'ol Curly back from grave...back in the saddle after being off this treasure site for 8 years.
Sorry, but all you guys are wrong on the Sublett Gold Mine, except Mamothman. Buddy, if you are serious about finding this mine, message me my friend because the Russel Hills are part of the clue. But I have the rest.....its not there but the trail starts there.
Lets get some history right: First of all Sublett did NOT get his gold from chests of nuggets abandoned by California Gold Miners or abandoned miners. Completely untrue. The Butterfield Stage line that wound around the Guadalupe Mts in 1859 and stationed horses for the stage line only lasted 18 months or so. Thats it! After that it was abandoned! By 1861, it was shut down for the civil war. When the feds reinstated a new stage line throught Texas to California the lines trails and forts they created for it went farther south through the Davis Mountains, and the northerrn Culberson County Guadalupe line completely abandoned and never saw gold or travellors from California with Gold ever again. It died fast so these wild tales of huge stashes of '49 gold is 99% bunk. There have been stories of 1 actual chest being found near the old station at pine Springs, but Sublett didnt dig up stage coach gold, I promise, you. Thats a wild ghost chase. He had a REAL gold mine he was using in the 1890's, and from evidence I have, it was Apache Nana's Snotahay Mescalero mine. Its a real gold play.....but very well hidden in the desert. Sublett put the clues together and found it.
Sublett told people himself, he got the evidence of the mine from the Mescalero Apache themselves, though it was not allowed. Several other pioneers also got the same directions from the Indians but never found it. Its hidden in a tiny crevace in a vast gigantic desert in the shadowy hills east of the Mts. I have the clues I got from old articles 100 years ago. Other men even with the clues Sublett had from the Indians spent fortunes digging around for it and never found it. Thats how damn hard it is to find.
Ill share one "nugget" of info. Like Mamothman mentioned, Sublett would stop at a certain spring on his way to the mine. The reason that spring is so important is not that it has gold, but it was the last stage of his travel to the mine. A family lived there and met Sublett so it proves the tale is real, and the fact Mamothman mentioned the same family, proves what I have that it was a historical fact....Sublett was a real man and found a gold mine! He knew that family in the Russel Hills and stopped on his way to the Guadalupe Mts. I would like to meet the descendents of this family as that is a true fact, and talk to them. According to the history I have, Submett would eat frijoles with them on their ranch then get in his wagon and head towards the Mountains. He would return after a period of time to the same ranch with the gold. And then back to Odessa east. The gold wasnt at the ranch or the spring. It was a stopping point on his way to the mine.
The question is, where he went from that location? I think I know. Thats where the Indian clues come in. I would like to meet someone that has access to the Guadalupe Mts park and the ranchers out there as I think I have enough clues to place the gold mine. The Indians located it by specific hills and peaks, certain landmarks, miles from certain places, then the hole. The way the Indians described it, its down in a crevace you climb down into. Its in the middle of nowhere in a vast desert near the Mts. Without the clues, its extremely hard to find. Many men prior to 1912 had the clues and couldnt find it! But once you find the crevace, you climb down into it and there is water flowing through a cave and volcanic black sands at the bottom. Its a sinkhole. In the sands you can rake up small nuggets. Its there still today......the ghost mine of the west, a fortune guarded by the ghosts of the Mescaleros that vowed no man would find it. Sublett did but like the Indians he trusted, took it to his grave. The Indians likely convinced him to keep the secret hidden. Because he didnt even share it with his son Rolth. This is also the Lost Apache Mine, Im convinced. Why its such an important find...
