Lost Virgin Guadalupe Mine of Southern Arizona

The story of the lost Virgin Guadalupe Mine of Southern Arizona.
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[@arthurpeterson246]

Always enjoy your stories pal thanks.

[@DePalma.]

Great video, thank you!

[@nicksanchez3441]

Couple things. Live near here. I have seen old Spanish maps that are available in the library of congress for the New Mexico territory that showed where the second mission was, it was marked on the map with a drawing of a shrine, it was located between rio rico and patagonia, n of sonoita creek on the S slope of the mountains. I’ll note it was marked as if it was on the mountain slope and not down in the valley. Kinda directly N of Patagonia Lake. Second thing, a really rich silver mine was found W of i19 between Tumacacori and San Xavier Mission, was 80s or early 90s, a local man found a hidden mine he believed was tied to the nearby mission. He said it was full of refined silver bars, there are news paper articles about it. He claimed that he only took some of the silver and left the majority of it, which would be worth quite a bit now. He refused to say where the mine was located and as far as I know he never told anyone about its location and it’s still sitting there untouched.

[@TurboTyler]

I live near here so this old story has always been of interest. However there hasnt ever been much Gold found around Tucson and ive always wondered where they found such mass amounts in an area not well known for it. Have people just not been looking at the right geography for this area to produce all these years, and the Spanish knew what to look for in this type of area? So many questions. But if they were actually pulling that mucu from the ground back then around here then that gives me hopes for my prospecting adventures.

[@rickhaigwood1079]

The "story" goes that the Tumacocori "treasure" consists of aprox 2050 mule loads of silver and aprox 905 mule lods of gold and silver ingots. These volumes coincide with your information. for the findings in the Tuscon area. The majority of the mines associated with the Jesuit missions were silver mines.....but as you would probably know.....Where there is silver there is usually also gold, copper and lead. The missions mined for all four. Gold and silver was the principal ore, followed by lead for weapons and copper for its durability and ease of working into things such as building implements like hinges, storage boxes, livestock tack and cooking utensils like pots and pans. Copper was also a major component for bronze used to make weapons such as cannon and firearms. Looking at old Spanish shipwreaks and old manifests you will see that the majority of the recovered or listed items were silver followed by gold, lead and copper.. Any "treasure troves" that would have been hidden by the Jesuits for about a year prior to thier expultion would have been refined gold and silver ingots as well as church vestments, statues and other religious artifacts. There would have been no need to hide copper or lead. There are existing Jesuit documents such as reports and letters that were written by visiting priests and church officials that state the missions were "highly adorned with silver railings, chandeliers, golden statues of Mary and other gold, silver and bejeweled decorations that would equal the beauty of any church in Europe". ALL of that were gone when the Spanish raided the missions to round up the Jesuits in 1767. It is theorized that the many oversized silver items like the railings and chandeliers were melted down and put into ingot form along with the gold ingots as well as the church artifacts were placed in "copper boxes" to make it easier to load onto mules so they could transport them to hidden and secure cache sites without drawing unwanted interest. I firmly believe there are individuals that have located a few of these hidden caches but will not try to recover them because they will be arrested, or thier finds will be taken away due to the Arizona Antiquities Act........Until this law is changed to allow for an equitable spit of the find there is no incentive for anyone to make a recovery just to have it confiscated.

[@TurboTyler]

@@rickhaigwood1079 thx for the reply.

[@rickhaigwood1079]

The tumacacori mission was built around 1691 by Jesuit Fr. Kino. Your story is close to the facts but off by about 100 years. None of the original missions in present day southern Arizona, including Tumacacori,were built before Fr. Kino arrived. In addition the sealing up of the purported "treasure" cave was done some time between the "Pima uprising" in 1751.....or more likely, when the Jesuits were "expelled" by the Spanish crown in 1767.

[@portalofwisdom8858]

The mission you are talking about is supposed to be the second mission. The first one was built earlier and closer to the mine before they decided to build one by the river for a better water source. At least that is the story from the old magazine. But you could be right about the 1751 uprising causing the closing of the mine. But it sounds like at that point, the original mission was long gone so it would not be easy to use distances from old Spanish records that are measured from the original mission. Also, the Spanish were building missions in the Southwest long before Fr. Kino was even born.

[@TurboTyler]

I've done a lot of reading on this and you are correct.​@@portalofwisdom8858