In was sometime back in the 1870's that a small group of of Cavalry soldiers out of Ft McDowell were on their way north to Fort Verde. As they were travelling along the Verde River north, the soldiers decided to set up camp as there was only a couple of hours of sunlight left. The next day, a couple of the soldiers were sent out to locate a horse that has gotten loose during the night. Now these two young soldiers knew very well they were Apache country and had heard stories of the Apache raids and being out here made them a bit more than just a little nervous.However the two men saddled up and started to follow the horses tracks and after a couple of hours of riding they found they horse.
On their way back to the camp instead of following the river, they decide to tak a short cut over the ridge. While traveling along through a narrow canyon, they soon came across what looked like an old camp set up. At first they noticed an old fire pit and some of the bushes had been hacked away. It wasn't long before they noticed human remains that looked like they had been smashed and human bones scattered about. They could tell that these people had been there for quite some time and figured maybe they were either Mexican or maybe even Spanish miners who had been here.
Knowing that this group had been killed many years before made the two men feel a little safer and they were't quite so nervous. While looking around one soldier picked up a rock and noticed a bit of yellow color on it. Sure enough, IT WAS GOLD! After looking around they noticed several more pieces of this type of rock scattered around. Then they noticed what looked like tailings to a mine on the side of the hill and they decided to check it out but they had to get back to camp very soon. After climbing the hillside to where the tailings were, they noticed a small mine entrance. Close by they noticed another couple of skeltons along with some mining tools and picks. what was real disturbing though was the fact that both of these skeletons had their skulls smashed in. It looked like they had been bludgeoned to death. Of course this the two men very nervous again as they gazed the surrounding hills thinking they were being watched.
It was getting late in the day but decided to go into this mine just to check it out. It was really small and had to crawl on their hands and knees for quite a ways in. After some distance the mine opend up and they were able to stand up. One of the men lit a match and they could the walls of the mine were just covered with gold! The two men just realized they had hit the jackpot of a life time and decide not to tell anyone about this place.
It was getting late so the decided they better get back to camp before night fall. On their way out of the mine while crawling on their hand and knees, right by the entrance of the mine, one of the men got bit by a rattlesnake. The second man pulled out his revolver and shot the snake, then saddled up and started to make their way back to camp. They both made their way to the camp and told the rest of the party about their find. Infact one of the men had brought a smaple rock out with him. The soldier who got bit ended up dying later that night.
After the group of men got to Fort Verde, the one soldier had gotten the gold fever and just couldn't resist the urge to get that gold. One night after stealing some supplies from the store room, he saddled up his horse and slipped off into the dark. The next day after the noticed missing a search party of men were sent out to find and and he was found dead several miles south of the fort with a bullet in his back and his horse and supplies were nowhere to be found. This was scene of an apache killing. None of the other soldiers tried to find this mine after that so this mine is still out there somewhere between Fort McDowell and Fort Verde.
