The Story of the Picacho’s
Lost Dutchman

There is a story of a lost Dutchman Mine. This however is not the same story as the Lost Dutchman Mine in the Superstition Mountains in Arizona, this incident occurred between the areas of Potholes and Picacho. It was said that around the year 1910 an old Dutch prospector ran into a very rich ledge of gold in a basin that was close to a water hole in the area. As soon as he found the gold, the mules got into the supplies and ate them and he had and he had to leave the mine and head back to Yuma for more supplies. He took a ferry and gave the ferry man some pieces of ore that had the worth of a little bit over sixty dollars. They thought the ore would assay at around $20,000 a ton. The old Dutchman indicated to the ferry man that he was first going to quartz size first to pay off the man that had advanced him a loan. The old Dutch prospector was not ever seen again though. The mine is thought to have been in an area near Rochester Basin.

The story of the golden sand dunes
The sand hills that are in front of the mountains on the west are also called the Algodones Dunes. These are just about six miles in width in certain areas and around forty miles in length. They are very similar to the Sahara Desert and have been used to show how barren the desert can be in movies for example. The story of the lost gold in this area starts in 1917 when a prospector went to Mexicali and was headed towards the fields of gold in the Cargo Muchacho Mountains. The prospector had to go through the dunes to be able to get to the mountains but as he was crossing the sand hills, he ran into a very violent sand storm which separated him from his burro. The problem he faced was that his burro had all of his supplies as well as the water he needed. He realized soon enough he was going to have to go back to the closest town or area where he could find water and supplies. He decided to go to the town of Ogilby and this took him a few days, however, he was never able to make it back. He was found unconscious close to the rail road tracks right outside of the town of Ogilby and died a little while afterwards. This prospector had seventeen pounds of gold nuggets with him and he told the people that rescued him that he had found the gold nuggets in an area where the wind had blown away the place that showed the bedrock. Many have searched for this area but nobody has been able to find the deposit since. The sands are always changing in the desert and the wind makes new hills all the time and carries others away.