Re: Pegleg's Black Gold Nuggets
hey gang,
First of all to Gollum.... We REALLY need to go out together and " explore ". I would be willing to pay for the fuel... That's how SERIOUS I am....If you are out close to the Superstitions, and are in the recovery area there is a shot up building... I was past that. If you go back to the " road " ( that has the power lines ) and head towards Fishcreek and then verve left, you will see my buttes. I went off Wheeler to Superstitons. To mountaindigger if you get close enough with your new benoxs and can take a pix... I would LOVE to see it. I have posted this before, but I have a ton of personal research from Philip Bailey ( the author of Golden Mirages ). He did research for his book for 20 years before it was printed in 1941. He had ( in my opinion ) as close to the real source as one can get. He lived in a time when " maybe " someone would have been still alive to remember the actual trip or heard it first hand. As is in this excerpt from his book:
( The above pic was taken from Golden Mirages 1941. Knowles who have been between 56-76 yrs of age during Bailey's research. But It's obvious that it was taken later )
Bailey quotes a Charles Knowles who was born in 1865 and was about 20 at the time he re-met a man named Price. he's the story:
" I don't you suppose you remember me. You was too young to remember much of anything; but my boy saved your life when you was a kid. My name is Price, an' I'll bet your name is Knowles."
This casual meeting grew into a real friendship and later a partnership. Price and Knowles wintered together at a camp near Cour d' Alene (Idaho) and prospected whenever the weather permitted, and it was there that Knowles first heard the story of the Lost Pegleg Mine. It seemed that, about 30 years before (
that would be 1855 ), Price and a man named Pegleg Smith had acted as
guides to parties crossing the Colorado Desert from Yuma to Warner's and the coast; but about a month before Pegleg found the mine, Price quit his job as guide and got work in LA. It was there that Pegleg, on his next trip in, showed him the nuggets and told him how he had found them.
He said he had left Yuma with a small party and
headed for Warner's by the usual route through Carrizo and Vallecito. They made about 2/3 of the distance to Carrizo without mishap and
camped for the night on New River, a few miles east of the Slough Lakes (
which would be Fig Lagoon today ). They planned to make a early start the next morning and reach Carrizo before it became to dark, as there was little moonlight. However, the mules wandered off, and the party was more than
2 hours late getting under way.
About the middle of the afternoon Smith saw they were in for a bad sandstorm, and a hour later it was blowing so hard they could hardly make headway against it. It was almost impossible to keep to the trail, for the blow-sand covered it up or blew away all traces of it in less than a 1/2 hour.
The line of the mountains ahead was completely lost,and even the gap to Carriso was so badly blurred that Smith was not sure they were headed for it. In Instead of letting up as it began to get dark, the wind blew harder. At last it quieted a little; but it was not until they began
to ascend a gradual slope that kept getting steeper that Smith knew for certain they were off course. They had wandered into one of those
long, ramp-like canyons north of the trail they should have followed.
Smith told the party to wait where they were and he would go up a little higher to see if the could cross the hills instead of back-tracking through the sand.
He climbed up the ramp for some distance to a small butte; it looked as though it sat on a ridge, so he went to the top. hoping he would get a better view of the country.
But all he saw was Bad Lands and would have to take the long way into Carriso. While up there he noticed that the
ridge was sort of hog-back made of 3 or 4 buttes connected by saddles.
"Well," Smith told Price, " I started down the shortest way but I stepped on alot o' loose stones that covered the hull hill, an' if I hadn't dug my pegleg into the rocks I'd slid clear to the bottom. When I started again, watchin' where I was goin', I noticed that the stones I stepped on were kinda queer lookin'. They was all round stones, big as walnuts and black as ink, I never saw nothin', like 'em before, so I put a few in my pocket an' went back to the party."
"
Late in the evening' we got to Carriso. (
if it took " all day " to get there.. then just how far away were they? ) We was pretty well used up, an' by the time I had 'em all taken care of I was so tired I jugs' rolled in my blanket and went to sleep. I t wasn't till we was well on our way to Vallecito the next day that I had time to look at my black stones. At first they looked like jus' common black rocks; but when I knocked a couple of 'em together, a coatin' of varnish come off, an' I saw they was pretty near pure gold!... I'm goin' back an' try to find the place soon as I can, although I ain't sure how north I was. We had to plod through the sand for hours in the dark, an' it ain't possible to say how fur off the course we was."
It's these " clues " from someone who not only knew pegs but rode and worked with him, that lead me where I go. Please understand that this area is in the Carrizo Impact area and YOU SHOULD NOT TRY TO EXPLORE THIS AREA PERIOD !!!!! (
there are things there that have not blown up yet )There is also the fact that due to the bombing runs in this area it have been blown any and everywhere. The pixs I took are of this area and I NEED to get closer, I have a " idea " of where they " may " be and I'm all for headed out.
The reason I go with this story is, all of the other books ( that talk about pegleg ) quote a earlier author of another treasure book and again and again. Bailey is the only one who does NOT quote another author... But quotes the people... and yes I'm aware that it " may or may not " be true... but it just makes sense to me. A guide would stick to his route and go the same way all the time. It's safer and the path is well known.
Thankx for reading
PLL
Not often when I can do that! 
Dang, my posts must be getting REALLY boring! 
