Payson Canyon also holds an Spanish mystery. A man by the name of Harold Nelson who was born and raised near the area, has recounted for years, a story of a supposedly, "cursed", Spanish mine in Payson Canyon. This story was first brought to us by Slim.
In the late 1950's Harold drove truck for Highland Dairy and delivered milk to various stores in the Southern Utah county region. One day while at the, "Springlake", store he was waiting in line behind an elderly gentleman. Harold noticed that when the elderly man went to pay his bill, he kept his money pinned to what seemed like to Harold, some sort of long john. After paying for his groceries he seemed to just wait around. When Harold was done with his business the gentleman asked him for a ride to Payson. Harold said "Sure, I can do that." What came next was quite peculiar. He asked Harold to drop off his groceries behind the rose bushes in front of his house and drop him off a couple of blocks away. Harold thought this was very odd.
Over the next few years the gentleman bonded with Harold and would be at the Springlake store every Thursday waiting for him to do his delivery. Even though this man appeared to be in his 80's he walked everywhere he went. Harold often saw him walking from Payson to Spanish Fork and would pick him up. The gentleman seemed to be very secretive and didn't trust anyone except Harold.
One day he asked Harold if he ever drove up Payson Canyon. "Yes" was his reply and explained to him that he liked to go fishing up at Payson Lakes. The gentleman then asked if he could drop him off at a certain spot up there. (NOTE: Harold told us that he would drop this man off at the first bridge and he would disappear into the woods). "Sure, I would be glad to", Harold said. When Saturday came Harold was ready to go fishing. He picked up the gentleman and took him up the canyon. He dropped him off at a bridge, not far from the Grotto. As Harold would return down the canyon he stopped at the same place and honked. The gentleman emerged from the left hand side out of the trees and hopped in. Harold did this several times. Finally on one of these trips the gentleman thought that he could trust Harold enough and told him that he was looking for a gold mine. It was a very rich mine which he had found and lost. He said he had marked the trees with his ax while going from the mine to the road, but upon his return all the trees were marked. Because of this he considered it to be a cursed mine, but was determined to find it again anyway.
He asked Harold for twenty dollars a month in order to grubstake him so he could look for the mine full time. Harold refused as he never had much money to spare and grew most of their food in his garden. He touched at the fact that he thought that Harold was a good man and that the powers that be might help him in the hunt if they were both involved.
Harold moved in the early 60's and lost track of this gentleman but never forgot him. Ocassionally, Harold will go up the canyon on his way to Payson lakes and as he drives past the spot where he dropped him off he wonders about the mine, where it is and if the man ever found it.
Just a little follow up; We have been taking trips to Payson Canyon for a while now and between our research and what we have seen around the area, we have narrowed the possibilities to somewhere around the peak of the Grotto. However, seeing as how the word "Grotto" stems from the latin word meaning, hidden vault, it seems that the old man may have indeed beaten us to it. What is strange about this is that none of the locals that we have spoken to, know of any mines in the area.
