Old Bookaroo
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MILLIONS IN GOLD HIDDEN IN ORGAN MOUNTAINS
MANY YEARS AGO BY OLD PRIEST
By L. H. DAVIS -Feb . 4, 1917
MANY YEARS AGO BY OLD PRIEST
By L. H. DAVIS -Feb . 4, 1917
Long after the conquest of Mexico by Cortez and after his soldiers of fortune had planted the cross on the Aztec temples, which for centuries had been the scenes of barbarious human sacrifices to their heathen gods, there were repeated calls among the Roman Catholic priesthood of Europe for volunteers to go to that far-off country and convert the natives.
In 1796, in response to this call for volunteers for missionairies made in France, ten young priests presented themselves for this service. Much care was exercised in selecting those most qualified for this mission. Among those chosen was a young Frenchman, of noble lineage, named Father La Rue, who was ambitious and willing to forego the comforts and ease of European civilization and plunge into the unknown wilderness of New Spain and face all its dangers and deprivations to carry on the work assigned him.
So, after long and weary waiting, he sailed and in September, 1797, he and the little band of priests landed in Mexico. In the early part of the following year Father La Rue was assigned to a little pastorate in the far north, about ten days' journey southward from Paso del Norte, the "Pass of the North." There he took up his work at a farm or hacienda, his little flock being mostly peons and poor Spaniards.
Among the latter was a very old man who had been a soldier and had traveled over much of the territory then belonging to the Mexican provinces of Spain while campaigning in the army, and particularly in what is now New Mexico. A warm friendship sprang up between the old soldier and the young French priest. Finally the old man became very sick, and during his last days he was nursed and tenderly cared for by Father La Rue.
Touched by this brotherly kindness, the old soldier confided to the priest a secret he had carefully kept, and told him of a wonderful place of gold he had found on one of his scouting trips in former days, which he said was in a high mountain range some two days' journey northerly from the "Pass of the North," (which is now called the city of Juarez, and immediately across the river from El Paso, Texas). “It is called Sierra Organos," (Organ Mountains ) said he. Near San Augustine Pass to the eastward, he affirmed, was a spring, which he called "Spirit Spring," near which was Cuerza Vegas, cave of the meadows. A short distance from this spring was a very high rock, or cliff, and near this would be found veins and placers of gold.
Soon after telling the secret the old man died. A season of drouth and failure of crops soon followed and the little community was on the verge of starvation. Ever after hearing of the story, Father La Rue constantly thought of some day visiting the scene, and now that a famine threatened his little congregation, his desire became stronger to migrate with them to the land of golden promise.
Calling them together, he repeated the story and asked if they were willing to go with him and search for the place. To remain meant suffering and starvation, while if they found the place they would have the means to purchase the supplies from people in the northern valleys. They unanimously agreed to go with him.
At last their search was rewarded, for one of the men brought back some nuggets of gold from a near-by canyon. Satisfied that he had found the right locality, and that the old soldier had told the truth, he ordered a permanent camp to be established. He had a room or bed chamber hewn in the high chalky cliff near the Spirit Spring for his own quarters, while the others built little houses with boulders.
Some of his men worked in the placers in the canyon, while others prospected for the leads and other sources of the placer gold. At last they found a rich vein, and selecting an obscure point where observation would be difficult to outside intruders, they tunneled into it and found it of exceeding richness. They worked the placers and the vein for several years, taking out large quantities of gold, which they deposited with Father La Rue, who acted as treasurer, who used what was necessary in purchasing provisions and tools from distant settlements.
The remainder of the gold was secreted in the artificial cavern where he lived. Isolated completely from the outside world, this little colony flourished and kept the wonderful secret from the farmers of the valley towns. The little settlement was surrounded with a high stone wall and no strangers were admitted. Arrastras and adobe smelters were built in the recesses of the mountains and the camp was a bee hive of mining industry.
Years passed by and the French priest was becoming old, revered and loved by his devoted flock. Meanwhile, during all these years he had never reported to the head of the church in Mexico City. A man named Maximo Milliano was sent northward to find the little village where La Rue and his little colony had lived in Mexico when last heard from. Arriving there they were surprised to find it deserted, and after diligent inquiry learned that they had mysteriously abandoned it and gone to some unknown place to the north. Returning to Mexico Milliano reported what he had learned. Soon after a new expedition was started under his leadership and proceeding on the long journey they spent more than a year before finding where the colony had located.
When they found the walled settlement Milliano asked admittance through the gate, which was refused. He had learned at the settlements in the valley about the gold that was being accumulated. He made a formal demand on Father La Rue to deliver to him as representative of the head of the church in Mexico all the gold that had been recovered and also to deliver possession of the mine. This demand was refused by Father La Rue, who asserted that the gold and the mines belonged to his people and not to the church nor to himself.
About ten years ago a prospector met an old man named Teso Aguirri, a descendant of one of the ill-fated colonists, who was in the little city of Las Cruces vending burro loads of mesquite wood, and whose confidence he gained by favors extended. The prospector informed him that he intended to go prospecting in the Organ Mountains. Teso invited the prospector to make his little house in the mountains his headquarters. The invitation was accepted, and the prospector spent several days prospecting.
It was during this time, just after dinner one day while smoking their cigarettes that the old man told the prospector the story. He also stated that he was one of the colonists, and that his father had once shown him the priest's cave. That evening they rode over to Spirit Springs, and just above them Tesa led the prospector to the base of a high cliff. Underneath one corner of it he showed him a hole nearly covered. With lighted candles they crawled in a little ways when they entered a large room carved out of the rock. By the dim and flickering candle light they saw a couch sculptured out of solid rock, and it was stained with what might have been the blood of the murdered priest . On the walls of the cavern were niches and shelves cut in the solid rock.
In this sepulchral chamber Teso told the story of the tragic fate of the priest and the colony and of the golden treasure and the mine and placers. When asked where the old mine and treasure were hidden, he replied that it was not far away, but that he was not permitted to tell.
FINDS RECORD IN CHURCH
A short time before his mysterious death, Col. A. J. Fountain of Las Cruces, N. M., exhibited some black quartz exceedingly rich in massive gold, and stated that it came from the heart of the Organs. He claimed to have a copy of some old records found among the archives of an old church, either in Mesilla or in the mission of Dona Ana, which stated that near the old San Augustine Springs there was one of the richest mines in Spanish America, that was worked over a century ago with arrastras and smelters, employing several hundred miners.
The description was very detailed and had all the earmarks of truthfulness. In his opinion, the mine and ancient camp had been destroyed by torrential floods and covered by boulders and gravel washed down the sides of the mountain. It was one of his chief ambitions to uncover what he believed to be one of the greatest gold mines in the country. Only last year some Spanish refugees from Mexico City came through El Paso on their way home to Spain and brought with them a document found in an old church in that city, stating that in "the eastern side of Sierra de las Orgones, two days north of Paso del Norte, is a cave in which is buried a lot of bullion taken from a mine near by. It is at a point between the Soledad Peak and another high peak to the north."
The refugees left a copy of the document with the German consul, requesting him to investigate the region and if he could locate the ancient landmarks to notify them and they would return; for the buried treasure was cached by a priest and is worth millions of dollars, according to the record.
During the Civil War, while Col. George W. Baylor was encamped with his soldiers in the north end of the Organ mountains, a scout came in with some white quarts [sic] containing abundance of gold, being float he had picked up in a canyon. Several years later Col. Baylor returned and spent weeks and months in search for the milk white quartz vein; but was unable to find it. All these stories, based on tradition, ancient archives and the finding of rich "float," justify the belief that somewhere in the Organs will be found the mine of Father La Rue and the bullion he and his faithful followers so carefully concealed.
The Organs are composed of quartz monzanite, granites, intrusive dikes, and schists; and veins of quarts are numerous. Gold has been found in several places , especially in the basin immediately north, and in the high escarpment north of the basin. The old Spirit Springs may be San Augustine Springs, now called Cox's Springs. It is doubtful if any American prospector has scaled the steep rocky slopes of this wonderful mountain range, whose summits are the only safe home of the wild mountain sheep and goats. Exploration is fraught with danger, but somewhere and sometime in these hoary mountains, high up or in the deep dark canyons, will surely be found the wonderful mines and treasures of Father La Rue.
~ History of Mesilla Valley; Or, the Gadsen Purchase Known to MEXICO as the Treaty of Mesilla, by George Griggs (Mesilla, New Mexico: 1930)
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Editor’s Notes
The author’s original spelling has been preserved. The 19th century blocks without paragraphs have been broken up for modern tastes.
Unfortunately, Griggs does not provide a citation for the Davis story. Based on the specific date, it may have first appeared in a newspaper. However, a subject search of New Mexico and then American newspapers did not yield a single “Padre La Rue” article.
The reference to Griggs was found in David Leon Chandler’s essential 100 Tons of Gold (New York: 1978). Two paragraphs from Chandler put the above into perspective.
“Primary-source documentation of la Rue’s existence is lacking. And two of New Mexico’s leading authorities are convinced he never did exist. They are state historian Myra Ellen Jenkins and Church historian Fray Angelico Chavez, both of Santa Fe.
“Fray Chavez, who inspected likely Church documents, said he could find no mention, direct or indirect, of a Padre La Rue in that period. Dr. Jenkins is equally firm. She says, furthermore: ‘there is no way for gold to be at White Sands unless it was brought there by F. Lee Baily and his gang from somewhere else.’”
What does F. Lee Baily have to do with the Padre La Rue gold plant and gold mine? Probert’s Lost Mines and Buried Treasures of the West (1977) states:
“Note: Some authors have placed the legendary Padre La Rue Treasure in the Organ Mountains west of Las Cruces or in the Caballo Mountains north of the San Adres Mountains. The Padre La Rue Treasure, the ‘Doc’ Noss Treasure, and the Voctoria Peak Treasure all refer to the same treasure.”
This is confirmed by The Golden Crescent; The Southwest Treasure Belt (1962), Some Western Treasure Trails (1964), and Western Treasures Lost & Found (1971) by “Jesse Ed (E.) Rascoe” – Ed Bartholomew.
The Davis account appears to be origin story for the Padre La Rue myth, as it is the earliest version of the yarn – despite claims by writers that it is an oft-repeated legend in common circulation. If that were the case, one would expect to find 19th century newspaper articles about it. And versions in the W.P.A. archives.
The technical literature describes Dona Ana County, and the Oregon Mountains, of being baren of gold. The most detailed study – some three hundred pages, the results from two summers going over every inch of the ground – concludes:
“The mine is supposed to have been covered up by debris from the mountains. Several people have claimed to have found it. Colonel A.J. Fountain is said to have discovered it shortly before his mysterious disappearance…
“But none of the claims have been substantiated, and the search for the lost mine continues. It should be added that, although several of the supposed localities were investigated during mapping of the Organ range, neither mine nor rich gold mineralization was found.”
~ The Geology of the Organ Mountains; With an Account of the Geology and Mineral Resources of Dona Ana County New Mexico, by Kingsley Charles Dunham (Socorro, N.M.: 1935) – New Mexico School of Mines, State Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources, Bulletin No. 11.
Aside from Davis, how did the tall tale get started? One hint is found in “Origin of the Name Arizona” by Adlai Feather, New Mexico Historical Review April 1964 (Vol. XXXIX, No.2). Describing the search for the “Padre Mine,” in a footnote on page 99 the author states “In 1879, a Lincoln County merchant named LaRue did a little exploratory work at the site. Out of the jumble of indefinite information emerged the legend of ‘The lost mine of Father LaRue.’”
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Good luck to all,
The Old Bookaroo
