Desert Messenger

16 www.DesertMessenger.com April 1, 2015 El Camino del Diablo - The Devil's Highway SEE HIGHWAY PAGE 18 Excerpts from "In the Shadow of Saguaros" by Rosalee Oldham Wheeler "In the Shadow of Saguaros" Vol. I & II are now available exclusively at the Tyson's Well Museum and Reader's Oasis Book Store Voices from The Past in Quartzsite, AZ In March 18th issue of the Desert Messenger, this column shared a 234- year-old Quechan legend about a cache of coins down a well. The legend was that somewhere near a mission along the El Camino del Diablo was a deep well where coins had been thrown by group of Spanish colonist and a cou- ple of padres and then covered with dirt. Several Mexican treasure hunt- ers from Sonora lost their lives on The Devil's Highway in their search for the lost coins. Let's go back to 1886 and pick up the legend there. It was at that time that the interest of the two lost missions brought up the legend of the lost coins. Two men, one a heavy-set Quechan In- dian guide and the other was a Francis- can clerical historian, Padre Zephyrin Engelhardt (1851-1934), a German- born Catholic priest. The Indian guide had agreed to take Padre Engelhardt to the site of two old missions. The Padre agreed with the Indian that the ruins could be found in a desolate area near the Colorado River. When they rode their horses up to the ruins of an old adobe wall that appeared to be the shell of a stockade, the Indian pointed toward the ruin and ex- claimed, "This was the mission." Engelhardt wanted to know, "Are you sure this is the mission your people burned?" The Indian replied, "Yes, and many Mexicans came after it burned to get the coins." "What coins?" The Padre wanted to know. "The silver coins the padres and settlers hid during the revolt," re- plied the Indian. Padre Engelhardt had found what he was looking for and it wasn't the coins. After the Padre had completed his study of the area that would be included in his book, "The Franciscan's in Arizona," the Indian guide made his way back to his Quechan village. In 1849, thirty-seven years earlier, another type of treasure hunter had crossed the Colorado River near this very spot on their way in search of an- other precious metal – gold! Prospec- tors and miners, as well as soldiers, entrepreneurs, and opportunists had accompanied these Forty-Niners who were on their way across the Colorado River to Sutter's Mill in California where gold had recently been discovered. One such soldier was Lieutenant Cave John- son Couts. As he was escorting mem- bers of the U. S. Boundary Commission to the junction of the Colorado and Gila Rivers, he learned that nearly 2,000 wagons were on the road in the 185 miles between the Pima villages of cen- tral Arizona and the Colorado River, on their way to the California Gold Rush. Couts wrote that he wondered how all those wagons and people were going to cross the river safely using the present mode of swimming or to take a chance on the reed rafts used by the Indians. Couts quickly decided to set up a ferry that ultimately assisted thousands of Forty Niners and pioneers in cross- ing the river near Yuma before the end of 1852. Beyond the Colo- rado River lay the western Sonoran Desert with its hot sand, dried lake beds, and undrinkable alkali wa- ter. More than 100 miles of deadly heat and diffi cult travel over the sand hills made travel almost impos- sible. Hundreds of horses, mules, and oxen died on the desert. Mile, after mile, after mile, even these hardy For- ty-Niners prayed the desert would end, that they would live to see what they had come to fi nd – gold! Per- haps the great "blue mountains" that Garcés referred to in his journal over 100 years earlier would materialize just over the next sand dune. Many travel- ers couldn't endure the hardship and simply walked off and left many of their worldly possessions behind. Some did make it to the gold fi elds near Sutter's Mill, but many were too sick from the heat and exertion that they didn't have the energy to work or enjoy being a part of the California Gold Rush. What the gold seekers didn't know was that they were passing over some of the richest gold fi elds of the day as they crossed over the Colorado River near Yuma Crossing. They then rushed on to what they had heard was the big gold rush, missing out on the tremendous

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