LAD Flaw that's bugging me...

Randy Bradford

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Jun 27, 2004
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Most of the early material from the LAD refers to the fact that the box canyon where the massacre takes place, isn't even the principal destination/goal of the party, but a secondary site that still surpassed their imaginations. My question is this: What was the purpose of going to this spot to begin with? It's clear that the passage to the box canyon was long and difficult, why take them there when there was no way out of the canyon except the way they came in, knowing that their ultimate destination was miles away at the twin peaks. It seems an unexplainable side-trek that would serve as nothing but a distraction in the scheme of things.
 

Most of the early material from the LAD refers to the fact that the box canyon where the massacre takes place, isn't even the principal destination/goal of the party, but a secondary site that still surpassed their imaginations. My question is this: What was the purpose of going to this spot to begin with? It's clear that the passage to the box canyon was long and difficult, why take them there when there was no way out of the canyon except the way they came in, knowing that their ultimate destination was miles away at the twin peaks. It seems an unexplainable side-trek that would serve as nothing but a distraction in the scheme of things.
If I tallied all the available accounts of the Lost Adams Diggings that I've collected (minor newspaper accounts, major extended newspaper stories, private contemporary memoirs, pamphlets, books, magazine articles, letters, emails, et al), the total must be 100 or more. Overall, the many versions are extremely variable in content - all over the map (literally). Generally speaking, there are a handful of key aspects of the deadly event that seem to be repeated in some of the versions, but even many of these are radically contradictory with each other. This creates much disinformation, intentionally or not.

It's difficult to respond to your question because it requires the adoption of one (or a few) of the available versions as "source material", likely because many of these tales allegedly originated with "Adams". It's my opinion that "Adams" was proven to not be a credible witness, may even not have been a member of the event's mining party, and therefore can't be relied upon. Even more to the point, it's my contention that the diggings were well known but abandoned before the event due to Apache trouble, then later reclaimed and mined out afterwards.
 

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Not really sure why, LDM is a thousand miles from me, but for some reason I've taken an interest in it. I started working on a newspaper clip file, mostly clipping and transcribing multi-part stories. Probably not much different than you and a thousand others have done. Recently purchased Purcell's book, which is really his clippings and attempts to make sense of all the material...fantastic approach by the way. He does a great job really making a road map of all of the accounts.

Incidentally, I haven't forgotten I said I'd send something your way...got really sick over the holidays and am just now sorta feeling half like myself again.
 

Not really sure why, LDM is a thousand miles from me, but for some reason I've taken an interest in it. I started working on a newspaper clip file, mostly clipping and transcribing multi-part stories. Probably not much different than you and a thousand others have done. Recently purchased Purcell's book, which is really his clippings and attempts to make sense of all the material...fantastic approach by the way. He does a great job really making a road map of all of the accounts.

Incidentally, I haven't forgotten I said I'd send something your way...got really sick over the holidays and am just now sorta feeling half like myself again.
I have something to send you too re the LAD. I'd rather send it to a private email address if you don't mind giving me one.

I highly recommend Jack Purcell's LAD book.
 

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