The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-02-11
BEGIN HUNT FOR CANYON OF GOLD
Archaeologists Head Survey Financed By New Workers To-
 Find Lost Mines

TUCSON, Ariz., Feb. 10.--An explo- ration party with scientific equipment has left Tuscon for the country north of the old settlement at Oracle, Ariz., where the fabled Canada del Gro lies-- the Canyon of Gold," named by the pathfinding Spaniards of the sixteenth century.
 Three men who were members of the Cummings archaeological expedition in Arizona last Summer comprise the par ty. with an Indian guide and coun- selor, for the initial prospecting trip. At the same time the start of this western expedition has brought out the fact that a S10O,000 mining company has been formed in New York to fi- nance the quest by two wealthy New Workers and an Arizona Indian guide. |The articles of incorporation, however, are unusual in legal phraseology. The purpose of the corporation, according Ito an opening clause of this novel docu- ment, is ito ascertain by inquiry and research the existence, location, history, metallurgical and mineralogical capaci- ty and present ownership" of the chief |of the famous treasure sites which have dropped out of the present knowl- edge of man in northern Arizona.
 F&Itn D6S0U OM LOScahuS
 The new goldseekers base their faith, aside from the persistence of the leg end in the past, on the stories still current among the Indians of Papago reservation, which borders on the Tue son country; one the visible evidence of treasures of gold-fo wof even greater historic than intrinsic value-still pre- served in the San Xavier mission, one of the most notable relics of early Spanish church architecture in the southwest, and on authentic documents of exploration and discovery which go back to the earliest times within the ken of white men when gold was mined In the fabled canyon.
 There are said to be about. thirty old gold mines in Arizona and northern Mexico which have disappeared with the overlaying of primitive landmarks by the civilization of the white settlers. In part the loss of the mines has been due to the Indian uprisings of the last century, which put a stop to prospecting around the bonanza towns in the vicinity of Grand Gulch, Tombstone and Oracle. Another req son given for the loss of actual physi- cal traces of the mines is the probable khifting of the rock formation of the mountain ranges, by which fOrmer op- enings of the mines have been shut bf or covered over by new mountain walls.
 A Recent $5O,OO0 Strike
 The mine with the iron door," the first objective of the present expedi- ion, is thought still to be in existence in a mountain range whose picturesque windowed opening lies in view of Tue bon. An earthquake in 1887 is said to have obliterated the traces of former workings, but the new explor- ers point to the fact'that similar sup bosedly hNlf-mythical memories of the region have in former instances led to the uncoyering of paying gold lodes in the Canada del Gro. Scores of old prospectors' still butter away in the eanyon. One miner recently hit a pocket which netted $50,000, but the mine with the iron. door" eluded him hs it has the others.
 The old Spanish document in the Ban Xavier mission which describes he mine shows that, the aperture of he mine was through a natural for nation of iron deposit, whence the mine received its name by poetical igure. The treasure of the mission ehapel at San Xavier-its ancient al- ars still inlaid with virgin gold, and he gold enerustations on its pictures of he saints, and on the masonry and iecorations of the church--accordin o the Spanish reeords-was mined by Indians working under the direction of he mission priests, and brought from the Canada del Gro on mule back by hn old trail, the San Xavier end of which still exists, leading directly into he Canada del Gro. It's beginning is ost in the Arizona desert.
 The articles of incorporation of the new company provide that one-eighth pf all profits derived from this mine, f it is found, shall be paid to the present mission in the old Spanish fhurch, now conducted by Catholic sis ers for the relief of tuberculosis among he Indians, in recognition of the lights held by the mission in those af-eh centuries, and as q. return for he information received through the San Xavier records.
 Location an Indian Secret
 The exact location of the lost mine r. s said to be d tribal secret of the X indians of the San Catalina valley, where stories have long persisted of ich veins of gold ore from which treas ' ire was mined.s Some of the most famous mines in the, southwest, such the Silver King and sthee Grand iulch, are supposed now to have been I'd mines, hidden for centuries and only 3eopened in modern times. Who their irst discOverers were and who origi. < ally worked them ares unknown. In he valleys of the Gila Salinas and the Rio Grande, according to the findings < If archaeologists and anthropologists n unknown mysterious race antedating he red men fashioned their nOmmonest 7 tensils of beaten gold, building a Civilization which may have rivaled he famed splendors of Montezuma in ower and wealth based on its measure rss possession of the precious yellow metal. : .t,i,,
 The lost mines we're inherited by hose later corners whom the discov- rers of the continent regarded as the borigines and called Indians. The hief reason why for hundreds of years hese red men have resented the in- z rusion of white men-Spanish, French, English and American--into the gold ountry has been that the, invaders light discover the location of these U |recious storehouses of nature. The Epaniards came at least in part upon he clue, hut their ayarieesRnd op- ression of the Indians, whom they <nslaved to- work the mines fon them, & erved to close the trail to siicceedinr