I Found the Planchas de la Plata!

Has one of the most famous of lost mines been found? Will the home of a lowly javelina turn out to be the treasure cave of the Santa Ritas? The chances are good!

- WAYNE WINTERS

For the past couple of years I've been sitting on a real hot "lost mine" yarn, and don't think it hasn't been a temptation to cut loose and tell ole Joe Small's readers all about it, but the stakes were far too high to risk a premature disclosure of the find that Lady Luck tossed right smack into my lap.

You see, I've discovered the famous Planchas de la Plata lost silver mine! What's more, I have it tied up real tight—at least, as tight as a gringo can tie it.

The story of Planchas de la Plata is known to every serious hunter of lost mines. For those unfamiliar with it, I'll quote the early-day historian, R. J. Hinton, in his 1878 book, Handbook to Arizona:

Then came the revolution in Mexico. The republic was established, the Jesuits banished, and their church property confiscated. The Tumacacori Mission was abandoned, and naught remains of their history and doings, as known to the world, but tales handed down from generation to generation, and one or two books, which speak of the Salero, Tumacacori and Planchas de la Plata mines. The Salero is in the Tyndall district, the Tumacacori has never been found, and the Planchas de la Plata, or placers of silver, are located some twenty miles southwest of here (Tumacacori) stretching across the boundary line.

Apostolic Labors of the Society of Jesus, published by one of the most illustrious members of that order, is given the following account of the discovery of silver and gold in the Santa Rita range of Arizona: “In the year 1769 a region of virgin silver was discovered on the frontier of the Apaches, a tribe exceedingly valiant and warlike, at a place called Arizona, on a mountain ridge which hath been named by its discoverers Santa Rita.