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Somewhere in the Trigo Mountains or the Chocolate Mountains, north of Yuma, Arizona. If I knew where, they wouldn't be lost!
Lost mine number 1 - John Nummel's Lost Gold Ledge
John Nummel worked at both the Red Cloud mine and the La Fortuna mines. The Red Cloud is located in the Trigo mountains north of Yuma, Arizona and the La Fortuna is located in the Gila Mountains southeast of Yuma. He worked the Red Cloud in the 1880's and would spend countless hours walking the hot desert mountains prospecting and working as a miner. Miners were hard to come by in the portion of the desert and John would get mad at one of the mines, quit, and go to the other and start working. When he did this, he would walk an old trail between the Red Cloud and La Fortuna mines; a distance of over 40 air miles. It was on one of these trips that he stumbled upon what might have been his richest discovery. On a hot summer day (and in Yuma, the summers are HOT!), he set off from the Red Cloud after quitting and filling his 1 gallon canteen, for the La Fortuna. Like all prospectors he would walk a slightly different path each time he was out to cover different ground. He had crossed Yuma wash and after going a little further, he decided to rest under a Palo Verde tree. While drinking a little water, he noticed a quartz ledge next to him. As most prospectors would do he knocked off a chunk to look at. Low and behold, free gold stared back at him. It was a yellow quartz and very rich to his practiced eyes. He put the piece of ore in his pocket and covered up the ledge. He knew he would need more money to work the mine so he decided to continue to the La Fortuna mine, work and save what he would need. He is where the ledge gets lost.
Since he was low on water, he walked about a mile to a natural tank to refill his canteen. These tanks are weather-worn holes in rock that trap rain water and provide a natural watering hole for both people and animals. This particular tank was located within 200 yards of the trail. It proved to be a long time before John was able to return and look for his lost gold mine. When he finally made the trip, it seemed as if everything had changed. He could not locate the Palo Verde tree and search as he might, he never was able to locate the lost ledge of gold.
Lost mine number 2 - John Nummel's Lost Silver Ledge
John Nummel worked for the Red Cloud silver mines almost from their discovery. He was working on his own nearby claims when the original locator, blew out the face on his claim and when the dust cleared, he took out an immediate $30,000 in silver. He sold out his claim and the new operators took over. John's claims proved to be valueless so he went to work for the new owners. In the early 1900's when the mine was idle, John lived down on the Colorado river but was the acting caretaker for the Red Cloud. During this time, he would walk the distance to the mine and back and it was on one of these trips that he discovered a rich silver outcropping. As usual, he was prospecting along the way and had knocked off a few pieces of an outcropping to take back to his cabin and have assayed. The value of silver ore is not easily recognized and normally an assay is required. John left the pieces of ore at his cabin to look at later. Some time later, a friend and fellow prospector saw them and had them assayed. They turned out to be extremely rich in silver. The problem was, John could not remember where he had picked them up. He search for years for both his lost silver and lost gold ledges but was never able to relocate either one of them.
I once read a story of some prospectors who were out looking at the area around the Red Cloud and one of them might have stumbled upon the lost silver ledge of John Nummel. He found a silver ledge which he believed was a continuation of the Red Cloud's and although not ultra rich still showed values that were very high grade. It is not known if any follow up work was done on that discovery. He thought it was the lost ledge of John Nummel. It was in the right area and although the ore looked rich to the eye, it would still require an assay to know for sure. I have hiked around the area of the Red Cloud and the mountains are filled with quartz outcroppings and mineralization. It is easy to see why anyone would have a difficult time relocating a lost ledge in this part of the desert.
John Nummel's Lost Petrified Turtle Mine?
Reference: Lost Mines of Arizona by Harold O. Weight, published 1959
