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History's Hinge - 'Ain Jalut

[MesaBuddy]

Those stinking guy's from White Sands again , oh Mr. Wabbitt I am vewwy vewwy afwaid
Hey Gollum you crack me up
Best Always
Buddy

[Tayopa]

HI, for kicks go to Google and  type in   "Joseph Curry   Tayopa" , I am becoming infamous.  For more fun  just type in  Tropical Tramp" .  sheesh. 

And they worry about a nice gentleman   J. Scott who happens to be the district Archaeologist for the Tonto National forest??

I get hit from Mexico and the  US monitering.  But I confess, I am curious about the miliary??   I don't owe them anything except for some unique experiences and memories.

Possibly they are interested in Gollum??

Tropical Tramp

[Tayopa]

Duh Gollum perhaps those hits were from service men at gov't computers  that like treasure hunting and were visiting on the QT,  not official.?  This is common in all offices.

As for the UNegro college, that could be a compliment, they believe in us and expect success ,  so are keeping tabs on a possible donation no?

Tropical Tramp

[djui5]

Yeah, sorry guys. Had a panic moment today for some reason. Just being silly I think. It's not like Big Brother doesn't have archives of everything on the web anyway...

[Gollum]

Not to keep this thread off topic or anything, but just Google "Magic Lantern FBI" or "Carnivore FBI"

Carnivore was the original and Magic Lantern is the new kid on the block. Actually there are several, but those two were pretty well publicized.

Mike

[Tayopa]

Ladies and Gentleman:   It has occurred to me that I may be self destructive  by posting the story but what the heck.  This is why I ?  each post.  a little protection.

The following was not posted yesterday due to my computer crashing and having to format and re-doing the  setup, this wiped out the post, snifff.

But back to Tayopa.

As I mentioned,  Old Juan had told me  how find an  isolated Barranca /canyon where he was born and raised.  He stated that there were ruins and evidence of mining from the long ago past. To this day  I cannot understand how I understood that this was associated with Tayopa? sheesh.

He  said "go to the Arroyo Hondo, go to the North until it turns West.  Keep on and it will turn  South.  Keep on going South until you come to a small waterfall.
Go to the right of this water fall, up and over the  crest and you will be entering my old home".

Simple no?  However, that is some rough country.   Sometimes I have spent all day going up and down only to end up perhaps a 2000 meters from where I had camped the night before. One has to experience  it to understand it.  It is just as wild and lawless in many parts today, as when the Spanish were there.

Well unfortunately, checking upon the latest maps , etc., I quickly found that there were several Arroyo Hondos.    In one case, even the nearby ranches and a town were actually identical ??  So I decided to question Old Juan more intently.   I went to  the  village where I had met him, but no Juan??    I questioned several people, but  no-one knew of old Juan.   As far as they were concerned, he never existed,   yet I had talked to him, or had  I??

Later the US photographed Mexico and I managed to get one of the sections covering  that part of the Sierras.     Once I had it,  I was able to narrow it down to two Arroyo Hondos. For some reason I settled on the southern one which was  a lucky guess since it later was shown to  be Tayopa though other  evidence.

As time rolled by  and finding more evidence on Tayopa, I became more convinced that  I really should go there  to investigate it.   However since it would involve 3-4 days by mule to get there, and who knows how much time climbing up and down  to  check it out, It was put on the back burner.

Later the Gov't  created Ejidos, communal groups, for the timber rights, so they built a road (??) to access it.  Since it was  almost to where I had finally decided was the location of Tayopa, I decided to go there. 

I did say a  road no?  sheehs it could well serve as a proving ground for 4x4's.  In many places it nvolved climbing up 30*  sheer rock faces, or  on baseball sized round rocks going up or down hill.  I never made a trip without losing at least one tire.  The lumber trucks changed tires at the most,  every 10  trips..

They followed the crest of the sierra, at one spot the road was 45' wide, with a drop off into Sonora of some 900' , with an  80+ degree slope.  On the left into Chihuahua, about the same, but what a spectacular view. On a clear day one could see the sea of Cortes , well almost.    You Easterners  have to experience our western visibility, he he.

Well I finally arrived intact to the new  lumber camp.  As it turned out, the new sawmill actually overlooked the Tayopa canyon...  (picture no 1)

Since I  was primarily on a data gathering trip, I decided to stay in the lumber camp.   I found where the  truck drivers stayed overnight and managed to wrangle a cot.   I dug out  a lot of very interesting information from them over  the next few days over beer for them, coffee  me.  Guess who had the honor of the tab.

The conversation invariably turned  to Tayopa.   They started telling me their favorite stories.  At no time  did I ever mention that I  was interested in Tayopa, on the  contrary, my frontal  attitude was the same as our beloved 'administrator ' and made them try to prove it to me  snicker.

They would all usually state that  it was nearby, but where, to the East or South?   Sheesh what a  section of broken up country, precisely where one can find excellent mineral deposits.  Unfortunately for Normal Geologists and Mining Eng's , it is composed of an 800 ft layer of Basalt.   This is one of the main reasons that I am still uncrowded,  they know that precious metals do not normally occur in paying quantities in Basalt,   so they never bother to look, even when I hve invited them..  (pictures 2- 3 -)

Incdentally, there is even a ranch called  Tayopa by co-incidence ?which  is built on top of the original Jesuit Tayopa headquarters.  (picture 4)

The consensus was that Tayopa was in the vicinity,  but no-one could ever find it or knew where to start.
Tropical Tramp

[djui5]

Man, I thought the Dutchman was in rough country!! Mother of pearl...

[Tayopa]

The Jesuit headquarters. As you can see there remains nothing but a blob of Adobe, plus a ranch house has been built on top of it since the 1800's.  You can imagine the amount metal  fragments that are in the  soil.  It was built after the Apache problem had been solved,  perhaps 250 years after Tayopa was abandoned.

There was a small Capilla (church ) at the Tayopa site.

Tropical Tramp

[Tayopa]

This the approx. route of the Arroyo Hondo ( red) to Tayopa, showing the waterfall (blue), small arroyo that watered the  Headquarters (green), Juan's barranca, Tayopa, and the Headquarters.

[Tayopa]

Gentlemen  I will be occupied for the next day or so , as I have been for the past two days ,  preparing a report on my Escondida mine for a potential investor or purchaser.    I also have to go to the mine with him., but I will be back in a day or so to continue with Tayopa.

Tropical Tramp

[Solomon]

Bon voyage and good fortune!

Solomon

[Gollum]

Jose,

Remember, I negotiate for a living! Here is your close:

Think of a ridiculous price. Write it on a piece of paper, and pass it across the table to the rep, and SHUT UP! Don't say a word. Wait for the other guy to make a counter offer. What happens is that he was going to offer you something low, and they will be embarrassed by their own offer, and will rethink it! WORK THAT DEAL!


Best,

Mike

[Tayopa]

gracias gentlemen:  Gollum, we are only going for an option to purchase right now.  It is tent. set for 3 years.  they are to pay me yearly a sum to be ageed upon to not present it to anyone else.   We shall see, but will keep your data in the front o f my mind.   When we get to the nitty gritty of purchase, your advice will be paramount in my condsideration.

Joseph Curry

[cactusjumper]

Mr. Curry,

Mike is correct.  He who speaks first.....loses.

Best,

cj

[Tayopa]

CJ, I haven't been called Mr since I left the USAF  hint? 

The  price negotiation will come after they finish  core drilling etc. and like what they have found,  perhaps a year from now.   The terms of the opti9n  require them to give me certified copies of the results of all of their tests before we sit down. 

They appear to be good people,  in fact the geologist found and reported a vein which we had missed which carries 80 grms of Au, unfortuantely it is only about 6-8' wide heheeh.

The option alone will give me enough money to go play  with Tayopa.

This latter should be good news for the Administration since they can now heave a sigh of relief that the  History Hunters cannot be viewed as even remotely as being used for promoting.

This is the primary reason that I even mentioned my mine sales which are obviously  outside of any connection with History Hunters and independent from Tayopa..

Incidentally, I thank them for their patience and understanding in allowing me to apparently skim close to the no-no  for them.  However,  At no time have  I even hinted that I was looking for financing for Tayopa in here.

K, back to Tayopa in the morning.

Tropical Tramp