Neat finds while roaming the hills

[billrquimby]

Here's another of it.

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Josh:

 

I thought I'd seen everything in Arizona but I've never seen such big agaves growing wild.

 

 

By any chance were there any signs of an old cabin anywhere near?

 

Bill

[firstcoueswas80]

man lets make some tequila out of that!

[GRONG]

Bill,

No there wasn't at all. It was in an awful canyon and on the slope of it, bad place for a cabin or a tent for that matter.

[TLH]

I was hunting pigs in the Weavers a few years ago and had to answer mother natures call, as i stepped behind a tree i noticed an old rifle leaning against a tree. I thought that was pretty cool so i grabbed it, checked to see if it was loaded but couldn't get the bolt back. I took it back to Hillside that night and while visiting a buddy of mine i mentioned the rifle, come to find out one of his friends had set it down while packing a buck out about ten years earlier--the guys buddy was very happy to get it back because it belonged to his Grandfather and he had given it to him when he was about 8 years old--the guy was in his late 80's so he had that rifle a long time. He wanted to give me money for it but i was just happy to give it back to him.

 

When i was about 18 i went hunting in unit 23--i really don't want to say exactly where but it was north of Roosevelt lake in a very big and bad canyon. I was working down through a steep side of a canyon through some real thick scrub oak when i noticed a cave that was big enough to walk up right into. I poked my head into the cave and found that it went in a ways, so being the nosy dude i am i walked in about 100 feet and found myself looking at an Indian resting on 4 tall tree trunk and some kind of animal fur wrapped around him--being the better part of an Indian myself it gave me goosebumps all the way down my back to my toes. My old uncle told me if i ever walked into a burial cave or ground that the spirits of the persons family will be watching and if i desecrate the site by taking anything or touching anything that i would be punished for it--i didn't ask what the punishment would be. I noticed a lot of pottery around the cave, a bow with arrows, one was nocked in the string, some blankets and an old rifle leaning against the burial stand.

 

To this day i have never told anyone where this is at and you would have to be damned lucky to find it.

 

That is the coolest and spookiest thing i have ever found in my life.

 

 

I did find what looked like and old hide out in the Aravipa Canyon about ten years ago while whitetail hunting, i took my wife in there two years ago and it was just like i left it--i remember the thing that was the coolest was an old can of corn still intact with the corn still inside that had a date of 1923 on it.

 

I have pictures of that somewhere.

 

Josh, you can use navel jelly on that old bayonet and it should break it down with out harming the scabbard.

[COUESAZ]

I have seen your pictures of the hide out I think. Is it the one we talked about on the AZjournal site. I saved those photos as well cuz I thought it was so cool. You are best to keep the cave secret the wrong people would rob it of the artifacts and not respect it for what it is.

[TLH]

I have seen your pictures of the hide out I think. Is it the one we talked about on the AZjournal site. I saved those photos as well cuz I thought it was so cool. You are best to keep the cave secret the wrong people would rob it of the artifacts and not respect it for what it is.

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Yea, those are the pictures. Neat place!

 

I agree with you about not telling--i would hate to see anything happen to that site. I thought about telling the forest service but thought they might not be the one's to tell--so, i have kept it to myself and have never been back.

[DEERSLAM]

TLH,

That must of been an awesome thing to view, makes the hair standup on the back of my neck just thinking of it. I think myself I might have had to take some pics. Good move not to tell where the cave is. Any idea how old the site was? Do you think he was a Chief or holy man?

Thanks for sharing

[GRONG]

TLH, I think I would be spooked but also be in awe of what I was looking at. To be the first person to see something like that since they laid him to rest would be unreal. I woulda loved to have taken pictures of something like that. Like you, and probably many others, I wouldn't have taken anything but just realized how cool and rare it would be to see something like that. Wow man thanks for sharing that was probably the coolest thing anyone has shared so far!! Awesome!

 

Oh and what is naval jelly and where can I get some?

[TLH]

TLH,  I think I would be spooked but also be in awe of what I was looking at.  To be the first person to see something like that since they laid him to rest would be unreal.  I woulda loved to have taken pictures of something like that.  Like you, and probably many others, I wouldn't have taken anything but just realized how cool and rare it would be to see something like that.  Wow man thanks for sharing that was probably the coolest thing anyone has shared so far!!  Awesome!

 

Oh and what is naval jelly and where can I get some?

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Back in those days i didn't even know what a camera was--i still see it all in my minds eye though. The cool thing that i seen was that the pots were full of all kinds of stuff--arrowheads, what looked like dried food, and some really pretty beads of some kind. I would think he was some kind of highly respected person but i am not sure what his status was. My Uncle, God rest his soul, was a full blooded Cherokee and he said he thought the guy was a Chief because of the way he was dressed up, i think he was right.

 

Josh, any hardware store should have navel jelly. It is the stuff that the Navy uses to get the rust off of their ships--or at least that is what my old Pappy said, the old Navy man that he is/was.

[BowhuntCoues]

Hats off to you TLH, you did the respectable thing. That would be a neat thing to see as untouched. Too bad in modern day we can't be left in peace like that.

[billrquimby]

"When i was about 18 i went hunting in unit 23--i really don't want to say exactly where but it was north of Roosevelt lake in a very big and bad canyon. I was working down through a steep side of a canyon through some real thick scrub oak when i noticed a cave that was big enough to walk up right into. I poked my head into the cave and found that it went in a ways, so being the nosy dude i am i walked in about 100 feet and found myself looking at an Indian resting on 4 tall tree trunk and some kind of animal fur wrapped around him--being the better part of an Indian myself it gave me goosebumps all the way down my back to my toes. My old uncle told me if i ever walked into a burial cave or ground that the spirits of the persons family will be watching and if i desecrate the site by taking anything or touching anything that i would be punished for it--i didn't ask what the punishment would be. I noticed a lot of pottery around the cave, a bow with arrows, one was nocked in the string, some blankets and an old rifle leaning against the burial stand."

 

TLH:

 

There could be all kinds of such places but this is the first I've ever heard of burial caves in central Arizona.

 

I know absolutely nothing about this subject but I was under the impression that Arizona's desert tribes buried or cremated their dead.

 

Cochise, for example, was supposed to have been buried and his grave was trampled by horses so that it wouldn't be found. It never was.

 

When I was just a kid sixty years ago I watched a group of Yuma Indians burn a corpse on their reservation across the river from Yuma in California. I was told this was done regularly by all the tribes along the river.

 

Do you think there is a chance that the dearly departed may have been an Indian who got sick or injured and crawled into that cave and died?

 

BillQ

[TLH]

"When i was about 18 i went hunting in unit 23--i really don't want to say exactly where but it was north of Roosevelt lake in a very big and bad canyon. I was working down through a steep side of a canyon through some real thick scrub oak when i noticed a cave that was big enough to walk up right into. I poked my head into the cave and found that it went in a ways, so being the nosy dude i am i walked in about 100 feet and found myself looking at an Indian resting on 4 tall tree trunk and some kind of animal fur wrapped around him--being the better part of an Indian myself it gave me goosebumps all the way down my back to my toes. My old uncle told me if i ever walked into a burial cave or ground that the spirits of the persons family will be watching and if i desecrate the site by taking anything or touching anything that i would be punished for it--i didn't ask what the punishment would be. I noticed a lot of pottery around the cave, a bow with arrows, one was nocked in the string, some blankets and an old rifle leaning against the burial stand."

 

TLH:

 

There could be all kinds of such places but this is the first I've ever heard of burial caves in central Arizona.

 

I know absolutely nothing about this subject but I was under the impression that Arizona's desert tribes buried or cremated their dead. 

 

Cochise, for example, was supposed to have been buried and his grave was trampled by horses so that it wouldn't be found. It never was.

 

When I was just a kid sixty years ago I watched a group of Yuma Indians burn a corpse on their reservation across the river from Yuma in California. I was told this was done regularly by all the tribes along the river.

 

Do you think there is a chance that the dearly departed may have been an Indian who got sick or injured and crawled into that cave and died?

 

BillQ

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No Bill, this guy was propped up on what looked like tree trunks and was wrapped up in some kind of fur or rawhide--he was put there on purpose.

[.270]

ain't no tellin' what a guy is gonna find. my great uncle was a gov't trapper from the early 20's until the 60's. he found more stuff in caves than anyone i ever knew. for several years after he retired he guided archeologists from different universities to some of his finds. he knew where there were elevated graves in Az. like the ones common in the movies. in another cave he found what looked like a whole tribe all layed out dead and some of them had eagle feather head dresses and reed breast plates, completely different than typical Az. indians. i think the indians wandered all over heck and back and on occasion, croaked in country foreign to em. too much is speculated and not enough is known. leaving the dead dude alone was the right thing to do. and the country TLH was in is full of unfound ruins. if there was a rifle there, then it was fairly recent. at least in the last 150 years probably. maybe it was an old mountain man who took up indian ways? no tellin'. i have a pal who is an author of some note. he told me that the country between roosevelt lake and young has so many caves that are fulla stuff that it'd amaze a guy. he has a buncha photos of caves he found that are just fulla pots. myself, about all i've ever found in the way o' indian stuff is mostly some arrow heads and pottery and a couple pots that were uncovered by the rain. a few other little doodads. but i can't for the life o' me figger how somebody can dig up another man's grave and sell off the stuff he was buried with.

[Rembrant]

The answer to that would be, greed.

Mike

[singleshot]

coosfan, it's gotta be the same guy.  or one of the couple o' jerks he ran with.  one of em is dead and the rest are all makin' license plates.  i useta always go to river reservoir in greer when the water was low and get back all o' my rapalas that i broke off and everybody elses junk they lost there too.  when i get to thinkin' about it, i've found a lotta stuff, but mostly like knives and boxes o' ammo and stuff.  stuff folks left on their bumper and things like that.  anything made in the last 40 years ain't too neat.  arrow heads, tommyhawks, old guns, old saddles, etc., that's the stuff that's cool to find.  a guy i used to work with used to hunt muleys in the praries around bonita.  he said on more than one occasion he'd find a really old saddle, maybe a rusty old rifle and if he looked, human bones.  he checked into it a little and was told that ol' Texas John Slaughter useta run down horse thiefs, kill em, dump all their tack and belongings on the ground and take the horse and ride away.  be sorta creepy, but still be neat i guess.  once while i was in college we were on a lab up on mt graham for a botany class.  i was leanin' agin' a oak tree that had an old hole in it that was drippin' nasty sap out of it.  i probed it a little with my knife and made something shine.  dug it out and it was what looked like an old mini ball or maybe a .45/70 slug.  had to have been there a long time.  there's neat stuff out there.  just gotta stumble into it.  Lark.

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