Legends of the Lost

plus substantial interest as a part owner of the property. The land of both companies was subsequently joined under ownership of the Sopori Land and Mining Co.

It isn't clear whether Mowry ever did any mining at the Sopori. His company did stock the ranch with cattle around 1858, but by 1861 the Army had left the area, and settlers, including those working at the Sopori, were either killed or driven off by Apaches. Mowry, ill and financially decimated, died in London in 1871. Nine years later, the surveyor general of the United States, after reviewing the Mexican land grant Mowry had purchased for the Sopori Land and Mining Co., declared the transaction a fraud.

Mowry had purchased the land from the heirs and representatives of Joaquin de Astiazaran, a prominent Spaniard who had settled in Mexico. The heirs produced documents showing the land had been granted to Astiazaran in 1832. However, the congressional committee reviewing these grants, after the land in southern Arizona became a part of the United States through the Gadsden Purchase, determined that the "grant" documents had actually been concocted in 1854, some nine years after Astiazaran's death, and that his signature and several others had been forged.

After an exhaustive investigation, the congressional committee on private land claims rejected the Sopori Land and Mining Co.'s petition for the Sopori Ranch property on grounds that "the Sopori title papers were fraudulently made."

The ranch was eventually broken up despite acrimonious and sometimes violent disputes among families that claimed ownership. There is no indication the mine was ever worked in this century. Philip Halpenny, a hydrologist and Arizona history buff who prepared a report on Sopori when the ranch came up for sale a couple of years ago, declared: "Sopori Mine was a promotional mine. It was a big joke."

In the 1950s, the Sopori Ranch, as well as its obscure mine, were sold to Jack Warner, cofounder of Warner Bros., the motionpicture studio. Warner died in 1978. His widow, Ann Boyer Warner, divided her time between the ranch and her Beverly Hills home until her death in 1990.

The original Cisco Kid, Don Alvarado, worked for Ann Warner as the Sopori Ranch manager. Now they are all gone.

In 1991 the ranch was put on the market for $14.5 million, which is probably $14.5 million more than the Sopori Mine ever produced.