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 La
Caverna del Oro (The Cave of Gold)
Long before the white
man ever came to the United States the legend of La Caverna del Oro,
the Cave of Gold, was passed down from generation to generation by the
Indians. When the Spanish explorers arrived in the fifteenth
century, monks translated the legend and the gold was eagerly sought
by the explorers.
Caverna del Oro,
13,000 feet high upon Marble Mountain, was believed, by the Indians,
to be plagued by demons. However, in 1541, three Spanish monks from
the Coronado expedition forced the Indians into slave labor to extract
gold from the cave. Finally, the Indians staged an uprising
against the monks and two of them were killed. However, the
third monk, De la Cruz, convinced the Indians that he was able to
subdue the "evil spirits” lurking underground in the mine. With
the help of the slave-miner natives, vast amounts of gold were brought
forth from the subterranean passages. Later, when the Indians
had served their purpose, De la Cruz and his small group of surviving
Spaniards killed the Indians, loaded up their treasure on pack mules,
and fled south back to Mexico.
The cave was then
left unexplored until about 100 years ago, when it was found again by
Elisha Horn. Climbing on Marble Mountain, only a few miles from
the town of Westcliff, Horn stumbled upon a skeleton clad in Spanish
armor, with an arrow sticking out of its back. Painted on the
rocks above the skeleton was a very old red cross, which can still be
faintly seen to this day. Near the cross was the entrance to Caverna del Oro.
In
the 1920’s, the cave was explored again by a Colorado Mountain Club
led by a U.S. Forest Ranger. The Ranger had been told by a
105-year-old Mexican woman that there was gold buried deep within the
cave. The woman said that when she was a child, she could remember
journeying to the cave where miners would come out with loads of gold.
She claimed that within 500-700 feet of the cave entrance there was an
oaken door, which was the entrance to the rich Three Steps Mine. She
explained that the treasure lay behind this set of padlocked wooden
doors. The Ranger and the club members explored the many rooms and
passages in the cave, climbing down as far as 500 feet into the cave,
but did not discover the wooden doors, nor any gold.
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However, they did find many other interesting items, including
a 200 year old ladder and a hammer which was made sometime in the 1600’s.
Lower down on the mountain, hidden amongst the aspen trees the club
members found the ruins of an old fort as well as many arrowheads, which
were scattered about the hillsides.
National
Park Postcards
