By: George A Slovitsky

The Legend: About the time the United States withdrew troops from Arizona Territory at the
start of the Civil War, two Mayo Indian brothers came to the Arivaca country from southern
Sonora. One was a blond (a frequent occurrence among the Mayo’s, and the subject of many
Indian stories), and his people knew him as "El Cuero Mayo."
They made a living by panning the placers along Arivaca Creek and in the surrounding
mountains which were long rumored to be rich in gold. As time went by, one brother spent more
and more time in making long excursions into the mountains, while other stayed behind to tend
their camp and keep watch for intruders.
One day the brother returned from the mountains with his six burros loaded down with rich
gold quartz. The brothers crushed the ore in an arrastre which they built along Arivaca Creek.
Each week for many months the brother made the trip into the mountains in the direction of the
Black Princess; and each time he returned with his burros – all six – loaded with all the gold ore
they could carry. Years went by and the endless stream of ore poured into the arrastre along
Arivaca Creek. The brothers grew rich, and they began to spend more leisure time in Arivaca,
where they were very free with their gold. They engaged in ranching, establishing themselves
below the Black Princess where they presumably could keep an eye on their mine.
There are many who believe that the brothers were looking for a particular mine when they
came north to Arizona, and that they found it. There are those, too, who believe that the brothers
found the Lost Sopori Mine, believed to have first been worked by the Jesuit padres and to have
been located in the Black Princess region.
One brother died in Sonora while on a visit, while the other brother lived until the l900's, still
residing in Arivaca when he died. They told no one the secret location of their mine, and
supposedly it is still there waiting to be found again.
Behind the Legend: Ten miles northeast of the old mining town of Arivaca, Arizona, halfway
between Baboquivari Peak to the west and Old Baldy or El Pelon to the east, stands the Black
Princess, a natural rock formation carved by wind and sand to resemble the body of a woman
lying outstretched on top of the highest ridge in the Cerro Colorado mountains. Vividly outlined
against the sky, the Black Princess glows and gleams in the sunset and looks so realistic that she
has long been held sacred by the Opata and Papago Indians.
In winter she is feared. On wild stormy nights when the wind howls down across the Catalina
and Sierrita Mountains, lightning leaps from the black clouds that settle down over the head and
shoulders of the Black Princess and eerily silhouette her form against the sky. Thunder rolls back
and forth across the steep canyon walls, rain comes down in sheets and swirls causing large
boulders to from the steep mountainsides. These boulders then fall into the arroyo and down onto
the desert floor below. Wild animals seek shelter from the raging elements in the dark caves
under the lava flows. The giant jaguars from the Moche Cowie country in Sonora stalk their prey
around the few rock tanks and the one natural spring that bubbles from under the tufa beds on the
north side of the mountain.
When spring finally comes, the Black Princess looks down serenely from the mountaintop
upon desert plains brilliantly carpeted with wildflowers. The sun, setting behind the ragged edge
of the Baboquivari range, crowns her with gleaming gold. When the moon comes up over the
Santa Rita mountains and sheds its long rays of silvery light down across the Sierrita and Cerro
Colorado mountains, and the desert breezes begin to stir, the snow-white yucca blossoms that

cluster around the feet of the Black Princess become swaying ghosts with fleecy veils.
It was in 1861, about the time the United States government withdrew its troops from Arizona
to fight in the Civil war, that the two Mayo Indian brothers, Juan Morales, the blond, and Fermin,
his younger brother, came to the Arivaca country from the Mayo valley in southern Sonora.
The two Morales brothers, Juan, locally called El Guero Mayo, and Fermin made their living
panning placer along Arivaca creek and on the ·surrounding mesas which were rich in gold. In
the course of time the Blond Mayo quit his panning operations and made many trips into the
surrounding country. He seemed to be searching for something. One day he came into camp
from a northeasterly direction, his six pack mules loaded with rich gold ore. The quartz was
matted together with wire and masses of bright yellow gold and had a blue indigo tinge, probably
bromide of silver. The ore looked as though it had been mined more than a long time before.
Adhering to many of the pieces were small bits of a porous lava rock suggesting that it might
have come from one of those rare pipes or chimneys found in lava flows. Wherever found in any
part of the world these pipes or chimneys have produced millions in gold.
The Blond Mayo made many weekly trips into the northeast end of the valley in the vicinity of
the Black Princess, always returning with his six pack mules heavily loaded. The rich gold ore
was treated in arrastres that still stand on the north side of Arivaca creek about three miles west
of town.
On these weekly trips to and from his mine, El Guero Mayo, he did not ride unarmed. Across
the pommel of his saddle rested a rifle, and from the two well filled cartridge belts around his
lean waist hung a pair of heavy Colt revolvers. The Blond Mayo was a dead shot. He was gaunt,
eagle-eyed, tireless, and was without remorse when it came to avenging the death of a friend at
the hands of an Apache. He rode the high ridges and the skyline, as Indians do, avoiding, as
much as possible, the narrow passes and the mesquite-choked washes where an ambush could
easily be waiting for him.
Old timers in Arivaca, like Don Manuel Gonzales and Don Teofilio Ortiz, who knew the Blond
Mayo when they were young men, say that normally he was quiet and stayed away from strong
drink, but occasionally, when he received an extraordinarily large return on his ore, he went on a
rampage a "ramtooch" they called it. On these rare occasions he came into town six guns blazing
at the sky and yelling like a Comanche Indian. The sound of his horse's clattering hoofs, and the
roar of his guns were signals for all the muchachitos and some of the older ones to rush into the
dusty street to scramble for the handfuls of silver coins El Guero Mayo would throw at their feet.
Arivaca was a wild camp in those days, filled to overflowing with mule-skinners, bullwhackers,
miners, gambucinos, vaqueros, saloonkeepers, tin horn gamblers, and dance hall girls. Money
was plentiful, the people were happy despite the raids of marauding Indians, and bailes,
fandangos and fiestas were held with or without provocation.
As the years passed, the Morales brothers prospered from their mining operations along the
creek and back in the hills. Fermin, the younger brother, ran cattle on the Calera ranch three
miles north of town, and El Guero Mayo established a cattle ranch on the Batamonte wash below
the Black Princess mountain, presumably to keep an eye on his bonanza gold mine.
El Guerro Mayo died while on a visit to his old home in the Rio Mayo valley in Sonora, Mexico.
Fermin, the younger brother, died in Arivaca in the 1930s and lies buried in the old Campo
Sanco on the north edge of the town.
Lester Fernstrom, a tungsten miner in the Arizona district for many years, flew his plane over
the Black Princess mountain around the late 1950s and reported seeing a long open cut on the
side of the mountain. The cut was choked with huge boulders and could well be the entrance to

the Blond Mayo's mine. The Indian was never known to have carried any explosives or mining
cools with him to or from his mine and those who knew him agree that he probably found the ore
already mined by the former operators. The face that the ore brought to the arrastres showed no
fresh surfaces would seem to bear this out.
For many years after his death, the mere mention of the Blond Mayo's name in Arivaca
invariably starts a discussion of his lose mine. But it is all speculation. No one, yet has located
the bonanza which supplied his mules with their rich loads. The old Indians and the Black
Princess guard their secret well.
My Notes: The Black Princess is a natural rock formation on the crest of the Cerro Colorado
Mountains. The Indians have long held this area both fear and reverence. Resembling the
outstretched body of a woman, there are many Opata and Papago legends pertaining to it.
While the brothers were secretive when it came to discussing their private affairs, it is believed
by many Hispano-Arizonans around Arivaca that they came north for the express purpose of
locating and working this rich gold mine. There is much evidence to show that perhaps the mine
is the old Sopori mine was first discovered by the Jesuits or other Spaniards that came north in
the wake of the Coronado expedition searching for the Seven Golden Cities of Cibola. Old
Spanish and early American maps show the Sopori mine in the vicinity of the Black Princess
mountain. Many people confuse it with the old Isabelle shaft located one and one-half miles
south of the Sopori ranch house. The Isabelle was worked by the Jesuit fathers from the
Tumacacori mission.
An old volume in the Arizona Stare library at Phoenix reports: "The Sopori mine was known
all over Arizona and Sonora for the richness of its ores." The ruins of an old adobe smelting
furnace on the arroyo west of the Black Princess and the walls of an old mission that stand on a
long point of land jutting out into the Altar valley east of Baboquivari peak would seem to
indicate that the mine was known to and worked by the people who lived around this mission.
The name of the mission has been lost to history. It may not have been a full-ranking mission,
but a visita or a halfway station on the trail from other missions in western Sonora, where the
padres stopped to rest and say Mass on their way to San Xavier del Bac, Tumacacori, Guevavi
and Cocospra, all on the Santa Cruz river south of Tucson.
When the brothers died, the secret of the mine that made them wealthy went with them. Was it
the fabled Sopori Mine rediscovered by the brothers and once worked by the early Spaniards or
was it something else? Old maps place the Sopori in the shadow of the Black Princess.
When looking for the Black Princess and the lost mine take extra care you don’t confuse the
natural formation with the Sleeping Beauty formation which is visible on the western skyline
from United States Highway 70 just south of Globe.
A Little History: The Mayo or Yoreme are an indigenous group in Mexico, living in the
northern states of southern Sonora, northern Sinaloa, and small settlements in Durango. In their
own language, they call themselves Yoreme. The term Mayo means "the people of the
riverbank" and comes from the Mayo River. The Mayo language belongs to the Cahita branch of
the Uto-Aztecan language family. It is closely related to Yaqui, and it is spoken by
approximately 40,000 people.
The Mayo people originally lived near the Mayo River and Fuertes River valleys. The Mayo
sustain themselves mainly by agriculture and fishing, but also by trading or bartering the artwork
and crafts they created with other peoples. They have their own traditional authorities, who are
elected by vote and their hierarchy is respected on par with the Mexican civil laws.

The earliest inhabitants of this region hunted, fished, and gathered plants. They gradually
developed an agricultural technique that allowed them to settle in various communities. On
arrival of the Spaniards, in the present-day states of Sonora and Sinaloa, the Mayo’s were part of
an Indian confederacy consisting of the Apache, Pima, and Yaqui tribes. Their purpose was the
joint defense from the invasion of other groups, mutual respect for their territory, and cultural
exchange.
Currently, most Mayo farm, often with advanced techniques. They fish and make handicrafts
intended for use by the community. They build their houses from adobe or wood, depending on
the climate and location. Good Luck and Happy Hunting!!!