Granite Dells, Prescott Arizona

The Granite Dells are located just outside Prescott, Arizona, once the site of a famous aboriginal attack on local prospectors. It is an amazing treasure that draws in the curious and adventurers, a place where ancient legends invite anyone who dares to follow a secret little quest. Even today they come to hunt.

Treasure hunters, adventurers, historians and the curious have flooded to the Granite Dells (Prescott, Arizona) since the nineteenth century, in pursuit of legendary treasure and a historical story that has never been truly confirmed. However, it is not just the legend that has them interested.

The dells are granite boulders that sit inside a huge natural lake. Some of them are easily reached on foot and others require a boat to reach them. It is a popular spot to rest and have a picnic. Others prefer to spend hours hiking around it to peruse the view, each side giving never appearing to give the same one twice. It has been described as being a place where the boulders are so numerous that the eye cannot take in everyone and simply gets another viewpoint every time.

The main draw, however, is the legend. According to storytellers, depending on who you may speak to, as the story varies from mouth to mouth, prospectors were enroute from the Big Sandy River, having struck rich with bag loads of gold nuggets and dust, and decided to stop at the dells for a refreshment break and rest. Then, as everyone agrees, local native people attacked them, resulting in the death of at least of one of them. At some time during the start of the attack, the other men hid their treasure close to the nearby spring.

Over many years, one of the men revisited the site with a posse of others to find the gold, but was never able to relocate it. The gold had vanished without a trace. Now, there are many theories that have lasted till modern times, some believing that the local natives found the gold and buried it elsewhere. Others believe that the men simply forgot the exact burial site. However, most people who come to the dells are seeking treasure and will spend hours and days digging and looking. So far, nothing has been found, making the prospector gold into the Holy Grail of the dells.