The Coolidge examiner., 1936-01-31
GOLDEN
PHANTOMS
Fascinating
Tales of Faith. ws,soo
Lost Mines @wN.u.
JUAN CARLOS GOLD

a SPANIARD named Juan Carlos
n came from the South into the
San Luis valley long time ago. He
came with many poems, and they
things as books and manuscripts.
Possibly gold was also part of the
cargo, for Juan Carlos had gold dust
in profuSion, and was very liberal
with it.
Each year for three years, this
strange man disappeared on the
first day of May and returned on
the last day of October. Where he
went, and why, no one ever knew.
At last some of the MeXicans who
lived thereabOuts tried to follow
him, but to their dismay he saw
them, and turned back. He stayed
at home after that.
In 1868, Carlos hired some of the
most ignorant of the Mexicans
thereabOuts to build some large
adobe houses at the side of the San
Luis lakes. He paid them in the
usual gold dust, and ordered them
away as soon as the buildings were
completed. They went, it is said,
all but two of the least intelligent,
who stayed by request. These men
no one ever saw again.
Their families, who came at last
to inquire for them, were told that
they had received their pay and de-
parted with the rest. But the Mex
lean people will not have it So
they say that Carlos caused the two
to do some secret work and then
had them killed lest they reveal it.
But what work, and what secret, no
one can tell.
Then Juan Carlos died. Within
the year two of the MeXicans in
the valley became suddenly wealthy,
and bought large herds of sheep and
cattle. They claimed that they had
made this money in government con-
tract work near Santa Fe, but no
one believed them. Perhaps they
did not even believe themselves.
The houses near the lakes were
used as late as 1885 by hunters who
gathered there to shoot water fowl.
Apparently their walls harbored no
secret, so it is not known what the
two Mexicans had been hired to do.
And the source of Juan Carlos
gold? That Is still mystery. 1t
is thought that possibly it may be
the place discovered by Kit Carson.
Stewart, and Archuleta, when they
camped by the Rio Grande on their
way with messages to San Fran
cisco. In little stream which ran
into the river they saw considerable
gold, and panned enough to sell in
San Francisco for $S7. When the
party came back, they passed that
way again, but they tried in vain
to find that shining little stream.
There is another story about this
trip which goes into greater detail.
According to this legend a pack
mule fell into the water and Stew
art and one other man had to stay
at this place while the pack was
dried out. Stewart saw the gold
and panned some of it to pass the
time. He wrote the location down
in little book, but unfortunately
the book was later destroyed in a
fire.
Stewart went to Old Mexico and
did not return until he was an old
man, when he tried to revisit the
scene, but could not find it.
Whichever of these stories, If
either, is the true one, it is said fur
ther that an old prospector and
buffalo hunter put their heads to-
gether later and followed out every
clew to the place that they could
discover. They found the general
location without a doubt, but flood
waters had caused landslip of half
a mile in length, and the little
stream had vanished.