SAFFORD — The Gila Valley Hiking Club is ready to hit the trail once again.
The club will conduct a 2.5 round-trip hike from Snow Flat to Treasure Peak on Saturday, Aug. 28.
Hikers will meet at 8 a.m. at Graham County Fairgrounds, and hikers are asked to have good walking or hiking shoes, water, lunch/snack, and sun protection. Return is expected by 2:30 p.m.
According to the club’s Facebook page, “Treasure Park is the setting for one of Arizona’s many lost treasure legends.
“A story tells of Mexican bandits burying a large quantity of stolen gold and silver bullion on Bonita Peak, as the Pinaleno Mountains were once known, sometime during the 18th or early 19th centuries. The bandits placed three colored boulders as markers, but were never able to retrieve their treasure.
“In the early 1890s, a small party of searchers who claimed to possess a map to the treasure, took up the hunt, but were driven away by deep snow and a case of pneumonia. Early in the 20th Century, a Forest Service supervisor, unaware of the treasure story, discovered an ancient, blazed trail that led to three colored boulders at Treasure Park. Much digging was done, but no treasure was ever located.”
