LEGENDS OF THE LOST

legends of the lost The Legendary Silver Lode on Carrizo Creek Has Eluded Searchers for a Century

The silver seemed to be free for the taking. Prospectors just picked it up off the ground where it had been eroded out of surrounding outcroppings. With a little digging, the find would surely be even richer.

But there was a problem: Demon rum had killed the only man who knew the location of The Lost Silver Mine of Carrizo Creek, also known as The Lost Native Silver Mine. The mine's legend is related to some of the richest (literally) history of early Arizona.

Today the thriving cities of Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Sonora, sit in a narrow valley, sharing the boundary fence that separates the United States and Mexico. In the spirit of brotherhood, they sometimes call themselves Ambos Nogales — "both Nogales."

Nogales is Spanish for "walnut," the kind of tree that grew there when Los Nogales was a waystop on the route from one Spanish outpost to another. The land belonged to Spain, then Mexico, before the U.S. Senate ratified the Gadsden Purchase in 1854 and acquired what is today southern Arizona. Later the U.S. Boundary Commission set up a camp at Los Nogales, and a little settlement began.

Early in the 1880s, an old prospector came to the Arizona town and walked into the gambling house and saloon owned by John Connors. The old man laid a large piece of native, or "free," silver on the bar.

Connors had been a miner before he saved enough to buy a bar, and he recognized the metal for what it was: silver that occurred naturally and occasionally was freed from the surrounding earth by water and wind.

Just such a find had played a big part in the history of the border region. Back in 1736, when the entire area belonged to Spain, a Yaqui prospector named Antonio Siraumea had found some chunks of silver lying close to the surface in an area between the Spanish mission at Guevavi and an Opata Indian village called Arissona.

Miners rushed to the area and found many chunks and balls of native silver, some of them weighing several hundred pounds. It is said that one chunk was so large it had to be carried in a sling between two burros. The mine was called Planchas de Plata, which translates as "plates of silver."

The area became known as the Real (mining district) de Arissona. Although the site remained in Mexico after 1854, it is the area from which the Territory (and the state) of Arizona would eventually take its name.

The Spanish commandante in the region was Capt. Juan Bautista de Anza, father of the Spanish captain of the same name who would later trek to the site of San Francisco, California. The elder De Anza went to the scene to collect the quinto, or "king's fifth," demanded by the Crown. But by that time most of the treasure had been carriedaway and could not be traced. Officials closed the mines in 1741, when most of the silver had already disappeared.

Silver was again reported in the area near the middle of the 19th century. Opata Indians used to appear at Tubac, the oldest European settlement in the area, or at the store of the Cerro Colorado silver mine, west of Tubac, to sell large chunks of native silver. Only they knew where the silver came from.

Soon, Apache warriors began raiding in the area, and the Opatas didn't show up anymore. Then the U.S. Civil War broke out. Federal troops were withdrawn from the Territory to fight in the East, so they could no longer protect the mines from the Apaches. The mines ceased to operate, as did most commerce.

Given that history, saloonkeeper John Connors was not surprised when the old prospector showed up with the silver, looking for a grubstake.

The prospector said he had bought the nugget from an old Opata living up on the Santa Cruz River near Tubac, the Spanish presidio that became an Arizona