William H. Smith August 29, 1998

1204 Christmas Tree Lane about 1150 words

Pearce, Az. 85625

303-36-7671

(520) 826-1029

Pena Blanca Silver

By

William H. Smith

This story came to be known after a very bad flash flood that washed most of the Pena Blanca camping grounds away, and left the landscape from the mountain slopes to the lake looking like a foreign country.

In the early 40s a couple of cowboys from a ranch near Nogales, Arizona drove a dozen head of cattle to a ranch near Sasabe, Arizona. After resting the night, they left early in the morning to take a leisurely ride back to Nogales. They rode along the United States and Mexico border exploring the nooks and crannies as they traveled along.

When they reached an area south west of Pena Blanca lake and near the border, they stumbled onto a small cave that went into the side of the wash, since cowboys are curious creatures they dismounted to explore the cave, it was shallow and the sun light illuminated the inside, looking in they found themselves gazing at silver bars.

It was a little in the afternoon, and the sky was forming dark clouds with lighting and loud thunder, it was threatening a regular gully washer. They would be forced to set in one place until the storm passed or try and get out of the mountains before the storm started. The silver bars weighed about twenty-five pounds each, so they elected to leave the silver bars and try to make it out of the mountains before they were caught in the storm. They would come back later when they were better equipped to take out the treasure.

Trying to make their way back to Nogales the easiest and quickest way possible, the pair reached Pena Blanca wash to find it had swollen to a dangerous rage. The drovers were not prepared to spend the night in a downpour of rain, so they decided to try and cross the rageing waters of the Pena Blanca wash.

If they could have foreseen the next few minutes they would have toughen the night out on the edge of the wash. They started across the raging wash, one behind the other, when they were about two thirds of the way across a wall of muddy water caught them spilling both riders, one cowboy made it to the waters edge, and drug himself to safety. The other cowboy was washed away with both horses and nothing was found of him or the horses. The survivor had a broken leg, and bruises over his entire body and had swallowed a lot of water, after he managed to drag himself under a tree he waited for morning.

The following morning when the two drovers hadn't returned, a search party was sent out from the ranch. They found the half alive cowboy lying under the tree where he managed to craw, more dead than alive he was taken back to the ranch house for medical attention. Unfortunately he developed pneumonia and died in a few days, but not before he related his treasure find to his bunk mates. A search was made for the silver bars, but they couldn't find the wash with the cave.

A friend of mine went camping at Pena Blanca in August 1978, when he arrived to camp he found there was a search in progress for a lost camper. That the Pena Blanca wash flooded, and washed out much of shore line, state road 289 was washed away where the wash crossed, and about two thirds of the "fee" camping grounds were gone.

Part two of the Pena Blanca treasure story starts about two weeks before my friend went camping there. Again mother nature became quite severe, and done extensive damage to the same area the two drovers met their last days.

Two students from the University of Arizona were camping at Pena Blanca camp grounds in a tent, one of them was a foreign exchange student, the other an American. Early in the next morning they hiked up Pena Blanca wash south toward Mexico where they separated, the America walking southeast from the wash, and the foreign exchange student walked toward the southwest.

The foreign exchange student hiked for several hours taking several photos, he observed several Javalina down in a wash, while looking at them he saw them disappear into a opening on the side of the wash. Wanting better photographs of the Javalina he climbed into the wash and looked in the opening of the small cave. There he saw, not Javalina, but a stack of silver bars, he snapped several photos and returned to their camp site. When his companion returned he related his story to him, and they decided to spend more time to take some of the silver bars out. In order to remain longer they needed more supplies. The foreign exchange student stayed in camp while the American student took the film to have it developed and buy more supplies.

That night one of the worst cloud bursts in history developed in the mountains above the camp grounds and swept through the camping area. When the foreign exchange student's companion returned the next morning he found the camp ground where they had camped had washed away during the night. After searching for the foreign exchange student for several hours, the authorities were notified, and a search of about a for a week was conducted. They couldn't find the foreign exchange student, it was assumed he had been washed into the lake and covered over with silt. His grave is probably in the lake with the cowboy and two horses.

The surviving student told the treasure story, and showed the photographs as proof of the treasure, to the search and rescuers.

My friend returned from his camping trip at Pena Blanca, and told the tragic story. Three couples along with the friend who witnessed the rescue effort went back to Pena Blanca, and camped out for a few days looking for the silver bars. We didn't find the treasure cave or silver bars. The cave the foreign exchange student found could be in Mexico, we didn't cross the border to look.

During the time the Jesuits and Franciscan Priests were mining in the area, large silver nodules would be found from time to time, some of them as heavy as two tons. The silver nodules were smelted on site, and this treasure cave of silver bars was probably from one of these large nodules.

To my knowledge this treasure cave, nor one like it has never been reported found. This treasure and others like it still remain in the area today, either close to the border, or a short distance into Mexico.

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