Legends of Lost Silver Mines in Pennsylvania?

Legends of Lost Silver Mines in Pennsylvania – could they possibly be TRUE?

Stories of lost mines, ledges and glory holes full of precious metals are rather pervasive, most every area has at least one such story. One of the poorest parts of North America for such stories is the Keystone state.

The geology of Pennsylvania is not of the right sort for the discovery of rich veins of gold and silver, great wealth in coal, oil and even such mundane mineral products as limestone have been the rule. Yet the state is not utterly devoid of gold or silver either; in the southeastern part of the state one mine produced almost all of the known gold production for the entire state, mostly as a byproduct of copper mining, and a couple of silver mines produced a little silver. Enough nickel was also mined to be used by the US Mint to make the now obsolete three cent nickels, so if you are lucky enough to own a three cent nickel, chances are it has Pennsylvania nickel in it. Not one of the three cent silver pieces of course.

Even so, despite the wrong sort of geology over most of the state, why then do we find there are indeed several stories of long lost silver mines? Pure hogwash, made up to earn a free beer in a tavern, or entertain the children, or cover up some illicit activity like making moonshine, perhaps? Perhaps, but there is evidence and documentation to support the fact that there are indeed several lost silver mines scattered across the state. Not massive veins like the famous Comstock mind you, but small deposits and these are not against the rules of geology by any means.

The actual records from the colonial period show that these mines were known to the native tribes that lived in and contested over the land. There is even some suggestion that two of the mines were known to the French, whom were secretly mining them and slipping back to Canada to convert the silver into cash.

Silver medallion struck from silver mined out of the Wheatley silver-lead mine in Chester county PA

PA silver medallion from the Wheatley mine

A bit of study in the field of geology would help any treasure hunter or prospector setting out to look for one of these lost silver mines. Silver does not often occur in nature in the pure form, because of the fact that it is much more chemically reactive than gold or platinum, yet it does occur in native (natural) form, often alloyed with a little gold and – or copper. The ores of silver quite often do not look anything like silver, and then too some silver minerals do look silvery and metallic, like galena. Galena is mostly lead, but very often in nature some or almost all of the metallic lead in the matrix has been replaced by silver. Galena is silver colored and cubic in form, and rather heavy. You can find small pieces of it in many streams around the state, and while in many cases the presence of this metallic mineral in such a place where no metallic minerals ought to be can be explained by the actions of glaciers, which broke off the minerals from a distant location (generally to the north) and transported it to the south where it then deposited it when the ice finally melted away, to leave us puzzling as to how this out of place mineral ended up where we find them.

Most ores of silver are black, grey or brown in color; usually tending to be heavy and often sooty, so could be mistaken for a low grade coal vein from a distance. Silver can also occur in a quartz matrix just like gold or copper does, or uncommonly in the form of a heavy, sticky blue or bluish clay. The famous Comstock mine in Nevada was discovered first as the blue clay, which was giving the gold miners headaches by clogging up their sluice boxes. Only when some prospector finally had the blue clay itself tested by fire assay did the secret come out, that it was loaded with silver. The blue clay may be what the ore decomposes into, but I am specularing on this point.

Silver ores are commonly found intruded into limestone rock, showing up by the stains it makes in the surrounding rock; sometimes it will form a stain on the surface of the rock without the actual ore showing on the surface, and the staining is commonly called a “gossan” in prospecting parlance. I will return to the prospecting tips in a moment.

From what the stories tell us, these lost Pennsylvania silver mines are not going to be easy to find. In several instances, the Indians went to some lengths to conceal the very existence of the mines, so well that in one case, even though several colonists had seen it and been to the mine, after it was concealed they could not locate it again. Silver, unlike gold, does not usually form a placer downhill and downstream of the host rock. When rock containing native gold is worn down and decomposed by nature, the tiny bits of gold get transported down hill and then down stream by the actions of nature, allowing the prospector to be able to take his gold pan and take samples along the streams and then hillsides, and thus pinpoint the location of the gold vein. No so with silver! Except in very rare instances (I know of only two such in all of North America) due to the fact that silver will react with other minerals chemically, as the host rock decomposes, the silver forms chemical bonds and is invisible so to speak. It can be there and not be visible in a gold pan. What can a prospector do?

Don’t throw out the gold pan, it is possible that you might find tiny specks of native silver in some stream that could conceivably lead you to the vein; at least one of the lost silver mines of Pennsylvania had native silver in it , and silver is quite a dense metal. I am using the term ‘dense’ to refer to the fact that it is quite heavy, about the same as lead, this density is usually termed by prospectors as specific gravity; that is how heavy any particular element or mineral is when compared to an equal volume of water. So gold has a specific gravity of around 19 (it varies due to the other metals commonly alloyed with gold in nature, usually silver and copper) lead is a bit over 11, while native silver usually runs 10.4 to 10.6. This natural heaviness (when compared to water and many other materials) is helpful for panning, for most country rock and sand, while heavier than water, are much lighter in comparison to silver. So you could find a silver vein by testing with the ancient tool known as the gold pan – and don’t let anyone fool you, the gold pan is still used by prospectors, geologists and mining engineers today for it works very well.

As these silver mines were covered up and concealed in the colonial period, there has been plenty of time for nature to help with the concealment; trees would have had over 200 years to grow right over top of them, the natural erosion and deposition of soils would further assist in erasing the traces of the mine. If the mine were originally a shaft sunk into the rock (as one actually was, more in a moment) it is quite possible that nature has entirely filled in the shaft with earth by now and could even have a huge tree growing out of it. A tunnel could have caved in, leaving no trace except for a slight depression on the flank of a mountain, and unfortunately the hills of Pennsylvania have a great many wrinkles to help hide them.

Don’t let this discourage you! A careful search, using the tools of prospecting, geological reports, satellite imagery, research of the colonial records and even family histories, stories told around the campfires or even something seen by a hunter could be the key to lead you to finding a silver mine!

Now suppose you have found a suspicous looking vein or lense of rock, that is dark or grey and heavy; how can you test it for silver without having to break off a sample, crush it to quarter inch size or smaller and send it off for a fire assay? A fire assay is the best bet and highly accurate, but they cost money and you certainly can’t afford to send off every rock you find to have it assayed, for if you are that wealthy you would not be out hunting for a long-lost silver mine in the first place! Fortunately there are some simple ways you can test for silver without having to spend a lot of money.

One trick is to grind up your sample to a powder, then take a piece of copper that you have rubbed until it is shiny clean, and then rub that piece of copper around in the powdered ore sample. A copper wire will do, or a piece of soft copper pipe (don’t use the hard copper pipe as it is alloyed, and may not work as well). Very often, if silver in present in the sample, it will turn the copper white. If this occurs, then take another sample and get a fire assay done.

Another way is to try primitive smelting, if you have a bellows or a charcoal forge, in which case you would again want to grind the sample to a powder and heat it on a shovel or other iron receptable to nearly a white heat; any silver that can be extracted by heat alone will melt out before the shovel will melt because silver has a lower melting point than iron or steel. One more method is to put a hunk of the ore sample on your shovel, heat it very hot and then drop it into a bucket of water; supposedly if silver is present in the rock, it will form a grey scum on top of the water; however personally this method has never worked well for me but it might work for you.

Lastly, make sure you get permission of the landowners before you start looking for the lost mine, for most of Pennsylvania is private land and you don’t need to get arrested for trespassing, or worse a load of rock salt in your breeches! Just kidding but do ask permission before you search and it will save a lot of problems. Don’t be surprised if you get chuckles from a non-treasure hunter if you explain what you are looking for, for most people think that anyone who would go looking for lost mines or buried treasures is a little loopy, but with a little luck, and a lot of diligence, you may well have the last laugh. Besides, the search is an experience that those who live inside of boxes and never step off pavement can never know.

Nice photos of some silver ores http://nevada-outback-gems.com/prospect/gold_specimen/Silver_ores.htm

A free online book on prospecting for gold and silverhttp://books.google.com/books?id=CPZDAAAAYAAJ&dq=prospecting%20for%20silver&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false 

Historically, the Wheatley mine and the Pequea mine both produced some silver, the Pequea silver mine near Conestoga in Lancaster County was worked from before the Revolutionary War to 1875. A minor amount of mining was done about 1900. The ore is silver-bearing galena in the Cambrian Vintage Dolomite. Production is unknown. The Wheatley mine started operation in 1851. Primarily a lead mine, for economic reasons Wheatley billed the operation as a lead and silver mine. Concentrations of silver in the galena ore were assayed at between 15 and 120 ounces per ton. That would be pretty valuable ore today, so get out there amigo and find some silver!

Oroblanco

PS – one other thing about using that gold pan in your search, don’t be surprised if you find some GOLD in there too for those glaciers brought down gold from the north, as well as DIAMONDS!  If you see a shiny, greasy looking pebble that will scratch your knife blade there is a good chance it is a glacial diamond, over 50 of them have been found in PA over the years, and a brassy yellow metal needs no further explanation.  Good luck and good hunting, I hope you find the treasures that you seek.

Online museum of Pennsylvania minerals, including silver;

http://www.pennminerals.com/museum.htm

The Curse of the Lost Dutchman

I am taking the liberty of plagiarizing the title of Helen Corbin’s excellent book, The Curse of the Dutchman’s Gold, (1991) not to be funny or anything of the kind, rather as a compliment.  I am not trying to sell books for Amazon either, please feel free to get your copy from any retailer who offers it, or from your local library.  It is well worth your time and money.  I would make it required reading for anyone interested in the story of the infamous Lost Dutchman gold mine, along with several other source books which I will add at the end of this post.

 

The interest in the Lost Dutchman gold mine remains high after over a century of searching.  More than one treasure hunter has invested years of his life or even a lifetime in the quest.  The location could not be more un-inviting, for it is supposed to be located in the craggy recesses of the Superstition Mountains in southern Arizona, one of the most rugged pieces of terrain on the planet.  Laws have been enacted to protect the mountains and keep them in a nearly pristine state, making it nearly impossible for a modern treasure hunter to search effectively, and even more difficult to ever law claim to the mine if he or she should be so lucky as to actually find it.  Over 100 have lost their lives in those mountains, it is not a place to be careless or take foolish chances; yet hundreds of people hike through the range on a regular basis without incident and no worse for it than perhaps a few cactus thorns.   But do not let this fact lull you into thinking there is no danger, for such a simple thing as a twisted ankle, miles from any help, could become a deadly serious situation.

 

What is it about this particular lost mine legend that holds such fascination for people?  It is very far from being the only lost mine in the southwest, or even in Arizona for that matter; there are quite literally hundreds of stories of lost mines in Arizona alone.  Most of them are little known or even obscure, and few treasure hunters are willing to spend a moment of time even researching them.  Yet this story of the mine of Jacob Waltz keeps its attraction; luring men and women to exert themselves and spend their money to hunt for it, in spite of the terrific legal hurdles that would entail finding it, in spite of the dangers and the extreme odds against finding it at all.  Yes, some 100 different people have all claimed to have found the lost bonanza over the years, but in the last 50 only one had an ore specimen with gold, and even that story is questionable.  In the early days of Dutch-hunting, as this pursuit is commonly called in the community, quite a few men made claims of having found the mine and had actually found a rich gold mine – in every case it was NOT the lost mine of Jacob Waltz (the ore did not match) but at least they had found an actual gold mine; many of our modern claimants have only found a place that fits the various “clues” or spotted an anomaly on a satellite photo that seems to fit the stories.  Did someone find it by a satellite image?  We can not know without an ore specimen, and a comparison done by a qualified expert.

 

On a personal note, my wife and I have gone looking for this lost mine on a number of occasions, without finding it of course.   There are a number of forums on the internet where people interested in the subject frequently gather to discuss it, yet even so, if one is not careful about how your words are phrased it can come across as someone pretending to be some  kind of an “expert” on the lost mine which will rub folks the wrong way.  I certainly do not wish to make any pretense at being an expert on the Lost Dutchman mine, so dear reader please keep that in mind while reading these words, and please do your own research; never take the word of someone just at face value for when the subject of the Lost Dutchman is at stake, some people will not hesitate to try to mislead you.  I have no such intention personally, but my views could very well be quite mistaken so don’t take my word as final on this.

 

The curse of the Dutchman’s gold may be real.  Several of those whom have claimed to have found it, died before being able to tell anyone where it is.  Once you visit those haunted mountains, you too may well be infected with something akin to Gold Fever, for you will feel a sort of “pull” for you to return to them again and again, even without finding any gold at all.  While most of the area is officially and legally a federal Wilderness Area, which has severe restrictions on any kind of prospecting or digging, there really is something indefinable and even beautiful about them.   In truth it is not really a “wilderness” – for most of the area was pastureland where cattle roamed and real cowboys worked; prospectors had little cabins and camps, and the hand of man left an imprint in many places, which certainly does not fit the definition of a wilderness by the terms of the Act that made the mountains practically off-limits for us.  It is really a man-made “wilderness” but don’t try to argue it with a US Forest Ranger.  A reasonable person might well just write the whole thing off as an impossible dream, yet even knowing all the problems, risks and potential legal squabble should you find the mine, many of us cannot resist the urge to return.

 

As for experts on the Lost Dutchman gold mine, there are a handful of real ones.  Clay Worst, Bob Corbin, Tom Kollenborn usually top any list, along with Dr Thomas Glover, and a few others are still around for us to bother with questions.  My wife and I have been lucky enough to have met all of them in person, thanks to the efforts of Joe Ribaudo and his wife Carolyn, for they started the now annual Dutch Hunters Rendezvous held at the Dons Club camp outside Apache Junction.  Joe and his wife are two of the most gracious and friendly people imaginable, and served as hosts for the first several rendezvous, which has now grown beyond what two people could act as hosts for.  Joe deserves a lot of credit for founding this tradition, a rendezvous of treasure hunters with simple rules to prevent problems and rather similar to the rendezvous of the Mountain Men of old.   For anyone interested in the legend of the Lost Dutchman, I highly recommend attending one of these annual meets, scheduled for the third weekend in October each year.

 

Is there gold in the Superstition mountains?  I have to say yes – a qualified affirmation to be sure, for it is not a case of the gold being available just anywhere throughout the range, but small traces of gold can be panned out in a number of places.  One such place is Fish creek, but before you start counting your millions, I should add that the amount of gold in that picturesque and rugged creek bed is very far from enough to pay you wages.  Two government studies done on the geology of the range came up with the most  discouraging sort of conclusions, and it is certainly true that the rock types you see over most of the range are hardly the right type to find rich gold veins.   Only one test showed any hint that supports the theory of a rich gold mine, a mercury vapor test, which type of test will not serve to pinpoint the location at all, but it did hint that a rich gold deposit may lie under the Superstitions, perhaps deeply buried.

 

Now dear reader, before you get a few treasure maps and start hiking, take into consideration that the man who had the gold mine, namely Jacob Waltz, never made any map to the mine.  All of the maps available to the public have been tried and tested by several treasure hunters before us, and none were successful in leading to the fabulous gold mine.  The clues and directions are almost as questionable, for it seems almost a certainty that something in them is wrong; perhaps something has gotten garbled, or mis-remembered or even deliberately falsified to throw off competitors.  Your search ought to be based on solid ground and there is precious little in this legend that fits that standard.

Get the best topographic maps you can, and yes satellite images and aerial photos to study the area before you set off.  Don’t go in the summer – the heat is a very real killer, and temperatures can get well over 100 degrees F in the shade, and there is precious little shade anywhere in the Superstitions.  Study a book on geology so you know what gold looks like and what the ores look like, so that you won’t be fooled by finding one of the numerous old empty prospect holes dug by earlier Dutch hunters, for there are quite a few of these and they fool people all the time.  The damage done by the early treasure hunters helped to cause the very restrictive regulations we now have, for they were not hesitant to use dynamite in the quest, blasting away where there was no trace of any gold.  Don’t expect that you are just going to walk up and stumble onto the mine, for old Jacob Waltz worked hard to conceal it – it may even have trees or cactus growing on top of it by now.  Trails criss-cross the wilderness and while some lead you somewhere, others are old cow paths, game trails and so on but it is just possible that some ancient or well hidden trail might lead to the legendary Peralta mines or at least to the camp of the Dutchman.  It is not going to be an easy task by any measure, and if you are easily discouraged then you should forget this subject right now.

 

Here are a few book suggestions to get you started, to go along with Helen’s excellent book mentioned above; if you can read these and not feel the urge to visit the Superstition mountains, you are a stronger person than I am.  There are hundreds of other books and articles available, many of which are very good, and at least one movie “Lust for Gold” starring Glenn Ford and Ida Lupino.

The Lost Dutchman Gold  Mine by Sims Ely <Sims is quite possibly our best source, as he actually interviewed friends of Waltz>

The Golden Dream (The Lost Dutchman Mine of Jacob Waltz Pt 1) by Dr Thomas E. Glover <Dr Glover is the only living person to have done any kind of scientific tests on surviving ore specimens)

The Holmes Manuscript (the Lost Dutchman Mine of Jacob Waltz Pt 2) by Dr Thomas E. Glover

Superstition Mountain; A Ride Through Time by Tom Kollenborn <Tom is a local historian and geologist, spent his life in these mountains along with his partner Bob Corbin, a regular gold mine of historical information>

Hikers Guide to the Superstition Wilderness: With History and Legends of Arizona’s Lost Dutchman Gold Mine by Jack C. Carlson and Elizabeth Stewart <they have hiked pretty much every inch of the trails and this guide could save your life!>

And the ‘grandaddy’ of them all,

Trail of the Lost Dutchman by Barry Storm; Storm may not be a fact filled source but did more than any previous author to popularize the legend, and his books are a great read.   May be a bit difficult to find a copy but worth the effort.

 

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year, and should you be the lucky person to find the Lost Dutchman gold mine – please save me a specimen of that rich ore!  Good luck and good hunting amigos, I hope you find the treasures that you seek.

Oroblanco

 

 

 

Could the Lost Dutchman, Black Maverick and Doc Thorn mines be one in the same?

Gold in quartz

The Lost Dutchman Gold Mine, could it really be the same as the Black Maverick, or Doc Thorn?

Every once in a while, someone comes forward with a theory that links the famous Lost Dutchman gold mine with other legends of the southwest, or even farther afield.  Among the legends that have been so linked, includes the most famous lost mine group of Mexico, Tayopa, or the group of mines associated with the Jesuit mission at Tumacacori, or the lost Adams.  These examples all have quite different histories and other important differences not to mention the general locations are quite far apart.
Rarely do we ever hear of anyone proposing other lost mine legends as being one and the same with the lost mine of Jacob Waltz, mines which are not believed to be located in distant regions and with interesting similarities.  There are lost mine legends that fit this bill, such as the lost Doc Thorn (also spelled Thorne) mine.

The story of Doc Thorn goes that he was captured by Apaches (or in one version by Navajos) and in return for successfully treating a number of them for sickness, was then blindfolded and led to a narrow, rocky canyon where he was allowed to pick up all the gold he could carry on his horse.  He noticed the ore vein in the canyon, a white quartz loaded with visible gold, around a foot thick, which ran from the floor of the canyon up onto the side.  According to the story, he could clearly see the outline of Four Peaks on the horizon, and he believed that he could return to the spot quite easily.  He was mistaken and never managed to find it again.
Then there is the lost Black Maverick gold mine.  The story goes that a Yaqui Indian working as a cowboy for a ranch located on the east side of Four Peaks was chasing a maverick black bull, and as he lariated the young bull the animal’s foot broke through a covering on top of an old mine.  (One version has it that it is the cowhand’s horse that puts a foot through rather than the bull.) The logs which had made up the cover had rotted.  The mine was not large nor deep, perhaps a dozen feet or so, and had a vein of white quartz loaded with visible gold, about a foot thick.  When he returned to the ranch and showed samples of the ore, others tried to entice him to lead them back to the mine but he could not be swayed.

Other mines which have some interesting similarities are the Lost Pick, which had that same description of the ore and vein, and drew the name from a rusted pick head found nearby.  The Pima Gold legend is also similar, but the location being near the top of a ridge is quite different, and the finding of two skeletons is another point of variance.  Another mine with some notable similarities, but located in fairly distant country is the lost gold mine of Squaw Hollow.

Is it possible that others had found the same gold vein as Jacob Waltz, perhaps coming in to it from a different direction, and thus on returning and telling of the find, creating what appears to be a separate and different lost mine legend?   I strongly suspect this is the case.  I did a careful point by point comparison a few years back and came to the conclusion that the Black Maverick is very likely the lost Dutchman, Doc Thorn’s ledge is quite possible, and the lost Pick may also be the same mine.  The fact that the locations where these mines are supposed to be are not all concentrated in one spot may be due to the routes taken by the people who discovered them; and we really don’t know where any of them are truly located.  We don’t even know which side of the Salt River they might be on for that matter, for you can easily see the prominent mountain Four Peaks over a vast area.

Thinking that the Lost Dutchman is one and the same with the Black Maverick has not proven to be any help in locating the mine, at least not for me.  My wife and I have gone looking for most of these lost mines in the belief they were a separate mine.  In retrospect perhaps if we had kept the various clues associated with Waltz’s mine in mind, we may have noticed something that could lead to a discovery.   In earlier days of Dutch-hunting, a fair number of treasure hunters were of the opinion that the lost Doc Thorn was the same mine as that of Jacob Waltz, the differences in description being attributable to the fact that Thorn had visited it years before Waltz had been to it, which explains why there was no mine shaft or other indications of having been worked.   Today this idea seems to have fallen out of favor, though perhaps without good reason.

This theory could be completely wrong, and the western states as well as northern Mexico have many hundreds of lost mines and ledges which are certainly not related, so it could be oversimplifying to be associating several lost mines with the Dutchman’s.  Thousands of people go searching for the Lost Dutchman every year, with the others one rarely ever encounters a treasure hunter or prospector actively looking for them.  About the only thing which could ever prove this theory true and settle the question would be when someone should find the lost Dutchman mine, and then some comparisons could be made with the various points concerning the Black Maverick, Doc Thorn, lost Pick and perhaps the Pima and Squaw Hollow as well.

Good luck and good hunting amigos, I hope you find the treasures that you seek.  And should you find the Lost Dutchman gold mine, please let me know if you find a rusty pick near by?
Oroblanco

The Lost Dutchman Gold Mine, A Warning

The most famous lost mine legend in the USA is probably the Lost Dutchman of Arizona.  The location where it supposedly is hidden, is one of the most beautiful and possibly most dangerous places in our country.

Now I don’t wish to sound like some kind of fear monger, but the Superstition mountains wilderness area is not a place to be flippant or careless.  I would not even be writing this but all too often we find new articles, magazines and books that proclaim the author has found the Lost Dutchman gold mine and includes directions on how to get to his (or her) location.  All well and good, for all that matters, but the problem is that some of the readers will try to follow those directions in the belief that they are going to arrive at the infamous lost gold mine.  Some of the routes that these authors prescribe for their readers to follow, in order to get to their sites, are a good hike; some routes are downright dangerous and could lead to death.

The list of people whom have died in the Superstitions mountains is pretty long already – so please dear reader, if you are heading in to those mountains and are trusting the written words of some author (online or otherwise) who claims to be leading you to the lost gold mine, do some research on what sort of terrain you are heading into.  Go prepared, do not trust what these writers will tell you for a good and safe route.  Especially those that are trying to propose a route by using satellite or aerial photographs as a guide.  These fellows have mistaken stream beds for trails, and vice-versa.  The satellite photos do NOT give you any idea of what that terrain is really like to try to travel across.

One last word of caution to you treasure hunters, and I have no wish to discourage you at all but consider this; these fellows whom are proclaiming to the world over the internet and other media, that they have discovered the famous Lost Dutchman gold mine, what are their reasons for making these claims?  Ask yourself this, if you found it, would you go proclaim it to the world, and try to give directions to any and all to get to it?  Then there is the matter of proof – for in the case of the great majority of these self-proclaimed finders of the Lost Dutchman gold mine, they never show any photos of any gold vein nor any gold, not even a decent ore specimen.  They like to give the excuse that it is illegal to do any mining in the Wilderness Area, but there is no law about taking photos.  So do your homework, do not trust the routes that some stranger on the internet and always go prepared whenever entering any wilderness area.

I have tried discussing these issues with several of these internet persons who claim to have found the Lost Dutchman gold mine and are urging the public to go look at their sites, and my warnings to be cautious, end up with making enemies out of those claimants.  I am not their enemy, just don’t want to see any more people end up dead or missing due to the trust of these stories being broadcast.  If you are one of those people, reading my words now – I hope you will realize that I am not your enemy, I want people to go explore and search for the lost mine too but don’t want to see more tragedies.

Good luck and good hunting amigos, I hope you find the treasures that you seek.

Oroblanco

Little Green Men

This phrase  is generally used in derision, to ridicule the notion of alien visitors to our planet.  It is not rooted in fiction however, there have been real reports of having encountered such strange things as little green men.

The most recent report I could find occurred in Minnesota, in a rural area around Grygla which is known as the “biggest town of its size” and no particular oddities that should lead anyone to jump to any conclusions.  I am not suggesting anyone should now contact the local authorities to pursue the matter, just that such a strange incident does get reported.  The little green men appeared to be chasing farm animals around in a pasture, for reasons unknown.  An even stranger incident occurred not far from my own home, north of the Black Hills, in which little green men were seen and a man vanished, which could be coincidental but if not, would be alarming.  The reports of little green men are fairly rare, perhaps in part due to the fear of ridicule any witness would face if they came forward.

In the summer of 1933 a woman witnessed a number of little green men in silvery suits walking around across the pond from her home in rural Saskatchewan.  The only thing remarkable is the coincidental fact that it was likewise a farming area, which may have some meaning.  In 1915 a little green man was captured in Puglia, Italy, after his “spaceship” crashed.  In the same year in England another sighting occurred;

A woman walking along a field one afternoon noticed some movement on a nearby brush. She expected a mouse to come out any minute, but suddenly a tiny green colored man-shaped figure wearing a red cap appeared. The tiny being remained visible for about a minute rocking back and forth on top of a leaf and then vanished.

In 1918 another incident (from same source linked above at “another sighting”) report;

Location. Fontainebleau, Quebec, Canada
Date: November 1918
Time: night
18-year old Maria Dion was returning home from a dance, and as she walked along a wooded area several short 2-foot tall green colored figures suddenly appeared and began chasing her. The creatures were very quick despite their size. She noticed that the beings wore what appeared to be helmets and uniforms. Somehow she was able to elude the little men.

In 1914 an encounter occurred in the US, which is interesting in that the little green man was killed;

Location. 2.5 miles W of Farmersville Texas
Date: early May 1914
Time: 1000A
Silbie J Latham, then 13 or 14, had gone to the fields with his two older brothers Sid and Clyde. Two dogs, Bob and Fox, accompanied them. They were “chopping cotton” when they heard the two dogs set up a “deathly howl.” The three boys walked about 75 feet to a fencerow where the dogs had something cornered. Clyde got there first and turned to the other two and said, “Boys, there’s something in there. It must be something kinda bad.” Then he said, “Boys, it’s a little man!” Silbie looked and saw a little man some 18 inches high, just standing still, staring toward the north. He was green all over and either naked or with a frogman’s type outfit on, green in color. There was a hat with a wide brim on the back of his head, but it was all of one piece with the rest of the body. He said nothing and id not even acknowledge the dogs, by now worked up to a frenzy. Right after the three boys arrived the dogs finally attacked the being, literally tearing it limb from limb. “Blood and guts went everywhere. The blood was red and the guts looked like guts look. We were all just country as hell and didn’t know what to do…the dogs just chewed him to pieces…after they killed him we just went back to hoeing.” They told their folks but no one believe them; they went back to the site several times that day, but after that they never returned. <ibid.

There have been reports of the finding of green children, who speak a strange language, often have strange clothing and are unfamiliar with common foods.  In folklore we have little green people (leprechauns, fairies etc) which are often mischievous and – or have queer “magical” powers or abilities.

If you are wondering where I am going with this, no particular point to make here.  It is one of the more curious mysteries that seems to have survived the test of time, to see small green people who may not be from here.  These witnesses of course could all be just making up stories, but there is no harm in researching the matter.  We commonly hear of the little alien “greys” and less commonly of reptilian type beings or some that look rather like hairy dwarfs, but only rarely of little green men.

If there are such things as little green men, I would love to see one or even a good photo of one.

That is it for this edition amigos, nothing exciting to report just doing research on several subjects at once, and thought perhaps the little green men might be interesting to you as they do me.  A race of beings that evolved with a greenish pigmented skin would have had some unique characteristics; perhaps their skin would have vegetative properties for example, and be capable of performing photosynthesis in an animal.  This might be an advantage for a space traveler, and of course this is pure speculation on my part, or it could have had an evolutionary advantage by providing a better camouflage to the beings when they were prey for some kind of predators.

If anyone reading this has any details on the report(s) of little green men seen in South Dakota some years ago, please feel free to contact me.

Good luck and good hunting amigos, I hope you find the treasures that you seek – even if they are little green men!

Oroblanco

Can’t post to CNN Blog…

Another political tirade

Having spent hours trying to post a few sentences on the CNN blogs, in hopes that my words may be read by the reporters or even better, read aloud to the viewing audience without any success, I decided to simply post the tirade here.  At least it is off my shoulders.

We keep hearing all kinds of complaints about our current war in Libya, such as who are these rebels anyway, perhaps they are Al Qaeda etc.  What nonsense.  The rebels have been telling us all along exactly who they are – they are the doctors, dentists, students, housewives, teachers in other words the common citizens of Libya.  People who found enough courage to stand up and fight against an evil tyrant.

We keep hearing complaints about our not having an “end game” etc.  It is simple, really simplicity itself.  Just protect the civilians from Gadhafi’s murdering mercenary thugs, provide some air cover for the rebel forces and maybe even offer some boots on the ground as well to help things along – advisors if you will.  These advisors could help train the rebels and advise them on how best to fight against Gadhafi’s military forces.  They could also act as ground to air liaison or FAO – to help guide the air strikes onto the correct targets and help avoid any mistakes.

What we do NOT hear from any of the commentaturatii is the bald fact that Gadhafi and his regime are doomed. The only thing that can save him now, would be if the coalition were to life the no-fly ban and naval blockade.  He cannot fly in new mercenaries to replace his losses, nor replace the munitions expended, even the fuel for his tanks will run out.  Even if the rebels take their time about liberating the nation, Gadhafi cannot survive this.    He can’t even ship out a load of oil to sell for more money for his war chest, much less ship out gold to buy munitions or hire mercenaries.  Simple attrition will eventually end in his scurrying for a spider hole just like Saddam did.

It is starting to look like perhaps the day of the dictators is over, world wide.  If they truly loved their country and their people, they would simply step down and allow open and free elections to take place.  I wonder if we will see any of the remaining dictators do that.

That is it for this political tirade, I will try to come up with something more interesting to post soon.  Good luck and good hunting amigos, I hope you find the treasures that you seek.
Oroblanco

Libya

A Fight For Freedom
We are witnesses to history unfolding across the Arab world today, a story of people fighting for their freedom. No more dictators, regardless of what title they call it, no more secret arrests, torture and vanishings and repression in every form. No more of the massive oil wealth being siphoned off to help enrich and prop up totalitarian regimes. These incredibly courageous people are fighting the tyrants with practically no weapons of any kind, and are paying the cost in blood.

Meanwhile we in the west fret and argue about whether we ought to do something, anything, to assist the rebels in Libya in their desperate fight. A comment sent to one of the talking heads on CNN put it bluntly, why can’t we help those people? For if we do not stand for freedom, what in heck DO we stand for?

We so often forget that our own freedom was not granted by the grace of some autocrat, we too had to fight with rifle, cannon and even bayonet. We could not even pay for the gunpowder we needed to press that fight, over two centuries ago. We had foreign assistance in a very big and palpable way – France sent chests of money, weapons, ships and her own sons to fight and die in the battle for our independence, and we had aid from Russia, Spain, even Poland and Germany in that long war. We as a nation have been “burned” in foreign wars before, getting deeply involved in Vietnam and paying in blood for a war that many at home felt was wrong. We have had failed rescue missions and blunders of the first magnitude such as invading Iraq to get weapons of mass destruction which turned out to exist only in Saddam’s mind. We have a record of foreign intervention that has caused many to dislike the USA. But let us not forget that we are capable of being the good guys too.

How would the two world wars have turned out, had the USA simply remained neutral for instance? How many would have died had we kept out longer? Our enemies of those days are today our strongest allies; back in 1944 we had American soldiers fighting German soldiers every day, today they fight side by side against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, along with French troops and other allies.

Yes we need to have these debates over whether our nation should intervene in the internal affairs of another country. We do believe in national sovereignty; we ought not simply send in troops and planes to any country that has some disorder by any means. On the other hand, we should remember that in our own fight for our freedom, we may well have lost if not for the aid of foreign allies, and that in many cases people fighting against an evil tyrant like Gadhafi need the help of foreign power. To stand by while people are being killed, and let us not play word games, a 3 year old child is not a rebel soldier and yes Gadhafi’s murderous mercenaries are killing man, woman and child, is not being “neutral” it is almost like being an accomplice to the murder. Every day we do nothing, helps the tyrant in his war on his own people.

A no-fly zone would be a good start; air power is a particularly strong element in battle that can tip the balance and Gadhafi knows this. it is why he is using his air power to overcome the rebels as he knows that he cannot trust the army to kill its own people and he has only so many mercenaries. Yes this would mean that we may lose a plane or even some people, but there is always a price for freedom and don’t forget that foreign sons helped pay for our freedom with their blood too, so in a sense we owe it and being the only world superpower are the only nation that CAN really provide help to the rebels in Libya in a meaningful way.

We are warned that a no-fly zone will mean war, that we may end up having to go further, to airstrikes against Gadhafi’s ground forces, perhaps we might even have to send in ground troops because once we commit to the rebels we cannot lose. So be it; some air strikes against Gadhafi’s tanks and artillery would be very helpful to at least level the field for the rebels as the people are poorly armed against tanks, armored cars and artillery not to mention military training, officers and tactics. Supply weapons to the rebels too – we can’t we are told, because of the arms embargo against Libya well that embargo truly in a legal sense applies only the Gadhafi and his government, there is nothing to prohibit sending weapons to the people. They need anti tank and anti-aircraft weapons especially, for a man with a rifle, no matter how brave he is, has little chance against tanks and helicopters.

We are warned that we could end up having to send in ground troops; well yes it may come to that too. I am willing to bet that our troops would overcome the best that Gadhafi can put in the field without much trouble, and our troops could be used in a judicious manner, to help the rebels where they need it the most. We would not need to send in massive armies to be enough to topple the dictator and I doubt that it is necessary at all. The Libyan people do not lack the courage or the manpower, only the heavy weapons, ammunition and air power. If ground troops were needed at all, it would likely only be to protect civilians against a massacre by Gadhafi’s mercenaries. Is that not a noble cause?

While our respective governments fuss and dither, the city of Zawiya has been surrounded by Gadhafi’s henchmen and the civilian population are being slaughtered. Brave free men and women are fighting his killers every day in many different places in Libya. Yes we need to have our debates on whether we should intervene and to what degree, but we must not allow our debates to drag on so long while those freedom fighters are dying.

If I am sounding like a war-monger, then yes I may well be. War is a great evil, but unfortunately sometimes war is the only way to end an even greater evil. At least a war will end, tyranny can go on and on for centuries. One last point will end my political rant here; back in 1945, then president Truman had a moral dilemma over whether he should use his new secret weapons against Japan in an attempt to end the war quickly. He reasoned it out, that as terrible as the effects would be, how much more terrible the cost would be if he should choose not to use them, and how would he face the mothers of those sons who must die in a land battle to take Japan if they found out that he had such powerful weapons but didn’t use them. So we are today faced with a similar dilemma; if we intervene, we may well lose some of our own sons and daughters, we may lose some machines, we will kill Gadhafi’s soldiers and mercenaries and may even kill innocent people by mistakes, but think of what will happen if we do nothing. Gadhafi may well win the war by attrition as he knows the rebels have very little ammunition and he will not likely be gracious in victory, there will be a bloodbath as he punishes everyone he perceives as an enemy. Blood splatters, and by our standing by and doing nothing, some of the splatter from Gadhafi’s butchery will likely be on us.

Another argument we hear is that we do not know whom the rebels are, there may be some evil Al Qaeda or other bad element among them and we cannot put arms in their hands. I will grant that it is possible there may be some among the rebels whom we do not like, but clearly they are not the majority – this is a populist uprising, not some group of fanatic terrorists as Gadhafi claims. If some few of our weapons did end up in the hands of our enemies, it would be a tiny minority, the great majority will go into the hands of freedom fighters who need them and will appreciate them.

I may be a little biased in this case as I have a love of history, and Libya has a very rich history; from the days of ancient Carthage and Rome to the battles of Rommel and Montgomery, many important chapters of history have unfolded in this beautiful country. Libya has some impressive ancient ruins and the incomparable Sahara desert of legend, and I do have an attraction to desert lands. Were I wealthy enough to afford the trip, I would sooner make the trip to see Libya, than I would go to see the great pyramids of Egypt. I hate to see such courageous good people under the heel of a bloodthirsty tyrant and it bothers me that with all our power, we do nothing to help. Let us not do to the Libyans what we did to the equally brave Kurds when our president asked them to rise against Saddam Hussein and then did nothing while they were butchered.

Please email and call your representatives and urge them to intervene in Libya. It is quite literally a matter of life or death, and the death of freedom is not something we should simply stand by and watch.

Usually I don’t mind apologizing if my words should cause anyone offense, however in this case if you are offended by my words – tough. This is what freedom is all about.
Oroblanco

Unexpected discoveries

When talk gets round to the infamous Lost Dutchman gold mine of the Superstition mountains in Arizona, sooner or later someone claims to have found it.  Since the advent of Google Earth, the number of such claims has risen in frequency.  The problem is that none of them seem to have any gold to show for it, which is strange when we are talking about a gold mine, said to be the richest in the world.

While I respectfully disagree on the Lost Dutchman being the richest gold mine in the world, the Homestake of South Dakota or the famous Witwatersrand of South Africa may claim those honors, sometimes when you are out looking for something else, you make an unexpected discovery.  Then another, and another, until you find something quite unexpected altogether.

Such was the case for Beth and I, a few months ago.  We were in the Superstition mountains of Arizona, with three dogs all out searching for some trace of a fellow Dutch hunter (as LDM mine hunters are called) whom had gone missing over a year ago.  The area is fairly remote and the hike in is not for the faint of heart, and we were not having any luck at all in finding any trace.  The last thing we had in mind was looking for the lost mine.  So when Beth spotted the “rock face” near the trail, we simply took a couple of photos.

Then we found the rock corral.  The brush was very thick, but we kept on hunting, thinking to find anything that might help lead to our missing comrade.  Again we got photos, and went on with the dogs.  Shortly after this, we found the stone house.  How strange, we thought and did discuss it since none of these are marked on any maps that I know of.   A bit further on, we found a spring.  It was well hidden, and likewise is not marked on any maps.  Just above the spring, we spotted something unusual, something that didn’t quite look right through the brush.  So we fought our way through thick cactus and thorns only to find a tunnel!  At first I thought perhaps it was a cave, but it is no cave; it is very much man-made, and is also not shown on any maps – nor is it even near any known mine.  We spent some time investigating the mine and getting some photos and samples to have assayed, and recorded the GPS coordinates before heading back to camp.  It is, in every sense of the word – a lost mine.  It has a number of features that will fit the clues to the Lost Dutchman mine, from the “pointed peak” visible from above the mine to the South, to the spring close to the mine but a better spring further away.

Am I going to claim that we have found the famous Lost Dutchman gold mine?  Don’t hold your breath, however you can rest assured that we intend on returning to that mysterious mine, and will be spending time there on our next trip, assuming our lost friend has been found by then.  If he has not been found, we will be hunting for him first, before going back to the mine.  If it is the Lost Dutchman, we won’t carry the secret to the grave.  In the meantime, don’t waste your time asking any details on where this mine is located – it is in the Superstition mountains of Arizona, and that is as detailed as I will get.

Good luck and good hunting to you all, I hope you find the treasures that you seek.

Oroblanco

 

Wagoner’s Lost Gold Mine

The brooding Superstition Mountains of Arizona have drawn more treasure hunters than any other site in the USA. The great majority are hunting for the infamous Lost Dutchman mine of Jacob Waltz or the legendary Peralta mines, which have proven exceedingly difficult to find. Several people have apparently vanished in these mountains in recent months, despite repeated searches none have been found of four men currently missing. The Superstition mountains are not a place free of dangers and not a place to make mistakes. These mountains hide many mysteries.

With so much attention on the famous Dutchman mine, another lost mine legend frequently gets ignored or is assumed to be simply another version of the Dutchman tale; the lost rose quartz ledge of a man named Wagoner. I have not been able to find his first name, but he lived in the silver-boom town of Pinal (a ghost town today) in the 1890′s. He had come to live in the desert due to a physical condition said to be consumption but probably a lung disease, as many people were sent to live in the dry climate in former years for their health. He saw many specimens of rich ores brought into town by other prospectors and this gave him incentive to get out and do some prospecting on his own. He spent a lot of time prospecting in the Superstitions.

One day he happened to be north of the Superstitions near Tortilla Flat, nearly out of food and decided to cut across the range by following Labarge canyon south. On the second day of hiking he skirted past the famous landmark Weaver’s Needle. Continuing past there, somewhere on the southern side of the mountains he happened upon a stunning vein of rose quartz shot through with gold. It was the find of a lifetime, the sort of thing that a prospector dreams of!
Wagoner packed out as much of the ore as he could carry and continued traveling southward, making it to Pinal city where he sold the ore and did a bit of celebrating. In the ensuing days, Wagoner made repeated trips to the mine, often hitching a ride part way on the stage, always entering the mountains near what is today Queen Valley but telling no one where the mine was located. When he had accumulated enough gold, he left the area and never returned. To this day, no one has ever found it.

Wagoner did mention that he concealed the mine, like Jacob Waltz did with his more famous gold vein, but did leave some kind of markers as a clue in case he ever did need to find it again – he planted a circle of trees around the vein.
The mine is located somewhere east of Miner’s Needle in the broken hills, and Wagoner even drew a map for the stage driver to help him find the mine so that he too could benefit but the stage driver could not find it.

Is this the same mine as that of Jacob Waltz? There are interesting parallels like the pointed peak, in this case it is Miners Needle but otherwise it seems to be quite different; even the type of quartz (rose quartz versus white quartz) is a different type. There are fewer clues to help locate this mine and the one clear set of markers left by Wagoner may well have died (the trees) leaving nothing to discern the location. However perhaps some treasure hunter will happen on to it just the way Wagoner did.

Further reading, excellent article online at

http://geologypark.org/treasure/arizona/tales/az018a.jsp

Good luck and good hunting amigos, I hope you find the treasures that you seek.
Oroblanco

The Lost Dutchman Gold Mine of Arizona’s Superstition Mountains

The Lost Dutchman Gold mine

The most famous of all lost mines in the USA is the Lost Dutchman gold mine. So many books, articles and even movies have been done on it that it is questionable whether anything could (or should) be added to the volume of material already available. I have never published anything on it, for what is there to add? Every angle of this legend continues to be hotly debated today, with many participants divided into camps of “true believers” and “skeptics”, and these positions are very much set in concrete. Unfortunately for anyone new to this whole world unto itself, there is no “mine detector” available to help sort out the grains of truth hidden in a mountain of fiction, speculation and wishful thinking.

A major problem with the Lost Dutchman legend is the sheer quantity of pure BS that has been blended and pureed into the mass, giving rise to some of the most wild speculations imaginable. There are sources that claim it was a whole group of secret Peralta mines, that the Aztecs had it, the Templars, the Jesuits, and others. The evidence to support these ideas are thin in my opinion, not enough to make any conclusions at least. The story of the Lost Dutchman is traceable to a man named Jacob Waltz, also known by various spellings in the sources as Walz, Walzer, Walsh and so on. Waltz wrote his own name spelled like the dance, Waltz, and was not “Dutch” but German in origins. It became common practice to call him “Dutch” because of the way a German pronounces the name of Germany, it is “Deutschland” rather like “doytch” -land, so to Anglo ears it must be Dutch. Some skeptics claim that Waltz never existed but he is a historical figure and is fairly well documented.

The skeptics dismiss the story of his having a rich gold mine, saying it was all a story, it was gold he stole from a gold mine he worked at, (fill in the blank for which mine, the Vulture being commonly pointed to as it has similar ore, or the Mammoth, the Bulldog etc) or even gold bars he had filched from somewhere. This is nonsense. When Waltz died, he had a candle box full of ore specimens beneath his deathbed. According to the man who took possession of it, the gold was a gift to him, to finance his search for the mine; the man was Dick Holmes. Holmes spent many years hunting the mine and sold off most of the gold along the way, but a very few examples of it still exist. This is important for establishing the existence of Waltz’s gold deposit.

There is no evidence Waltz ever worked at the Vulture mine, we can lay that accusation to rest – author Helen Corbin did research this matter and found no record of Waltz being employed there. There is not even a bit of proof that Waltz ever worked at the Bulldog or Mammoth either. Waltz did by Vulture ore and processed it to recover the gold, as many prospectors did in the early days of the Vulture mine, but we will return to this shortly.

The linkage to Peraltas is very tenuous – for yes there were Peraltas in Arizona, and they did at one time own a rich gold mine they named the Valenciana. They sold the Valenciana and went into business, having had trouble with Apache raids. The problem is there is no record of any Peraltas ever owning any property of any kind in the Superstition mountains, where Waltz’s gold mine is supposed to be.

The “true believers” of the Peralta legend point to Massacre Field, where a number of human remains were found in the 1860′s by Cavalry scouts. One of the scouts was convinced the human remains were a lost party of Peraltas who were ambushed by Apaches. The other scout and the officer in charge of them believed the remains to have been Amerindians, and there is reason to believe this for the Pimas and Papagoes were very frequently at war with the Apaches, and a missing party of Amerindians would not likely get recorded, while a large missing party of Mexicans very likely would have been reported to the authorities. A key factor behind the one scout’s belief was that he spotted a gold tooth in the skull of one of the remains, so concluded it HAD to be Mexicans or Anglos, which seems sensible – however this is not good grounds. Even such a wild Indian marauder as the Apache Kid had a gold tooth, for one thing that the ‘Europeans’ brought to the New World that the Amerindians appreciated was dentistry. Other items supposedly found are pointed to as absolute proof of Mexicans, such as sandals (used by various tribes of Amerindians also) gold ore (believe it or not, a fair amount of mining was done by Amerindians themselves, especially in Sonora and Arizona where the Opatas and Southern Pimas were fairly successful miners). Two of the versions of of the Lost Dutchman, allegedly traceable to Waltz, include a story of his having obtained the mine from Peraltas, but there is a third version not popularly known which includes no such element. So bottom line, we just can’t PROVE that any Peraltas ever had any kind of mines in the Superstition mountains, while it may be possible and perhaps one day someone will turn up conclusive evidence for the time being this point is not overly important.

What we can trace is that Waltz was seen selling small amounts of gold in various places in the years after his having filed on a homestead entry in what is today Phoenix, including Florence, Tortilla Flat and at a jewelers in Phoenix. He did give a large amount of gold to his friend Julia Thomas to help her save her business when her husband left her with huge bills to pay. There is a draft of gold ore sent to an alleged sister of Waltz in Kansas of some $7000, a sizable sum for the day. This gold, and the gold found in the candlebox beneath his deathbed, came from somewhere. The ore was examined by an expert who stated it was unlike the ore from any other known source. Gold ore is a bit like fingerprints, in that the ore from any deposit is unlike the ore of any other deposit. A good geologist can identify the source of gold ore by examining it. Author Thomas Glover did assay tests confirming that Waltz’s ore is indeed unlike any other known source, meaning this is an unknown deposit.

Buried in letters and interviews done with old timers still living in the Great Depression, when writers were put to work interviewing the pioneers to get their stories before they were gone forever, is a slightly different version of Jacob Waltz and his mine. The story that emerges is not as exciting, mysterious and dramatic as the stories we get from Julia Thomas, Reinhard Petrasch or Dick Holmes, but is interesting on its own. Waltz made Florence his “base” for supplies and services, for what reasons we can only surmise. In Florence he hired another Dutchman who happened to be a carpenter, to build him a small portable drywasher. According to these “Pioneer Interviews” Waltz then took the drywasher and went prospecting in the Superstition Mountains, where few prospectors or miners would venture for several reasons – it was at the time a known Apache haunt and considered a good place to lose your scalp, and the geology of those mountains is not particularly promising to find gold deposits, or at least not to find gold deposits worth bothering with.

The story of the Lost Dutchman mine will forever be popular among treasure hunters, and many thousands of people will feel that “pull” to head into the Superstition mountains to see if they can piece together the puzzling clues and be the person who finally solved the mystery. Many have claimed to have already found it, pointing to various places which seem to fit the extensive list of “clues”, yet in virtually every case, none have brought out a sample of the ore which could be matched with the existing examples. The ore is the only evidence that can ever seal the case, sorry to those claimants who point to clues but only that curious and beautiful ore is an absolute evidence. Many have claimed or proposed that the mine was worked out, that nothing exists of the ore, yet this is unlikely in the extreme, for even around the most played out old gold mines, it is possible to find small bits of the ore remaining – it is virtually impossible to remove ALL of the ore. Also the nature of the existing samples points to a type of gold deposit which would not “play out” in a short time, as it is large grained, white quartz matrix, and large gold particles indicating a type known as “hypothermal”. Most rich gold veins in Arizona are not of this type, being epithermal or mesothermal, which produces colored quartz and small to tiny gold particles, but are also shallow in depth and quickly play out. Hypothermal deposits generally run to great depths, some have run to over a mile. Besides, the Dutchman himself said that the vein was in fact quite large, that he had to cover a long seam of it and that there was enough gold left showing inside the mine to make millionaires of twenty men – stated when the price of gold was set at $20.67 per ounce!

Waltz had a partner, a man named Jacob Wisner, also spelled variously as Wizer, Wiser, Weiss, and so forth. Wisner was also a Dutchman, and worked with Waltz for a short time at the mine. Due to an unfortunate incident in which a mule destroyed their provisions, Waltz had to go to buy more food. While he was gone, Wisner was ambushed by Indians, believed to have been Apaches. Wisner managed to escape, but was hit and hit bloody shirt was left behind. Waltz found the shirt on his return, and concluded that his partner had been killed. Wisner for his part, believed the Apaches must have gotten Waltz. Wisner ran and eventually crawled out to the friendly Pima Indian villages on the river, where he was found by some women who took him to Doctor Thorn Walker <EDIT – had mistakenly written Thorn, which is incorrect and a related lost mine>  but the good doctor was unable to save him. The arrow wound in Wisner’s shoulder was too far gone, and he died in a few days. Before dying, he gave a map to the doctor. Doctor Walker however was given a rich silver mine by the grateful Pimas he had helped, and never bothered to look for the gold mine. Waltz was haunted by the loss of his friend for the rest of his life. With the passing of Dr Walker, another chance for the gold mine to become located also slipped away.

One short paragraph on the controversial Peralta Stones, thought by some to be maps to lost mines in the Superstitions. Whether these stone curiosities are genuine or fraudulent, the man who found them (a policeman named Tumlinson) used them to search the Superstition Mountains for years without any success. Many others have also tried using them as maps to find treasures, also with equal lack of success. Just my opinion but these stone “maps” are not going to prove helpful to you as maps to treasures.

If someone were to find it, and it proved to be within the Superstition Wilderness Area, then the discovery was in some ways a waste of time and effort, for the area is closed to mineral entry so you could not legally file a claim on it. If you illegally started mining it, you could be arrested and all the gold seized by the government. You might be able to legally pick up a small piece of the ore and bring it out as proof of your find, (and I suggest this to be your plan, as the ore is the only thing that will settle the matter) but if you are trying to find a gold or silver mine to work for profit, I suggest you search elsewhere, outside of any “Wilderness Areas”. After all, there are over 300 lost mines in Arizona alone, if finding a lost mine is your quest, and hundreds more in other states of the west. The “fame” of being the one who found the Lost Dutchman will prove a fleeting honor with mixed benefits. On the other hand, the large city park known as the Superstition Mountains Wilderness Area is indeed very haunting and beautiful, if unforgiving to the careless or stupid, you could hardly choose a more gorgeous place to go hiking and exploring, which have benefits it is hard to put a price on.

Here are a few sites to get you started.

100 clues to find the Lost Dutchman

Over 60 Treasure Maps – does one lead to the Lost Dutchman Mine?

A web site with photos of the Peralta Stones, supporting their being genuine

An article arguing against the Peralta Stones

MUCH more is available online and in numerous books, just do your own legwork (research) and make your own conclusions.

Good luck and good hunting amigos, I hope you find the treasures that you seek.
Oroblanco