In the 1880's the canyon was thronged with miners seeking gold and copper. Nobody got rich here except the owners of this immensely expensive mine who inflated the value of their stock with exaggerated rumors and then sold out before their scam was discovered. Our guide compared it to Enron.

The canyon was also the site of an 1887 massacre of 31 Chinese miners by white bandits trying to discover the location of their reported gold strike. Treasure-hunters kept the legend of the "lost mine" alive.