Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-09-23
Great Fortunes That Lie Hidden In
the Far Southwest.
LOST MINES OF SILVER AND GOLD
Would Enrich the Finder Beyond
the Dreams of Avarice.
SHROUDED IN MYSTERY
Written for The Evening Star.

| from the desert regions OF the far south
| west by Mr.. F. w. Hodge of the bureau Of
ethnology, who this week returned from
a two months tour, for purposes Of study,
| in the entire Pueblo region in which alone.
travelling entirely overland, he covered $50
| miles.
while in the southwest I heard many
| enticing clues to buried treasure, open to
any one who can find the hidden key" the
ethnologist said, but none of these offer
| such temptations the story of the Boil
| las del Plata mines. The truth of this is
! borne out by documentary evidence to be
| found in certain old records of the ancient
| Mexican custom house, in operation a CEN
| fury and a half ago.
Somewhere between the years 1876 and
| 1741 when Arizona was in Spanish terri
tory, Don Diego Asmendi, q wandering
Mexican miner, reached a settlement of
the Papago Indians situated almost upon
| the present boundary between Arizona and
| Sonora. Mexico. The Papagoes. who still
| cover this area, called their settlement
AriZonac.' Don Diego Asmendi, by some
! chance came across hidden deposit Of
silver and astonished the Mexicans by re-
| turning with what was probably the largest
virgin lump of the precious white metal be-
| fore since found in the world. 1t con-
| tanned no less than 2,70O pounds of pure
silver. Asmendi, returning through Mexico,
bore with him another virgin lump of 275
pounds, while the aggregate weight of sew
eral other nuggets was 1923 pounds.
The King Got 1t.
According to the Spa nish policy Of exor
bitant revenue assessment, these tremen-
dous nuggets We're unreasonably taxed by
| the Mexican custom house officer of those
early times when Don Diego's find became
known. A dispute between the officer and
| the finder of the silver arose and the mat
ter was appealed to the Viceroy of Mexico,
who decided that the controversy. involv-
| ing, as it did, the largest silver nugget
found in the world, was beyond his respon
| sibiity, and that 1t would have to be re-
ferred to the King of Spain himself The
king. taking the viceroys hint, promptly
| ruled that nugget Weighing 2,70O pounds
must be regarded a curiosity. and that
all natural curosities of great value found
in the colonies must by courtesy be re-
garded as the property of the crown.
"Asmendi was naturally heartbroken at
this loss of his priceless nugget 1t is
said that he left Mexico in disgust without
revealing the precise locality of the Won
derful mine. 1t was, however, known be-
yond doubt that the Jumps of silver were
found in near the Papago settlement
of AriZonac. which grew to be known as
'Bollas del Plata which, in Spanish, means
balls of silver The old name, 'AriZonac,'
thereupon became widely applied to this
region. and, very few people know.
when the present territory of Arizona was
carved out of Mexico its name was d.
rectly derived from this same Papago VII
lage, near which the abandoned mine of
Asmendi still remains undeveloped. 1 pre-
sumo that the monster nugget was sent
to Mexico and coined in the mint there
for the Spanish king, whose argument that
it should be preserved a curiosity was
of course, inspired by sinister motives
Soon after the misadventure of Don Diego
the place, became abandoned and lost
sight of and the ardor of some unskilful
miners who attempted to recover the de-
serted wealth become cooled. The mug
tratc fha "a
and encouragement doubtless overcame the
followers of Asmendi because they failed
to pick up more surface deposits. In those
Gays they had no facilities for deep min
Ing.
Awaiting n Finder.
"Indeed, 1 should like to have the time to
go to this region and dig on my own ac-
count 1t is not unlikely that some more
2,700-pound Jumps Of virgin silver, or even
larger ones, are idly reposing beneath the
soil where the Mexican made his rich find
The people who have inhabited the region
for the past century and half are the
last in the world to Improve such mine
If assured of its resources The Papago
still have their little settlement on the
spot, and in their language it is still known
as AriHonac. These red men not such
as would resist any attempt to mine the
region today. Arzonac lies just about on
the boundary line, perhaps a trifie
toward the Sonora side. To reach it the
the Southern Pacific railway.
Il also learned from old and reputable
authority who lives in the southwest the
story of a great wealth of lost gold known
to have remained buried, since a genera
ton ago, somewhere between what are
now two small stations, 'McCarty's' and
Grant fifteen miles apart, on the Santa
Fe Pacific railroad. in western and central
New Mexico. The story runs as follows:
Lost Fortune.
fho oil of
its height many Mexicans were tempted
to try their luck in the new Ell Dorado
One of their expeditions, which had met
with tremendous success, was returning
home with a large burro train weighed
down with gold. and was following a trail
leading past the spot mentioned, when
they heard that great band of Navajos
were about to raid them. The burros were
Immediately stripped Of their costly bur-
dens and all hands set to work to hide t
in the earth. hoping for sufficient time to
escape before the Indians might arrive.
Not until after the last nugget had been
securely covered, certain markers had been
planted and preparations had been made
for rapid flight did the poor Mexicans
realize that their time had been ill-reck-
oned. The Navajos, who greatly outnum-
bered their victims. swept In upon their
band and slaughtered all but one. who fled
in terror to a settlement beyond, where.
in great excitement, he told his tale and
left meager description of the hiding
place. Hurrying in search of others to help
him recover the gold. this man evidently
met with some mishap on the way. At any
rate. he never returned, but certain Mexi-
cans to whom the story was conflded hur-
ried to find the place designated. After ex-
cavating manySfee one of these men hit
with his shovel a stone with peculiar
markings which resounded with such a
weirdly hollow tap as to lead him to be-
Iieve that something uncanny resided be-
meath. He fed from the spot, alarming
his companions, who, being superstitious
people, Imagined that in cavern beneath
the soil the ghosts of the massacred min
ers were watching as sentries over their
lost treasure. After this incident the spot
became forgotten, none of the supersti-
tious diggers could be induced to return.
But the story still lived. The source Of my
information is such as to lead me to sus-
pect its truth. Il
Raided by Indians.
Another clue to buried treasure which
I heard in the southwest is the following:
A dozen or more years ago an American
named Adams came hurrying from the
Navajo country into the mining town Of
Gallup. on the Santa Fee Pacific road, in