But the mine remains shrouded in mystery, so much so that it might not exist at all. Related Books & Gifts - Trading Post "The Arizona Expeditions: Third Arizona Expedition" +/-Manuscripts "Chlorutahlite Mining in Utah"; "Gold and Silver Tales" "The Daughter of Julius Caesar" "A Lost Gold Mine of the Mojave Desert" "The Miracle Nugget of Mariposa" "Chapultepec Canyon and the Gold Cache in Cedar Valley" "The Very Peculiar Record of Mary L. Black" What really matters, though, is that Waltz the namesake Dutchman, or "Deutsch" (German) man wouldn't reveal the mine's location. However, the article that appears here is far from verbatim. 623.934.6882 Spaniard Don Joaquin conducted mining exploration in the Sierra Estrella Mountain Range south of Phoenix, Arizona in the mid-1800s. After the mine became unprofitable, Miguel Peralta turned to fraud. You'll also get to witness an old west gun fight performed by the famous Goldfield . Waltz fell ill and died in 1891, but not before revealing the location of an alleged gold mine to Julia Thomas, the neighbour who cared for him. One story describes the journey of a discharged soldier who followed Pegleg's trail from Yuma to Los Angeles. By 1869, water was once again flowing from the ancient Hohokam canals for the first time in 400 years into the fertile land of what would later become known as Phoenix. 480.982.0276 The miner confided his discovery to Dr. DeCourcy, and they made plans to search for the buttes as soon as he was well enough to travel. Get-rich-quick schemes are as American as the Fourth of July. No one was ever able to follow the Indian into the desert to discover his secret gold mine. Most of the stories of lost mines had to them an Indian annex. Sign up below or read more about the DesertUSA newsletter here. But to find the big gold payout, theyll put their lives on the line by diving deep beneath the raging waters of one of Alaskas wildest creeks. 8284 Lost Mine Rd. Lost Pick Mine of Old Arizona: Hidden Gold Remains Hidden By Andrea Aker December 29, 2009 8325 7 Excerpt from In Old Arizona by Marshall Trimble, the state's official historian. Ed Schieffelin, who discovered the Tombstone mines, would later search diligently for the lost mine, but if he found it, he never told. Common reasons for the mines being lost include: Offers gold prospecting private instruction, day trips & vacationsin the Weaver Mountains from Sept-June. The third Indian legend is about a Yaqui Indian who lived and worked near Warner's Ranch. Mining flourished in Gila City until 1862 when a flood destroyed the town. Long before Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and grifter-socialite Anna Delvey, we had the Gold Rush and even today, plenty of Americans are still fixated on an either long-lost or fictional gold mine in Arizona's Superstition Mountains. Depending on the purity of the silver, various estimates place the value of the silver cache at close to one million dollars. (Jameson, 2009). Already in the 16th century, Spanish Conquistadors roamed the area, looking for the precious metal. The Indian said he had seen much larger pieces of the same substance and started off to show him the treasure. The quartz veins of the mine produced 366,000 ounces of gold over the next century. Returning down Cherry Creek, prospecting continued up the Pinto Creek and Pinal Creek Valleys. Updated June 25, 2020 One searcher claimed to have found veins of gold in a narrow canyon just south of the Mazatal Mountains (near Four Peaks on Maricopa/Gila County borders). Some 8,000 people each year try to find it. #scotland #sanquhar #magi, Townspeople probably think Im a witch. Doc is just one of an endless stream of treasure hunters in search of the. Robsons Mining World, Wickenburg: Pan for gold with guided instruction and view the worlds largest collection of antique mining equipment.. OnlyInYourState may earn compensation through affiliate links in this article. International mysteries, vintage maps, hidden treasure Explorers Justin and Emiliano are on the case. The country for miles around was searched carefully to find the source of his wealth, which could not have been very far distant. Are Electric Highways the Way of the Future? Around 1870, two U.S. Army soldiers discover a vein of almost pure gold in or near the. He died in California on May 10, 1934, at the age of 70. Briefly narrated, it is this: In the summer of 1869, Abner McKeever and family were ambushed by Apache Indians on a ranch near the Big Bend of the Gila River. Lost Goldmine and Cougar Loop. The second significant gold discovery was made by Pauline Weaver (of Weavers Needle fame) in 1862 on the Colorado River at La Paz. Neither she nor dozens of other seekers in the years that followed were able to find the "Lost Dutchman's Mine." This story was based on the adventures of a young surgeon named Thorne, who, having cured the eye troubles of a couple of Apache Indians where he was stationed, was induced to visit the Indian village where there was an epidemic of the same disorder. None of these maps featured any real location of the mine. A man named Ross Browne, in 1863, said that at the store of Hooper & Hunter in Arizona City he saw masses of pure gold as large as the palm of the hand, brought in by adventurers who stated that certain Indians had assured them that they knew places in the mountains where the surface of the ground was covered by the same kind of yellow stones. However, when asked if theyd been lucky as of late in their gold-seeking endeavors, one man was only willing to say that he finds enough to keep him interested.. He disappeared, as usual, one night, and never returned. When they failed, it is reported they sold copies of a map for $7 each. Flannigan made several unsuccessful attempts to return to the find, but he dreaded the desert and never went very far from the river. Gold Mining Clubs & Dig Sites It is open daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year. McClintock began his career working at the Salt River Herald (later known as the Arizona Republic). The Superstition Mountains to the east of Phoenix, AZ reportedly holda legendary motherlode of gold known as the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine. I had been prospecting out of Prescott AZ. One searcher claimed to have found veins of gold in a narrow canyon just south of the Mazatal Mountains (near Four Peaks on Maricopa/Gila County borders). Through the years, truth and fiction about this mine have been irrevokably mixed up, producing 62 varieties of the legend. As he was nearing death in 1891, Waltz was being cared for by Julia Thomas, an acquaintance with whom he shared the golds location. Superstition Mountains (in some versions they are told the location by a grateful member of the Peralta family, whose life they saved). The gold trail led through New Mexico, Tucson, and Yuma to California. Apache Before the Storm, Edward S. Curtis, 1906. - arizona gold mine photos et images de collection Where he digs for gold and searches for the legendary lost Dutchman mine. Subsequent searchers have sometimes met with foul play or even death, contributing to the superstition and legend that surround these mountains. Goldfield Ghost Town, Goldfield: Stop in at the Prospectors Palace to learn the art of panning from a gold historian. Basin. Many were willing to tell me where I could buy my own panning tools and I also learned that gold is easiest to find after a hard rain. Wanting to retire in 1866, he sold 80% of the mine to Benjamin Phelps and other East Coast investors. One of the most popular Arizona legends also happens to be one of the most deadly: the Lost Dutchmans gold mine. Governor A.P.K. If only it were that easy. Men who claimed to have found the Peralta mine were unable to return to it, or some disaster occurred just before they could file a claim, all adding to the lore of a "lost mine.". Digging for Gold Today Stars Jesse Feldman Josh Feldman Clark Moore See production, box office & company info Add to Watchlist (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); DesertUSA Newsletter -- We send articles on hiking, camping and places to explore, as well as animals, wildflower reports, plant information and much more. New Evidence About the Lost Dutchman Mine But only rarely is it spectacularly visible from Earth. Copyright 2007-2023 & BIG THINK, BIG THINK PLUS, SMARTER FASTER trademarks owned by Freethink Media, Inc. All rights reserved. After about a decade, the story sank into obscurity, regaining notoriety when it had acquired more spectacular aspects, in a fashion not dissimilar to a game of Chinese whispers. Jacob Waltz moved to Phoenix and died in 1891, at the age of 83. In the early 1850s, the Colorado River crossing at Yuma became a major route for gold seekers from the East. 602.274.2521 There are quite a few lost Spanish mines in Arizona the Lost Dutchman is the most famous of them but there are the Lost Padre, Geronimo's . But, the two prospectors had discovered some wonderful gold diggings, from which an almost impossible quantity of dust had been accumulated by a couple of days work. Weekly, he fields questions from visitors who want to know where the gold is. Let me know at [emailprotected]. When we arrived, the parking area held a variety of license plates, from California to Florida. The gun had been there so long that even the hammer and trigger had rusted away. The country has been thoroughly prospected since that time and mines of importance have been worked in that vicinity, but the nearest approach to the discovery of the old-time bonanza has been in the finding of placer gold in several of the gulches. During the 1830s and 1840s, Pegleg settled down and started a trading post along the Oregon Trail in Idaho, specializing in the sale of horses. Written by James Harvey McClintock in 1913, compiled and edited by, Byways & Historic Trails Great Drives in America, Soldiers and Officers in American History, Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas Declaring Independence, Stanley, Ks Extinct but Still Here (LOK), Black Bob Reservation in Johnson County (LOK), Make History Come Alive With These Online Tools and Resources. 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