Legends of the Lost

Map code K-8." This is a special message for the risk takers among us a cryptogram that may be as good as gold. All it might take to turn it into treasure is a compass, water, a few pack mules, a driving sense of ad venture, and faith that truth is the father of legend. Specifically, this legend involves the Lost Mine of the Blond Mayo, and it all began long ago. In 1540 Spanish explorer Fernando Vasquez de Coronado scoured the Sonoran Desert north from Mexico to the region that eventually became Arizona and New Mexico. In histor ical accounts, there is no mistake that Coronado's purpose on the trek was to find the Seven Golden Cities of Cibola. Cibola! To explorers, the very word came to mean immense gold and power. At some time during the 15th cen tury, so the Cibola legend goes, a Catholic priest in Lisbon found himself on the wrong side of a tribe of Arabs. He fled west by sea and settled in the New World, where he commanded converted natives to con struct seven cities. The streets of these cities and the walls that protected them were to be made of pure gold. Coronado's explor ing contemporaries had already found tons of gold in the cities of the Incas in South America and the Mayans in Mexico. But no one found the priest's fabu lous seven cities, and the logic of the time was that these golden wonders had to be farther north. Using the slave labor of natives he captured along the way from Mexico and Afri cans who were shipped out from Spain, Coronado and his soldiers began what would become a two-year expedition through the Sonoran Desert. To cover the most ground, Coronado dispersed his soldiers in many directions with instructions to find the golden cities, seize all riches along the way, and report back with specifics. No one ever came across the seven golden cities, but some history buffs are certain many gold and silver lodes were located by the explorers, who forced the slaves to extract the precious metals. Legend is that one of Coronado's officers led a group to a range where they beheld a butte of black lava, sug gestive of a woman in repose. The explorers searched this strange mound and found a vein so thick with gold it bled all over the mountain. The mining quickly began and continued for several years then ended abruptly in a bloody revolt after which the natives fled into the desert taking with them the secret of the gigantic vein's location.

HUNTING THE MORALES' LODE BURIED IN DEEP DESERT COULD PROVE A GRAVE MISTAKE

By 1861 this mysterious range just north of Arivaca and northwest of Tubac had a name: the Cerro Colorado. The black-lava mountain within the range became known as the Black Princess.

The Arivaca area itself was bustling with commercial activity, including smelting, cattle ranching, silver and gold mining, and prospecting.

Two who hoped to find their fortunes there were the Morales brothers. They were Mayo Indians, now believed by anthropologists to have strong ties to the Yaquis and origins in the same Sonoran area of Mexico. Juan was the eldest. Everyone knew of him because he was blond and fair, rather than dark-haired and brown-skinned like other Mayos. His nickname was El Gurero Mayo, “the Blond Mayo.” The younger brother was Fermin. They were close and always worked together, panning for nuggets in the washes and streams around Arivaca.

Besides his unusual coloring, there were other reasons Juan Morales had a reputation among the region's settlers. His horsemanship was exquisite, and he was an expert marksman, particularly at uncommonly long distances. It's said he employed both talents many times to protect his property.

It is Juan's property that makes for this lost-mine tale. After several months of prospecting in the Arivaca region, Juan started taking long treks alone into the Cerro Colorado. Then he bought six pack mules and took them along. He went out several times a month for many months.

One day, when Juan returned to Arivaca, all his mules were packed to their limits with gold quartz. Most accounts say that the gold looked as if it had been mined at some earlier time because it had a blue tinge, suggestive of a bromide of silver covering. Also, the ore was covered with patches of porous lava rock, which indicated to envious onlookers that the quartz chunks lay loose among lava rocks and had only to be picked up rather than extracted from a vein within the lava.

The lava also offered another hint: the shiny gold rested in the dark curves of the Black Princess.

Each time Juan came out of the Cerro Colorados his mules were loaded with the precious chunks. Townspeople said Juan took no tools with him on the treks. No picks, shovels, or any instrument a miner would normally need to extract gold from a vein further proof that the gold chunks simply lay on the ground.

Whether Juan actually found chunks mined from Coronado's lost vein is legend. It is fact, however, that he traveled into the range where the gold vein is believed to be, came out with incredible loads of gold quartz, and became an extraordinarily wealthy man.

Speculation arose that Juan and Fermin came to Arizona from Sonora, Mexico, with specific information about the vein and its location. The prior “prospecting” was a ruse, it was said, which fooled fellow miners until Juan could actually locate the vein.

Juan died before the turn of the century. Fermin lived several more years. Supposedly, neither brother ever revealed the location of their lode.

By Marilyn Taylor

Some believe the Morales' gold actually came from the fabled Sopori Mine at the northern end of the Cerro Colorados. Most, however, say that a rich bright vein truly travels along the sloping body of the Black Princess, waiting for a third discovery.

Thomas Penfield, who researched information about Arizona's lost mines and treasures for his 1973 book, Treasure Guide (Carson Enterprises, Inc., Deming, NM), encourages a new discovery but warns of major hazards: “Excessive heat, coupled with scarcity of water, makes these desert regions dangerous for off-road travel by the uninitiated during much of the year..... In many sections of the state, the terrain is still pocked with hundreds of open shafts some descending to amazing depths... they can be veritable death traps for the unwary.” The K-8 cryptogram? On page 39 of the most recent edition of the Arizona Highways Road Atlas, the intersection of these indices marks the spot where some believe lies the lost treasure of Juan Morales, the Blond Mayo. See travel tips on page 54.