Good advice, Springfield. There have been con artists of every description since Noss and even before who have preyed on Treasure Hunters.
Your friend’s interpretation is interesting, but I ran it by the Executive Search Committee, and they are fairly certain it is a different map. There is no reference in our map to any “first water”, nor is there a second reference to the name Soledad. In addition, our reference to Soledad is not to the canyon of Soledad, but to the “sierra” of Soledad.
As your friend probably already knows, “`Soledad’ was the former name of Victorio Peak.” – from
http://www.theoutlaws.com/gold7.htm.
It seems he is fairly certain that this “Soledad” is not Victorio Peak. Our group believes that it is more likely to be a location other than Victorio Peak, but we have an alternate theory that the location is very close to Victorio Peak. In addition, we are not looking at Filmore canyon at all.
We would definitely be interested in hearing more from your friend, especially if he has a copy of any of the maps that were so plentiful. If our map is not an original and unique copy, we want to know that immediately. PM me if your friend wants to exchange some information – if he has a copy of the map that he says is the same as ours, he can fax it to me or scan and e-mail it for comparison.
We were especially intrigued by your friend’s account of the letter, how it was stolen, etc. I find the story very believable because it has all the makings of a scam. Con artists know that if they draw you into something illegal, you won’t tell the police once you are ripped off. So they give you the impression that the letter is “hot”, and because you know you are accepting stolen goods, you won’t complain after handing over your money.
If your friend was involved with any of the various missions targeting Victorio Peak since the Noss days, he or she can certainly testify as to the quantity and quality of con artists and scammers that took money from investors. Your friend is especially welcome to come to our meeting in El Paso if he or she would like to contribute to the discussion or share some insights. There is no mandatory donation, although we will accept donations to cover the cost of the event, and in exchange for the donations we will raffle off a piece of artwork (see below) that includes some great Treasure Hunting finds.
Other thing is there is a remote chance that someone who recovered the gold would have missed a cavern and left some behind in the mountain. That would be pure chance though. Anyone think of putting some info on the theories on wikipedia.org , the online encyclopedia? I searched there first and it doesn't say much at all. Chris.
