Treasure Hunting in Arizona
Greg Hawk • January 4, 2021
This treasure hunt involves a cache of gold nuggets that were buried along the Colorado River approximately 35 miles north of Yuma, Arizona. The story involves four outlaws that were fleeing after robbing an army payroll wagon. As they rode away to escape the scene, they came to the Colorado River. As they rode along the bank of the river the mountains became to close to the riverbank to proceed. They decided to swim their horses across the river at a point below where the river makes a bend north towards the Arizona side. After crossing the river, they proceeded along the riverbank and came across a small cave where they decided to camp out for the night.
One of the outlaws went down to the sandbar along the bank and dug a hole in it to recover some fresh water. The sand acted as a filter and allowed clear water to seep into the hole. As he was digging the hole, he noticed what looked to be gold nuggets mixed in with the sand and gravel. He quickly called his partners down to the sandbar to confirm that what he had found. The outlaws then started searching for a possible vein that the gold nuggets came from and quickly found a quartz vein close to where the sandbar was. The vein contained more gold nuggets, so they proceeded to mine the vein.
Downstream from where the outlaws were camped was Yuma Wash and the site of an Indian encampment. The outlaws made arrangements with the Indians to take care of their horses while they were mining. Sometime later one of the outlaws went to the Indian encampment and started harassing one of the squaws. Her brave was not having any part of that and confronted the outlaw. During the confrontation, the outlaw pulled his gun and shot the brave. The outlaw then grabbed the horses and rode back to camp and told his partners what he had done.
They knew they needed to get away quickly as they believed the Indians would go down to Fort Yuma and report what had happened. They knew they didn't want to face the cavalry after having recently robbed the payroll wagon. They quickly gathered up the gold nuggets and buried them in a saddle or low area between two peaks above where they were mining. After burying the cache of nuggets, they rode hard to get out of the area.
That night as three of the outlaws were setting around their campfire and the fourth was setting on his horse, a posse came riding in. The posse was looking for cattle rustlers, but the outlaws didn't know that, and a gun battle ensued. The three outlaws around the campfire were killed and the fourth outlaw, who was on his horse, rode quickly away but not before catching a bullet in his hip.
He made it back to Missouri and stayed with his sister while he healed up. He told the story to his sister, her husband, and their son. He showed them a couple of the gold nuggets he had in his pocket to prove his story. The husband wanted the outlaw to take him back to recover the nuggets. The outlaw said that there was an Indian uprising going on at that time which made it too dangerous. As years wore on the outlaw and the sister's husband died leaving her and her son with a failing business.
The son convinced his mother into letting him go to Arizona and look for the nuggets. The son came out and upon arriving in Yuma he approached a rancher and asked him to pack him in for a few weeks along the Colorado River to look for the cache of gold nuggets. In the end the young man could not find the cache of nuggets and upon getting ready to leave, he told the whole story to the rancher. He said that there was a pile of rocks that were supposed to help locate the nuggets. The rocks he believed had been moved and were now stacked around a sign along the river.
Over the years the rancher passed the story down until it was told to John, whom I mention in my book, "Random Tangents: Embracing Adventures in Life." This video will give you a good idea of the country surrounding the story along with some of the history during that time period.
There is more information on this story and others in my book “Random Tangents: Embracing Adventures in Life.”
Enjoy!
Treasure Videos
After being told of large silver nuggets being found around Globe, AZ, I started my research on the area. A couple of months later I camped out around Globe for a month walking the mountains and searching for the elusive silver nuggets. 500,000 oz. of silver taken out of one mine and thousands of ounces more were found laying on the ground in the form of nuggets. Greg Hawk
After being told of large silver nuggets being found around Globe, AZ, I started my research on the area. A couple of months later I camped out around Globe for a month walking the mountains and searching for the elusive silver nuggets. 500,000 oz. of silver taken out of one mine and thousands of ounces more were found laying on the ground in the form of nuggets. Greg Hawk
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A true story of a lost mine in the Superstition Mountains that a claim was filed on in 1927 by Gladys Jenkins. It's a story of a lady who faced many hardships and disppointments in life but her unbending will kept her going through the hardest of times. While working in Phoenix, to help make ends meet, she meets an Apache lady that saw how she was struggling and decided to help her by showing her a gold mine in the Superstition Mountains that was once worked by Mexicans miners. The original claim papers filed with the county tell of the location of the mine which we will show you. Cheers! Greg Hawk
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A look into the treasure story of Skelton Canyon which lies in eastern Arizona. Was it real and if so where is it buried today? Cheers! Greg Hawk