, has yet to be found.
- Black
Canyon Hill is located 38 miles S of Prescott on Hwy. 49. The place was a
dangerous spot on the old stage road and many holdups took place here. It is
believed that some of the stolen loot from these robberies may still remain
buried in the area.
- Henry
Seymour was a blacksmith in (GT) Gillett. In 1882, he held up 3 different
stagecoaches on the outskirts of town, obtaining a total of $69,000. He was
caught trying to hold up a fourth stage and was sent to prison, all the time
refusing to reveal where he had hidden the loot. After he was released from
prison he dropped from sight and never returned to Gillett to recover his
treasure.
- Miners
Samuel Walcott and James McNally had a gold ledge somewhere in or around Blue
Canyon in Black Mountain. When they were killed in the 1880's, the location
became lost. Before they were killed by attacking Indians, the miners buried
200 pounds of gold near the mouth of Tsegi Canyon in Marsh Pass off Black
Mountain. The cache is located up the canyon and buried somewhere betwen the
creek running through it and the cliff-like wall not far from the present-day
trading post on Hwy. 163.
-
Returning from the California gold fields in 1855 with $300,000 in gold , a
prospector named Darlington and his family were heading for their home in
Illinois. When they reached the Sunset Crossing of the Little Colorado River,
his wife took ill and died. She was buried in a box built by the post trader
at Sunset Crossing and was so heavy that it took six men to lower it and
leveled it off to resemble the terrain. Years later it was learned that
Darlington had placed half of his gold, $150,000, in the coffin as his wife's
share. It's still there.
- An
oxcart heavily loaded with gold plates, bowls and other items was placed in a
cave in the cliffs and covered over after Indians attacked a group of
early-day Spaniards. The cave is located W of the Rock Point trading post and
past the formation called Rock Point. The search area is just around the hill
from the top of the mesa.
- A small
party of prospectors recovered $75,000 from a rich gold deposit in the late
1800's on the Navajo Indian Reservation. Pursued by irate Indians, the miners
finally escaped, taking a hard, round-about journey from the area. One by one
they died from exhausution until only one was left and, he too, was dying. He
said that the gold was buried under a boulder shaped like a kneeling man at
the foot of a mountain in a small vally that contained a small stream near
Prescott. Subsequent searches failed to find the gold even though the
landmarks were located.
- One
suggested location of Alec Toppington's Bear Cave Treasure is in the Carrizo
Mountains.
- 3
Navajo Indians knew the location of a cave whose floor was littered with gold
nuggets and ingots in the 1860's. The Indians took Henry Adams, operator of
the trading post at Fort Defiance, to the cave blindfolded. The cave was to
the SW and up a steep hill from the base of a towering cliff. Adams saw 3
peaks nearly identical in size and shape looking out from the cave entrance,
then he was blindfolded again and led from the cave, one night's travel from
Fort Defiance. Adams sold his store and searched for years for the treasure
cave without success. After running out of money and grubstake friends, he
killed himself. Some researchers believ the treasure cave is located in the
cliffs N of Indian Wells.
- Profits
from the 250-acre Spade Ranch, established in 1883 by William Craig and Paul
Vogel, are believed buried somewhere on the property located in a meadow on
Webber Creek below the Mogollon Rim and near Pine.
- Local
residents fleeing the area because of Indian uprisings buried a large
Mexican-Spanish treasure in the vicinity of Globe in the middle 1800's. The
cache was never recovered.
- The
Sunlit Cave Treasure, consisting of several tons of Spanish gold bullion, is
located on the Arizona side of the Colorado River, 15-20 miles S of Ehrenberg.
- Zuni
Indians hid a cache of gold and silver and some church vessels in a cave under
the mesa during the Indian Rebellion of 1680 somewhere in the area starting S
of Lupton to the N Mexican border. Legends say that this treasure was never
recovered. The Yuma Indians are said to have brought out gold nuggets from
Cibola Cave, 50 miles N of Yuma in the Trigo Mountains.
-
William B. Rood owned a ranch on the E side of the Colorado River, about
halfway between Yuma and La Paz as the crow flies and between the area of
Walker and Draper Lakes, except on the E side of the river. Rood drowned while
crossing the river in 1870 and it was widely known that he had various
amounts of gold coins hidden on the ranch, called Rancho de los Yumas. He was
a very wealthy man, but only a few hundred dollars was found after his death.
Various relatives, and others, searched for his caches at different times, but
there were no reports of any recoveries. In 1897, Alfredo Pina dug up a baking
powder tin containing $960 in gold coins. Another small cache is believed to
have been found by Leonardo Romo. The recovered caches are but a small portion
of what is still awaiting recovery. The remains of the old ranch buildings can
still be located.
- A blacksmith working
a small shop at Middle Well, located just N of a sand road that runs midway
between the Castle Dome and Kofa Mountains, skimmed high grade gold ore from
passing wagons and buried the gold in a cellar dug beneath the floor of his
blacksmith shop. He died of a heart attack and the highgraded treasure went
unrecovered. In the 1960's, treasure hunters searched the area and found
many relics and bottles, but no gold.
- Wealthy Mexican Don
Jose Maria Redonda came to Arizona and built a vast estate about 15 miles N
of Yuma in the Gila Valley, naming it the Hacienda de San Ysidro. He added
to his fortune over the years from his ranch and winery and also owned a
number of stores in Yuma. When his vast estate was divided by the government
in 1874, Redondo abandoned the Hacienda and moved to Yuma. Rumors had it
that a huge fortune remained buried on the estate and seekers flocked to the
site, literally tearing it apart but no known treasure was found. Rumors
persist today that a large treasure remains buried somewhere on the
property.
- The Lost Treasure
consists of some 50 pounds of gold nuggets and is located near the present
Laguna Dam. Indians reportedly ambushed and killed a group of miners and
threw their bodies and the gold into a gorge in the hills.
- Indians attacked the
mission and the gold and other tresures were gathered by the Padres and
taken across the Colorado River to the Arizona side and buried close to a
peak known today as Sugar Loaf, or Sqaw Peak. A second version says the
treasure was buried in a cave on the face of the peak.
- Near a prominent
army camp used for desert training during WWII in a mountainous area at a
flat base fronting a vertically-faced wall of volcanic rock are two stacks
of 220 gold bars that were discovered in the 1940's by 5 trainees assigned
to the camp. The site is near Yuma and was lost by those who originally
found it.
- John Glanton was a scalphunter who
was forced out of Mexico when he was caught selling Mexican scalps as being
Apache to the government. At Yuma crossing, Glanton met Able Lincoln and
joined him in a profitable ferry business that grossed $20,000 per month.
Not happy with that, Glanton robbed California gold seekers and killed them
if they resisted. Indians attacked the crossing one night and killed both
Glandon and Lincoln while a third ferryman escaped. He later stated that
Lincoln had $50,000 in silver coins and between $20,000 and $30,000 in gold
coins which he kept buried someplace near his camp. Glanton is believed to
have had a similar fortune which he believed to have been buried in the
thickets on the W bank of the river, placing it in California. After the
massacre, the governor sent an expedition to the Crossing to protect the
travelers, punish the Indians and recover the treasure. The venture cost the
state over $110,000 and they did not find a cent of the Glanton-Lincoln
hoard.
- According to an ancient map, a cache
of gold treasure is supposedly buried somewhere in Spook Canyon in the Gila
Mountains, about 5 miles SE of the once-rich Fortuna Gold Mine.
- The English pirate Thomas Cavendish
stripped several Spanish galleons of their treasure in the late 1500's. One
of his vessels, the Content, loaded with tons of gold and silver,
mysteriously disappeared and is believed to lie under the desert sands while
the mutinous crew tried sailing the vessel up the Colorado River with the
hiijacked treasure and became caught in a tidal wave and swept far inland.
- A large cache of gold and silver
coins is hidden on the Colorado River near the Pima Indian villages near
Yuma.
- A gold miner returning to the E from
the California gold fields with $40,000 in nuggets was robbed along the El
Camino del Diablo in the 1850's. The outlaws are believed to have fled into
the Tinajas Atlas Mountains to a hideout and it is a good possibility that
some of this, and probably additional caches of loot, was buried there.
Numerous outlaws and highwaymen used the basins in the Tinajas Atlas
Mountains as a hideaway any many caches of loot and treasure are believed
secreted in the region.
- Around 1933, a Mexican couple was
traveling illegally towards Wellton from Mexico and crossing the Gila
Mountains along one of the old Indian trails, about 1/2 day's hike from
Tinajas Atlas. As they came through a small pass and started down the E side
of the Gilas, they saw what looked like a piece of burlap flapping in the
wind from behind a sand dune. Upon investigating, they found a cave nearly
hidden by the dune and, inside, about a dozen wooden crates full of
Winchester .30-.30 carbines dated 1903. Leaving the cache they continued on
their journey, were caught by government officers and forced to return to
Mexico. The rifles have never been recovered.
- The Nazi Germany war regime is said
to have cached millions of dollars in war treasure in an area between Yuma
and Lukeville. A similar Nazi war cache was recently recovered near Lima,
Peru and lends credence to its existence.
- A treasure from a wagon train
massacre is buried W of O'Neil Pass near Papago Well.
- $140,000 in gold coins, stolen from
a stagecoach in which 6 people were massacred in 1871 about 9 miles W of
Wickenburg, is believed buried very near the hold-up scene. The robbery was
supposed to be an "inside job" with only the $140,000 and a shovel missing
from the stage even though other treasure and valuables were on board. Law
men found the shovel lodged between some rocks, about 300 yards from the
exact massacre site which is today marked by a monument. One source places
this treasure N of Hwy. 60-60 on a dry mesa near an arroyo between 2 hills
in a wash. It has never been recovered.
- GT: Vulture City, near the Vulture
Gold Mine, 12 miles from Wickenburg on the road to Buckeye and Aguila.
Robberies, Murder and rape were a frequent occurance in Vulture City. The
gold mine was robbed of bars on numerous times and much treasure is believed
to remain hidden in and around the region. Wells Fargo chests, carrying the
gol from the mines on stages were robbed so often that the carrier's lives
were always on the line. Highgrading
was rampant in the area of the Vulture Mine during its heyday and at least 8
men are known to have been hanged for their stealing and this, too, added to
numerous caches that were hidden in the region. Old timers say that as much
as $8 million was highgraded from the area mines and never reported. The
main gold ore body has never been found at Vulture City. $17 million in gold
has already been recovered from the mines, but the mother lode source of
this ore, speculated to be worth many times that amount, still awaits
discovery.
- The Valenzuela outlaw gang buried
$25,000 in gold bars in the area of Wittman. It has never been recovered.
- Grocery heiress Marjorie Jackson was
murdered at Indianapolis, Indiana. in the late 1970's. F.B.I. agents
recovered $1.4 million in cash in the desert, 20 miles N of Phoenix and
believe that an additional $1 million to $6 million in cash, stolen from her
home, is still buried in the same general area.
- The treasure known as the Royal
Treasure is located in the general area NW of Phoenix.
- A cave of treasure lies in the
vicinity of Hidden Valley in the Salt River Mountains, or South Mountains,
on the outskirts of Phoenix. The hoard was seen in the early 1900's and one
$50 gold slug was removed. The opening is now believed covered over by
fallen rocks and natural washing.
- The Lost Epileptic Gold Mine and a
hidden cache of gold bars worth $50,000 nearby in the Estrella Mountains.
- In 1878, two Mexican prospectors
found a rich gold ledge in the Estrella Mountains and worked out an
estimated $50,000 in gold which they buried nearby. Pima Indians discovered
them and attacked, killing one of the men and wounding the other. The
injured man reached Tucson but died before he could lead another party to
the site. The mine and $50,000 in mined gold was never found and still
awaits seekers high in the canyons of the Estrella Mountains SW of Phoenix.
- A Mexican bandit murdered the
station keeper at Burke's Station in an effort to learn the location of the
hidden strongbox in the 1870's. The money chest was never found and is
believed to remain somewhere in the immediate vicinity of the old stage
stop, just off the Agua Caliente road, a short distance E of the road on the
S bank of the Gila River. The location on topographic maps is Township 5,
Range 10, Section 28.
- The Aztecs took millions of dollars
from the streams, rivers and mountains of Mexico in ancient times. There is
an abundance of evidence that during the conquest by Cortez, a huge store of
treasure was carried from today's Mexico City to the north and buried in a
cave, possibly in Arizona. Some sources speculate and legends say that the
tons of Aztec gold is buried somewhere near the mountain known as
Montezuma's Head.
- Don Joaquin Campoy worked a rich
vein of gold in 1847 inthe Sierra Estrella Mountains W of Phoenix. When he
heard rumors of approaching American soldiers and a possible war with Mexico
in the brewing, he loaded 50 bars of gold and 30 rawhide sacks of gold dust
on mules and headed them up a trail toward Butterfly Peak, then down another
trail that followed a high ridge from Montezuma's Head. Somewhere along this
trail it is presumed that Campoy turned off into a small box canyon and
found a shallow cave where he buried the gold. He died before he could
recover his hoard and it remains buried to this day.
- The Lost Treasure of Telegraph Pass,
a cache of $50,000 in coins and jewelry contained in an iron pot, was buried
in 1870 at the S end of the Estrella Mountains below Montezoma's Head in a
level campsite with a small butte on the E side, not far from Telegraph
Pass.
- A hoard of gold bars, said to total
between $1 million and $2 million, remains buried in a cave near Montezuma's
Head.
- The Lost Ortega Mine is located
somewhere in the Sierra Estrella Mountains. A group of Mexicans worked the
mine using hired Pima Indians as laborers during the Mexican-American War.
The mine was located in a short, deep box canyon on the E side of the range
and about halfway between 2 high peaks and high up the mountainside. When
word was received that a force of U.S. soliders were in the area, Ortega
covered over the mine entrance and concealed the mined gold in a small cave
nearby. Ortega died within days of the treasure burial and the mine, nor the
cache, was ever located in later years. The search area is just W of the
Santa Cruz River in a line between St. John's Mission and Montezuma Peak W
of Phoenix.
- A wagon train consisting of 14
well-to-do families made its way towards the California gold fields in 1849.
One of the wagons carried their accumalated fortunes to start a new life,
some $50,000 in a chest. Each night, the chest was buried for safekeeping
along the route within the circle formed by the wagons. Ever since leaving
San Antonio, Texas, the party was plagued by Indian troubles and when the
party camped for the night near the natural formation known as Montezuma's
Head in Arizona, a band of Apaches attacked, killing every member of the
group. The treasure, buried the night before, was never found, even though
subsequent searches were made by wagon trains who came upon the scene of the
massacre and modern-day searches as well.
- An Apache chief named White Horse
related that a wagon train of Spaniards came to the Superstition Mountains
and chose Weaver's needle as the place to bury a store of gold bars ,
jewels, statues and other artifacts. He stated that they climed the Needle
and deposited the huge cache inside a cave near the top, then sealed the
entrance. The Indians then attacked the Spaniards and killed them all. The
sealed cave has never been found.
- The Lost Jesuit Treasure, worth an
estimated $6 million, is located in the Superstitions. The hoard, possibly
in 3 tunnels leading to 3 mines, was secreted when the priests were expelled
in 1767.
- In 1976, famous western artist Ted
DeGrazia of Tucson announced that he had concealed more than 100 original
artworks inside a tunnel somewhere in the Superstition Mountains, 40 miles E
of Phoenix. he said he hid the paintings, valued from $3,000 to well over
$30,000 each, in order to keep his heirs from having to pay well over $1
million in taxes upon his death.
- In the late 1880's, the stage on the
Florence-Pinal Wells route was robbed of an $85,000 payroll bound for the
old Pinal Silver Mine. The holdup took place along the stage road at a bend
in Queen Creek about 3 miles E of Hewitt's Station, located in a canyon now
named after it and E of Comet Creek, about 12 miles NW of Old Pinal Town.
The bandits rode off to the W following Queen Creek and were caught by a
posse about 10 miles down the creek and off to the hills around Comet Peak.
One of the outlaws was shot and killed, another escaped and the third was
badly wounded. The dying man confessed that the loot was, "...buried along
the trail under a palo verde tree." A search was made, but nothing was
found.
- In the early 1860's, Andrew Pauly
found a cave in some red cliffs N of Maricopa Wells near a large needle rock
that contained skeletons, copper shields, spear points, axes and other
artifacts as well as gold relics. Inside the cavern was a metal door that he
could not open and what layed beyond is not known. Speculation ranges from a
hoard of Aztec treasure to a vast Spanish treasure stockpile of gold and
silver. No further reports were forthcoming.
- In 1871, the Blue Water Massacre
took place at the Blue Water Station on the Yuma-Tucson road between the
stations of Picacho and Sacaton. The operators of the station were killed by
3 Mexican outlaws for the money hidden somewhere in or near the station, but
it was never found. The accumulated life savings of John W Baker, the
operator, also remains secreted somewhere in the vicinity of the old stage
stop.
- $26,000 in gold was stolen by
outlaws during the robbery of an army paymaster, J.W. Whamat, at Cedar
Springs in 1889 on the old military road, 16 miles NE of Camp Grant. The
money was never recovered and may be buried in the immediate vicinity of the
robbery.
- Frontiersman and scout William
"Arizona Bill" Gardner told of a cache of gold coins cached near or on the
grounds of old Camp Grant and hinted that the treasure burial occurred in
1877 and involved 5 cavalrymen on leave from the fort who made off with a
$20,000 payroll. 4 of them were killed while out fighting Indians and the
fifth deserted the army. It was from the deserter that Gardner learned of
the treasure. Arizona Bill died at San Antonio in 1937 at the age of 96.
- Paddy Lynch was a prosperous rancher
in the 1870's and 1880's and a miser who lived near the head of Aravaipa
Valley, 10 miles N of Mammoth on the road from Wilcox to Globe. Most of his
accumulated hoard of cash was buried somewhere near his house, 20 miles from
Fort Grant. He was found shot to death in 1902 and the house ransacked. His
cache was never found.
- An old Papago silver deposit was
shown to John D. Walker in 1880 and a rich mine and boomtown sprang up.
Before it was all over. 300 ingots of silver, each weighing 25 pounds, was
buried by Walker within 1/2 hours wagon ride from his house at Vekol to the
north along the county road to Casa Grande. The hoard was made around
1890,"almost in plain sight" near the old Walker home. The 1050 pounds of
pure silver has never been recovered.
- A cache of Indian guns, pistols and
rifles, numbering upwards of 1,000, is hidden on the Papago Indian
Reservation in the mountains to the W of the Santa Rosa Wash between Casa
Grande and Santa Rosa in the 1880's.
- In the early 1700's, the Spaniards
mined and accumulated a large store of gold and silver in a cave in the area
of the Red Rock Butte NW of Tucson. The treasure was stored in the cave
somewhere in the Silver Bell Mountains. Marauding Apache Indians from the
north wiped out both the Papagos and Spaniards and the treasure was never
recovered. If not on the butte itself, the hoard is located somewhere along
the road between Red Rock and Silverbell.
- El Tejano was an outlaw in the
1870's who frequently robbed stagecoaches in Arizona. He was found dead one
day along the Santa Cruz River S of Tucson from gunshot wounds sustained in
a robbery attempt. His buried caches of stolen loot are believed to remain
buried at either Picacho Pass or Cerro del Gato, both near Tucson.
- In the late 1890's, outlaws crossed
into Arizona with loot amounting to $48,000 from a Belen, New Mexico, train
robbery and hid the cache at the Camp of the Double Circle on Eagle Creek.
It was at this spot that the bandits were shot and killed by lawmen and the
treasure never recovered.
- In 1905, a gang of outlaws robbed a
train at Fort Thomas. An iron-bound chest containing $440,000 and another
containing $65,000 was taken. The gang is believed to have buried the
treasure, possibly an army payroll intended for Fort Thomas, about 10 feet
deep near the holdup scene on private property. This treasure has been
connected with the secretive Knights of the Golden Circle, an organization
of Confederate and Southern sympathizers who attempted to raise enough money
to restart the Civil War.
- $14,000, part of a payroll robbery
at Cedar Springs in 1889, is buried a few miles SW of Fort Thomas.
- Padres transporting church treasure
along a trail through the rough Graham Mountains were warned by a scout that
Apaches were heading their way. The priests hastily buried a large store of
gold coins, jeweled church vessels and other valuables in a cave and in the
ensuing battle, all but a few of the party were killed. The survivors
escaped and the treasure was never relocated.
- There are signs of a caravan of
early Spaniards burying a cache of gold bullion on Mount Graham. The party
wa traced as far as their stopping place in Shannon Canyon where the gold is
believed buried.
- Money taken in a stage robbery is
believed hidden on the old Camp Grant land on the San Pedro River.
- An old Mexican women said that a
cache of treasure was buried in the grave of a wealthy Chinese in the
abandoned town cemetery at (GT) Metcalf.
- A large bean pot buried on Bush
Creek, a tributary of Rousensock Canyon, is said to contain a fortune in
gold nuggets, buried by a German prospector who was a man named Rose. While
on e of the men was away getting supplies, the other was murdered. When the
partner returned, he buried their nuggets and left. He never returned for
the cache and it is believed that he, too, was killed.
- Apache Indians raided a Mexican mine
and killed all but a few of the miners. The miners had buried their
accumulated gold prior to the attack in many iron bean pots just below the
crest of a hill above the creek about 3 miles due W of Ajo. Searchers for
decades have failed to locate the buried treasures or the rich gold placer
mine.
- Papago Indians tell the story that
the fabled treasure hoard of Montezuma was buried in a cave near the top of
a high peak in the Ajo Mountains, SE of the old mining camp of Gunsight. The
legend says that after burying the treasure, Montezuma climbed to the top of
the peak and turned to stone. The peak shaped like the head of an Indian is
the place to search. Many sources say that there is considerable substance
to the Papago legend.
- The early Spaniards found gold and
silver ore so rich that arrastres and smelters were built to crush the ore
and smelt it into ingots. The ingots were stored under the floors of the San
Marcelo Mission. In 1750, the Indians rebelled and completely obliterated
all signs of the mines, mission and smelter and dumped the bodies of the
Spaniards on top of the gold and silver ingots before they covered it over.
A large flat rock with an iron ring in the middle covers the entrance to the
underground treasure vault. Time, rain and drifting sands have obliterated
all traces of this location.
- Captain Jesus Arroa buried a large
quanity of gold from the wrecked Spanish galleon Isabella Catolica.
He moved about 300 miles inland SE of San Diego near the Mexican border and
N of the state of Sonara, Mexico. and cached the hoard on the slopes of the
Cocopah Range in 1682. Searchers have been made for this cache as far back
as 1874 without success.
- The treasure of the San Jose del
Tucson Mission is said to be buried somewhere on or near the old mission
grounds.
- There are rumors of treasure being
buried in White House Canyon S of Tucson where the canyon comes out of the
flats.
- It is said that the old owner of the
house located at 1322 Fifth Street in Tucson buried a cache of treasure on
his place before he died. It is claimed that his ghost appears at night and
sits on the fence guarding his hoard.
- In the 1700's, Spanish Jesuits
cached a huge store of gold nuggets in sacks and stacks of gold bars in an
old mine tunnel on the E slope of Baboquivari Peak. When they were expelled
in 1767, they were forced to leave the treasure behind. In the early 1870's,
a Papago Indian accidently found this Jesuit treasure and removed one sack
of nuggets from the location which he frugally lived on for the rest of his
life. One day, under extreme pressure from his peers, he said that the site
was located in a "Bat Cave" on a ridge extending NE from Baboquivari Peak
toward Tucson on the Eside. He said that he closed the entrance to the mine
so that flights of bats could never again reveal its location. The site is
near Arivaca.
- In 1861, "Bandito Juanito," the
Mexican foreman of the Cerro Colorado Mine, highgraded $70,000 in silver bullion
and buried it somewhere near the mine. The hot tempered mine owner shot and
killed Juan and his stolen silver was never found. Most sources agree that
the hoard of bars are still buried on th slope of Cerra Colorado facing the
mine on Cerra Chiquito.
- DeEstine Sheppard, wealthy Arizona
gold miner, cached $5 million worth of gold ore and bullion from his famous
diggings near Tucson, accumulated after 30 years of mining, before his death
in an Illinois hospital in 1907. The rich mine and huge store of gold is
believed located in the vicinity of Arivaca Wash. A map Sheppard drew on his
deathbed was extremely vague, but indicated the mine and bullion was located
about 55 miles S of Tucson somewhere near the present Nogales-Tucson highway
and perhaps the Pajarita Mountains. His route to the mine was along the old
Smuggler's Trail that led past the San Xavier Mission down through the
Cerritas and through a pass NE of Cumaro Wash to another pass in the
mountains to the S and in the area of Arivaca Wash near the Mexican border.
- Pancho Villa's bandits robbed and
looted towns in the Old Mexico and were chased across the line into Arizona
where they hid in the mountains 5 or 6 miles from Arivaca. All but one of
the gang were killed in a gun battle in 1913. The lone survivor admitted
that the loot was cached where he stood as a lookout and could see Sasabe
from the S slope. Old Mexico to the W and Main Street of Arivaca to the N.
The 2 packloads of treasure were never recovered.
- In 1751, word was received at the
Tumacacori Mission that the Indians were in revolt. The area mines were
covered over and concealed and the gold and silver bars and other church
fixtures and ornaments were loaded on a carreta. The hoard of valuables also
included a wooden box containing the mission records and a map pinpointing
the 8 satelitte mines. While making their way along the trail to the NW, 2
day's out from the mission and along the trail in the Tascosa Mountain
foothills about 6 miles S and 4 miles E of Arivaca, the group ran into
Jesuits from the Altar Sonora Mission who were also fleeing the revolt. The
Sonora party had with them 8 pack mules of church treasure and ingots. A
scout appeared with word that an Apache war party was in the area and the
Spanish turned of the road and concealed the entire hoard in an abandoned
mine tunnel nearby. The padres never returned.
- The Cienega Stage Station was
located near (GT) Pantano. In 1872, it was operated by a small band of
outlaws known locally as the "Benders." Murders, holdups and robberies took
place here regularly and with no interference from the law. The Benders,
disguised as Apaches, accounted for nearly all of the crimes. Their largest
haul was an army payroll of $75,000 stolen in a ambush near their station.
This hoard, and a large number of other valuable treasure caches, are known
to have been buried or hidden around the site of the old stage stop
and never recovered. A band of real Apaches attacked the station and killed
every man.
- The Santa Lucia Lost Mine and a
store of rich gold ore and bars worth $5 million is located in the Table
Mountains.
- Around 1909, F.A. Edwards owned 200
acres adjoining the Tumacacori Mission and claimed that his property held a
treasure estimated to be worth as much as $80 million-80 mule loads of gold.
Records in Madrid and Mexico City supposedly confirm its existence and
directions to the cache, but searchers have so far been futile.
- Spanish padres built a rock shelter
for a large treasure and buried it under tons of rock from a cliff on an
ancient trail leading from the old San Xavier del Bac Mission. The search
area is 8 miles N of Patagonia and near the old trail.
- An old Chinaman named Kang operated
a store in the old mining camp of Washington and secreted his gold coins and
bars and a small box of jewerly in a secret hole cut into solid rock a few
hundred feet from his store. The Chinaman died of a heart attack and the
gold cache was never recovered.
- A Southern Pacific express train was
robbed of $60,000 in gold coins and bullion by 2 outlaws named Alvord and
Stiles in 1899 near Cochise. The gold was buried within 1/2 mile of an old
cabin a few miles outside Cochise to the north and along the old trail
between Wilcox and Cochise, probably within a few miles of Cochise. The
money was buried with an agreement that it would be recovered once the heat
died down, but the gang was arrested or killed and the cache never
recovered. Wells Fargo agents made a long search for the loot, but they were
unsuccessful.
- In 1895, bandits robbed the safe in
the express car of the Southern Pacific RR, 5 miles W of Wilcox. In an
effort to dynamite the safe, 8 sacks of Mexican silver dollars were used to
weight the sticks down on the top of the safe. The explosion blew 8,000
silver coins through the roof of the RR car and spread them all over the
right-of-way. It is said that RR agents recovered about 7,000 coins after
the incident leaving some 1,000 behind. There have been reports by treasure
hunters that these coins are still being recovered here.
- A cache of gold dust and silver
coins was secreted by Apache Indians after they attacked a wagon train a few
miles NE of the stage station at Mountain Springs. The dutch oven containing
the treasure is hidden behind two rocks at the point of the Winchester
Mountains NE of Wilcox.
- A Mexican wagon train, loaded with a
large amount of treasure including a life-sized gold statue of the Virgin, a
huge store of gold dust and nuggets and a large gold cross, was bound for
Sante Fe and camped in the dry bed of a creek between 2 hills at the springs
at Dos Cabezas. The huge store of treasure was buried before the men retired
for the night. Apache Indians attacked and killed the party and only one
small boy escaped and returned to Mexico. 45 years later he returned in
search of the treasure, but he was never able to locate te exact burial
site.
- The outlaw Zwing Hunt, who took in
part in the Skeleton Canyon fracas, is said to have buried part of the
treasure in gold and diamonds in a canyon on Harris Mountain. He also added
to this cache with loot from other robberies and holdups. A dying outlaw is
to have revealed that the value of this treasure hoard was $300,000.
- After a bank robbery in Nogales in
1884, the notorious Black Jack Ketcham hid the loot in "Room Forty Four," a
cave located in Wild Cat Canyon at the S end of the Chiricahua Mountains and
about 8 miles SW of Portal. The cave is located near the old William Lutley
Ranch.
- Outlaw "Pop" Clanton of the Clanton
gang buried $50,000 in gold coins on or near the site of the old Clanton
Ranch of Horsethief Springs near Tombstone. The coins were stolen from a
baggage car during train robbery. He died in the 1930's at the age of 90,
refusing to tell his Ruffian sons where the treasure was located. It has
never been found.
- In 1882, the Apache chief Cochise
raided emigrant trains, ranches and robbed stagecoaches. Although he had no
use for gold, he took every opportunity to take it from the whites. On one
occasion he seized 2 heavy iron-bound chests filled with gold coins from the
Butterfield stage and somehow managed to drag or haul the chests to his
Apache hideout, later known as Cochise Stronghold Canyon in the Dragoon
Mountains, about 10 miles SE of Dragoon. Even after peace was made, the
Apaches vowed that no white man would ever find the hidden chests, located
in a place where even a horse cannot travel. They're still there.
- A post hole bank containing $16,000
is believed buried on the old Jones ranch near Naco, on the Arizona side,
about 1/4 mile S of the old ranch house.
