The Lost Adams Diggings

[celtex]

story the finding of LAD.

http://www.amarillotreasure.com/lostadamsdiggings.htm

 

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[Springfield]

story the finding of LAD.

http://www.amarillotreasure.com/lostadamsdiggings.htm

It seems this is the introduction to a new book that Richard French has written - however, the completed book does not seem to be available anywhere that I've looked. Maybe the book is still in the process of being written.

From what the introduction says, French and his associates have put their full faith in the Charles Allen version of the LAD legend, which apparently was the basis for their search and discovery of the diggings - or so he claims. The Allen version is one of dozens available of the well known tale, but unfortunately it came not from Adams directly, but instead through Captain Shaw. Shaw was Adams' partner and sponser in the years after 1864 and told several different versions of the lost diggings to various people, one of them Allen. At best, the Allen version, with a near-Datil venue, is third-hand. Anyway, there's not much to get excited about at this point.

Be that as it may, French's claims can't be evaluated until his evidence is presented.

 

[DCadwell]

Another book! When people are willing to have a book published concerning their discovery of the LAD - but at the same time they want to keep their find quite, something just doesn't register right here. There seems to be a lack of research also. It makes interesting reading when I realize someone has done their homework. There's no "well traveled trail". The tracks Gotchear mentioned, is an old 1840 settlers road. It was used in 1840. It was old when Adams made his journey. It was just ruts. It was used just enough to scar the ground in a way similar to the Oregon Trail. The reason most people don't talk about this old road is because they haven't found it; and it's much easier to find some peaks and canyons that resemble the story (or stories). Those features are repeated many times within the landscape of Arizona and New Mexico.

Many years ago when I stumbled on to the old road, the hair on my neck stood on end. For several hours I followed it to a point where the settlers hoisted the wagons up a steep wall to get over a saddle in the mountain. The direction the road took was hard to follow. What helped determine the road's path was the same thing I found when I followed the Oregon Trail. Things were moved or cut down I.E. Looking down the canyon, one area of the road had several ruts and dozens of large boulders rolled to low side of the road... This road follows the Arizona, New Mexico boarder. It kind of weaves back and forth. But it's several miles from the extremely rugged country where I believe the diggings are located. Has the LAD been found? I don't think so, and Reserve is not the southern search boundary. D.C.

 

[Oroblanco]

As there remains interest in the Lost Adams, I am reviving an old thread:

Adam's Treasure | Unsolved Mysteries Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia

Please do continue:

 

[markmar]

Oro

So now is near Tucson ? But with this turn , we can go maybe somewhere in the middle of the old and new place of the Adams diggings When i am thinking about the two piloncillos from the lost Adams diggings story ,the only thing that come in my mind is the Perfil map . There is also a waterfall in the middle of the scene .
And the previous guys who worked that placer before Adams , made the same mistake and went above the waterfall .
But is just my theory .

 

[Oroblanco]

I sure do NOT know where the lost Adams is. Or I should say the first lost Adams - the second one (a lode mine) is almost certainly inside the current Navajo reservation, will post something about that soon (have to find the article) but there may be some way to get a permit to search for it even so. The original Adams could be either in NM or AZ, for a long time I was dead sure it is in NM or at least on that side of the state line, but now I am not so sure. I don't think it is near Tucson though.

Please do continue:

 

[WallyF]

If you haven't seen it watch Unsolved Mysteries with Dennis Farina, Season 3, Episode 9 (Adams diggings starts at 10:52) available free on youtube.
You'll know the people. First aired Sept 14, 1988.

 

[Oroblanco]

Bump

 

[nmth]

Ron and Paul's spot sure has some interesting features. Return to the Lost Adams Diggings book.
Unexpected stuff like colonial Spanish artifacts and the Timothy and Pettibone cards.
There are several old trails going E-W in that area. Alamocita creek is one, but there's one you can see plain as day (if you have the Eye) coming from the East toward the VLA on the N side of the paved road.
Look closely from the Plains of San Augustine and you can also see the unmistakable Pyramid mountain in the distance to the North.
The only problem is, Ron and Paul were kicked out before their prospecting bore fruit by the greedy Elk people who somehow ended up with the land, and the new owner (aquifer scam?) is just as bad last we checked.
Ron and Paul were promised ownership of that Section, but of course the heirs honored nothing and the property has now changed hands multiple times.

 

[sdcfia]

Ron and Paul's spot sure has some interesting features. Return to the Lost Adams Diggings book.
Unexpected stuff like colonial Spanish artifacts and the Timothy and Pettibone cards.
There are several old trails going E-W in that area. Alamocita creek is one, but there's one you can see plain as day (if you have the Eye) coming from the East toward the VLA on the N side of the paved road.
Look closely from the Plains of San Augustine and you can also see the unmistakable Pyramid mountain in the distance to the North.
The only problem is, Ron and Paul were kicked out before their prospecting bore fruit by the greedy Elk people who somehow ended up with the land, and the new owner (aquifer scam?) is just as bad last we checked.
Ron and Paul were promised ownership of that Section, but of course the heirs honored nothing and the property has now changed hands multiple times.

What can you say? Save one proposed location for the tale (if the LAD is factual as told), there has yet to be found any gold or indication that gold in quantity existed.

 

[nmth]

What can you say? Save one proposed location for the tale (if the LAD is factual as told), there has yet to be found any gold or indication that gold in quantity existed.

They found some gold, in dredging, panning, and by professional assay, just not the eye-popping quantities we'd all love to hear about.

Yes, the minority approach seems to be to find gold and try to declare it the Adams versus the more common other way around.

 

[sdcfia]

They found some gold, in dredging, panning, and by professional assay, just not the eye-popping quantities we'd all love to hear about.

Yes, the minority approach seems to be to find gold and try to declare it the Adams versus the more common other way around.

Well, you can find some gold in many, many places in NM and elsewhere. Problem is - at least with the LAD - the reported quantities were eye-popping, no assay required.

IMO, the LAD has never been "lost" - at least during the Anglo period: worked by the Hay party ca 1850; abandoned due to Indian trouble; worked by the first Snively party ca 1860; abandoned due to Indian trouble; reworked by the second Snively-led party (aka the Adams expedition) ca 1863; abandoned due to Indian trouble; expanded and heavily worked after the Civil War by many until ca 1890; sporadically reworked off and on until the 1940s; piddled with by many up to the 1970s when totally played out.

A few reports survive the earlier days. The well-known Snively himself was credited with accumulating 600 ounces of placer in 1863. James Tevis, another well-known early southwesterner, claims in his autobiography that as a novice prospector he never failed to recover an ounce and a half a day at the same diggings, and one day netted about 40 ounces. I don't know about other folks, but I'd call that place an eye-popping placer venue, at least in the early days. The problem with the puzzling Adams Diggings legend is Adams himself. I'm not convinced he was even there.

 

[Oroblanco]

The problem with the puzzling Adams Diggings legend is Adams himself. I'm not convinced he was even there.

Well it does help lend credence to any lost mine legend (or treasure for that matter) if the original 'finder' actually went out looking for it again themselves. This hold true for a surprising number of such 'legends' including Pegleg Smith and Dr Thorn for two examples, and we do have newspaper reports of Adams going out hunting for his lost diggings on more than one occasion. At least someone calling himself Adams that is, and one incident nearly ended with the Adams character dangling from a tree. The big problems arise with the mixing of legends, the people who successfully insinuated themselves into the original legend, blurring the facts and adding information that was worse than useless. Brewer is a prime example (IMHO) for the original name of the 'other' man who escaped with the original Adams was Davison or Davidson not Brewer. Snively is also highly questionable, and associated with the Adams legend many years after the events.

Please do continue, everyone is entitled to their own opinions of course!

 

[sdcfia]

Well it does help lend credence to any lost mine legend (or treasure for that matter) if the original 'finder' actually went out looking for it again themselves. This hold true for a surprising number of such 'legends' including Pegleg Smith and Dr Thorn for two examples, and we do have newspaper reports of Adams going out hunting for his lost diggings on more than one occasion. At least someone calling himself Adams that is, and one incident nearly ended with the Adams character dangling from a tree. The big problems arise with the mixing of legends, the people who successfully insinuated themselves into the original legend, blurring the facts and adding information that was worse than useless. Brewer is a prime example (IMHO) for the original name of the 'other' man who escaped with the original Adams was Davison or Davidson not Brewer. Snively is also highly questionable, and associated with the Adams legend many years after the events.

Please do continue, everyone is entitled to their own opinions of course!

That's right. We don't even have a reliable ID for the man called "Adams", for which the legend is named. No full name, no hard documentation, no known associates prior to the event which he described, nobody that ever heard of him. I found a personal family memoir from one of Silver City's founding fathers, who found Adams selling used furniture in San Diego - but that was many years after all the hoopla. Even then, the story changed again to yet another venue in yet another canyon. What's that, maybe two dozen versions all together?

After Adams first told his tale, he became an immediate celebrity in the Southwest, got plenty of free drinks and was obliged numerous times to lead search parties (at their expense) back to the diggings. This is where the confusion starts because he obviously could not lead anybody back to any diggings. He led folks all over the place, hither and yon, changed his story frequently, blaming his alleged PTS syndrome ("the Indian violence made me forget"), and spawned a boatload of confusing and contradictory disinformation that only grows more confusing as time passes. IMO, Adams may have originally heard the true story from someone near to the event, then started bragging that he was there too (whiskey talk), gaining immediate attention and becoming trapped by his own braggadocio.

I too personally discount the Brewer account, and favor the Davidson version. However, IMO Snively is not only the unidentified German in most of the LAD legends, but is a strong choice for the organizer and leader of the expedition. If I can ever overcome the distractions in my life, I intend to write much more about the LAD and those who were part of the true story. Occam's Razor tends to be the sharpest tool in your pouch.

 

[Oroblanco]

I would suggest to anyone interested to do a bit more digging, there are actually two Adams, with full names and documented, and even a third one that may have been guilty of leading people on wild goose chases. The differences in the two Adams are perhaps the key to locating these bonanzas, although one may well be inside a reservation today.

Against Snively being involved with the Adams party, we can trace Snively's movements and actions fairly well in fact our friend Steve has done so to a surprising level of detail. The original Adams predates the Civil War, which also makes the Snively connection doubtful due to the time difference.

Please do continue;

 

[sdcfia]

... Against Snively being involved with the Adams party, we can trace Snively's movements and actions fairly well in fact our friend Steve has done so to a surprising level of detail. The original Adams predates the Civil War, which also makes the Snively connection doubtful due to the time difference.

Please do continue;

Snively, the Pennsylvania Dutchman and Southern sympathizer with a nose for gold. Where was he before the Civil War? He was in New Mexico and Arizona. Here are excerpts from Jack Purcell's extensive "Adams Timeline":

1858 Jacob Snively / Jack Swilling, Butterfield route Arizona
1858 Snively discovers gold at Gila Bend and Vulture Gulch Local histories
18 May 1861 (1860 by most accounts) Hicks, Snively and Birch discover gold at Pinos Altos Local histories
Sep 1861 Snively, Swilling, Mastin, Hicks join Confederate Arizona Scouts Military and local histories
08 Dec 1862 Snively chairs organizational meeting Castle Dome Mining District La Paz, AZ
Feb 1863 Snively in Pinos Altos
1864 1866 Snively listed as resident of Arizona US Census Records
18 Jul 1864 Snively Territorial Election Judge La Paz, AZ

Note: Mangas Coloradas was murdered while in custody January 18, 1863. Pinos Altos had been nearly abandoned prior to this event. I find it coincidental that Snively - who rediscovered the original Bear Creek placers (mouth of Rich Gulch) himself in 1860 - returned to the diggings in February 1863, immediately after Mangas's death. He may have thought (erroneously) that without their strong war leader Mangas, the Apache threat would be diminished. As we know from the tales, the German in the LAD party soon sensed danger and left the diggings before the massacre.

Snively was reported in 1863 by Mssrs. Baxter, Houston and Thomas riding through Pinos Altos with forty pounds of gold nuggets. These men were told by Snively that the source of the gold was north of town, and they figured Snively had a sluice box and a cabin, but the area was too dangerous to enter at the time. The rich Bear Creek placers, of course, are located several miles north of the townsite, downstream from the original 1860 discovery.

 

[Oroblanco]

Snively, the Pennsylvania Dutchman and Southern sympathizer with a nose for gold. Where was he before the Civil War? He was in New Mexico and Arizona. Here are excerpts from Jack Purcell's extensive "Adams Timeline":

1858 Jacob Snively / Jack Swilling, Butterfield route Arizona
1858 Snively discovers gold at Gila Bend and Vulture Gulch Local histories
18 May 1861 (1860 by most accounts) Hicks, Snively and Birch discover gold at Pinos Altos Local histories
Sep 1861 Snively, Swilling, Mastin, Hicks join Confederate Arizona Scouts Military and local histories
08 Dec 1862 Snively chairs organizational meeting Castle Dome Mining District La Paz, AZ
Feb 1863 Snively in Pinos Altos
1864 1866 Snively listed as resident of Arizona US Census Records
18 Jul 1864 Snively Territorial Election Judge La Paz, AZ

Note: Mangas Coloradas was murdered while in custody January 18, 1863. Pinos Altos had been nearly abandoned prior to this event. I find it coincidental that Snively - who rediscovered the original Bear Creek placers (mouth of Rich Gulch) himself in 1860 - returned to the diggings in February 1863, immediately after Mangas's death. He may have thought (erroneously) that without their strong war leader Mangas, the Apache threat would be diminished. As we know from the tales, the German in the LAD party soon sensed danger and left the diggings before the massacre.

Snively was reported in 1863 by Mssrs. Baxter, Houston and Thomas riding through Pinos Altos with forty pounds of gold nuggets. These men were told by Snively that the source of the gold was north of town, and they figured Snively had a sluice box and a cabin, but the area was too dangerous to enter at the time. The rich Bear Creek placers, of course, are located several miles north of the townsite, downstream from the original 1860 discovery.

You don't see any issue there? You have successfully documented his movements and whereabouts so well, that it is a wonder when exactly he was off with the Adams party, and if he had been a member of said party, he could have easily ended all searching for it afterwards. Unless you want to think that Snively simply never heard of the lost Adams? Thanks for the excellent post, however it really shows that Snively is very unlikely to have been involved with the Adams party at all. Snively's movements and even gold success stories are no secrets. I won't go so far as to say it is impossible for Snively to have been this "Dutchman" whom is not even mentioned in the earliest version, just seems highly unlikely.

Please do continue,

 

[Oroblanco]

Forgot to add this, but Snively being in Gila Bend in 1858 actually IS a hot clue that he could have been a member of the Adams party as this is the year I found the oldest version described, however Snively then went on to Vulture Gulch, so obviously didn't go with the Adams party on what may have sounded like a proverbial wild goose chase, even if he were there when the deal was being discussed.



Oh what the heck, I already posted the first name of the second Adams lost mine, it was Henry Adams. Henry had a trading post on the Navajo reservation, not necessarily legally, but anyway he was shown a rich gold LODE by a friendly Navajo, and this Henry Adams also showed his rich gold "nuggets" (ore specimens) in Fort Wingate which did not exist in the time of the first Adams, whose name was DAVID. David Adams was a Mormon, apparently came with the first wave of Mormon colonists into Arizona and worked as a logger and as a TEAMSTER, before trading his teams for being led to the gold PLACER. David is the Adams of the original legend, and escaped with a man named either Davison or Davidson.

If you are a newbie reading this don't feel silly for not catching that two different lost mines in two very different areas have gotten mixed together, I didn't catch it for many years.

Oh and before I forget this too, the THIRD Adams is listed as one "A.V. Adams" who turns up many years after events, and leads at least two different search parties for the lost diggings, unsuccessfully, and unfortunately I have not found any trace of ANY 'A.V.Adams' having ever lived in Arizona or New Mexico prior to 1930, and that one was a doctor. I suppose the 'A.V.' could have been the result of someone misunderstanding David, for if you say 'David' and then say A V they sound a bit alike. Just a guess but it is quite possible that someone simply decided to have a gravy train of free drinks and camping trips, by assuming the name A. V. Adams too.

Please do continue,

 

[sdcfia]

You don't see any issue there? You have successfully documented his movements and whereabouts so well, that it is a wonder when exactly he was off with the Adams party, and if he had been a member of said party, he could have easily ended all searching for it afterwards. Unless you want to think that Snively simply never heard of the lost Adams? Thanks for the excellent post, however it really shows that Snively is very unlikely to have been involved with the Adams party at all. Snively's movements and even gold success stories are no secrets. I won't go so far as to say it is impossible for Snively to have been this "Dutchman" whom is not even mentioned in the earliest version, just seems highly unlikely.

Please do continue,

You're right again Oro - well ... partially. Snively's successes finding gold were an open book - except for the source of the mysterious forty pounds of nuggets he showed Baxter, Houston and Thomas in 1863 at Pinos Altos. He didn't reveal that placer's source, other than saying it was "north of town". I speculate that he was vague about it because he knew that the ground he worked had been previously claimed legally prior to the abandonment of the mining district after the Battle of Pinos Altos September 27, 1861. This was all well before the Mining Act of 1872, which established legal protocol for maintaining mining claim ownership. Under that act, abandoned claims would be considered open ground suitable for reclaiming, but that wasn't the case in the 1860s. A few miners remained after the battle (likely including Houston and Thomas), but very little activity resumed there until after the Civil War.

One of my goals is to identify the early Bear Creek placer claims and their owners during this period. All it will take is hours in the Grant County Clerk's Office poring over the original hand-written location papers. Hopefully, the filings I want aren't in Las Cruces, where the earliest records in the Territory were registered (Mesilla). I suspect Houston and Thomas's names will be listed as locators, and I also wonder if some of the others might be later members of the "Adams expedition" itself - I seriously doubt if I see an "Adams" recorded. If I'm lucky, I'll try to follow these men to Arizona after 1861. It's on me to find all this out.

Had Snively heard of the "Lost Adams?" I imagine so, and I'll bet he had a great laugh over the hoopla, because whomever the storyteller Adams really was, Snively likely knew quite well there was no Adams with him in 1863. As far as the other two Adams you mentioned goes ... I have no opinion. Like many lost mines that have a truth underlying them, I believe the "Lost Adams" has a surprising, simple, easy and logical solution that has been stampeded and buried under tons of lies, misunderstandings and myth.

 

[Oroblanco]

Another excellent post Steve! "Like" was not a strong enough compliment. I do hope you will let us know when you publish your findings, I would like to buy a copy, autographed if possible. I still question Snively's involvement, on the basis of his seeming lack of interest in hunting the lost Adams if nothing else, however as you pointed out, perhaps he knew exactly where it was and this was the source of his forty pounds of gold nuggets?

Amen on the many lies, misunderstandings and perhaps even something quite remarkable that got 'blended' in with the original story, making use of a lost mine legend to help cover up something quite illegal and conspiratorial? For a precedent, there are some theories that one or more of the lost Swift silver mines was in truth some kind of illegal (to the British crown) lead mining, gunpowder making etc. Or the infamous Miner expedition, which may well have had a secret motive never revealed to the hundreds of men recruited. Lots of men were all too willing to put life and limb on the line for the chance to get rich quick, providing a good armed escort!

Please do continue: