In 1979, a hunting party had traveled the Bee Line Highway to an old abandoned ranch. The old ranch house was minus the roof and was located to the southwest of the Four Peaks. One of the hunters stated that the trail took them down a wash for about a quarter of a mile then made an abrupt turn and climbed out of the wash traveling parallel to the south peak for about 5 miles where they had come to an old miner’s shack. It was at this point they decided to get out and start hunting on foot.
He was about two miles from the jeep when he noticed a foundation of a stone house built in the wash. The walls of the house were built out of the rounded and smooth rocks from the wash bed. The room was just large enough to hold two maybe three people. However, there was a large table protruding from one of the walls. It was made out of a large, flat stone. The table top was very flat and level. The table top was about 8 inches thick and it took a great deal of effort to place this stone so neatly.
A short ways up the wash he found a spring in the side of a bank. It was coming out the side of a rock wall and filled a nicely built rock tank. The water was running out of a crack in the wall filling the tank and then into the sand and gravel to disappear. There was a large hanging bush that covered the spring and he had almost missed it.
From the spring, he could look up the wash and see where the tree line ended on the south peak. He said he was only about ¾ of a mile from the well known amethyst mine located on the south peak. Since it was reported that there was a guard at the mine, he weighed his options as to how to proceed. Trespassers would often encounter gun shots from the mine, therefore; he decided not to get any closer to the mine. He settled on climbing out of the wash, and return to the jeep below. Little did he know this would lead him to discovering the Lost Helmet Mine.
To be Continued…
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