The Legend: Three Italian organ grinders, complete with crank-organs and trained monkeys, were headed east leaving the Colorado River in the hopes of reaching Granite Creek, north of Prescott. Somewhere along the trail they came across an old Mohave Indian near death from lack of water. The Italians shared their water, and when the Indian was revived, he shared his secret of gold. More gold than there were pebbles at their feet.

The Indian led them across the burning sands finally arriving at the Santa Maria River, and soon reached a deep canyon in the hills north of Peeples Canyon. The Italians hurried into the canyon and within a few hundred yards came to an arroyo. They entered the arroyo and looking up they saw a small ledge of dark colored rock. They broke off a piece, which glistened in the afternoon sunlight. It was thickly studded with gold. The Italians worked all that night digging gold. The next day they marked the location in their minds and drew a crude map, and then hightailed it for civilization for food, water, and tools.

The Mojave and two of the Italians were killed by a band of Hualapais Indians. One of the Italian’s escaped, but soon died of greed. Grabbing all the gold he could carry; he headed towards Wickenburg taking only one canteen of water. Two days later, close to death, he was found by a teamster. He told the teamster the story of the ledge of gold.

Behind the Legend: In the early 1860s, three Italian organ grinders, names are unknown, each with a hand organ and a trained monkey traveling from La Paz on the Colorado river to Granite creek near Prescott, Arizona, turned from the trail one day to rest in the shade of a mesquite tree.

Here they found an old Mohave Indian lying down, spent and almost dead from thirst and heat. They shared the contents of their canteens with him and gave him food from their meager supply. Grateful for their kindness, the old Mojave offered to show them a rich gold mine. They hesitated and questioned him as to its richness and probable value. Stooping, the Indian picked up a handful of pebbles and replied in Spanish. “Macho, macho, lo mismo ester,’ as he swept his arm outward, to indicate its richness and extent. The organ grinders but prepared at once to follow the old Mojave into the hills.

For two days’ they travel across the burning sands finally reaching the Santa Maria River and on the third day they reached a deep canyon up in the hills north of Peeples’ Canyon. A small stream of clear water trickled from under a big rock and two or three cottonwood trees grew nearby. After making camp the Indian pointed westward and told them, ‘Busca’ (hunt). He then sat down on the ground and rolled a cigarette, ignoring the Italians as they looked for the gold.

The three Italians hurried westward and at a point a few hundred yards distance in a tributary arroyo a small ledge of dark colored rock caught their interest. Breaking off a piece, they were amazed to find the piece of rock was heavily studded with gold. The yellow metal seemed to be present wherever they broke rocks from the ledge. They sat down and gazed at the golden treasure, then broke off more, and dreamed of returning to Monte Cristo rich men. They did not return to their campfire, until the evening shadows reminded them of the upcoming night.

The old Mojave lay sleeping when the three Italians returned to camp, but little sleep came to them during the long night, for were they not rich and fate was offering a chance. In the morning they filled several small bags with pieces of quartz and golden nuggets from the ledge and

prepared to leave. They had little food with them and intended to return as soon as possible to dig out their fortunes.

They covered up the ledge and after marking the locality well, drew a rough map of the place, noting a few of the most prominent landmarks and plainly marking the trail leading from the Santa Maria River. As the sun sank low over the western hills they started back to the nearest town, preferring to travel by night to avoid an attack by the Hualapai’s, enemies of the Mojave’s. The reached Tres Alamos springs in safety, resting there overnight. They planned to start early the next morning for Wickenburg, which was the nearest town. Just before dawn, a hideous yell startled the tired sleepers. Three or four Hualapai Indians sprang upon them killing the Mojave and two of the Italians. The third Italian, screened by some thick bushes, made his escape. After killing the three men the Hualapai Indians left the scene hastily, fearing pursuit by the soldiers from Camp Date which was not far away.

When the Indians had gone the lone Italian returned and placed the bodies of his three friends together and after piling dry brush over them, he set fire to the funeral pyre (a method of cremation). Then he put the crude map and a written page of direction and a description of what had just happened, in the small metal box from one of the hand organs and buried it under a large boulder near the little spring. Gathering up the bags of gold and filling one of the canteens with water, he set out on the long journey across the arid desert in the general direction of Wickenburg. The three little monkeys were released at the spring to fend for themselves as best they could.

Two days later a teamster named Francisco Gonzales, making his way across the desert from Weaver creek to Wickenburg, found the Italian lying face down in the sand by the side of the road clutching the bags of gold in his hands and almost dead from thirst. Gonzales put the Italian in the wagon and after being given some water the Italian recovered enough to tell his story in broken Spanish. The Italian died before reaching Wickenburg. The ledge has not been found.

My Notes: I was not able to find any reference to what became of the gold the last Italian was carrying or whether or not Francisco Gonzales told anyone about the gold or even if he tried looking for it. I did find a Francisco Antonio Gonzales, 1830-1900, born in New Mexico that could be our good Samaritan. I’ll leave further research to you…who knows he may have found the music box with the directions to the ledge.

There is not much information on Peeples Canyon as it’s off the beaten track.
The location of the vein has been variously reported as being on the drainages of the Santa Maria River or Kirkland Creek in what is now southern Yavapai County. This was the territory

of the Date Creek band of the Yavapai.
According to one story the Mohave guide became aware of trouble brewing and quickly left the

group. In another version the last Italian made it back to Wickenburg with some of the high- grade gold ore, told his story to a Francisco Gonzales and according to one account recorded a claim. He then returned to New York.

There is a rumor the Indians around Rich Hill laughed at the story of the three Italian miners for wasting their time picking up what the Indiana called small nuggets, when only a short distance away in the same country was another mountain known to them as ‘Big Antelope’ where the nuggets were larger and more plentiful. I’ll do some digging on this and see if there is a story there…if there is it will come out later this year. Good Luck and Happy Hunting!!!