The Story of Gold

By Flint Carter

(Note: Read Flint Carter's new Book, "Canyon of Gold," about his experiences in the Santa Catalina Mountas for the past four decades)

Little do most people know that the atrocities that have occurred in search of the elusive yellow metal.

Our Canyon of Gold is a good example of the things people will do for gold.

By reading the novel, "Mine with the Iron Door," you will remember Sonora Jack's style of the "old fire on the chest" to find the location of the gold. Spaniards were rumored to burn the slaves eyes out with red hot pokers to stop escape; and because eyesight was not required in the lightless tunnels, "Odie Faulk's Arizona, a short history states Indians killed over 100 people and retired toward the Santa Catalinas, north of Tucson.

Natachee, the mystic guardian and native of the Canyon of Gold, with the White Man's influx, was not even permitted to hunt for food by law

Geronimo went on the war path because of the gold and silver deposits being stolen from his people. Buffalo Bill was reported to be bled white in attempts to develop a 10 inch gold vein at Campo Bonito.

Four full-length motion pictures have portrayed the mighty canyons' colorful paths in a fictional way, calling it a "romantic fiction."

While staying at the Linda Vista, Arizona's first guest ranch, author Harold Bell Wright penned "the legend" and brought the movie industry to Oracle in 1923 to film the first motion picture.

The first movie brought an onslaught of pilgrims searching for a new future, many uneducated and unequipped only found color and disillusionment with the legend.

The 1936 "Mine with the Iron Door" told of 200 ghost guarding the lost mine and Spanish treasure of the mission.

In 1955, the movie was redone as "The Secrets of Treasure Mountain" with Old Iron Sides himself, Raymond Burr.

"McKenna's Gold," the 1968 version hints towards another of Tucson's historical characters, Frontier Fremont, kin of the McKenna's. The Indian attack may be part of the Kennedy Israel Massacre that took place at the Canyon of Gold. The entire story will never be known, but will include some of this countries' most prominent and historical names.

One of Wright's sons later would be writer for Bambi, Fantasia and the Wonderful World of Disney. Buffalo Bill's Goldmine would be found to contain 25% tungsten in the dump and the United States largest underground gold producing mine would end up in sight (and smell) of the same. Buffalo Bill himself would catch phenomena at an orphans Christmas benefit and would die on his trip North.

The Indians that lived in Canada were probably better than the farmers of today. With only stone tools they lived using nature's precious waters in one of the most elaborate channel and canal systems that I have ever seen.

The secret knowledge is part of this great legacy which is part of your local heritage. Please learn from it and preserve it, for it is "truly golden."

The ancients knew nature and lived in harmony without making their environment as we are doing. The Real "Gold" and "Treasure" for all to share from this legend may very well be the "Iron" itself, for it can be used to heat and cool our dwellings and more,

Continue reading:

 

Cody Stone is from Southern Arizona, USA and designed as jewelry grade gold and silver in quartz. Cody stone specimens and hand made items are on display at the Oracle Inn Steakhouse & Saloon in Oracle, Arizona. Call Flint at 520-289-4566 or email [email protected]. Mention the Iron Door web site.

See more Southwestern Jewelry Grade Gold and Silver in Quartz by Flint Carter.

 

Attempting to do for Westerns what his Guns of Navarone had done for World War II action epics, director J. Lee Thompson crafted Mackenna's Gold as a lavish, absurdly ambitious variation on Erich Von Stroheim's Greed, resulting in a last-gasp Western so eager to encompass the genre's traditions that it turns into a big, silly, wildly entertaining mess. Gregory Peck surely had more serious intentions when he signed on, and he brings prestigious gravitas to his glum role as Marshall Mackenna, who gets shanghaied into searching for the gold-filled canyon of an elusive Apache legend. The rest of the 1969 film labors to undermine Peck's respectable demeanor; how else to explain Omar Sharif as a Mexican villain, Julie Newmar as a hot-blooded Apache temptress (with underwater nude scenes that were celebrated in Playboy magazine), and a jaw-dropping finale that's so ridiculous it's impressive in spite of itself? --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

DVD edition of MacKenna's Gold. Studio: Sony Pictures. DVD format. Release Date: July 11, 2000. Run Time: 128 minutes.

Poster from Mackenna's Gold - Movie Poster - 11 x 17. This poster measures approx. 11 x 17. Rolled and shipped in a sturdy tube. This poster is from the movie Mackenna's Gold (1969).

Printed book edition of Mackenna's Gold A Five-time Spur Award-winning Author. Somewhere in 100,000 square miles of wilderness was the fabled Lost Canyon of Gold. With his dying breath, an ancient Apache warrior entrusted Glen Mackenna with the location of the lode that would make any man - or woman - rich beyond their wildest dreams. Halfbreed renegade and captive girl, mercenary soldier and thieving scout - brave or beaten, innocent or evil, they'd sell their very souls to possess Mackenna's gold. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. Avon Books (Mm) (June 1988).

Watch video on-demand from Amazon.com of MacKenna's Gold.

Movie Poster from the 1936 film The Mine with the Iron Door - Movie Poster - 11 x 17 Poster for the Mine with the Iron Door movie. Stars Richard Arlen, Ceclia Parker and Henry B. Walthall. Poster measures approx. 11 x 17. Rolled and shipped in a sturdy tube. This poster is from The Mine with the Iron Door (1936).

Printed Edition of The Mine with the Iron Door. (The Collected Works of Harold Bell Wright - 18 Volumes) (Library Binding) Library Binding: 338 pages. Publisher: Classic Publishers, Language: English. ISBN: 158201891X.

Digital CD Edition of Mine with the Iron Door: A Romance, The (CD-ROM Edition). The CD-ROM contains 338 pages. Publisher: Classic Books; 1923 edition (December 15, 2007).

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William Thomas Carter, "Flint" to his friends, is an artist and author born in 1947 in Danville, Illinois. After attending Danville High School, he served in Panama during the Vietnam conflict at the Latin American Headquarters Post. He received the National Defense and Good Conduct medals.

Returning home, Flint attended Danville Junior College and later Southern Illinois University. Special interest in the design department, headed by Buckminster Fuller, inspired the building of Arizona's first solar heated and cooled museum. For more information contact Flint at 520-289-4566 or email [email protected]. Mention the Iron Door web site. Read more about Flint Carter, Celebrity Stones, art and jewelry and the Iron Door Mine.