The Boot of Cortez, which, at 389.4 troy ounces, is the largest surviving natural gold nugget ever found in the Western Hemisphere. It measures a stunning 10 3/4 inches in height and 7 1/4 inches in width. There is literally 'no-thing' like it.

The austere and forbidding Sonoran Desert of the United States and Mexico regularly experiences some of the most extreme weather in the Western Hemisphere. Daytime temperatures often exceed 125 degrees in the shade even as blast-furnace winds swiftly strip life-sustaining water from the few men and animals tough enough and wily enough to make a living in this land of stark, unforgiving beauty. Yet life not only goes on here; it sometimes succeeds in ways that cannot be foreseen even in our wildest dreams.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 at 6:29 am and is filed under Misc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.