How Did Escalante Get Implicated With The Iron Door Mine?

“Somewhere Out There Arizona,” by Kearny Egerton 1974

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The Iron Door Mine name had been used in the newspapers as early as 1880. However, the link between that mythical mine and the Escalante name didn’t become a public record until a reporter made the connection in a 1932 news story about a couple of prospectors who made an amazing discovery and an author who sensationalized the name a year later.

C.W. McKee, one of prospectors, said an “old Indian” showed him and his brother two mining dumps in December 1932. C.W. thought that it might be the “famous Escalante mine,” also called the Iron Door Mine. [3] Even though he said his claim was taken out of context, the discovery of the lost mine quickly brought nationwide attention to the Santa Catalina Mountains.

But, famed treasure hunter and author John D. Mitchell’s 1933 story about the “Lost Escalante Mine,” claimed that an old Indian guide told him the old mine was called the Escalante. [4]

Both McKee and Mitchell’s story involved similar circumstances within a few months apart. McKee never said where he heard about the Escalante name, but he made the first connection of Escalante to the Iron Door Mine name.

Even though the Escalante legend may have been much older, it took these two statements to make a public connection. This is where history becomes muddled with more legendary tales and historical anachronisms.

The Lost Escalante Man

This new interpretation of the folklore brought another element to the lost Spanish mine legend. Now, the name ‘Escalante’ is injected into the legend. [5] While the name may have been associated with the mine earlier, it wasn’t until it made print that it became common knowledge.

Mitchell said it was “Padre Escalante who first worked the mine.” This padre was an assistant to Padre Kino, asserts Mitchell. He would travel throughout the Pimería Alta to “investigate the mines and collect the church’s share of the gold and silver.” [6]

Mitchell credits Calistro, an old Opata Indian who lived near the Tumacacori ruins, for the old mine stories. The Indian said his grandfather knew many stories about rich Spanish mines in the Catalinas. One evening he sat down near a pool of water by the Cañada del Oro, and his grandfather “pointed up to the Santa Catalina Mountain and said the Escalante gold mine is located in that mountain.” [7]

This was the second time a name was given to the person who supposedly managed this clandestine mine.

The first mention of Escalante and the mine was published several months before Mitchell’s book. In the December 1932 news article, C.W. McKee described the “fabulous Escalante Mine, more popularly known as the Iron Door…” [8] But it was Mitchell’s version of the legend, and implication of Escalante, that became the template for all successive interpretations of the lost mine legend.

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