The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1894-06-16
THE MINE OF MONTEzUMA
Discovered by James Crook After
Many Years of Searching,

and much-discussed Montezuma
mine has been found at last.
For years stories of this wonder
full mine have been told and several
men have lost their lives on the des-
ert in a vain search for it's riches.
The ~discoverer, James Crook, has
spent years in search of the tabled
bonanza, and but for some old re-
cords of the first Spanish invaders,
who first saw the property it would
probably never have been found by
him or any one else.
When the Spaniards first invaded
what is now Arizona, says a Pres
colt (Ariz.) letter to the Chicago
Tribune, they found the natives
working the fabulous rich vein, and
from them has decended the story
that the bonanza was located in a
stupendous chasm walled in with
rock and accessible only from one
point, and that in the basin was a
mighty city made up almost Of con
victs, who had been sent here to ex-
plate their crimes in digging gold
for the glory of Montezuma. The
location was such hal escape was
impossible, for, even if one did sue
coed in scaling the walls of the ma
tural prison, he was separated from
food and wafer by miles of desert
wastes. In the bottom of the basin
was a lake Of limpid water fed by
springs. Across the basin a ledge
wonderful richness cropped out and
here the convicts worked, some dig
ging in the hillside, others washing
gravel with their rude implements.
The story goes that the Spaniards
saw nuggets as large as hens eggs
and many pots of dust.
Last week Mr.. Crook showed up at
n of the interior mining camps
nearly famished for want of water
and food and told his story, which
would challenge belief was it not
for the nuggets of gold which he
brought back as witness. He relat-
ed that n day while prospecting
far up the side of the mountain he
discerned away out in the desert
three mighty peaks arising from the
plain. Their general contour and
location struck him as tallying with
the description left by the Spaniards.
Loading his burro with water and
provisions he set out and reached
the peaks after five days journey.
A whole day was consumed in seal
ing the barren and PERCEPTIONS sides
of the lonely group. On reaching
the top he discovered hat the three
peaks we're set in triangular form
and in the center there yawned a
seemingly bottomless gulf.
Feeling sura that he was on the
right track he started forward and
soon encountered a we'll worn trail
which showed evidence of not having
been travelled for years. In many
places it was overgrown with bushes
and filled with rock. This trail led
him to the walls of the chasm, but
there appeared no way of descend
ing the precipitous banks. He
could see a little basin walled in
with the bottom covered with green
grass, an evidence of water in the
neighborhood. Eventually he de-
scended and began exploring. The
basin was about ten acres in extent
and evidences of former occupancy
were numerous. Dozens of abode
huts, now tumbled into decay, were
scattered around a pond or tank of
clear water and there was still stand
ing a house of rock.
It's sides was a cave whose floor
lay about thirty feet above the bot
tom of the basin and was accessible
only by steps cut into the verticle
face of the perfectly smooth precipe.
He found deep pits and holes
on the vein where the natives had
been digging out the ore. The
workings were all caved in and COW
cred with grass, but from all appear
ances development had never been
very extensive. 1t appeared also
that the natives had never had any
means for treating anything but
the very richest ores-such as con-
tanned real coarse gold, from the fact
that on the dumps he found rock
that fairly bristled with fine free