Did you find what you were looking for prospector?
The deserts of the American southwest have long been the discussion of lost mines and buried treasures. For hundreds of years, man has scoured the desert floor searching for any signs of the countless tales of lost riches. Some have claimed to have found the elusive treasures but only to be lost again, while others grew old or died trying. None the less, the legends live on as they are passed down from generation to generation. Maybe you will be the lucky one...
Do you have a favorite desert related lost treasure story that you'd like to see featured on the SandRazor folklore page?
If so, send SandRazor a message using the
contact form.
Pyramid in the Desert
By Michael Paul Henson
From page 36 of the September 1986 issue of Lost Treasure magazine.
Copyright ©1986, 1999 Lost Treasure, Inc.
This site should be of interest to treasure hunters, archaeologists,
and historians. The item was written by a newspaper correspondent for
the "Daily Free Press," August 3Oth, 1853, in the flowery method of the
time. I quote:
"The Placerville Herald, of the 2Oth, contains a letter from a
correspondent at San Bernardino, in this State, giving an account of
the discovery of a truncated pyramid on the great American desert, some
200 miles northwest of the junction of the Gila with the Colorado (in
the Colorado Desert of California). The discovery was made by a party
of five adventurers who attempted to cross the desert in search of a
shorter route than that now known. . . .
"An object appeared upon the plain to the west, having so much the
appearance of a work of art, from the regularity of its oudine and its
isolated position. Passing over an almost barren sand plain, a distance
of nearly S miles, they reached the base of one of the most wonderful
objects considering its location, (it being the very home of
desolation) that the mind can possibly conceive of; nothing less than
an immense stone pyramid, composted of layers or courses from 18 inches
to nearly 3 feet in thickness, and 5 to 8 feet in length. It has a
level top of more than 50 feet square, though it is evident that it was
once completed, but that some great convulsion of nature has displaced
its entire top, as it evidently now lies a huge and broken mass upon
one of its sides, though nearly covered by the sands.
"This pyramid differs, in some respects, from the Egyptian pyramid,
it is, or was, more slender or pointed, and while those of Egypt are
composed of steps or layers, receding as they rise, the American
pyramid was, undoubtedly, a more finished structure, the outer surface
of the blocks being evidently cut to an angle that gave the structure,
when new and complete, a smooth or regular surface from top to bottom.
From the present level of the sands that surround it, there are 52
distinct layers of stone, that will average at least 2 feet; this gives
its present height 104 feet, so that before the top was displaced, it
must have been, judging from an angle of its sides, at least 25 feet
higher than at present. How far it extends beneath the surface of the
sands, it is impossible to determine."
I can find no mention of this invaluable find in any follow-up articles wntten at that time.
-Michael Paul Henson
