70:. The other states that, shortly after returning, he "borrowed" a horse and fled. Whatever the case, the Reagans dedicated their lives to attempting to find the mine; one report from 1930 claims that the three Reagans alive at that point had still not given up on their search. As well as the Reagans, many other expeditions set out in search of the mine; the legend has it that, while some explorers did discover it, they always died before they could make a profit or pass on the information.
17:
93:, only to spend years fruitlessly trying to find it. These failures have led to debates as to what happened to the mine. Young himself believed that it had been deliberately hidden by prospectors following Kelly; another theory is that the gold was not actually gold ore, but instead pieces of refined gold left by the Spanish. A third theory is that the gold was dropped by a group of Mexicans fleeing the
77:, a British mine owner who believed in the story so completely that he offered Lock Campbell, a Texan man, expenses of $ 10,000 if he would undertake an expedition to find it. On July 19, 1899, Campbell and four other men signed an agreement to search for it, and one of the men later claimed to have discovered it in the
54:
region) and has been identified as a cook and also as a horse wrangler; at the time of his employment by the
Reagans, he was only 14. While working on the ranch, Kelly announced that he had discovered a gold mine, and was "greeted only with jeers". The next day he again tried to tell the Reagans
66:, and asked him to analyze the ore. Stories then conflict: One account states that he returned to Dryden, where the Reagans received a letter addressed to him that confirmed the gold was immensely valuable, and then killed him and dumped his body in the
99:, who were forced to abandon it because it was slowing them down. Another is that, as the gold mine was allegedly in a canyon, gravel could have washed down and hidden it from view.
89:, with a map that he claimed showed the mine to be in Mexico; a pioneer named John Young went so far as to enter into partnership with Wattenberg and secure a mining permit from
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about the mine, even going so far as to show them a lump of gold ore, but received a "cussing out" for his trouble.
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292:"New Search for Lost Gold: Amateur Prospectors Follow Legends in Hunt for Millions in Buried Treasure".
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named
William Kelly to help with work on their ranch. Kelly was known as "Nigger Bill" (
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85:, but this was never verified. In 1909, an Oklahoman named Wattenberg traveled to
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Coronado's
Children: Tales of Lost Mines and Buried Treasures of the Southwest
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326:
313:
Porter, Kenneth W. (1954). "Willie Kelley of the Lost Nigger Mine".
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Braddy, Haldeen (1945). "A Legend of the Lost Nigger Gold Mine".
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being a term for a multiracial person in the slang of the
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40:—Frank, Jim, John, and Lee Reagan—hired an illiterate
36:. According to the legend, in 1887 four brothers in
73:One of the more serious searches was instigated by
242:(4). Western States Folklore Society: 359–363.
321:(1). Western States Folklore Society: 13–26.
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58:After this rejection, Kelly went to
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370:Gold mining in the United States
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277:. University of Texas Press.
236:California Folklore Quarterly
34:folklore of the United States
271:Dobie, James Frank (1978).
32:is a legendary mine in the
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75:William Broderick Cloete
62:, where he knew a white
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30:Lost Nigger Gold Mine
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79:Ladrones Mountains
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300:(6). April 1960.
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132:"New Search" 1960
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207:Braddy 1945
195:Braddy 1945
171:Porter 1954
156:Porter 1954
144:Porter 1954
120:Braddy 1945
60:San Antonio
365:Lost mines
354:Categories
219:Dobie 1978
183:Dobie 1978
103:References
83:New Mexico
68:Rio Grande
22:Rio Grande
335:0043-373X
306:0012-9011
256:1556-1283
52:Big Bend
42:Seminole
343:1496768
264:1495620
96:rurales
64:assayer
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47:nigger
339:JSTOR
294:Ebony
260:JSTOR
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