Originally Posted December of 2022
Rumors and the writings of those who sell books have conjured stories for treasure books for a long time, one such version of a story which is to follow, seems to have an agenda of convincing the reader of a fallacy story of Moctezuma instructing his people to haul hordes of silver and gold back to their ancient homeland… and it just didn’t happen. However the truth of what happened to me is even more exciting and compelling than the embellishments… Was there a caravan in the time of Moctezuma II which brought hoards of silver and gold back to the home of their ancestors? No... Was there in the time of Moctezuma I in which a great wealth was brought to their ancient homeland intended as a gift to those whom they left behind? Yes. However in all probability it never made it to its intended destination. As it would seem according to the Aztec record many priests were entrusted with the shipment, when they returned with their made up story claiming to have delivered it, 9 of the priests did not return, when Moctezuma asked what happened to them they claimed that the God required their soul in exchange for turning them into animals in order to transport them more quickly to their ancient home. Moctezuma did not question it. What happened to them 9 priest and why wasn’t any of the others talking? I think you can figure it out.
Another incident took place at the time the Spaniards invaded
The War Box
The following sent to me by a friend is a copy of the actual text article about the adventures of Jake Johnsons which was publish in 1903, years before the embellished (Abridged) version written for a treasure magazine was published.
Jake Johnson with a well-earned reputation as an experienced prospector, but not so much of a miner as he preferred to roam the hills rather than work underground, in a way he was a pocket hunter and with his two burros with pick shovel gold pan and a few primitive mining tools a sack of flour and a couple of slabs of side bacon would start for the hills and would be gone for months to return eventually with a buckskin sack well filled with placer gold or with a few fine gold nuggets wherewith to purchase a new grubstake for a new start which generally occurred as soon as he had been on a spree for a few days which left him penniless before he took to the mountains again.
On one of these trips, while in the Grand Canyon of the
During his convalescence Jake won his way to the heart of Rabbit Tail and his squaw, and many were the weird tales told by the old redman of exciting adventure, of privations endured, of hunts, battles, victories and defeats, and once, when in a more communicative mood, he told of finding nuggets of gold, and hinted of the existence of an old mine, on the dump of which great trees grew, and in the ancient and abandoned workings of which there were still left standing great bodies of ore in which native gold sparkled in the glare of a pitch-pine torch.
Jake, upon hearing this, was all excitement, and begged the Indian for more information concerning this old treasure vault, but without avail, as the wily savage became as mum as an oyster upon seeing the interest the white man had taken in his narrative.
It happened shortly after this, that Jake was able to rescue Rabbit Tails squaw from the attack of a mountain lion, which so softened the Indian that he told him that if he would meet him at that place within a year that he would show him the old mine, but that he could take no more of the gold than he could carry away with him and that he would be led blindfolded to and from the old bonanza, which, he said, was located in an almost inaccessible spot ,near the brink of a yawning precipice, and above which were towering cliffs which rose perpendicular until their summits were lost in the blue of the sky.
Jake then started on his way to civilization, but, before leaving the canyon, had the good fortune to find a rich placer deposit in one of its tributaries, from which he took about $1500 in the yellow metal. Marking well the spot, he pulled out for Dandy Crossing, and finally reached Marysvale, from which point, after putting his burros into pasture, he came to
This was what brought Mike Smith to
For the first few days after the arrival of Mike, the two worked the placer, and with most satisfactory results. In the evenings, before rolling up in their blankets for the night, they would smoke their pipes and wonder if Rabbit Tail would keep his tryst and show them the gold-laden caverns which had evidently been discovered and worked soon after the subjugation of the Montezumas. While thus engaged, one evening, the Indian stood before them, coming as silently as the rising of the morning sun. He was welcomed, but was surprised that Johnson had brought a companion with him, and seemed disinclined to fulfill his engagements. After much discussion, however, and taking a liking to Mike, he expressed his willingness to make him one of the party, and warned the two white-men to be ready to start at early dawn.
Almost before it was light enough to see their way, the three were up and afoot. The way was difficult. Sometimes thick brush hindered their progress. Occasionally a blank wall confronted them, and it was necessary to climb upon each other’s shoulders to overcome these obstacles; and creeping, climbing, clinging, to roots and bushes growing in the crevices of the rocks, they at last reached a point where they were blindfolded by the Indian. From here they traveled in single file, clinging to a rope held by their guide. For an hour or more they followed, skinning their shins against rocks and boulders, and sometimes falling to their knees because of inequalities in the ground. After what seemed an age, and when tired and exhausted almost beyond belief, the bandages were removed and they stood in almost midnight darkness. At a word from Rabbit Tail a light was struck and a torch lighted. Upon looking around, the two prospectors and fortune-seekers found that they were in an enormous cavern, the sides of which gave no trace of mineral. At their feet, however, were masses of rock, which, upon examination, were found to be rich in native gold, but their source was not apparent. Elated, and yet disappointed, Mike and Jake turned to the Indian, who motioned them to a small drift in the cavern that they had not noticed before.
Following the redskin, they got down on their hands and knees and crawled for a hundred feet or more through a small passage, coming at last to a narrow shelf of shale which bordered a chasm about five feet in width. This must have been very deep, for when rocks were dropped down it the sound coming from the bottom seemed but an echo. The Indian lightly leaped the gulf and Mike and Jake followed, but not without apprehension, and found themselves, breathing hard and trembling, on the other side, with but a narrow shelf for a foothold. Almost creeping along a torturous path, hardly able to keep their balance at times, they at length arrived at the entrance to a wide passage, which seemed to cut the chasm at almost right angles. Penetrating this for several yards and then climbing up an incline upraise for twenty or thirty feet, they were ushered into a great chamber. The sight that met their gaze in this chamber rendered the two prospectors speechless. Under the glare of the torches bottom, sides and top were resplendent with bright, glittering gold.
In front was a great body of honey-combed quartz, in which were nuggets of the pure metal as large as walnuts. These were bound to the quartz by wire gold. The roof of the stope presented a perfect fretwork of wire and native gold, which seemed to be woven into festoons. On the sides the gold occurred in hard, white quartz such as beautiful jewelry is made from. On the floor great chunks of the gold-bearing ore were laying around and, among them were to be seen mining tools of ancient make, while, in one corner, could dimly be discerned the skeleton of a man, evidently that of a white miner.
Recovering from their astonishment, Smith and Johnson fell into each other’s arms, but the Indian stood silent and stolid. A few minutes later he said, Come, we go out. Then it was that the white men came to their senses. They plead with Rabbit Tail for an hour, for half an hour in which to explore, to investigate this place of more than Monte Cristo wealth. But Rabbit Tail was obdurate and would not yield, and obeying his commands, they filled their pockets with the biggest nuggets, the finest specimens of wire gold, and the richest pieces of gold-filled quartz that they could find. Retracing their steps, but with greater difficulty than when they entered the treasure vault of the ancients, for they were heavily loaded with gold, they at last reached the cavern where their eyes had first been uncovered. Here the bandages were replaced by the Indian, and, led by him as before, they set out on their journey to their camp, which they reached just as the sun was setting in the west.
Tired and worn, they devoured the food that had been left from their morning repast, and were soon in deep slumber. It was long after daylight before they awoke, and when their eyes were fairly opened they discovered that during the night their Indian friend had left as quietly and as suddenly as he had arrived. For two or three days Jake and Mike rested, gloating over their store of gold. Then they spent several days in an effort to rediscover the wonderful mine. Time after time they climbed to the spot where Rabbit Tail had put on the blindfolds, but from there on all was a blank, and no trace was left of their previous passage. At last they left for
Ever since then, year after year, two prospectors, with four burros, have been seen haunting the beautiful yet desolate regions of the
(The Salt Lake Mining Review in 1903)
There is an abridged version on the internet but would be better described as the “Embellished Version” or exaggerated, it also has an inserted paragraph designed to sell stories… SEE Following paragraph inserted into the original story...
According to Indian tradition, an expedition of well-organized and warlike men had come from the south escorting a long line of slaves, dragging boxlike containers shrouded by skins. The party went directly to the
To Date, I have not been able to verify the validity of the above paragraph added to the treasure book tales, it is likely an embellishment to attract sales. The following description is included in the embellished version as well.
The glare from the four torches suddenly magnified several times the magnitude of golden idols, shields, and other objects reflecting the light in the eerie flickering flashes. Neither of the men had time to inspect the cave at length, as the Paiutes continually urged them to take what they could carry and retrace their steps to the surface. It was clear that they were at the base of the
The part about an opening could be seen in the distance that led onto a sand beach was no doubt added to tie the story to the embellish James White story. The original publication of the James White story, made no mention of a cave with untold riches. Do your research people, it isn’t worth it chasing after fallacy.
However… the following story which has never been published but in which I have written about in parts from time to time… has been verified in many ways and will be given again in a small part, but I assure you it is original information as received and experienced several years ago.
The original document and story came from a Mexican man by the name of Reuben Morales who came from a small town on the inland side of the
Sometime in the 1970’s if I recall, Reuben came north in search of his ancestors mine, cave and cache with the document and verbal information handed down to him from his presumed possible grandfather Jose Pedro Salazar. Sylvetre Prado who was the author of the hand written document and which is the topic here in, may also be an ancestor to Rueben. It is believed Prado’s initials have been found in the suspect area.
It is believed that Jose Pedro Salazar was occupying the area in question in the early 1800’s to mid 1800’s, he was according to the document “an Indian” and it is believed he catered to the Spanish while they mined in the area or he spied upon them when they were there. Reuben spent near 10 years searching for his ancestor’s cache.
Not many years ago we had an encounter with one of the earliest original well-known name land owner in the area, and after he decided we were not worthy of being shot we talked for some time and the situation became friendly, we asked him how his family came by the property, and he told us that when they first entered the land (around 1850’s) with intent to homestead they encountered an old Mexican Indian who was the owner or possessor of the land, we can only surmise this was by a Spanish land grant, or that by right of being there for so long he simply considered it as his territory. He told us that they became friends and eventually he carved out a substantial piece of land and gave it to them. Was this Perdo Salazar?
After Reuben had exhausted his efforts to find what his ancestor left behind, he contacted a known treasure hunter in the area and asked if he could help him, upon an agreement he shared a copy of the document and showed him a map and shared the verbal information needed to find the right location. This treasure hunter eventually in years to come became a friend of mine, and after sitting on his files for quite a number of years and having only made a few trips in an effort to find any evidence of truth, he decided to pass the information to me. At the time I was spending a lot of time in the general area documenting what I now call, the Aztec Navigation Glyphs, which by the way, have nothing to do with finding water as supposed by others.
One of near 200 known glyphs
You can read more about these at Aztec Navigation Glyphs
The document was in pretty bad shape when it was copied but the writing was discernable but very difficult to read due to its condition and old Spanish words not common today, great effort was taken to first transcribe the document of which I owe a great deal to my friend Adam, after which much effort was put into getting a correct translation which can be very difficult due to the old Spanish and there is still a few words we just cannot make out, someone experienced in not only Spanish but old Spanish may be able to recognize the words
A small piece of the old cloth document
The following is some of the excerpts of the more interesting things found within the document and will clearly show why I have spent near 18 years working on this project. Our first trip down to the area resulted in discovery of several things mentioned in the document and today, we feel we have found the location of the Indian Salazar’s cave, or mine, the entrance of which has been filled, yet the slide rock from it abounds in ½ inch chisel marks.
….Enter said (Salazar’s smaller) cave and on the east side (floor) in the lower part of which is two large flat stones marked (with a 1 and 2) and below them you will find some oak planks cultivated to the rafter with pins of the same wood and some cowhides. These pieces are covering a chest which stores a large quantity of pieces of bars of silver. Further to the bottom is a cross with wide edges. Under it is the cover of the same material that contains gold & silver and a small black ebony box.
The one who finds said small box will be happy, because inside of it, are the directions/map to the treasures of the Indian Pedro Jose Salazar who for a long time was the owner of these mountains.
These papers are written in a language that I do not recognize. They are written with mules blood. Whomever it is that comes to have this cloth in his hands will come to find out that if he breaks said box that it contains jewels of gold and silver and paper made from a berry tree where it is explained where the place is found where the great treasure of said tribe exists an enormous cave that holds the highest amounts ever known to man…
Another piece of the old cloth document
The previous is directly from the source. I have been involved in this project has gone on for near 18 years. It would appear that Salazar and possibly Prado, knew the location of the enormous cave that the old Piute Indian, Rabbit Tale, the Redskin knew of.
RECENT UPDATES:
Many years ago, I and my wife took a trip to Southern Utah and
Sketch of the Jacob Hamblin Black Slate Map
But what does this have to do with the story at hand? I suspect the same Navajo which Steve had talked to was the same in which I met just a few years later and he told me that there was a map with many petroglyphs not far from Kanab, he told me he would take me there. I doubt this map has anything to do with the Salazar document but maybe it hold clues, My friends Glen and JoDee spent about 4 hours with me documenting the site meticulously, the objective was to recreate the image in black and white. 11 years later I finally finished the project, some of you may see implications.
The area of the subject of this article is in the lower left of the largest rock, if you see it you will also see the 3 lakes site north of Kanab and even Johnson’s canyon not the mention the location of the famed underground BUDDHIST/HINDU city of the
Now for the shocker…. A friend of mine called me one day to get instruction on how to find a certain petroglyph panel, having given him instruction and sending him on his way, I went about my day… later he called me and was pretty excited and said you are not going to believe what I just found… well he sent me a picture of which first glance nearly removed me from my sitting position to the floor. He said while hiking the pertinent location, he noticed a large flat rock very much out of place, because it was not native to any rock formations in the area…
With permission to share the photo this is what he had found face down in sand and gravel.
Confused and excited at the same time, I thought, “What the hell? This is the same map as was found on the Jacob Hamblin slate stone found 170 years prior and in the same general area. My friend was in doubt because of the condition of the writing, I reminded him that it has been face down in sand and gravel for near 220 years, I had no problem with its condition. I do wish however we could find the corner piece broken off.
Reading the text provided another near encounter with the floor… Although I have not had it translated by someone other than me, not only does it provide us a clue in the subject story as to what it is and why it exists, It was written by Antonio Raul PRADO! And it is concerning Pedro Jose Salzar! How could this be I thought? The date on the stone is from 1804, 96 years prior to the cloth document and it was found about 50 miles away from the subject site! Why was it here?
The stone map reads loosely as :
(His) Majesty Carlos Antonio Diego this ____missing____ Order Filming (?) Pedro Jose Salzar Guadalupe (of the) Zuni by the even leaders of the Yubicaris (tribe) hidden ___missing___ -llados (decreed?) by the king under death penalty November 14, 1804 sealed this day by Antonio Raul Prado
The original text on the stone map….
Majestad Carlos Antonio Diego este <missing word[s]> diezmo ordenido filmente llevado pedro jose Salazar Gudalupe de zuni por la hasta lidedas de las Yubicaris escondidos <missing word[s]> [dego?]-llados por el rey bajo pena de muerte 14 Noviembre 1804 este dia selado Antonio Raul Prado
I would really like someone who is very good with Spanish to look at the original text… perhaps through common sense and reasoning we can discover the words missing from the stone…
Perhaps a little bit of light was shed in doing a bit a research on Carlos Antonio Diego or better known as King Charles IV.
It would seem not only was King Charles trying to undermine the power of the Church and the aristocracy, he was attempting to steal the land away from all the nobles who invested in the new world.
From WIKI the Great
“As the situation with immediate revenue became more fraught, the crown in 1804 imposed measures in its overseas empire forcing the church to call in immediately the mortgages it had extended on a long-term by the Catholic Church. Although aimed at undermining the wealth and power of the church, for the wealthy landowning elites, they were faced with financial ruin, since they had no way to make full payment on their mortgaged properties. This ill-considered royal decree has been seen as a major factor in the independence movement in New Spain (Mexico). The decree was in abeyance once Charles and Ferdinand abdicated, but it undermined elite support while in force.”
This map rock was found along the old trail heading for the crossing of the Fathers. I wonder if Pedro Jose Salazar was able to make his payment?
I want so much to bring the many untold histories to public awareness but until we have subdued the foreign enemy who has come upon this land and currently makes the rules… my memory is fading… ;-)
It is a balmy 27 degrees today, but there is peace and serenity around the fire, I wish I had a friend or two here today to enjoy it with… Making the best of the situation… Merry Christmas to all.
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