Did the "Lost Pegleg Mine" ever exist?

[Lucky Baldwin]

There is a spring in East Mojave Desert that Pegleg Smith named after his spouse or lady friend, and where he carved his name in a rock near-by. ....

Spouse? Didn't know Peg Leg was married. Always thought his true love was the bottle.

 

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[Lucky Baldwin]

I believe how what Pegleg Smith had found was a residual placer of gold .

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Quite possible.

Years ago I met an old timer in El Portal, outside Yosemite. A friend I worked with was born and raised there and introduced me to him one day when we were buying beers at the old general store. He was a gold mining encyclopedia. Most of what I know about gold prospecting came from him. Thanks Bud! Rest in peace.

Anyway his theory about the Peg Leg deposit was it's an ancient channel remnant. His theory was the big blue lead in the motherload country of California is part of the river Havilah mentioned in Genesis in the Bible. Traces of that river can be found from Alaska down the west coasts of North and South America almost to the tip of Argentina. He also told me about several major tributaries that fed the old Havilah. He said the Peg Leg deposit is a piece of one of those tributaries.

His theory continues, the tributary formed before Baja split off from mainland Mexico. When that happened, the whole area of southeast California and southwest Arizona got "stretched. " This split the tributary into small pieces. As the area eroded, the cemented river channel remnants were more resistant to weathering than the surrounding countryside so they formed the small flat topped mesas we see today. The Peg Leg deposit is on one of those mesas.

His last piece of advice to me was "When you're out in the desert, climb any small flat topped mesa you find and poke around up on top. I don't believe Peg Leg's deposit is the only one."

As a side note, this might be proof of Bud's "stretching" land.



oops I'm wrong. The land the river flowed through was called Havilah, the river itself was the Pishon.

 

[autofull]

i have seen varnished, or rocks covered with what i would call old school varnish here in pa. i do not know the original origin of them. all were small, kinda like square with the edges semi polished off. i never found them in the streams though as those are most always flat and nicely rounded edges. i know what we have here sure is not gold though. my county sits on a sheet of non blended lava flow that looks like the malpais. i know, i ran the tunneling and boring crews here for 40yrs. darn hard stuff.

 

[gollum]

i have seen varnished, or rocks covered with what i would call old school varnish here in pa. i do not know the original origin of them. all were small, kinda like square with the edges semi polished off. i never found them in the streams though as those are most always flat and nicely rounded edges. i know what we have here sure is not gold though. my county sits on a sheet of non blended lava flow that looks like the malpais. i know, i ran the tunneling and boring crews here for 40yrs. darn hard stuff.

True Pegleg Nuggets would have been exposed to the atmosphere for a looooong time. That is the only way they would have oxidized so heavily.

Bulletprobe,

The pics I posted were of the Northwest end of Borrego Mountain. That little mine is really just a prospect. It has been called the "Lost Gonzales Mine", but it isn't. Its only about 25 feet deep of fractured granite, so its basically a deep prospect. For more info on the Lost Gonzalez Mine, find a book called "Borrego 13". The author thought that little prospect was also the Lost Gonzalez.

Adolph Ruth never looked for the "Pegleg". Of the maps he received from Senior Gonzalez in Mexico prior to his execution, two were from Arizona, and one was a mine owned by the Gonzalez Family in Anza Desert in California. It happened in 1919. He went off to look for the mine about sunset, and fell down a steep ravine, breaking his leg badly. He needed silver plates and screws and forever after after walked with a bad limp. Those silver plates and screws were how his body was identified in the Superstitions in 1931.

Mike