One day, Youngblood read in the local newspaper that gold had been discovered out west in a place called Arizona. The article stated that some prospectors were making fortunes seemingly overnight. That evening he talked with his wife.
“You know, my dear,” he said, “I’m a hard-working man and I know that if I could get myself out to this Arizona, I’d work and work and I know that I could find us a little gold. We don’t need a lot of gold. We just need enough to get us through these hard times.”
Henry Youngblood decided to go to a rich neighbor and borrow some money, just enough to cover his expenses. The neighbor wanted something as a guarantee to back up the loan. Henry Youngblood put up his farm as collateral. Then he took the stage to Prescott, Arizona.
When he arrived, the first thing that happened was that Youngblood became ill with some sort of flu or virus. He had to spend the next few weeks in a narrow bed in his small boardinghouse room. To make matters worse, he received a letter from his wife telling him that the rich neighbor, who had once been a rival of Youngblood’s for his wife’s hand, had come to her and told her that if she didn’t pay him the money, he would take over the farm as his collateral right, and throw her and the children out of their home.
Desperately, Henry dragged himself out of bed, took what few possessions he had and sold them in order to buy some mining supplies. He started walking south, southeast toward the Bradshaw Mountains. When he finally arrived in this rugged area, he began to prospect for gold. Every day from early morning until sunset, he would take his pick and shovel and work on any terrain that he thought looked promising. He worked as hard as he could, but he found no gold. Every day he continued to pick and shovel and prospect, but still he found no gold.
Then he ran out of food, yet he continued to pick and shovel and prospect looking for gold. Still he found none. One afternoon, some days later, there was a cold wind blowing through those Bradshaw Mountains and Henry Youngblood was chilled, hungry and exhausted. He flung himself down in front of a huge boulder and lifted his face toward the heavens, crying out, “Is this to be my fate? Am I to die of starvation out in these God-forsaken mountains? Is my family to be thrown off the farm? Is this all there is?”
Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a twinkling in the boulder above him. Oh, he thought to himself, it’s more of that fool’s gold. But some inner sense of hope prompted him to get up one more time and examine the boulder. There in the stone before him was a vein of quartz the width of a man’s hand. In the shimmering light he could see tiny nuggets of pure gold.
Youngblood began to act like a madman. He started to tear and pick at the nuggets of gold. He noticed that the vein went right up the boulder and continued for a great distance among the rocks of the hill. Here within his grasp was a fortune of gold worth millions of dollars.
In a short while, Henry Youngblood had a nice pile of gold nuggets. Putting the gold in his pockets, he then examined the countryside surrounding him. He took careful calculations of exactly where he was located. He also carefully covered up all signs of his activities, camouflaging the boulder as best he could, and went back to Prescott.
When he arrived in town, he took the nuggets and sold them and purchased a complete mining outfit. He bought himself several mules, saddlebags and a goodly amount of food. Then he went right back to the Bradshaw Mountains and to his newly-found claim.
Within a month’s time, he had mined enough gold to fill his saddlebags full. Moreover, he had traced the vein to its origin in the hills and he knew that he was the owner of one of the richest gold claims in all of Arizona.
Once again, he carefully covered up all signs of his activities. Then he placed the filled saddlebags onto the mules. Just as he was about to leave, a sharp pain stabbed him in the chest, his arm went limp, and one leg collapsed under him. The pain was excruciating, but he was able to drag himself with his last breaths of consciousness to one of the mules. He crawled onto the mule and smacked the animal in the direction of Prescott.
A surge of excitement swept through the townspeople of Prescott when they saw the mules come into the town loaded with gold with this half-dead man draped over one of them.
People crowded ’round. They brought him a doctor. They brought him something to drink. They found him a bed and some nursing care and all the time they kept asking, “Where, where, where did you find the gold?”
Henry whispered through his pain, “I can’t tell you right now, I’m too sick. But when I get better, I will tell you because there is enough gold out there for all of us.”
In time, Youngblood did get better and once again people crowded around him asking, “Where, where, where did you find the gold?”
“Look,” he said, “I must get back to Missouri. My wife and children have been thrown off our farm and they need my help. But I intend to come back and then I’ll tell you where I found the gold. I’m not exaggerating, there is enough for all of us.”
Packing up his gold, he placed it on the stage and returned to Missouri. When Henry Youngblood arrived at the stagecoach station, his family greeted him with joy and excitement. His wife and children kissed and hugged him, laughing and crying all at once. “Look, my darlings,” he said, hugging them and kissing them, “look at all the gold I’ve brought. We can buy a bigger farm and if there are more hard times it won’t matter. We have enough gold here to get us through lots of hard times and there’s more where this comes from.”
The Youngblood family were continuing their happy, tearful reunion when suddenly another sharp pain stabbed Henry Young blood in the chest. His arm went limp. His leg collapsed under him and he fell to the ground. His wife cradled him in her arms.
He looked up at her as she held him and said, “My dear, if somehow I don’t get better this time, let me tell you, let me explain where to find the gold.” His face was contorted with pain as he spoke, “You go to a place called Prescott, Arizona. Then go 40 miles south, southeast until you reach the Bradshaw Mountains. There’s a large boulder there and, and,. . .” and he died in his wife’s arms.
There are two theories about Henry Youngblood’s vein of gold. One group of people say that about a year-and-a-half later his vein was rediscovered and became the basis of one of the greatest gold mines in all of Arizona, the Vulture Mine. Others disagree, saying that the Vulture is located just south of Wickenburg and Henry Youngblood stated that the gold was to be found in the Bradshaw Mountains. These people believe that someday, someone will be out walking in those Bradshaw Mountains after a heavy rain and there, beneath their feet, will be Henry Youngblood’s vein of gold.
Author’s note: In a recent discussion with the owner of an Alaskan gold mine, I discovered that there is a club of gold mine owners in Arizona. This person says that there are about 18 small family or individually-held mines which do some producing in the Bradshaws.
Vulture Gold
What inner energy, what thought process is involved in making a man decide to search for gold? At first perhaps there is desire for adventure, or a gambler’s sense of hope that he has latched onto a path to luck. But what keeps a man making the conscious deliberation year after year to go on in the face of knowledge that the odds are stacked against a win, that failure is the bottom line of the game?
In 1819, Heinrich Wickenburg was born in the small German town of Essen. In 1847, when he was 28 years old, Heinrich, like so many other Germans, left his homeland to come to the United States for the purpose of finding a financial opportunity that would make him rich. He landed in New York City with little money. But he did not remain in the East like so many of the German immigrants, who found small farms to run or took on a factory job or worked in a slaughter house living out their lives in borderline poverty, growing old before their time from relentless hard work and long hours. Henry, as he chose to call himself, was able to get hired as a fireman on the Cortez, a steamship going to California by way of Cape Horn.
Lured by the great gold discoveries of 1848 an
d 1849, Henry Wickenburg spent 13 years searching for a rich claim without success. It was always someone else who made the discovery, who found the bonanza.
Then in 1861, California experienced a severe winter. The weather was the worst that anyone could remember. Rivers such as the Sacramento flooded, destroying crops and grazing land; cattle were left stranded without enough to eat. Many died. Henry, always looking for a way to make money, took to skinning the dead cattle for their hides as hides were fetching extremely high prices. Everything went smoothly for awhile as his new business venture began to bring him a comfortable income. Henry, for the first time since he had arrived in the United States, was making financial gains.
But the ranchers and farmers were frustrated over the loss of their cattle investment and any hope of a profit. Realizing that Wickenburg was making money from their adversity, they sought legal advice. Did this not constitute an illegal trespass? But the law progressed slowly and the ranchers and farmers grew angry. Their mutterings began to coalesce and focus on Henry, that damned German. Soon the talk exploded into demands for action.
When Henry heard the rumors that the cattlemen were talking about taking the law into their own hands by punishing him as an example to others who might wish to undertake similar activities, he decided it was time to start anew somewhere else.
Arizona was being touted as the next place to find bonanza gold, since the California rush was no longer yielding new discoveries. Coming across California, Henry crossed the Colorado River and joined a small prospecting group which included two other men, Buckskin Smith and a man named Morris. The three of them traveled along the Bill Williams River making camp not far from the present town of Congress.
While in this vicinity, Indians pointed out a small mountain which later became known as Rich Hill, saying that there was strange-colored rock to be seen there. The prospectors never followed through on the Indians’ suggestion because they were low on supplies and the possibility of attack by unfriendly Indians was a constant concern. A decision to break camp was made, leaving no time to explore. Wickenburg, impressed with the Indians’ story, made careful observations of the exact location of the hill. It was his hope to find a way to return there at some later date to search for mineral wealth.
In the meantime, a California entrepreneur named Abraham H. Peeples undertook the organization of an expedition to search for gold in that same Indian-infested region of the territory of Arizona. Peeples hired Pauline Weaver, a part-native American, mountain man and trailblazer to guide his party.
Weaver’s Cherokee mother gave him the name of Quah-a-ha-na which means “good talker,” but his father called him Paulino which he eventually shortened to Pauline. Born in Tennessee in 1800, Weaver grew to be a tall, well-muscled man. He came to Arizona around 1830 seeking his fortune as a trapper of beaver pelts. When hunting and trapping no longer offered the financial returns that he originally had hoped for, Weaver took up prospecting and guiding.
Members of the party met and crossed the Colorado River into Arizona at a point just north of present-day Ehrenberg. Weaver guided the group northeast, following traces of washes, into some low mountain areas. The expedition traveled toward the area in which Henry Wickenburg and his party had camped during the previous year.
Henry Wickenburg had planned to join the Peeples party, but by the time he reached the Arizona side of the Colorado River the expedition had already left. Disappointed at arriving too late, but resolved not to be left out of an opportunity to be in on any new gold discoveries, the thin but toughened six-footer decided to race after them. In spite of advice to wait and join with others because the Indians preferred to attack single victims, Henry, traveling cautiously, ever mindful not to allow himself to be observed at a distance, covered the two hundred miles alone through dangerous Apache territory. Eventually he did catch up with the party, but it was weeks too late.
One morning during the Peeple’s expedition, Pauline Weaver noticed that several of the horses in the camp were missing. He sent a couple of the Mexican wranglers to search for the horses which were soon found. Not only were the wandering horses brought back, but the wranglers brought back some interesting-looking rock they had found on a nearby hill. Weaver was curious about the color of the rock and he led his prospecting group to the hill. Using his hunting knife, he pried out a few specimens from the ground and carried them to Yuma to be appraised. The samples were analyzed and identified as gold. Mayhem broke out as the prospectors staked out claims. The news spread like wildfire as men appeared from everywhere to search the surrounding countryside.
The hill, now referred to as Rich Hill, had nuggets of gold which were found simply lying about. More gold was located at nearby Antelope Hill. These two hills were to become the richest single placer discovery ever found in Arizona. Placer gold is caused when glacier activity and erosion wear away the surrounding rock leaving the valuable mineral ore exposed.
Henry Wickenburg (Courtesy Arizona Historical Society Library, Tucson)
To have come this close to finding a fortune in gold only to see it slip from one’s grasp would have discouraged most men, but not Henry Wickenburg. Even after close to 15 years of relentless disappointment, he was determined that his turn must come one day. Wickenburg took to the trails to prospect. Henry had heard of two men who had recently been found in the desert having been murdered by the Indians. Lying next to their bodies was a large amount of very valuable gold ore. The Indians, not yet aware of the value of gold ore, were more interested in stealing guns, food, clothing and animals. To Henry, this indicated that there might be other outcroppings of gold in this general vicinity.
For a while he traveled with two other prospectors, a man named Von Webber and another man named Green who became ill. Exhausted from the rough mountainous desert terrain, Von Webber and Green wanted to abandon the search and set up camp to rest and recover their strength. Wickenburg continued on alone, somewhat discouraged but unwilling to give up. He traveled south into the desert to an area west of the Hassayampa River where he found himself attracted to the appearance of the country, particularly to a shelf of white quartz outcroppings.
Once again traveling alone through dangerous countryside, and anxious not to overlook a possible opportunity, Henry was to have another problem confront him. He noticed that his mule was no longer able or willing to keep up the pace. Stranded in the desert miles from nowhere, Wickenburg tried to force the animal, only to have the mule stop and refuse to move altogether. Sitting down in the dirt a short distance from the burro to try to think of a solution to this new difficulty, Henry Wickenburg noticed a vulture slowly circling overhead. The vulture soared down from the sky, and landed near the stalled mule, eyeing it proprietarily.
All the years of frustration welled up inside of Henry. An all-consuming rage emanated from deep within his being, and the usually gentle Wickenburg picked up a rock lying nearby and threw it at the bird. The vulture fluttered away in fright, but the rock seemed to fall apart as it hit the ground.
Henry tried to settle himself back from his anger, to move back from this edge of madness. As calm returned to him in that quiet desert setting, he remembered the disintegrating rock. Curious as to why the rock appeared to fall apart, Wickenburg went over to examine the scattered pieces and discovered a large nugget of gold. Scarcely able to breathe, he tried to settle his thoughts. Had his chance finally materialized or was this a fluke? It couldn’t be, he thought to himself; he had to have come upon a gold discovery, but of what size and worth?
Exploring the surrounding area, Henry Wickenburg located a rich lode, a vein of gold that was nearly fifteen feet wide. Racing back to his prospecting companions, Von Webber and Green, he excitedly told them of his discovery, only to have the prospectors dismiss his descriptions as the ramblings of a man who had stayed too long in the desert sun. While Henry returned to the site of his discovery, the two men left for Tucson, ostensibly to get more supplies. They never returned.
Ri
ght then Henry staked out as much of the area as the Arizona law would allow, placing posts on the corners of three 300-square foot claims. Filing by himself, he called his find the Vulture Mine and it proved itself to be not the daydreams of a worn-out prospector, but a fabulously rich producer of gold. When Von Webber eventually learned of the great strike made by Wickenburg, he went to court to claim a financial interest in the mine. Wickenburg refused to acknowledge any right of Von Webber and the courts, after a long legal battle, found in Wickenburg’s favor.
Vulture Mine (Courtesy Sharlot Hall Museum Archives, Prescott)
Luck had finally smiled upon this determined German, but problems still hampered his efforts. Water is needed to process gold and the nearest water was to be found in the Hassayampa River some 12 miles away. In those early months, many of the men who were transporting gold ore for washing at the river were killed by Apaches.
Another miner named Charles Genung came to Henry’s camp. A system of processing the ore was needed that would work in these waterless conditions. A mill needed to be built. Wickenburg did not have the necessary funds or the knowledge to know what to do. He had gold without the wherewithal to mine and refine it. Genung, an experienced mining man, showed Wickenburg how to build and use a circular in-ground arrastra for grinding gold. By using animal power such as mules, burros, horses or oxen, to pull a heavy stone over the ore to break up and release the gold, less water was required in the processing.
At that point Henry decided to sell rights to the ore for $15 a ton. This gave him the necessary cash to build and outfit as many as 40 arrastras for grinding the gold and to hopefully save for building a mill. Having a large number of men coming to work the claim helped make everyone reasonably safe from Apache raids by virtue of their numbers.
Arizona Legends and Lore Page 9
