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Hello Gold prospectors,

I received my Gold Prospectors Magazine for the month of March/April this week and I found an interesting article on the Superstition Mountais about the Lost Dutchman Mine.

I had written a similar article years ago for another magazine.

I did a lot of research on the tale and found it quite interesting so I thought I would share what I found.

The Lost Dutchman Mine in the Superstition Mountains

By Reggie Gould

No one really has positive proof that there is any truth to the story but there have been many mine explores killed looking for the lost mine.

The Legend of the Lost Dutchman Mine has been written about for over a hundred years. There are over 57 books and a large number of web sites dedicated to the Lost Dutchman Mine.

The mine is located in Arizona, east of Phoenix, in the Superstition Mountains. The mountain’s name came from a Spanish Conquistador, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, who with a contingent of Spaniards in 1540, was looking for the Seven Golden Cities of Cibola. Legend has it that they ventured into an area that the Apache Indians had long held as sacred and the home of the “Thunder God.” The Indians had many terrifying tales to tell about the mountains just north of Mexico and would under no condition accompany the party of Spaniards on their quest for gold.  The Spaniards proceeded without the Indians to go for the gold.  Legend has it that as they made their way though the mountainous area but men of the party began to vanish mysteriously.  If one man strayed more than a few feet from his companions, he disappeared.  The men who were found were chopped to pieces with their heads cut from their bodies. The contingent of the Spanish party went back to the camp of Coronado to report their findings. When they reported the grizzly events of their foray into the mountains, Coronado gave the area the name of Monte Superstition, which in English means Superstition Mountain.

Later there were to be other gold searching Spaniards, but they avoided this area because it had become known as “the evil place.”

The Peralta family, a rich Spanish family from Mexico, headed by Don Miguel Peralty, did finally venture into,, and mine in an area of the Superstitions.  It is said that their operations produced millions of dollars of gold that they sent back to Sonora Mexico as pesos.   Around 1848 the Apache Indians gathered a great war party to get rid of the interlopers and reclaim the sacred ground for their Gods. Peralta somehow got wind that the Indians were forming for an attack and braced his men for the onslaught. His men took elaborate means to conceal the location of the mine because Peralta had full intention of returning someday to mine more of the gold that most people said was the finest ever seen. Peralta and the entire party was massacred and their pack mules and packs, filled with gold, were found years later strewn around the area. The area is now called the Massacre Grounds.

  The next story we hear concerning the legend of the Peralta mine, would eventually become the Lost Dutchman Mine aand was about a doctor named Abraham Thorne, who in 1870 joined the U. S. Calvary as surgeon and was assigned to Fort McDowell along the Verdie River in Arizona. His interest was working with Indians and caring for them. The famous Kit Carson enters into the picture here.  He took Dr. Thorne to an area along the Verde River called the Strip, an area that had been set up as a compromise area by President Lincoln as a safe haven for the Indians. On this “Strip” Dr. Thorne ministered to the Indians in sickness, helped them to learn hygiene, delivered their babies and was in general an angel of mercy.

The Indians wanted to show their appreciation for his dedicated work, so they decided to take him to a spot where they had found vast quantities of gold. They blindfolded him and took him to a canyon on a horse. When they finally took off the blindfold, he could see in the distance a sharp pinnacle of rock protruding from the ground.  History buffs now think that this pinnacle of Mother Nature, which the doctor saw when his blindfold was removed, was Weaver’s Needle, an enduring clue in the legend of the whereabouts of the Lost Dutchman Mine. It is said that he was trying to visually record possible land marks in his mind for a future trip back to the location, he had to be very careful with the Apaches closely watching him. They wanted to reward him for his dedicated service to their people but they did not want other white men to follow in the sacred mountains. There was no sign of a mine but there was a sack of solid gold nuggets, which he stuffed into his pockets and tried to carry as much back as he could. The Indians did not provide any other method for hauling out the cash of gold. This was probably the cruel sense of humor of the Apaches, for him to see the huge amount of gold and only being able to take back a portion of it. Since the Apaches did not have any use for gold, you have to wonder why they would have a sack of gold in the first place? It is quite possible that the sack of gold was left behind from the former Peralta family while fleeing from the Indian attack.

Later on in time, a party of prospectors headed for Fort McDowell towards the Superstition Mountains, to look for gold. In their search for gold, Frank Blinkey and five other companions found a rich ledge of gold. They were in the process of removing the gold, when they were viciously attacked by a hoard of violent Apache Indians. They were trying to fend off the Indians attack but were hopelessly outnumbered. At nightfall Frank Blinkly sneaked out past the marauding Indian’s and walked 10 miles to Fort McDowell, after swimming across the Salt River. He returned with the aid of the Calvary to attempted to save his fellow miners but 2 of them had already been killed by the Indians. Two more of the wounded miners later died at the fort from their wounds. After this massacre, the search for the mine was all but given up because of the danger in looking for the mine with the Apache Indian threat.

Another miner was said to have found this rich vein of gold, which was later called the Lost Dutchman Mine. The story starts with Jacob Waltz emigrating to the U. S. from Germany in 1845. He traveled across the country looking for gold. He spent 10 years of his life looking for gold in the Sierra Nevada foothills and eventually settled in the Arizona Territory area with a homestead in Rio Satillo Valley, just north of the Superstition Mountains, around 1868.

In the next 20 year period, he traveled around the Territory working for other mines, where he met Jacob Weiser, a fellow miner and Dutchman, at the Vulture Mine. Waltz was later fired and accused of stealing gold at the mine. They both left the mine and were later seen drinking at a bar spending gold nuggets for their drinks. Some people thought the gold they were spending was from the Vulture Mine but others thought it was too pure to be out of that mine. It is said that they got a map of the lost mine from a living descendent of the Peralta family, and had originally worked the Lost Dutchman Mine. The Dutchman had saved Peralta from a knife fight and later received a map from Peralta revealing the location of the lost mine. Waltz and Weiser then bought the mine from Peralta. Soon after, Weiser disappeared without a trace, it is speculated that the Apache Indian’s killed him or that Waltz himself killed him to horde the gold for himself. The real truth will probably never be really known. Waltz was later seen spending huge amounts of gold nuggets for drink and women. His gold was determined to some of the purest in the country. He would show up with saddlebags filled with gold and was often followed to find the source of the gold. He always managed to elude them, so they were not successful in their pursuit.

In 1891 he met a women named Julia Elena Thomas, who owned a bakery in town and later became romantically involved with him. He promised to take her to see the mine but died before he could fulfill his promise. He was getting along in years and fell ill. Julia befriended him and took care of him during is ill health. In Oct 25, 1891 he died with a sack of rich gold ore beneath his bed. Upon hearing of Waltz death, many miners headed to the Superstition Mountains in quest for the lost gold. Two miners looked for the mine for the next 25 years and were to name it the Lost Dutchmen. Julia, then began her own search with a former companion of Waltz, whose name was Rhiney Petrash. She sold her bakery business and began an exhausted search for the mine with the details that the Dutchman had provided her with on his deathbed. She finally quite looking for the mine after several years. Her partner Petrash, invited his brother to help look for the mine and continued their search for their entire life. Years later Julia Thomas was interviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle on Jan 13, 1895, who finally revealed the story of the Lost Dutchman Mine, for the first time the story was in print. Several clues were revealed in the article that were revealed by the Dutchman to Julia on his deathbed but the reporter in his zeal for a good story, had added other false clues.

Clues to the location of the lost mine is supposed to be shown in the Peralta Stones. There are 4 stones which are, the Priest Map Stone, the Horse Map Stone, the Trail Map Stone, and Heart Map Stone. Supposedly the stones are a cryptic map to the location of the mine. There have been many books written as to what these symbols really mean. They must have done a good job of  cryptology, because no one has been able to find the mine using these stones as a guide.

Over a period of a century, many people have been severely wounded or killed looking for the Lost Dutchman Mine. Most people think that the Indian’s were responsible for these deaths but in the case of people being killed with high-powered rifles, it may a crazed miner trying to protect the mine. It is even possible that the Indian’s had embraced the use of more modern weapons. It is well known that they used repeating rifles against the white man, during the Indian Wars. The truth may never be really known until someone claims responsibility for the deaths. The Indians in the area

say it is the Spirits that guard the sacred mountain, that are responsible for the deaths.

I have included some of the so called clues to find the lost treasure.

By the way if you venture out there in those rugged mountains you might think to wear a bullet proof vest.

Clues to the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine

   1. It lies within an imaginary circle whose diameter is not more than five miles and whose center is marked by Weaver's Needle, about 2,500 feet high, among a confusion of lesser peaks and mountainous masses of basaltic rock. The first gorge on the south side of the west end of the range, they found a trail which led them northward over a lofty ridge, thence downward past Sombrero Butte into a long canyon running north, and finally to a tributary canyon very deep and rocky and densely wooded with a continuous thicket of scrub oak. Then up a side canyon past water. Its about 200 feet across from a cave.

 2. If you pass three Red Hills you have gone too far.

 3. You can watch the military trail from the mine, but you cannot be seen from the military trail.

 4. The setting sun shines through a break in the mountains and glitters upon the ore and shaft.

 5. You have to climb a short ways from a steep ravine in order to see Weaver's Needle to the southward from above the mine.

 6. You can see Waver's Needle to the south and Four Peaks to the north where Four Peaks looks like one peak.

 7. From the cave you go about a mile up the same canyon, which runs north-south, until you find a ridge upon the end of which is a natural stone face looking upward to the east. Directly across from the face is a high narrow ravine where you will find the inclined entrance to the mine. Down the slope below the mine shaft is a walled up tunnel. The canyon can be identified further by the tumbled ruins of an Old Spanish-built stone house near its head.

8. There is a roofless two room house made of heaped-up stones in the mouth of a large cave near the mine. The cave is near the bottom of a high bluff and faces northward and you need a tarpaulin hanging in the entrance to keep out the north wind and rain.

9. The shaft goes down upon an eighteen inch vein of rose quartz which is studded with pinhead nuggets of gold with and beside it, a three inch hanging wall of hematite quartz that is itself about a third pure gold.

10. The first gorge on the south side from the west end of the range. There the trail is marked northward over a lofty ridge. Then on down past a high pinnacle rock into a long canyon running north, and finally through a tributary canyon which is very deep and rocky. Traces of mining operations are to be found on the southern slop of the mountain in front of a hat-shaped hill at the entrance to a canyon of willows. Nearby are the ruins of a stone adobe house and a half buried stone monument.

11. Start from the first natural stone face near the western end of the mountains. From the direction of approach over the desert you have to go up the first deep canyon from the western end of the range, climb northward over the backbone of the mountains until you come within sight of a huge, sombrero-shaped peak. Travel downward past the base of this La Sombrero into a long canyon running north until you find on the east side a tributary canyon which is very deep, pot-holed and densely wooded with scrub oak. Then turn about and go back southward up this tributary canyon until you reach a point where the outline on the horizon matches the outline upon the map. You go up a steep tributary arroyo which seems to run right into the shadows of overhanging cliffs, but instead ends finally in a miniature hidden valley. The gold shaft is in this valley.

12. In a gulch in the Superstition Mountains, the location of which is described by certain landmarks, there is a two-room house in the mouth of a cave on the side of the slope near the gulch. Just across the gulch about 200 yards, opposite this house in the cave, is a tunnel, will covered up and concealed in the bushes. Here is the mine, the richest in the world. Some distance about the tunnel on the side of the mountain is a shaft or incline that is not so steep but one can climb down. This is carefully covered. The shaft goes right down in the midst of the rich gold ledge where the gold can be picked off in big flakes.

13. Go to First Water, then to Second Water, then take the old Government trail to San Carlos. Where the trail turns south, you will see over the point of the ridge, you can look north and the Four Peaks are lined up to look like one peak. In the other direction you will see a high needle-pointed rock. In the canyon under you is the hidden camp. You can't get down there because it is too steep, but go to the mouth of the canyon and then back. You can find the rock house with very little difficulty. You won't be able to see it until you are right upon it. After finding the camp, come back out of the canyon. Across the canyon and up it is a side canyon. Go up this side canyon to a cave. Opposite the cave is a tunnel and the mine.

I will attempt to include some photos.