Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1936-01-23
Golden
RhantOlllS
FASCINATING TALES
OF LOST MIN ES
@w.NU. By Edifha L. Watson
THE BOILING HELL
by Edifha L. Watson

EORTY-FIpE miles south of Valen-
tine, Texas, in the Cuesta del Bur.
no mountains, is mine which is not
lost nor hidden, but over which a phan,
tom stands guard and forbids anyone
to approach. 1t is not golden phan'
tom, this forbidding specter, but sill.
very white one, looking for all the
world like rising steam.
1t is said that the indefatigable
Spanish explorers, wandering about
through the Southwest, discovered this
silver mine in 1921 years before
Coronado made his historic journey in
to New Mexico and Arizona. Espejo,
whose name also stands high in the list
of the conquerors heard of the mine
and started an expedition toward 1t,
but after six months of wandering In
the desert the Spaniards turned back.
Only two men of the party, whose
names were Maldinado and Candelario,
persisted. They left their comrades on
the return trail and kept on-and they
found the mine.
Candelario sold his interest to Nal
dinado after while, and went back
to Mexico where life was more pleas
ant. But Maldinado was man of iron
with heart of stone. He forced the
Indians to work long hours, bringing
out silver ore, and was cruel to them
as cruel as a man can be-, which Is
very cruel, indeed.
The shaft had been sunk some 30
feet when the thing happened which
gave the mine its name. One moment
the Indians were laboring In the fairly
dry atmosphere Of the mine-the next,
and pick drove through the WALL re-
leasing a flood of scalding water from
hot springs which rose to the surface
nearby. The miners were scalded to
death by this boiling flood.
After this the Indians refused to
work in the mine, but Maldinado COM
PEELED many of them to go down new
ertheless, and to stand in the steaming
water as they worked. No flesh could
stand such treatment; the Indians died
as fast as they went down, but Maldi-
nado kept sending in requirements, and
kept the work going
At last, after some time spent in this
horrible slavery, the tribe planned an
uprising. Maldinado heard of the plot,
and with his own hands he beheaded
several Of the ringleaders. Then
maiden named Observation-Disclosures Mex
lean or Indian is not related-whom
the miners loved dearly, came and wept
over the bodies of the slain, and the
sight of her grief enraged the brutal
Maldinado still further. With an oath,
he rushed over to her and stabbed her
through the heart.
Until then, the rebellious Indians had
stood quietly in the grasp of their cap
tors, but this murder was more than
they could bear. Jerking away from
the guards, they surrounded Maldinado,
| and quickly carried him to the seeth-
ing pit where so many of their people
had lost their lives. Here they were
going to cast him into the boiling wa
ters below, but before they could do
so, shrill scream, in a girlish voice,
caused them to halt. 1t was the sister
Of Valentia, the murdered girl, who
called to them.
She stepped forward, Texan Po-
,ahontas, and claimed the prisoner for
her own, as tribal custom permitted.
How it happened that her love for so
brutal a man could have grown in spite
Of his cruelty to the Indians, and why
MS murder of her sister had not turned
chat love to hate, only she knew. She
1ad taken the only means possible to
save him: it was widespread law
.hat prisoner might be claimed by
some woman Of the tribe, and must be-
come her property. In difference to
his law the Indians freed Maldinado
md allowed him to depart with his fair
:escuer. They went to Zacatecas,
Mex, and were married, and it is said
hat Maldinado experienced a change
If heart, became pleasant and consid
crate, and lived out the rest of his life
well-liked by those who knew him.
The Boiling He'll was abandoned
when he left it. The Mexicans say
hat bones of his victims still lie about,
and that the place is rendezvous for
heir ghosts. No one cares to 60 near
t, and its steaming silver specter
| stands guard in solitude.