CJ,
Regarding 'lost mine/hidden treasure' stories in general, you first need to ask a question: am I interested in this tale because I seriously wish to search for it, or am I interested because this genre is a hobby and this tale will be fun to discuss with others? In other words, are you planning on being an armchair researcher or a boots on the ground searcher? The hobbiest's commitment carries minimal risk of resouces, but the serious searcher will find his commitment at least doubled when you consider the amount of time and money spent in the hills, not to mention the strain on his personal relationships with friends and family that he might suffer.
Now, the legends in general. What is the provenance of the stories? Did the people involved actually exist? Did the alleged events possibly occur? This is the bare minimum starting point for research into the tales. The dillegence applied here will likely weed out a vast majority of the stories you hear because you will not be able to verify that the events or people were real in the past. That said, many of the legends do have at least a chance of being rooted in reality because you can verify the existance of the players through various channels - census records, legal filings, tombstones, verified interviews, etc., and there is some documentation of the events - newspaper stories, law enforcement/military reports, personal memoirs from people of known integrity, etc.
That said, it's obvious that some of the better known legends offer plenty of information to the curious - books, magazines, newsletters, websites, etc. Most of these sources have simply built on the information that preceded, which of course lowers their reliability, but if you go back far enough to the earliest sources, you'll probably be dealing with accounts that were near contemporary to the people and events that spawned the legend in the first place. The closer you can get to the original players, the better - obviously everything that followed is hearsay and may as well be discarded, or at best back-burnered.
Now, the big question for those who have researched their way 'almost' back to the source: why would you expect that you would be able to find proprietary information that would allow you to find the lost/hidden loot that is alleged to exist? Do you really feel that anyone possessing such knowledge would release it to someone else who would in turn make it available to one and all? The short answer is that no matter how well you've tracked the legend, you cannot know the secret to its solution. It's pure human nature - people who have these kinds of secrets hold back and obfuscate - north becomes west, 2 miles becomes 5 miles, X creek becomes Y creek, etc. If there is any truth to the tale to begin with, this is why the loot is still lost (or was already quietly recovered in another location than where people are looking).
That's what a 'cover story' is. If you have cached a large amount of valuables in a certain vicinity, a dynamite way to help keep it secure is to release a story that sends people into the next canyon where they keep busy for years until they give up. When someone else starts the search anew, they check the 'source material' and continue the snipe hunt in the wrong place. Simple. The same goes for all the 'Spanish' or 'Jesuit' carvings that people find all over the place. They are easy enough to find all right, but you can spend years chasing from one to another in various circles with nothing to show for your efforts. Oh, there are experts on this website and others who claim to know how to interpret the carvings, but their claims are merely wishful thinking and a way of attracting attention. Caveat emptor. My beliefs in this area are not well received by the faithful.
The LUE. Well, IMHO this legend probably refers to something of importance, possibly in the Purgatoire headwaters country. I suspect the map, the stories from KVM, etc. are not what they appear to be. This can also be said for a number of other mysterious 'lost mine/hidden treasure' legends around the southwest, IMHO - the 'Treasure Mountain' tale is another in your area. As far as the LUE is concerned, the publications referenced earlier are well worthwhile. If you have trouble locating them, pm me. We are getting into the real heart/soul area of treasure hunting here. Most, if not all of the legends are engineered cover stories, IMHO, created as part of a rather widespread conspiracy of powerful players with incredible skills. I suspect none of the caches are lost but still controlled by their owners. 'Who?' and 'Why?' are the real targets.
These are my opinions only - your results may vary.
