Of all the old west stories about lost treasures, Arizona seems to take top spot. Arizona was the last of the contiguous states to be admitted to the Union, becoming a state on February 14, 1912. Prior to that time it was known as the real wild west where people came to seek their fortunes or hide from the law. During those early years Arizona saw hundreds of robberies, gun fights and hangings. It also has a lot of buried and hidden treasures still waiting to be found.
Stories about the lost superstition and the lost opata mine are quite well known but there are many other lesser known lost treasures that warrant a good look also. In this story we are going to look at what we think could be the top five lost and hidden lesser known treasures, where one of these lost treasures if found, could set you up for life.
Treasure Number 1. Back in the late 1800s a man by the name of Herman Wolf set up a trading post along the Little Colorado River that he ran for almost 30 years. A lot of miners didn't have money but needed supplies so they would pay for their goods with gold and silver. Because there were so many robberies in the area Herman thought it best he needed to keep this gold hidden so he decided to bury the gold in cans along the the fence at his property.
Then in the early 1900s someone found about 20 gold coins. Then again in the mid 1900s someone came across a large can of gold that was buried beside an old rotten fence post. It is said that Herman probably had over $250,000 worth of gold buried in the area because of the amount of business he did for those 30 some years.
Treasure Number 2. It was back in 1873 that a man named McAllen and an unknown partner in crime decided to rob stagecoach near Canyon Station which was close to Kingman. On this stage was a stong box that held the payroll for the army stationed at Fort Mohave. The stage driver turned over the loot and the bandits let the stage move on without a gun fight of any kind. Turns out this strong box had had over $70,000 worth gold coins. The two bandits had no sooner counted up their booty of stolen loot when they relaized there was a posse coming for them. They quickly buried the the strong box and headed out but Mcallens partner got shot in the escape and died and Mcallen himself was arrested and sent to Yuma state prison. McAllen died in prison however while on his death bed he did tell his fellow prisoner about the gold and where it was. Once the other prisoner was set free he went out to find this treasure however he never found anything and until this day no one has found this $70,000 worth of gold coins. That amount of gold today would be worth more than 7 million bucks.
Treasure Number 3. It was in the late 1870s that a small group of miners hit a really rich vein of gold. It was a really dry summer and the miners were running very low on water and grub so they decided to head towards Prescott for supplies. Seeing off in the distance there was a band of Apache Warriors coming their way the miners quickly started to pick out all the richest chuncks of goldore they could and started filling up all the sacks they that. They even had so much gold that they started cutting their tents up to use as sacks. One of the miners was an old calvary soldier and knew people located at Fort Whipple so the party of men decided to head there because he knew they would be safe of any attacks.
With mules and horses loaded with gold they headed out but quckly found out the the weight of all that gold was going to slow them down so the party of miners hastely buried the gold and let the horses and mules loose hoping the Apaches would follow the animal tracks while the miners escaped on foot into the rocky canyons. However because they had no water they all started to die off along the trail.
One miner had stayed behind burying the last pile of gold and then snuck out along the edge of the mountain. However even he collapsed from exhaustion. Another prospector found him on the trail and just before the miner died he told him about the sacks of gold and the mine. However to this day no one has ever located these buried sacks of gold ore.
Treasure Number 4. It was around 1890 that four outlaws held up a stage and made off with $125,000 worth of gold coins. The following day they held up another stage that had $160,000 in gold and around 50 grand in notes. It is said that these outlaws headed northeast into the Tonto Basin but with a posse on their tail they quickly buried the gold and then switched direction and headed northwest. Soon the posse was closing in and two of the men got shot and died. The other two men made it into Holbrook where they decided to hide out for a while. However having pockets full of new stolen notes they couldn't resist the temptation of having a drink so they decided to go out on the town and hit a saloon. While drinking and gambling an arguement broke out and one of the outlaws got shot. Then the second outlaw went and shot the gambler that killed his partner but he was then shot by another man in the saloon. With all four outlaw men now dead, no one really knows where this gold is buried but it is said to be somewhere in the Tonto Basin area.
Treasure Number 5. In 1879 that outlaw Henry Seymour and a few other men held up the Pine Spring stagecoach. Pine Spring is located between Beaverhead and Brigham City. On board this stage was three strong boxes containing $225,000 worth of brand new minted gold coins. Old Henry had just hit the jackpot of the century. It was way too heavy for the men to pack, so they stashed the gold and decided lay low for a bit and hide out in a old building that was quite aways out of town. However a posse soon caught up with them and there was a stand off but after waiting for the outlaws to surrender, the posse leader set the old building on fire. Once the outlaw men came running out they were met with gun fire. The posse then set out to try to find where the gold was stashed but never did find anything.
