Handy guide to long-lost mines, rich veins of ore, silver lodes, buried treasure, other bonanzas awaiting discovery. Descriptions of each treasure, general locale, maps, more. 96 maps, over 50 other illustrations.

The most amazing treasure book ever written, giving the locations of well over 100 fabulous fortunes waiting to be found in the ore-rich Southwest. Thomas Penfield has done years of exhaustive research for Dig Here! and has accomplished the Herculean task of separating fact from fiction. For the first time lost treasure stories of the Southwest are stripped bare of their legends and lies. Each treasure account is preceded by the approximate location, estimated total value - and authentication. Reading sources for each account are also included so you can do additional research on the intriguing stories of these treasures. Dig Here! is overflowing with lore, spellbinding backgrounds, driving Western drama - and exciting, reliable facts.

Arizona's history is liberally seasoned with legends of lost mines, buried treasures, and significant deposits of gold and silver. The famous Lost Dutchman Mine has lured treasure hunters for over a century into the remote, treacherous, and reportedly cursed Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix. Gold and silver bars discovered in Huachuca Canyon by a soldier stationed at nearby Fort Huachuca just before World War II remain inaccessible despite years of laborious attempts at recovery. Outside the town of Yucca, bandits eager to make a fast getaway buried a strongbox filled with gold, unaware they wouldn't survive the pursuit of a law-enforcing posse to recover their plunder. And somewhere in the Little Horn Mountains northeast of Yuma lies an elusive wash containing hundreds of odd gold-filled rocks. Selected from hundreds of tales passed down from generation to generation since the days of the gold-seeking Spanish explorers, the tales included here are among the most compelling that Arizona has to offer.

Collects legends and lore of buried treasure in the American Southwest, with maps showing locations

Of all the myths, legends, and stories, one man’s hidden treasure stands above the rest. Jonathan Swift’s lost silver mines have been woven into legend and passed from one generation to the next for more than 230 years. Beginning with an introduction by the late Michael Paul Henson, nationally known treasure expert, this comprehensive volume explores the legend of this enigmatic character who mined the mountains of Appalachia from 1761 until 1769. Unable to remove his entire cache of silver when he left the region, Swift hid much of his treasure in the mines. When he returned in the late 1700s to retrieve the secret caches, he was unable to locate them. During this time, copies of a journal kept by Swift (giving directions and clues to the hidden stashes) were sold and/or given away. Steely has collected and compared legends from across the region, found maps and old journals, and compiled all the information in this interesting, organized book for treasure hunters and historians. Drawing upon treasure lore from the Shawnee, Cherokee, Spanish, French, and Melungeons, this work spans Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina, and Alabama.

Between 1850 and 1912, Territorial New Mexico was home to a diverse mix of peoples. Contesting with those who had lived in the region for thousands of years, an array of newcomers arrived: Hispanic settlers, Anglo homesteaders, ranchers, cowboys, sheepherders, merchants, railroad men and-perhaps its chief adventurers-treasure hunters and prospectors. "Lost Treasures & Old Mines" brims with stories of gold fever, copper ore and SILVER mining in the American Southwest. In 1541 when Coronado's conquistadors arrived in search of the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola, pre-Columbian natives had long been mining for turquoise. The stories in this collection tell of hidden Indian mines, treasures lost en route to Spain, gold heists on trains and stagecoaches, placer miners roaming the hills and chicanery among claim partners. Geronimo, Victorio, Billy the Kid and U.S. Calvary soldiers thread through these stories, along with lucky characters who strike the motherlode and hapless ones who lose their fortunes. The Lost Juan Mondragon Mine, The Dead Burro Mine, the Lost Mine of the Pedernal, the Adams Diggings, Elizabethtown and Pinos Altos--such places live as shining memories in these oral histories of fabulous fortunes lost and found. Between 1936 and 1940, field workers in the New Deal Works Project Administration's Federal Writers' Project recorded authentic accounts of life in the early days of New Mexico. These original documents, published here for the first time as a story collection, reflect the conditions of the New Mexico Territory as played out in dynamic clashes between individuals and groups competing for control of the land and resources. "Lost Treasures & Old Mines," the third in the New Mexico Federal Writers' Project Book Series, features a lively collection of stories and historic photographs of the era. The first and second books in the series are "Outlaws & Desperados" and "Frontier Stories." Forthcoming volumes include Stories from Hispano New Mexico and a collection of cowboy adventures on cattle trails and ranches.

Relates local legends from Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma about abandoned mines, hidden stashes of plunder, and lost fortunes