SOMETIME in 1871 an Apache came into the McDowell trading post in Maricopa County, Arizona and asked if he could trade gold nuggets and or for supplies. When the trader's eyes fell upon the rich ore the Indian wanted to trade he hastily agreed. The Indian appeared every few weeks to replenish his supplies, once he had established a place where he could trade his gold.
Constant an curious loafers at the post cussed and discussed the Apache, and most o them came to the same conclusion: that was, that the Indian came from the area of Bronco Canyon which lay approximately thirty miles northwest of Fort McDowell. They directed numerous questions to the Apache concerning his rich ore, but each question was met with a stolid stare and silence.
It happened that once when he came in for his periodic load of supplies two new men were among those usually congregated at the post. They were prospectors, named Brown and Mathis, and they had just emerged from the hills where they had been searching unsuccessfully for several weeks. When the Indian paid his bill by pouring gleaming gold on the counter their eyes opened wide in wonder. Both of them had seen high-grade ore before, but none equal to the mass spread upon the counter. Brown and Mathis looked at one another and silently reached an agreement.
That evening when the Apache left, they followed at a discreet distance. From all outward appearances the Indian did not know that anyone followed him, but he vanished at the east fork of Bronco Canyon. Vainly they tried to pick up his trail but to no avail; it was as if he had never existed.
Brown and Mathis returned to the post and purchased enough supplies to last them for a number of weeks. Leading burros heavily loaded with food and equipment, they went directly to the area where they had lost the Apache's trail. Nearby they located a small seep of water at the base of a canyon wall and here they set up camp. Laboriously they traced a map f the general area in the sand, marking off sections to explore one at a time.
Several days passed and they had eliminated several sections and found nothing. Now they were checking out the eastside of the canyon. Far up in a dry was they picked up several pieces of float lined with fine gold.
Slowly working their way up the canyon, following scattered pieces of float, they came to a clump of brush and cactus. It was evident that their trail led directly into it. Pushing their way in, they discovered a vein of pink quartz about three feet wide and running almost a hundred feet before it turned and went straight down. The whole visible length of the vein was quartz so rotten that it crumbled at a touch, to leave evidence that the vein had been broken with the crudest of tools, but not to any extent.
The jubilant prospectors mined the quartz vein until their supplies ran out. Even then they refused to leave and one of them mined while the other hunted. The almost pure gold ore was placed into sacks fashioned from the skins of deer and sheep they had shot for food.
But no matter how they tried to postpone it, the time arrived when they had to replenish their supplies and get equipment to work the mine. Before they packed to depart they examined their hoard and estimated they had accumulated $75,000 (1872 gold prices) in gold ore.
It was not practical to carry out that much weight with only two burros so they dug a deep hole beneath a prominent rock that stood above the seep, and buried the bags of ore. What they planned to do was to travel the fifty miles to Pheonix, record the claim, rest, buy some equipment to work their mine and return to their present camp in about eight weeks.
While they were busily packing the burros in preparation for their departure a war party of Apaches spotted them. The Indians rode full tilt through the canyon, firing at the two surprised white men. One of the first bullets smashed through Mathis' heart, killing him instantly. Brown managed to get his hands on a rifle and dived head-first into the brush and cactus. He plunged straight through it, unmindful of the thorns and spikes, and ran up the canyon.
Eight Apaches were right on his heals screaming like demons from hell. Brown ducked behind a pile of rocks and calmly and methodically began to fire. His unerring aim dropped four of them dead in their tracks and wounded two more. The remaining Apaches had no compelling desire to face that kind of marksmanship so they vanished into the rocky canyon.
When darkness fell, Brown cautiously and quietly picked his way out of the canyon and escaped. Though he had only a rifle and the clothes on his back, he managed to cross the waterless desert. All he had to show for his weeks of labor and danger were a few pieces of ore he had stuffed into his pockets as he and his partner were packing to leave. When this ore was assayed it proved to be worth $82,000 to the ton.
Brown had no wish to enter that hostile Indian country again so he went onto California. There he patiently waited through the years until the Indian tribes were defeated or surrendered and placed on reservations. At last in 1886, when the last group of hostiles had been round up, it was time for him to return to the sacks of or that would make him a rich man.
Unfortunately, the removal of his enemies had taken too long. The passing years had taken their toll; Brown was an old man, growing more tired and feeble each day. Although he went back to Phoenix, he could never gather enough strength to venture into the desert.
He was put into the local hospital and it was there that he realized he would never take another prospecting trip; that he would never again see the gold he had helped bury. While their in his hospital bed he told the story of his discovery for the first time. He described the fight with the Indians and the death of Mathis; he told of hiding their bags of gold under a rock by the tiny spring. Since he knew he was nearing the end he gave a description of the surrounding country; the spring, he said, was located below a high bluff of light brown rock. Through the brown rock ran a streak of reddish rock that appeared to be a splash of blood. Below this mark lay the spring and by the spring stood a rock that resembled a giant toadstool. Under this rock the bags of gold were buried.
Sometime around 1900 a Papago Indian told of finding a tiny spring near Bronco Canyon. Scattered around the spring were the remains of human bones and the bullet-scarred skull of a burro. Pack saddles and mining equipment were found all through the area. On the canyon wall over the spring the rock was colored like a large smear of blood. By the spring stood a strange looking rock.
The Indian disappeared soon after relating his story and neither the spring, the rock, not the gold cache has been found.
SOURCE
Old West Magazine Summer, 1978 VOL.14, NO.4 whole no.56, By Ben T. Traywick