Exciting tales of lost treasure in the deserts of the US! (Salton Sea)

Salton Sea

 By Michael Webster 

The American Southwest contains more than its fair share of natural wonders: Grand Canyon, Arches National Park, and Carlsbad Caverns National Park are only three of the most famous natural attractions that draw people from all over the world.

Human settlement in the Southwest dates back over 12,000 years many believe its much older. Dwellings archaeological remains, arrow points, baskets,pictographs and other artifacts attest to people roamed the land. The Anasazi people inhabited the area for well over one thousand years, but disappeared during the 12th or 13th century AD. The Athabascan people (Navajo and Apache) began arriving as early as 1000 AD and remain the largest indigenous group in the area to this day. In the 1500's Spanish explorers arrived and remained a dominant military force for nearly three hundred years. The area became part of Mexico in 1821 after Mexico won its independence from Spain. By the mid-1800's the expanding United States established a presence, and in 1848, after a war with Mexico, much of the area became United States territory.




 Modern-day counterparts of the Spanish conquistadors and the early nineteenth-century settlers still cling to the image of El Dorado and the promise of riches. The folklore of the land still exerts its magical pull as the pickup truck has replaced the horse and mule, but treasure hunters still travel with little more than their dreams and hopes. They can be found even now in the mountains and the valleys of the American Southwest, still searching for the elusive riches that have been lost or remain buried in the rugged terrain.

In the American Southwest lies a vast region of moderate-to-extreme desolation encompassed by the Sonoran Desert, the Mojave Desert, and the Basin and Range Province. Die-hard folks (mostly from the East coast and the South, but some from abroad) over the past five centuries have explored, exploited, prospered and profited from the land of the West. However, some have been lured by the sheer thought of gold prospecting towards an easy life. In most cases, though, amateur treasure hunters failed to make ends meet. Those who did find anything of value were not guaranteed the pleasure of living off their finds. A good number of prospectors -- after encountering good luck in making a strike, ventured out again to find their horde and extract greater amounts with more provisions -- and were never seen or heard from again, their secret of desert treasure lost forever.
But sometimes not. All too many lost gold mine stories stem from a similar kind of event: a staggering, dusty, sunburned, near-dead prospector arriving in an outpost town with a sackful of ore, confiding his information on his deathbed to an equally gold-struck person. Not surprisingly, the confidant almost always never finds the site. Thus, a lost gold mine legend is born.


Local Indians, from the coast to the Rockies, rarely considered gold precious enough to covet. After all, they reasoned, there is so much of it in the hills, that there was more than enough for anyone, even if it was worth something. When the Spaniards arrived to the deserts of the west in the 16th century, they’re passion for the stuff was the amazed wonderment of Native Americans. Unfortunately, the invaders tortured the Indians and stole from them whatever gold they had. Tribes tried to tell these bearded people that it was easier to go into the mountains and playas and pick up the gold rather than extract it from the Indians. 

But the Spaniards were not always hostile. Many Spanish captains engaged in trade with Indians along the Baja California shores. In 1615, a captain by the name of Juan DeIturbe had just enjoyed a lucrative bartering mission along the western coast (of what is now Mexico). 

 The body of water in question, is likely the recurring natural lake that forms in the Salton Sink. It is thought that DeIturbe had sailed up the delta of the Colorado River, and sailed into a spillway that lies below sea level, known as "Lake Cahuilla", ( Salton Sea)which was once much larger than the present-day Salton Sea. The shoreline extent of Lake Cahuilla is not known, making the exact location of the shipwreck rather nebulous.

The only addendum to this lost treasure story comes from a 1775 story of a DeAnza expedition herder on his way to the mission at San Diego. After trekking out of Yuma for several days, he encountered the ruins, and pocketed as many pearls as he could carry. Over the years, he and his Indian guides made many returns to the desert to locate the decaying caravel (and its remaining treasure), but with no success.

Where the ship lies today is thought to be a vast area extending north-south from the Santa Rosa Mountains to the Cocopah Mountains, and east-west from the Anza-Borrego highlands to the Chocolate Mountains. The geographic expanse of the lost ship’s location is the largest extent of all but one lost treasure story in Southern California -- the Legend of Pegleg’s Gold. 

Michael Webster is publisher of the Laguna Journal, Small Business Journal, Indian Gaming Journal & El Paso Journal, Prespectorsjournal.com on line newspapers and a Syndicated Investigative Reporter   Michael Webster Syndicated Investigative Reports are read worldwide, in 100 or more U.S. outlets and in at least 136 countries and territories. He publishes articles in association with global news agencies and media information services with more than 350 news affiliates in 136 countries. A noted Author, Lecturer, Educator, Emergency Manager, Counter-Terrorist, War on Drugs and War on Terrorist Specialist, Newspaper Publisher. Radio News caster. Labor Law generalist, Teamster Union Business Agent, General Organizer, Union Rank and File Member Grievances Representative, NLRB Union Representative, Union Contract Negotiator, Workers Compensation Appeals Board Hearing Representative.

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