Hunted for train robbery treasure today

[Doc Holliday]

Back in 1895 there was a train robbery south of Willcox Arizona, where the bad guys blew up the safe and half the railroad car it was in, scattering Mexican silver coins all over the desert. I read as much as I could about it and narrowed it down to the exact spot where it happened. Drove out there today and swept the area for almost 2 hours. It's really out in the middle of nowhere, for the entire time I was there no one drove down the service road I didn't see anyone at all except for the two trains that rolled past. Found a bunch of interesting iron stuff, but to my disappointment the ground in that area is super hard packed and dried clay. This stuff is like concrete, even full-swinging a handpick it was all I could do just to chop my way down a couple of inches. You beach hunters have it easy, a couple of scoops and you've got it. I have no doubt these coins have sunk way down into the ground because it floods then dries out, gets baked by the sun and goes through the cycle over and over again, for the last 130 years. Going to need an excavator to get down deep enough. I had some good high tones all around the area but they were very deep and I just couldn't get to them. Believe me I tried. And parts of the area were still flooded. I did find a bunch of bullets out there and this one is weird, it looks old, it's got two rings on it and it was in a softer area near the tracks which makes me wonder if it was one of the bullets fired during the train robbery back then. Is it even that old? Any help to ID this one would be appreciated thank you.

 

[sasquache]

Hello Doc Holiday yes thats awesome being hard Clay/sand its tough digging but wait and try too plan a trip in the rain that may help good luck out there next time that bullet looks newer but heck im no expert

 

[fwcrawford]

Pretty interesting history!!
I looked through a book I have on bullets used during the Civil War, and did not see anything resembling yours, so most likely post Civil War.
I then looked through an old repo edition of an 1897 Sears catalogue and did not see anything there either that looked like yours.
My guess is that it dates later than the train robbery, but no idea how much later.
Too bad you could not get down to those high tones.
Did you find anything that may have been part of the rail car that blew up?
You mentioned that you found some interesting iron stuff…
Keep us posted about any future hunts there and good luck!!

 

[Doc Holliday]

Pretty interesting history!!
I looked through a book I have on bullets used during the Civil War, and did not see anything resembling yours, so most likely post Civil War.
I then looked through an old repo edition of an 1897 Sears catalogue and did not see anything there either that looked like yours.
My guess is that it dates later than the train robbery, but no idea how much later.
Too bad you could not get down to those high tones.
Did you find anything that may have been part of the rail car that blew up?
You mentioned that you found some interesting iron stuff…
Keep us posted about any future hunts there and good luck!!

No I didn't see any pieces of the rail car out there but it's been 130 years and I bet everything on the surface has been picked clean since then...I think I'm going to have to stick to the sandy washes out here where the digging will be much easier but you know it's snake season right now... been scrounging around on Google Earth and I've got a couple of washes in the Superstition Mountains I want to hit this week, I'll post up unless I happened to stumble across the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine, then I'll go silent and disappear forever...

 

[fwcrawford]

No I didn't see any pieces of the rail car out there but it's been 130 years and I bet everything on the surface has been picked clean since then...I think I'm going to have to stick to the sandy washes out here where the digging will be much easier but you know it's snake season right now... been scrounging around on Google Earth and I've got a couple of washes in the Superstition Mountains I want to hit this week, I'll post up unless I happened to stumble across the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine, then I'll go silent and disappear forever...

I came across an article about that robbery… pretty interesting.
It stated that the robbers made several attempts to blow up the safe door, failing twice then trying again after placing the bags of Mexican coins on top of the dynamite for “ballast”.
The door to the safe finally came open and all there was in it were only a few dollars… the robbers only made off with a few battered coins!!
It also stated that for years afterwards, folks were still raking the ground and finding silver coins!!