I just recently joined this site, today in fact. I lived in Ogden, UT for most of my life, did a little bit of metal detecting and prospecting. I have always been fascinated by the stories of the old Spanish mines and spent a number of years researching, looking, and doing what ever I could do to explore the ones that were promising. I have personally been to or into over thirty in Utah alone. Most of the mines/caches I have been to or inside of were empty.
There is one that is located in the South face of the Uintah Mountains, that was introduced to me be a co-worker of a brother-in-law. He had physical proof of what was inside, pictures, video, and an exact path to the location. When I, my brother-in-law, and several other people made our first expedition, it took only about 1 1/2 hours to locate the cache site. It was apparent it had been caved in by bulldozing the region above the site. We spent four to five nights a week for over eight weeks clearing the debris out of the shaft. We had come to a large rock that had blocked the shaft. We were working on excavating around the boulder, according to measurements taken from the pictures and videos, we were about thirty feet from the actual cache location, when we fired upon from across the creek. We had myself and three others working inside clearing debris out, and two members immediately outside the shaft, with one other person stationed above the site on the hill as a lookout. All three members outside were fired upon by several individuals located across the creek. I had previously demanded that we only go to the site well armed due to the cut-throat nature of treasure hunting I had experienced in the past. We were able to return fire and escape unharmed. We held off returning for a couple of weeks. During that time, the owners of the two vehicles we used to travel to the site in, were visited by members of the local Indian tribe whose reservation the site is located on. They refused to even discuss what was said to them, and the refused to return, they also refused to discuss anything about the cache site. Myself and two other individuals who were unaware of what I had been involved in returned to the site from another direction on horseback and used explosives to close the shaft once again. I have returned to the site's area several times, undercover as a fisherman since the creek offers good fishing. The last time I was there was in 1997 and the site remained undisturbed, no sign of digging or any exploration. Using satellite maps, dated June of 2005, I have further verified that the site remained relatively undisturbed.
I was never to validate the claims of the gentleman who turned us onto this site, but his evidence and description were spot on, as well of a number of critical pieces of evidence that have not been revealed. I can say that according to his pictures and videos, there were several hundred bars of gold and silver stacked like cord wood, rotting bags similar to the old style of Spanish saddle bags, numbering in the dozens, containing small roundish pieces of gold and silver, multiple pieces of Spanish style Armour, and many other various pieces that looked like weapons, tools, and camp equipment.
Every-time I have returned I have been approached by members of the local Indian tribe as to why I was there and what I was doing. They have even searched myself, other members of my party, our equipment, and vehicle(s). To this day, I can locate the site on a topo map, satellite map, or state road map. The gentleman that turned us on had been inside this site in the early 1970's, but due to poor health, unable to return. His father was injured while at the site and later died from his injuries at the hospital. He spent several years in jail, and was diagnosed with Emphysema about three yrs before I met him. He had tried unsuccessfully to recover the cache, but was only able to bring out limited quantities on several occasions. It took almost a year from the time I met him until he trusted me enough to reveal all his secrets. He and his father had been exploring and searching for the "Old Spanish Mines and Caches" for most of his life. The actual title of this mine/cache figures prominently in the history of the LDS church.
I am now disabled, work related back/neck injuries, and I am unable to travel and explore like I used to. I know of or have been into over fifty mines/caches that are located near Smith and Morehouse Reservoir, Oakely, Mirror Lake, Ogden, Layton, Bountiful, Antelope Island (a nasty one), Honeyville, Moab, Washington, Hurricane, Morgan, Tooele, and Wellsville, all in Utah. I also know of several sites located in S.E. Idaho.
The site I have disclosed above is located on Indian lands, and according to my experience on this site and a number of others, they are not very interested in letting in someone to remove a cache or investigate caves, tunnels, mines and other land features of the kind. I have done prospecting and searching for old Spanish mines for over thirty years.
I have had my house broken into and the only area that had been gone through was my collection of books, papers, and images dealing with Spanish mines/caches. My computer was stolen as well, I used it almost exclusively for my research. Nothing taken was ever recovered. Everything on the computer was password protected and nothing of value pertaining to papers, journals, images, and such, was kept in my house. This policy hold true to this day. I know that someone I considered a friend was responsible for the thefts, but to this date do not know who was responsible. I only divulged my obsession or hobby to certain people, and those were a select few. I owned a mining company at the time, a cover for my research on Spanish mines/caches, and the only information taken in the burglary was related to Spanish mines/caches, not any other mine or mineral information. I have recovered information on a number of mines that are for precious metals and gemstones, like the Ruby mines in Box Elder and Cache counties.
Due to work, I moved to S.E. Idaho in 1999 and then to Central Montana in 2003, back to Idaho in 2007, now I am back in Utah as of July 2010. I am in the process of restarting my hobby/obsession of the Old Spanish Mines/Caches.
