The Legend of Tularosa Jack

a tall tale by Clif McDonald

Tularosa Jack became a legend because of his vast wealth procured from mining the mountains of New Mexico. He paid for everything with gold nuggets and even gave tiny chunks of bullion to dance hall girls for tips. He was a happy-go-lucky, boisterous, big old, fun natured man that everybody loved.

I know you've heard a variety of stories about Jack, and the reason they are all questionable is because I'm the only one who knows the real story.  I know know the true long and short of it because I was his friend and business partner.  Jack and I prospected together in the early days.  We had a mine at White Oaks, one at Hillsboro, and one at Orogrande.

At the particular time of this story, I was digging at White Oaks and Jack was digging Hillsboro when I received a letter from him asking me to bring our 20 mule team cause he had a load ready to go to the smelter. I hitched up the mules to the wagon and hitched the pup wagon behind the freight wagon.  When I got to Hot Springs, (now know as Truth or Consequences) I knew where to find Jack.  I went to find Lula Bell at the Bloody Bucket Saloon and sure enough there was Jack - drinking tequila and teasing the girls. Jack gave me a bear hug and a back slap that almost caused whiplash, then poured me a glass of tequila cause that's the only thing that will take the alkali dust out of your throat after driving a team all day.

After we mellowed out and had a steak, old Doc Moss came busting through the door hollering, "I found the King's Gold!"  

Well everybody knew what that meant.  Way back when Spain ruled this country, a regiment of Spanish soldiers were escorting several carretas of gold and jewelry from the north country down to Mexico City, then to the Gulf to load it aboard ship to take it to Spain. The soldiers stopped at the ranch of Doña Ana María de Córdoba (present day Village of Doña Ana). 

 The señora warned the soldiers that the Apaches were on the war path and would not allow them passage at this time but they could hide the gold in a nearby peak within a cave she knew about. The soldiers could stay the winter on her ranch, enjoy the pleasures of the village of Mesilla, and return on their voyage to the Gulf during the milder Spring months.

During the meantime, New Spain became Mexico following the Revolution, the soldiers became husbands, fathers, and eventually farmers, and loyalty to King and the old country faded away.  Location of the gold circulated among descendants of the soldiers but the exact location had only been known only to Doña Ana María de Córdoba and her family.

Years later, during the Mexican-American war, Doña Ana's descendants decided the time had come to recover the gold to help Mexico fight against the Americans.  The Texicans, formerly white Southerners who had been moving into Mexico for years, were now fighting for the United States and were trying to steal half of Mexico's territory!  Doña Ana's descendants knew where to get gold to fund the resistance and they met with the local military commanders to tell them about the stash.

A regiment from the Mexican Army hiked to a peak in the San Andres Mountains.  It was just about sundown when they made camp for the night.  Just at that moment, Chief Victorio and his Apache warriors rode up to the horizon from the other side of the mountain and started sending up smoke signals and continued to do so until dark.

Well, the Mexican captain, Miguel Verdugo,  knew he could defeat Victorio and his warriors, but he was worried about the smoke signals.  During the night, the Captain's men placed a large dynamite charge in the opening of the cave so that if things got real bad, they could blast the mine, close the opening, and save the King's Gold to retrieve later.

Everyone bedded down for the night and just at daylight, the Mexicans could still see Chief Victorio and Loco and his men on the southern ridge.  Just at that minute, Geronimo and his warriors rode up from the East, and on the western horizon Cochise and his warriors appeared.  As Captain Verdugo was about to give the retreat order, Chief Mangus Colorado and his people covered the north ridge; they had all seen the smoke signals.   The Captain realized they had no chance for victory, but he also knew he could not surrender or he would be branded a coward and a traitor, so he told his men to prepare to fight for their lives, and God and country.

Captain Verdugo summoned his priest and told him to give the men last rites and put a curse on the gold; the curse was  that if anyone ever spent any of the gold on themselves or told anyone else where it was, they would die. After the last rites, the Captain ordered the men to begin firing the cannons and they set off the dynamite to close the mine.

The battle raged all day.  The sun was almost down when the last Mexican in the camp died.  The four Apache tribes rode in, looted the camp and took all the horses, mules, and weapons and never suspected there was gold involved. One young boy, an alter boy for the priest, had hidden under a mesquite bush and lived to tell the tale.

When Doc Moss came into the Bloody Bucket Saloon that night with a sack of gold bars and dropped them down on our table, they made a sound like a bag of door knobs. I opened the sack and saw more gold than I have ever seen in my life.  Jack said, "Doc, you know about the curse on that gold."  Doc snarled and said that was many years ago and the curse was worked out by now.  I wanted nothing to do with that Spanish gold so I moved over to the bar and left them at the table.  

Doc cashed in one of the bars, paid for drinks all around, and he and Jack got drunker and louder as the night wore on.  Doc finally laid his head on the table and passed out; Jack came over to me and said, "Let's go over to the wagon yard."  We walked out into the brightest moonlight you ever saw and Jack said, "He told me where the King's Gold is hidden." Doc violated both covenants of the curse - telling where the gold was and actually spending it on himself; I wondered if Doc was going to die.

As Jack and I reached the livery stable, I started to unroll my bed and Jack said, "Let's hitch up the team and go get the gold."  "Are you crazy?!, I demanded.  "I wouldn't touch that stash with a ten foot pole."

Jack pleaded, "Hey, look, if the curse is still good, Doc is going to die anyway, and if he doesn't, we'll make him a partner.  He's blabbing about it all over tarnation and somebody might get it who won't cut him in."

Well, we hitched that 20 mule team on those wagons and headed for Victorio Peak.  We made good time in the cool night air. When we got to the site, we saw a circle of fresh dirt with several rocks stacked in the middle.  We kicked at the fresh dirt and heard a hollow sound underneath.  We took shovels and dug down to boards that were covering a pit.  Jack threw the boards off to the side and the bright, full moon shone down on more gold than Fort Knox. 

Early next morning, we loaded up our treasure and lit out for Orogrande.  It took us a couple of days to reach Tom Bell's place. He set a bottle of tequila on the bar and asked, "Ya'll hear about Doc?"  He told how someone gunned Doc down and robbed him over by the Rio Grande River.  I looked at Jack knowingly. 

After we left, Jack said, "The curse is still on but we can beat it.  To begin with, we can't ever tell anyone where the gold is.  The second part of the curse, we'll melt the gold down, pour it into cracks in a rock formation I know of and then dig it back out.  Then we'll be spending gold that we have mined ourselves instead of the King's Gold."

"Sounds pretty risky to me," I said, but Jack wouldn't listen.  We set off to find the escarpment to hide our gold in. Jack knew the perfect outcrop of rocks along the eastern side of the San Andres Mountains, about 20 miles north of Salinas Peak.  He took his blacksmith tools out of the wagon.  We built a huge fire,  put the gold in the crucible and sprinkled in some boric acid.  We poured the melted gold into the crevices of the rock formation knowing it could be chinked out later.

Jack and I went our separate ways but agreed to meet back at our hiding place one year to the day, on July 16th.  I woke up before dawn to pack up and head across the mountain near Hot Springs where I was staying.  Right before daylight, a blast of light filled the sky making it look like it was high noon; a thunderous roar knocked me off my horse and rolled me halfway down the mountain.  A giant mushroom of dust and light rose up from the Tularosa Basin while the mountains trembled and the earth shook underneath me.  I would later find out that they were testing an atomic bomb to drop on Japan.

I caught my horse a short while later and rode up to where I was supposed to meet Jack at our hidden "mine."  The side of our hidden spot in the mountain had crashed down during the bomb test.  I saw Jack's horse tied to a tree about a hundred yards away. The handle of Jack's pick axe was sticking out of the ruble.  I yelled his name over and over but there was no sound beneath the tons of rocks that had crushed Tularosa Jack.

I felt deep sadness for my partner and friend who was always ready to kick up his heels for an adventure but who couldn't outsmart his fate.  I suppose there is an upside to Jack's providence. He died with more gold surrounding him than they have in Fort Knox and I suppose he had plenty of bullion for all the dance hall girls in heaven.

I don't know if the Spanish priest's curse is finally worn out, but I ain't taking any chances.  I am never going to tell anyone where that gold is - not to friend nor foe - not till the day I die.