Two men now living have actually seen this famous mine, but neither now remembers its exact location. One is Ross Sublett, son of the original discoverer, who is a prominent business man of Roswell, New Mexico. The other is Mike Wilson, a former crony of “old man Sublett,” who is believed to be on his death bed in a little hut in the Guadalupe Mountains, vainly trying to remember the location of probably one of the richest gold mines in the world.
“Old Ben Sublett” was a native of Missouri, and belonged to an old family of that name in St. Louis. In early life the “call of the wild” and the lure of gold led him to go to the Rocky Mountains with his young wife and three babies, whom he took on all prospecting trips. For years luck never favored him, and while others found mines and grew rich, he continued poor. He was in rags, and his wife and children were hungry. They passed through the Guadalupes and finally settled in Odessa, Texas. Here they made their home in a little hut. Mrs. Sublett did washing and sewing to support the children, while Sublett worked on a ranch just long enough to get money to buy a “rickety old buckboard and a bony horse.”
He spent most of his time in the Guadalupes. He had the “hunch” that in its labyrinthine solitudes he would find gold. Occasionally he brought in a little nugget, hardly of value enough to buy grub for his return trip. His wife vainly begged him to quit the mountains, to settle down to some vocation in which was a sure living; he was stubborn, taking no advice from anyone.
Although the mountains were then filled with the bloodthirsty Mescalero Apaches, ever ready to kill the lonely prospector or trapper, Sublett never carried arms, and by some strange fate was never molested. The old prospector laughed at those who warned him and advised him to be careful. These trips continued; and every time he returned, his return was a surprise to the people of the town. They scoffed at his crazy mode of life.
One day the old man drove up to Abe Williams’ saloon and strode boldly to the bar, inviting everybody present to “join” him. They thought that he was joking, as he was supposed to be penniless, but when Old Ben threw down a buckskin sack filled with [[71]]nuggets and said that he had found a rich gold mine and could buy out the whole town and have plenty left, the crowd was wild with excitement. He went out to his buckboard and dragged in a canvas sack filled with gold so pure, it is said, that a jeweler could hammer it out. “My friends, have all the drinks you want,” he said, “for I have at last found the richest gold mine in the world. I can buy Texas and make a backyard out of it for my children to play in.”
After that Sublett would frequently slip out to the mountains and return in less than ten days with about $1500 worth of gold. He built a fine home for his family, and of course made many “prosperity” friends. All tried to get him to show them the location of his mine, but he would shake his head and say: “If anyone wants my mine, let him go and hunt for it like I did. I hunted twenty-four years and wasted the best part of my life at it. The valley of the Pecos and the peaks of the Guadalupes are my home; I want to be buried there when I die, and I am going to carry this secret to the other world, so that for years and years people will remember me and talk about the rich gold mine ‘that old man Sublett found.’ I will give them something to talk about.”
His son, Ross Sublett, who has made several attempts to find the mine, says: “I have a faint recollection of it. I was only a small boy when my father took me there. We drove out in an old buckboard. I know the mine was about six miles from a spring. The spring is in what is known as the Russell Hills of the Guadalupes. I paid no attention at the time as to where we went, and was always glad when my father was ready to return home. Father got the gold out of a hole or cave, but it seems that it was in plain sight on the ground outside of the cave. When my father was on his death bed I tried to get him to tell me how to go back, but he said it would be useless, that I could never find it.”
Sublett once described the mine to Mike Wilson, who afterward went out to the Guadalupes and found the mine. He emptied his sack of provisions, and put in as much gold as he could carry and began the journey back home. Without recuperating from the effects of the hard trip, Mike went on a spree for three weeks, and when again he tried to go to the mine he became bewildered and lost his bearings. [[72]]
Old Ben Sublett just laughed at Wilson’s bewilderment, and refused to direct him again. He refused to tell anyone else where it was. “If anybody wants it, let him go and hunt for it like I did,” was all he would say. Later Sublett died and carried the secret with him. This was eighteen years ago.