Thanks for finding and posting the clipping, Corp. I know that Oro will be banging his head against the wall with what I have to say, but IMO this is a perfect example of a coded message published in a newspaper wrapped in a 'lost mine or hidden treasure' motif. I'll wager, if the pattern fits this case, that no other follow up articles are to be found. If one examines this 1897 story, not much of the prospectors' actions make sense of course, but that's not the point. The point is that 'there is gold near Four Corners' (the Navajo Reservation's CO/NM boundary begins at Four Corner and extends about 30 miles east). Tie this to the 'Lost Adams' and lots of folks listen.
Interestingly, the very same message was reinforced a generation later (an oft-repeated pattern), when the '17 Tons of Gold near Four Corners' rumors were released in the 1930's. Again, 'there is gold near Four Corners.' You can find all sorts of 'he said-she said' arguments about this one since the days of the internet, but of course, no resolution. But 17 tons of gold! 'Wow', say many people.
Now ... the bigger issue: why have these messages, disguised as 'lost mines and hidden treasures (which are never found)' been put into the public domain? This phenomena is one reason why, Oro, that I keep advising enthusiasts to be careful what they accept as factual. Newspaper articles, especially adventure articles like this one Corp provided, cannot be considered 'documentation.'
Springfield; Well maybe I can surprise you a little Springfield, for I have no doubt that some of the activities which were going on in the southwest in the Civil War and post war period, under cover of being "treasure hunting" was really KGC. The US Army certainly felt there were some kind of surreptitious activities going on too - they arrested one fellow at a famous silver mine in the southern part of the state shortly after the Union army regained control of the territory for this very reason. The silver mine was seized and taken away from him too. These activities clearly involved secreting out silver (and probably gold as well) to help the Southern cause, as well as smuggling arms and even fleeing Rebs <after the war> trying to get into Mexico and join Maximilian. So I would never rule that out, and your arguments have helped convince me that these activities were
not just a single incident. I just don't see them in every lost mine story or lost treasure. In that time period, no one would have blinked an eye at seeing some armed men with pack animals, digging tools or explosives.
Corp (Amy) thank you for posting that article! I look forward to seeing more of your results, if and when you find time to share, thank you in advance.
Lastleg - I understand your points, have questioned the very same as well. What I found was that it does not take all that long to put up a log cabin, and for roofing in that day, it was common practice to simply put up a framework of poles, and stretch their tent canvas over it. A fireplace would have been a rather rude affair of stacked rocks mortared with mud. Not like the fishing lodge in Maine by any stretch of the imagination, almost certainly a dirt floor type of thing with walls to provide some kind of shelter against the elements, and possibly as a "fort" if attacked. These men were all prospectors except for Adams and Gotchear, they surely would have had prospecting equipment, as well as hand axes and even the old buck saw likely as well. They also had horses or mules, and you can skid logs very easily and fairly rapidly using horses to help. Even setting the logs in place, with a horse, two poles set as a ramp, and a rope, you can roll quite big logs up onto a wall quite easily. A couple of friends of mine put up a neat log cabin in a hollow in PA in two days, using only a Swede saw and a hatchet, with old shoe soles for door hinges and a mud-stick chimney on the fireplace. This was 14 by 16, with eight foot walls, of course most of the cabins you see which were built by pioneers often have six foot walls or even less. The logs would not have been hewn flat either, they were usually left in the round and moss or other filler simply packed into the spaces for chinking, or some would slap mud in there. I doubt that they would have even bothered to de-bark the logs.
All of that I just said is pure conjecture based on what I have seen done, and done myself as well; I put up a small cabin last winter at a camp in the mountains in New Mexico in one day using nothing but downed timber (dead from a fire) a Swede saw and hatchet, by myself, as the weather got bad and I was stranded there at the time. I did have a little help as the Huskies did not mind helping skid the logs to the camp, but they are not as strong as horses. My fireplace was just stone with no mud for mortar. I have a photo of it here somewhere and it worked well for me, of course this was fairly small (only 10 by 12 or so) but I don't think the Adams party would have built a huge mansion of a structure either, just something they could get out of the weather if needed. Anyway you can also whip up rde chairs, benches and a table using just split logs, stumps etc.
Also, the men that Adams met at Gila Bend prospecting, were placer miners, and Gotchear told them that he knew where they could pick up nuggets of gold bigger than the sand-sized colors they were panning, so they were certainly expecting to be led to a rich placer deposit and not a hard rock ledge. Anyway your point about the site would have to be where there were trees to make the cabin is absolutely correct, however there are pretty extensive forests in the higher elevations and even down in the valleys through most of the area where the Adams diggings could be located. Many people get a mistaken impression of the southwest as a vast treeless desert, when in truth Arizona for example, has more acres of forest than PA, which is over one half forest lands, and New Mexico has even more forest lands than Arizona. So while it does help to know that the Adams diggings are probably in a forested area, there are vast areas of forest to search.
Good luck and good hunting amigos, thank you again and I hope you all have a very pleasant evening.
Roy ~ Oroblanco
