Detailed route to Adams gold

[motel6.5]

Sdifca, Re: Ft West, As you did I"m sure I read the thread on Ft West. Ft West history, 1-24-1863 to 1-8-1864 few days shy of 1 year,then closed. I say no store,no tradeing post at FT. West. 22 members of the Adams group , who left on their treasure hunt late in the year 1864 could not have picked up provisions and re-supplied their latter on.
Still the smart option would be as reported in many versions as Ft Wingate, and is probably correct ,is Fort Lyon,which became Fort Wingate at a latter date. My correct travel and timeline for the Adams group.

 

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[motel6.5]

Next time I go to pay my land tax bill in Grants N.M., where my property sits between two Indian reservations I will make some inquires with some Indians I am acquainted with. If anyone knows or can point me to another Indian that does about the Adams saga,they do,might, will or won"t.

 

[KXMember]

My mentor has solved the Adams

 

[sdcfia]

Sdifca, Re: Ft West, As you did I"m sure I read the thread on Ft West. Ft West history, 1-24-1863 to 1-8-1864 few days shy of 1 year,then closed. I say no store,no tradeing post at FT. West. 22 members of the Adams group , who left on their treasure hunt late in the year 1864 could not have picked up provisions and re-supplied their latter on.
Still the smart option would be as reported in many versions as Ft Wingate, and is probably correct ,is Fort Lyon,which became Fort Wingate at a latter date. My correct travel and timeline for the Adams group.

If you wish to accept 1864 as the year of the Adams gold expedition, that's your choice. It's the year claimed in the W.H. Byerts pamphlet (1919), and also the Charles Allen 1935 account. The John Brewer narrative (El Paso Herald, 1928 by A.M. Tenny) says 1862. The R.C. Patterson account (Socorro Chieftain, 1897) says it happened the winter of 1865-1866. The W.W. Williams version (Socorro Chieftain, 1898) says 1858. Washie Jones said it was 1865 (Cow Dust and Saddle Leather, 1968). There are several other tellings of the tale, but the question is: which account do you choose, and why? Not only are the dates at odds with each other in the many versions, but so are the landmarks, travel times, terrain descriptions, number in the party and other important details.

I used to accept the 1864 date and the Fort Wingate/lava flow story too - for years - but many details just did not work for me. Based on several logical, factual and circumstantial reasons posted earlier, I think it's highly likely the Adams events took place in 1863 in the Pinos Altos Range, near the location of Fort West in southwestern New Mexico. I know you support the Hale/French claims, but I don't.

 

[sdcfia]

My mentor has solved the Adams

Interesting. Can you tell us more?

 

[KXMember]

Look for the Y in the 2 rivers....find what used to be a waterfall.

 

[dashriprock]

Interesting and informative thread. You guys are a wealth of knowledge..my hat is off to you!

Last night I dug out an old movie to watch..MacKenna's Gold...and today I stumbled upon this thread. Sweet!

 

[motel6.5]

Sdifca, I never read the Hale/French claims, never-the-less I wish you good luck in your searches.
Its time for me to just focus on my own hunts here in Nevada.

 

[sdcfia]

Look for the Y in the 2 rivers....find what used to be a waterfall.

No offense, but that sounds a lot like one of the many Adams clues.

 

[sdcfia]

Here's a couple pictures of that Bear Creek/Pinos Altos region. The first is Twin Sisters Peaks ("dos piloncillos", IMO), taken from my casita front porch, about three or four miles from a westerly position.


Here's some of the upper stretches of Bear Creek canyon, looking northwesterly. My truck's about 500 feet vertical above the creek.

 

[KXMember]

The "clues" are very straight forward if you understand the history of the area.

 

[sdcfia]

Part Two Introduction
Many Lost Adams Diggings versions assert that the expedition’s primary goal was a lode deposit reputedly containing large quantities of visible free gold - easily recoverable and enough to quickly enrich all members of the twenty-man group. However, when the party first reached the canyon that supposedly accessed the lode target, they noticed that the stream they were following also contained visible gold - a rich placer deposit. The men immediately made camp on the spot and began panning the stream. It’s alleged that they worked the placer deposit for a couple weeks, accumulating a large amount of fine gold and large nuggets. How much gold did they gather? When “the Dutchman”, an Adams party member, began to fear Apache trouble, he decided to abandon the diggings and return by himself to Arizona. As discussed earlier, I believe the Dutchman was Jacob Snively, who was reported in 1863 riding into Pinos Altos, on his way to Arizona, in the possession of thirty (some say sixty) pounds of placer gold - his share of the Adams expedition’s recovery. Multiply Snively’s share by twenty and the result is a large amount of gold - possibly several hundred pounds.


The richness of these placer diggings was no surprise to Snively, who, along with two other prospectors, discovered the site three years earlier. Here is a portion of a letter Snively wrote to the Mesilla Times, published October 25, 1860 (emphasis mine):

“ … Believing it was unsafe to continue longer in the neighborhood of hostile Indians with a small party, we concluded to return to the Copper Mines (note: Santa Rita del Cobre). We supplied ourselves with provisions, and augmented our company to eight in number, and then retraced our steps to the Mines. We then prospected Bear Creek and its tributaries, more thoroughly. In every attempt we found Gold; and also discovered the mining district to be of considerable extent – sufficient to engage five hundred or a thousand men. We let the intelligence of our discoveries spread. About the above stated number are now engaged in the Mines. Discoveries in quartz, both gold and silver, are daily being made. I have no doubt that the Mines will last, at least for twenty years or more.


J. Snively
We, the undersigned, certify that the above is true.
Henry Burch
Jas. W. Hicks"​

During the weeks during which the Adams group was working the Bear Creek placer in 1863, it is said they were visited by Apaches who warned them not to advance out of the canyon “above the waterfall”. This was taken as a signal by the party to stay away from their original lode target - presumably the source of the placer they had recovered thus far. The lode deposit was apparently either further up Bear Creek itself, in one of its tributaries, or on one of the many slopes that eventually drained into it. However, before the lode could be searched for, the Lost Adams legends contend that the Apaches killed all expedition members save Snively (who left early), Adams and possibly one or two other survivors who lived to tell the tale.


Speculating on the location of the Lost Adams Diggings requires identifying not only the site of the placer deposit, but also the lode deposit that created it. My task so far has been to offer a plausible solution to the first part of the puzzle - IMO the Adams placer was in Bear Creek near Pinos Altos NM. The readers can form their own opinions on this. Now the harder part - identifying the lode deposit that the Adams party originally went in search of. I will offer both documented and undocumented possible sources that have been, like the Bear Creek placers, located and exploited a hundred years ago or more. I will also provide local legends that may or may not have not been the source of the gold - sites that have not, to my knowledge, been discovered yet. As always, all comments are welcomed

 

[KXMember]

Monuments from eastern NM were created that lead all the way to western NM right to the waterfall. All have been located and mapped.

 

[sdcfia]

Adams Gold Lode Target Possibilities

Was the outcropping situated on a legal mining claim?
As Jacob Snively mentioned in his letter to the Mesilla Times in 1860, he was aware that lode mining claims were already being filed by prospectors in the Pinos Altos District as early as 1860. The earliest claims were “quartz claims” in decomposed granite: oxidized zone outcroppings, including quartz veins and stringers that can contain visible gold. The ore was easily mined and the gold was simply recovered with low-tech methods: arrastras to crush the vein material, and placer techniques to recover the free gold. Many such outcroppings were found all over the Pinos Altos vicinity over the years. As many know, these outcroppings erode relatively quickly and are a source for the gold that gradually accumulates into placer deposits. The exposed outcroppings can be extremely rich, although often are shallow and short-lived.


Old arrastra, Pinos Altos Mountain


Two of the earliest lode claims filed near Pinos Altos were the Atlantic (T17S, R13W, Sec 4), and the Pacific (T17S, R14W, Sec 1) - these were named for which side of the Continental Divide they sat on. A search of the BLM Government Land Office records will yield mineral patent survey plats for these and many other of the larger producing lode claims in the area. Search website: http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/search/default.aspx?searchTabIndex=0&searchByTypeIndex=1. There were several dozen lode claims that produced enough precious metal to warrant earning a mineral patent. Most are now more valuable as real estate than for their played-out mineral contents and have been abandoned for many years. Is it possible that one of these mines could have been the source of an ultra-rich surface outcropping that motivated the Adams party and was later discovered and mined by others? It’s impossible to say for sure. There is little or no documentation describing any of the original conditions found for these successful mines. The potential exists, but there is no way to prove anything conclusively.


Former gold mine site, Pinos Altos

Not all mining claims were exploited heavily enough to earn a mineral patent, but there were hundreds filed on and worked around Pinos Altos. Some produced significant quantities of metal in a short period of time, then played out and were abandoned or sold to speculators as the prospectors moved on to new sites and repeated the process with varying degrees of success. Just as with the larger and more successful mines, many of these claims also had rich surface outcroppings on them. Bear Creek collected its placer gold from all the many eroding outcroppings above it, large and small. Could one of these lesser-known prospects have contained a gold deposit rich enough to be the source of the rumors that inspired the Adams party - possibly an obvious rich outcropping in an easy-to-find location that the Apaches were concerned might be discovered by the miners, causing a larger influx of outsiders? We can’t know the answer, but since gold was present in quantity, the possibility exists. Below is part of a private map drawn in 1950 showing all the then-current mining claims, patented and unpatented, in and around Pinos Altos.


Pinos Altos Mining District, 1950

Along with the development of the Bear Creek placers, the discovery of rich lode claims became a common occurrence between 1860 and 1880 in and around Pinos Altos NM. Do these facts prove that this mineralized zone was the site of the Lost Adams Diggings? No, but the presence of both placer and lode gold in quantity certainly supports the likelihood that it was a possibility - a key factor missing from so many other proposed LAD sites. Perhaps even more important to confused and frustrated Adams researchers, it also addresses the nagging question: with so many people looking for so many years, why hasn’t the LAD been found? The answer may well be: it was found, claimed and mined shortly after the Adams events occurred.

Next: rumors of even richer diggings

 

[meister]

" It's my feeling that Snively, for whatever reason, used the alias Emil Shaeffer during the LAD expedition." At that time there was an unpleasantness in the country and Arizona and New Mexico were occupied by Federal troops. They were aware of Snively and suspected him of being a spy. That would make his not wanting to be apprehended understandable.

 

[sdcfia]

" It's my feeling that Snively, for whatever reason, used the alias Emil Shaeffer during the LAD expedition." At that time there was an unpleasantness in the country and Arizona and New Mexico were occupied by Federal troops. They were aware of Snively and suspected him of being a spy. That would make his not wanting to be apprehended understandable.

Good point, meister. Snively was a CSA activist during his Arizona days and was more than once suspected of spying on Union activities - probably rightfully so.

Another reason for Snively using the Shaeffer alias is that it was he who originally discovered the Bear Creek placer deposits in 1860, and he would have known before the Adams party left Arizona that the deposits had already been legally claimed - although temporarily abandoned. The Adams party, including "Shaeffer", could have pled ignorance of that fact if they had encountered any sort of legal problem working other miners' claims.

 

[meister]

Excellent point, had not thought of that. Claim jumping could get you killed faster than spying.

 

[sdcfia]

Many of the Lost Adams Diggings legends describe a warning that the Apaches gave to the Adams party not to advance above the Bear Creek placer deposits, which they had been led to and had been successfully mining during the summer of 1863. The Apaches were concerned that the prospectors’ success would trigger another gold rush to Pinos Altos and force them again from their favored summer camps. The same thing had happened earlier, in 1860, when the placers were first discovered and lode deposits began being claimed, bringing hundreds of miners into the area. Then, in 1861, The Battle of Pinos Altos took place, where 300 Apaches under Mangas Coloradas and Cochise attacked the town and drove most of the miners out. The area remained all but deserted for several years.


Pinos Altos cemetery

It’s my opinion that the Apache warning was given for two reasons. First, the Natives were aware of rich gold lode deposits above Bear Creek, the discovery of which would accelerate the White Man trouble that they knew would be coming. Second, and more importantly, I believe the Apaches wanted to keep the miners together in the bottom of Bear Creek canyon, where they would be easier to control and better targets when the time came to kill them. It seems logical to me that the Adams party was marked for death as soon as the Apaches found them in the area, but the Natives appeased the miners until they were able to gather sufficient manpower for an attack. While the Adams party was busy panning gold, the Apaches were planning their ambush.


Apaches (CS Fly free-use photo)

But what about the richer deposits “above the waterfall”? I believe these deposits were real - the Adams party were told about them before they left Arizona, and the Apaches warned the miners to stay away from them. They existed, whatever they were. Previously, I offered the idea that these higher, richer deposits were quartz outcroppings that may have eventually been located and exploited by incoming prospectors when the Pinos Altos Mining District became repopulated between 1864 and 1866, a time of much activity, lasting into the Twentieth Century. If that is the case, then both the Adams placer deposits and their intended lode deposits are long gone - worked out more than a hundred years ago.

Another possibility is that the lode deposits are still undiscovered. This may sound like wishful thinking - and for Adams enthusiasts a reprieve - but enough local legends still exist to keep the idea alive. I am aware of five unreconciled rumors of very rich gold sources in the Pinos Altos area. They may all be tall tales - or not. One or more, or a variation, could be true.

• Mangas Coloradas’s secret gold mine in upper Gila River vicinity
• Big rock covers old Spanish gold mine shaft above Bear Creek
• Gold cache near Spanish fort ruins up Little Cherry Creek canyon
• Spanish mines on Twin Sisters Peaks
• The Marcos de Niza discovery

 

[sdcfia]

Here's a GE aerial of Pinos Altos and surrounding territory - good for visualizing things.

 

[KXMember]

King Solomon's Treasure is in the area