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Southwest
Colorado History
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David
E. Coates
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Southwest
Colorado History
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David
E. Coates
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____________________
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Naked
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In 1851, few Indians in this area had ever seen a white man, let alone a party of five long-haired, heavily-bearded men pulling saddle horses and pack mules. Headed on their way from the goldfields of California to Santa Fe, five of the seven mules were loaded with gold bullion - some 650 pounds worth. One can only surmise the legitimacy of these men's purpose in that they were traversing a route so remote, so untraversed with so much gold not being transported conventionally by train. Unknownst to the white men, they were headed straight towards a Ute Indian camp. It was hunting season and there were no Indian men around that October afternoon. Who's to know who was more surprised when the white men stumbled into the camp. The Squaws were terror stricken at the sight of these grizzly strangers and fled with their papooses and young ones to hide. With the camp now empty and the delicious aroma of fresh meat cooking over fires, the men decided to cache in on their luck. While gathering the meat, one of the horses backed over one of the tepees, knocking it over. Little did the men know as they hastily left that the upset tepee fell over a campfire and the whole camp burned. The white strangers continued on their way and came out on the west bank of the Piedra River opposite the mouth of the Stolsteihmer where they camped that night. The Indians were furious to find their camp burned. A war dance was held that night and an attack on the white men was planned for early morning. Shortly after daylight, the attack occurred and the only white man that survived was saddling the horses 200 yards away. He heard the Indians' war whoop, witnessed the Redskins killing his comrades and ran for his life. Over the years, there were several old warriors such as Old Washington, Tallian, Gergorio, Pelon and Marizon who all gave their accounts of the massacre to early Mexican settlers like Juan Lucero, who lived down on the Pine and Onesimo Archuleta who lived on the Piedra. All accounts agreed with one another remarkably well. The appearance of the surviving comrade was quite different in that he had no beard. "The naked faced man got away. I was watching him, and when he saw us attack his companeros, he turned and ran away, and he ran so fast, behind some brush and we did not see him anymore. We did not try to follow him because the horses and mules had become excited with all the shooting. They were running away too and we wanted them more than the naked faced man." So we let him go and rounded up the horses. We took all the white man's stuff except some gold they had. There were ten sacks of that stuff. Why were they so crazy about gold? The sacks were very heavy. We didn't want the stuff, so we carried it over to a ravine about a hundred feet away and dropped it over the edge. The storm waters washed dirt over it and covered it all up." Page Wright was less than five years old and was one of the Indian children in camp that day. At 104 years old in 1955, he recalled the stories he heard in his early childhood and youth; he knew where the gold was buried but would never tell. He remembered the men looking like buffalo with long black hair on their heads and faces, all except the one. About the year 1890, Slim Carven drifted into the San Juan country to visit the Cooper family on their farm in the Pine River Valley. He was slender, of medium height, boyish in appearance; his face was as smooth as that of a school boy. He helped the Coopers on the farm and on occasions he rode after their cattle. One afternoon, he made the remark "I made a trip through this country nigh onto forty years ago. In disbelief, his listeners countered: "Man, there weren't anyone here then." "There weren't no white folks, but there wuz Indians," Corven responded. He then related how he and his four partners had left California bound for Santa Fe with horses and the mules loaded with gold, how they had crossed the Pine River not far from the Cooper farm heading into the Ignacio Mountains and how his four comrades were killed. "How long ago didja say it was?" "Nigh onto forty years." That don't seem possible - you don't look to be a day over forty; you don't look like you've ever shaved. "I haven't never shaved in my life. I'm sort of a freak" said Carven, "I don't grow whiskers." Carven rode over onto the Piedra a few days later and found the place he'd camped that night near Chimney Rock. Carven never knew that he was within a few hundred feet of the buried gold. So if you're ever out near the Piedra near the mouth of the Stolsteimer, take a careful look in the ravines you cross. In some dirt-covered crevice, you may find a bundle of gold. |
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