The Dutchman's Lost Gold Mine ~ Superstition Mountain

Traveling in the west, there are many mysteries to uncover. One of those mysteries is found near Apache Junction. The Legend of the Dutchman’s lost gold mine holds many mysterious clues. Some claim it truth while others think it just a myth. Though no one seems to know when the old miner found the mine, there is however, an understanding of when it was lost. Upon the Dutchman’s time of death, he stated to Julia Thomas and the Petrasch brothers these last words. “The northwest corner of the Superstition Mountains. The key is a striped polverde tree with one limb left on, a pointing arm. It points away from the rock, about halfway from between it and the rock, and 200 yards to the east. Take the trail in. I left a number of clues.” Then, he died.

But the story of the Dutchman’s mine does not begin there. Jacob von Walzer, known in America as Jacob Waltz, was born in Württemberg, Germany in 1808. He arrived in America in 1839 and on July 19, 1861, he is recorded in Los Angeles as becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States. Jacob Waltz had a close friend by the name of Jacob Wisner. In 1874, Waltz moved to Phoenix, Arizona. And here the story of the Dutchman mine begins to unfold. Waltz was nicknamed the Dutchman, a name that he would be called well beyond his death.

In 1877, Waltz and Wisner started working together on the mine. Time has given the story many uncertain twist and turns. What little of the truth is know is replaced with legend. It is said that the two Jacobs worked the mine together, one standing guard while the other mined. On a certain day, Waltz left the mine to get supplies; he was in town for five days. When he returned to the camp, he found the area raided and his long time friend missing. All that was left was Wisner’s bloody shirt with his Masonic pin on it. But then the story takes another twist... Legend says that Wisner escaped the Apache attack and fled to the home of John Walker. Yet there is question why Wisner would pass Jim Bark’s ranch and not stop there for help when he was injured. Legend also says that upon returning to the camp Waltz found Wisner burnt over a fire. And when people scoffed at Waltz, saying that he had shot Wisner, Waltz would reply “Go find Wisner’s grave. I buried him near the mine.”

Jacob Waltz never returned to the mine to mine for gold again. He never revealed its location and hid his trail by tying blankets behind the animals which swept the tracks away. He never filed a claim on the mine because he proclaimed: “I was not a citizen of the United States, nor had I declared my intentions of becoming one. So, for that reason I couldn’t locate and record the mine.” Why he lied about not being a citizen has made many wonder over his claim of even having a mine at all. Some believe he and Wisner stole the gold and hid it in the Superstition Mountains, while others believe there is a mine overflowing with Gold.

In the summer of 1884, two young soldiers found the mine by chance. They rode into the town of Pinal with their saddlebags brimming with gold. They claimed it was a “funnel-shaped mine in a canyon near a sharp pinnacle of rock.” To prove that the soldiers could find it again, they headed out for more gold. They never returned. A search party found their mutilated bodies dumped on the trail, leaving more questions and mysteries to the legend. The Apaches also claim to have a legend of an apache mine in the Superstition Mountains. They claim that in 1882, they hid their mine covering it with rocks and logs and natural cement. They claim that their mine was a “funnel-shaped” mine.

When Waltz was 80 years old he made his way back to the mine and hid the mine leaving clues for himself to find it again. He bragged, “You could drive a pack train over the entrance to the mine and never know it was there.” He died shortly after hiding the mine. After his death, Julia Thomas and Rhinehart and Herman Petrasch set out to find the mine. They went out in mid-summer when the Mountain was very hot. The Arizona Republican 1892 paper calls it “A Queer Quest in Search of Gold.” “Another ‘Lost Mine’ being hunted for by a woman. Mrs. E.W. Thomas, formerly of Thomas Ice Cream Parlor, is now in the Superstition Mountains engaged in a work usually deemed strange for a woman’s sphere. She is prospecting for a lost mine.” They stayed in the Mountains for five weeks and came out without any gold. Julia invested everything she owned into this expedition, but returned penniless. She never attempted to find the mine again. Rhinehart accused his brother Herman for not paying attention at Jacob’s bedside. The brother never spoke again. Over the next fifty years Rhinehart would search for the gold, until his eyes failed him. Upon realizing that he would never find the mine, he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. Herman died a few years later still searching for the mine.

This statement was made by one man: “For nearly two hundred years, treasure hunters have hunted for the fabled mine. A few of them may even have found it, but curiously, they all died before they could tell their tale. Is the mine cursed, as some claim? It is also worthy to note that those who claimed to have found it, did so by coming down an obscure trail from the north to the south, and not vice versa as most modern-day seekers do. They also all claimed they had to traverse a tunnel of some sort... When Jacob Waltz died, he left a trunk of ore and a list of clues to a hidden fortune in the Superstition Mountains. It has never been found. Legend or not, the Dutchman said ‘he found gold there.’ If it happened once, it could happen again.” ~ Lee Paul source http://www.theoutlaws.com/gold1.htm

Though Mr. Paul makes this statement “if it happened once, it could happen again,” there is another side to this story and many other like it. For two hundred years, many, many people have searched for this treasure never to return again or to come out penniless. Many have even been driven mad with their thirst for gold. The Dutchman himself who found it was not satisfied. The two soldiers never got to enjoy the gold they found, they went back searching for more. Julia and her partners never found it. She died a poor old woman, while the two brothers would never speak again. Both would die sad deaths. And the thousand others that went out searching only to come back empty handed. And what of those now who are still searching?

The Gold of the Dutchman’s mine will not satisfy. The treasures of this world will not last. The Dutchman died and did not take his gold with him. Julia died without taking any money with her. What people accumulate in this world won’t satisfy. Nothing this world offers will satisfy. The Word of God says “The Fear of the LORD tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied: he shall not be visited with evil.” ~ Proverbs 19:23. All of these men and women that went out searching for this treasure had some evil befall them. The poor Dutchman was accused of killing his only friend, of being a liar, and of being a mean man. He had gold that he hid and he invested his life in a lost cause. “A Good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.” ~ Proverbs 22:1. The truth is that all these people died and will stand before the LORD and the treasures of this world will not by their life. They will stand before the LORD their creator. “The rich and poor meet together: the LORD is maker of them all.” ~ Proverbs 22:2. The only thing that satisfies is the LORD Jesus Christ. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” ~ John 14:6. What are you seeking to satisfy? “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” ~ Ecclesiastes 12:13-14.