Step Cave of Hardscrabble Peak

[BuffaloBob]

From Time on Site

[h=2]Step Cave of Hardscrabble Peak[/h]

David Hatcher Childress wrote a story in his book "Lost Cities in North and Central America" (1992) in which he describes a system of caves under various mountains in the San Andres Mountains Region of New Mexico. Places like the famous/infamous Victorio Peak, Geronimo Peak, and Hardscrabble Peak.​

“Because of an article published in the November, 1968 issue of True Treasure magazine there was renewed interest in the fabulous treasure of Victorio Peak, and a prospector named Harvey Snow was approached by three ranchers who lived in the area west of the Victorio Peak site. Snow had spent 25 years exploring the entire White Sands area, and the ranchers felt that Snow could lead them into the treasure area, bypassing the Army patrols that guarded the missile range.”​

Because of a story told Snow many years before by a cowboy who had followed Doc Noss to a hidden tunnel, he believed that the treasure was not at Victorio Peak, but on another peak, Hard Scrabble Peak which was also on government property.​

Snow’s incredible story is then related by Mr. Chandler; "On the second day I found the cave with the sloping steps. I went down the steps; down and down. I don’t know how far. I estimated maybe thirteen hundred or fourteen hundred steps. The bottom step, the last one was rounded at the bottom so that when you stepped on it, it would roll. It was tied to a bow and arrow with rawhide, but the rawhide had rotted a long time ago. I got in there. At the bottom of the steps Snow described a big room with a stream of hot water running through it. Snow followed the tunnel from room to room; sometimes the tunnel would become so narrow that he had to get down on his hands and knees. In one room Snow reported, I found some things. I found small stacks … one of gold, one of copper and one of silver. I figured I would come back for that and went on. I next came to a big room. Here there were a bunch of side tunnels running north and south. They were all natural, nothing man made. Here where they intersected, they made a big W. I did not go down these tunnels, I stayed with the stream going west … At the far end of the main room I found some things I cannot tell you about…” Snow’s story is fascinating and virtually unbelievable to most people. He walked 14 miles in an underground tunnel. The 1400 steps or so that he walked down to the subterranean river must have been a good 800 or 900 feet below the entrance. The tunnel was crossed at least in one spot by another tunnel running at a right angle to the one he was following.​

That is a very interesting story indeed, except for the fact that Harvey Snow had never been in the tunnel. The man that found the tunnel and told Snow about its existence, never told Snow it's precide location. The man didn't particularly trust or like Harvey Snow. There have been a few people in the cave over the years, the latest that I know of was in about 1982, and even so, nobody has gotten to the actual stairs yet. They have seen the stairs, but a booby-trap guards the top of the stairs (not the bottom). The stairs are really there, but what they lead to is still a mystery. There could actually be stacks of gold and silver. There could also be nothing but sheep bones, porcupine quills, and dust.​

For right now, I will have to leave the story right where it is. I have a few more people to track down, but this is building up to be one hell of an adventure!
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