John Nummel’s Lost Mines

John Nummel was a prospector that is said to have travelled the mountains in this area in search of gold and it is said that he was able to find his treasure and that he then lost it. The first find he made was a ledge of yellow quartz that was laced with gold. He had been walking close to the Yuma Wash right in between the Chocolate Mountains and the Trigo Mountains and was tired so he sat underneath a tree and rested for a little while. While he was resting he suddenly noticed a ledge of yellow quartz right beside him and given the fact that he was a prospector he decided to take a sample of it. He saw that this was a rich outcrop. His intentions were to go back to the ledge however his attempts at finding it failed as he was not able to locate the spot again. John Nummel also found silver at one point on one of his many prospecting travels when he went into the Trigo Mountains and had picked up a bag full of samples to check them. However, he became distracted somehow and forgot that he had the samples in his bad and threw them out in his yard. Then one day one of his prospector friends was passing by and saw the ore and told him it was the richest ore he had ever seen and obviously, where he had found this ore. John Nummel however, was not able to remember where in the Trigo Mountains he had picked the ore up from. There are a number of tales and stories lost silver ledges in the Trigo Mountains and it has been said that there is a lost but very rich lode in the Clip Mountain. Nobody has been able to find it though.

Lost gold of Mission San Pedro and San Pablo de Bicuner
Some people have said that the lost gold from Mission San Pedro and San Pablo de Bicuner has been buried on the Arizona side of the Colorado River. Some have said that the gold was moved over and across the river by the Indians and that it was buried close to Squaw Peak. 

Lost Gila Mountains Gold
It has been said that there is a rich gold mine in the Gila Mountains that was worked at first by the Spanish and then by a group of French men. The French men were headed towards the gold fields of California when they found a very rich Spanish mine. They supposed that the Spanish miners had been run off or killed by the Indians and decided they would work on the mine. They did so for a few months. They collected a very good amount of gold; more than enough to turn them into rich men and this is when they decided to leave the mine. As they were leaving they were attacked by Apaches who caught them by surprise and the miners were all killed. This is something that has happened time and again in the desert due to gold in the desert. After many years, the skeletons of the French men were found and the gold was found all around them. There were three men that found their bodies however one of the men went crazy and shot one of the others and was then shot by the one man who lived to tell the story.