Buried treasure in the Sonoran Desert: The astonishing tale of the Boot of Cortez
This is the story of the Boot of Cortez, the largest surviving golden nugget ever found.
While gold prospectors and treasure hunting may feel like a thing of the past, the natural world does not stop in surprising us in terms of the wonders it can produce.
Surely we’ve found all the animals there are to discover, all the rivers that can be ridden, all the gold that can be unearthed? Wrong.
The “Boot of Cortez” is the Earth’s reminder to us of the marvels that are still out there to be gazed upon wondrously by human eyes. The largest surviving gold nugget ever discovered in the Western Hemisphere was not revealed to us until 1989 near Caborca, Sonora, Mexico, and in true Mother Nature fashion, it was an unexpected gift.
An amateur prospector was canvassing the infamously hostile 125°F (52°C) temperatures of the Sonoran Desert in Arizona with their measly entry-level metal detector when, after days of finding old bullets and iron scraps, they stumbled upon something remarkable: a golden nugget that turned out to weigh 389.4 troy ounces (approximately 12.14 kilograms or 26.77 pounds) and measure up at 10.75 inches in height and 7.25 inches in width.
The nugget’s strange boot-like shape inspired its name, “Boot of Cortez,” referencing the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés. Composed of nearly 80% gold, with the remainder being silver and quartz, the wonder immediately caught the lucky finder’s attention with its bright, rich golden-yellow colour indicative of high levels of purity.
After its discovery, the prospector sold the nugget to his employer for $30,000. Over the years, its value appreciated significantly, and in January 2008, it was sold at auction for $1,314,500.
The Boot of Cortez has been showcased at several prestigious exhibitions, including the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show in 2004 and the American Museum of Natural History in New York City from 2006 to 2007.
The discovery of the Boot of Cortez demonstrated that significant finds can still be made with basic technology and perseverance, and the story has inspired a new generation of prospectors to explore areas previously thought to be exhausted. The score will always be the same: Mother Nature 1-0 Humanity.
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