Aztec Well Cabin

[Music] This is really quaint. Lovely porch area screened in. Again, it's a shame that the volunteers haven't got hold of this one and, you know, kept it up because this one is amazing and it's got a lot of history behind it. Let me tell you all about Juan Deagaza. And it's great how he's got like his [Music] cabin and then workshop. [Music] possible. Would that be? I wouldn't have thought that would have been a separate bedroom or anything. Builtup wood floor. Maybe that was original until cuz this is cement floors. cement floors, rock walls, big fireplace. So, I would say the stove would be where he cooked. Yeah. Next to the little kitchen area. Yep. And there is water here because you got corn springs down the road and Aztec Wells is further up the road. Okay. Yeah. This is a beautiful little canyon through here, too. very peaceful, private feeling and it tells you all about John de Lagaza here about his life. Born in Texas along the Rio Grand on May 13th, 1878, John decided to leave everything he once knew and venture out into the unknown desert landscape of the Southwest. [Music] He walked from Moab, Nevada to Needles, [Music] California, eventually landing here at Corn Springs in 1930. This would become his final destination. He began to make himself a home here on a small ridge overlooking the wash. Prospecting was a way of life back then and people would travel to the newest discoveries hoping to strike it rich. The Chuckawalers was one of many such places where fortunes were sought. This brought a revival to the area and a small community of depression era prospectors, thrillsekers, loners, vagrants, surveyors, cowboys, explorers, and artists. John was interviewed in 1966 and said there were lots of people here then. Prospectors, they're all gone now, gone, passed away or maybe retired. They don't come out no more. This is very old country. The Aztec well is right here. A very old camp that's been burned down, built up, burned down, and built up again. Today, nothing remains of the old settlement. John never married. He lived a solitary life here, one of the only yearround residents. Witnessing of the passing decades, he became a local historian and was even known as the mayor of Aztec. Well, he lived long enough to see the town's final demise as fewer people decided to come back. In a letter dated November 1976, he wrote, "Very few people come up the canyon. Less and less all the time. The weather is fine. Flowers and green stuff and some rattlers. Eventually, John passed away, leaving behind this cabin and his story to any who venture out to his beloved home. He is survived by a daughter and son. [Music] And here there's also his operator's license. Yeah, take a look at that. Photographs, I take it of him. It [Music] says with date 1940 the photos and then um newspaper article 1978 24th of the night uh 9:27 1978 so that's I guess when he passed Why? [Music] [Music] What a great place. Yeah. And who would know? Who would expect? Oh, there's a date there as well. Somebody has that since 1964. Yeah. About 60 years old. You know, one thing I couldn't even begin to imagine being a minor and how hard it was. But that guy John, so he lived here for 50 years on his own. Yeah. And did you know he also walked from here to Goldfield, Nevada? Oh, wow. That's an awful long way. Yeah. But yeah, I couldn't be a hermit. Come and take a look at this. So this is his water container and then all the brick work. And I don't know quite what that is for. Obviously this is the main wash. And then, oh, do you think the way this is the water would come through, go down the channel? Do you think this is where he would, you know, wash it, wash the gold, wash the see if there's any gold? Maybe. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]