The Lost Dutchman Gold Mine
Treasure ignites the imagination, and imagination fuels its own fire. Amidst the hundreds of treasure stories in the world, the following one intrigues, puzzles and continues to fascinate.
The story starts with a misconception, that the Dutchman was from Holland. In fact he was a Deutscheman, a native of Germany. His name was Jacob Waltz. Well over six feet tall, Jacob was a physically imposing man with the bearing of a Prussian soldier.
Educated as a mining engineer, he could not resist the lure of the California gold rush of 1848 and came to the United States with dreams of striking it rich. Success in California, however, eluded him and in the early 1860s Jacob arrived in Arizona as a prospector. There is a recorded mining claim of Waltz’s filed in the Walker Mining District near Prescott. Like so many others who sought after the elusive dream of gold, Jacob’s claim brought little reward.
In 1863, a discouraged Jacob Waltz hired on as an ordinary miner at one of the most famous gold mines in Arizona, the Vulture Mine, located near Wickenburg. While employed at the mine, Jacob saw the dream of striking it rich come to life, as millions of dollars of gold were extracted for the benefit of the owners. Envious, some of the hired hands also began removing gold illegally for their own gain. “High-grading” ore in their lunch pails, in the cuffs of their trousers, and in their pockets, they removed unknown amounts. In the early days of mining at the Vulture, when excitement was running high about the quality and quantity of the ore being mined, the owners did not realize how much gold was being “high-graded.” Some of the miners were becoming very rich men.
Astute in the ways of the world, Jacob Waltz realized what was happening at the mine, but his attention was diverted elsewhere. While living in the mining camp, he had met and fallen in love with a lovely young Apache girl named Ken-Tee. This growing relationship was frowned upon by the local inhabitants, who disapproved of any form of serious fraternization between a white man and an Indian woman. In fact, marriage to a native American was against the law. But the attraction between this austere Deutscheman and this nature-loving Indian woman remained strong.
The owners of the Vulture eventually began to realize the extent of the “high-grading” being practiced. Jacob Waltz and several other miners found themselves accused and threatened with legal repercussions. Living quarters and belongings were searched. One hundred seventy-five thousand dollars in gold was found. The miners caught with gold in their possession were arrested for theft. Jacob Waltz and several others were suspected of being a part of this theft, but no solid proof was ever found to back up this belief. Nonetheless they were fired and told to get out of Wickenburg, and stay out.
Jacob and Ken-Tee moved southeast to an area near Mesa about 13 miles from the Superstition Mountains. There they built themselves a home. The neighbors, few and widely scattered, paid little attention to the newly arrived couple. Life took on a rhythmic flow of contentment.
While living in Mesa, Waltz met another German prospector, Jacob Weiser. The two men soon became good friends and often would go into the mountains prospecting for gold. They knew that somewhere out in the vast expanses of Arizona, there were riches to be found and they wanted to be the ones to find it. For several years Jacob settled into a routine of companionship with Ken-Tee and episodic adventures searching for gold with his countryman, Weiser.
Weaver's Needle in the distance (Courtesy Arizona Historical Foundation, Hayden Library, Arizona State Universtiy, Tempe)
On one occasion, the two men were prospecting in the mountains near Nogales, Mexico. They heard about a fiesta which was taking place in the neighboring town of Arizpa. Intrigued with the bustle and activities of the festival, the two Jacobs decided to go for a drink in the local saloon. There they watched a card game which was in progress. One of the players was the son of Don Miguel Peralta, the fabled Mexican cattle rancher.
Waltz and Weiser soon noticed that the card dealer was cheating and informed the young Miguel Peralta. Miguel, angry that the card game was rigged, accused the dealer, who vehemently denied everything. The argument escalated into a gunfight, leaving the card dealer dead, young Miguel shot in the chest, and Weiser wounded with a bullet in his arm.
Weiser and Waltz immediately found medical help for Miguel, thereby saving his life. In order to repay the two men, young Miguel invited them to the Peralta hacienda and during their visit told them about his father’s mine, which was now a part of the United States. He then offered them a proposition. If the two prospectors would become his partners, he would show them where the mine was located. As Americans, they could lay claim to it, mine it and then all three of them could share in the profits.
A party was outfitted and the three men traveled north to the Superstitions. Miguel remembered the location of only one entrance to the mine. When they reached that shaft, they proceeded to extract about $30,000 in gold.
Taking his share, young Miguel returned to Mexico. Waltz and Weiser continued working the mine for some time. Waltz often returned to Mesa to be with Ken-Tee and to get more supplies. On one trip, Waltz stayed a little longer than usual. When he returned, he found Weiser’s dead body pierced by a dozen arrows. Waltz hurriedly buried his partner and returned to Mesa, fearful of another Apache attack.
But it was already too late. The Apaches were watching and followed Waltz. When they saw that he was living with Ken-Tee, the Indians became convinced that it was she who had shown the location of their sacred treasure to the white man. Outraged that one of their own people had betrayed their Thunder God, they planned revenge. During the early morning hours, they raided Waltz’s house and carried off Ken-Tee.
Waltz and a group of neighbors quickly followed in pursuit. The raiding Apaches were attacked and during the fight they released Ken-Tee. Waltz leaped off his horse, rushed to the fallen Ken-Tee and cradled her in his arms. “My darling, my treasure, what has happened?” The young woman raised her hand to Jacob’s craggy face, and opened her mouth to speak, but only blood gushed out. The Indians had made certain that she would never speak again. As Jacob held Ken-Tee in his arms, her life slowly slipped away.
Waltz was utterly devastated, not only by the death of his beloved Ken-Tee, but also by the death of his best friend and partner, Weiser. In the aftermath of his grief, he became a secretive loner who often took to drink. Unable to bear the memories that haunted his home in Mesa, he moved to a house in Phoenix near Buckeye Road and Seventh Street.
From that time on, he would occasionally venture out from Phoenix, disappear for several weeks and come back with large quantities of gold ore. Waltz would then take his ore to the local Wells Fargo office and ship it to the United States Mint in San Francisco. In due time, he would receive thousands of dollars in return. In the excitement of the moment, Waltz would spend some of his money in the local saloons and become roaring drunk. Sometimes he would brag about knowing where there was enough gold to pave every street in Phoenix.
Jacob Waltz became a figure of speculation and fascination in Phoenix. Between 1870 and 1880, word of his drunken mutterings began to spread. People gossiped about a man living in Arizona, called “the old Dutchman,” who had discovered a gold mine so rich that he could go to it and pick up a sack of almost pure gold anytime he wanted. Attempting to discover the source of his treasure, people tried to curry his favor. Others took to spying on him, following him wherever he went. Viewed as an eccentric local celebrity, reporters and writers tried to interview him.
But, Jacob Waltz rebuffed all advances. Suspicious of everyone, and jaded by the calculating glitter in the eyes of strangers who pretended friendship, he remained a loner. There was only one thing that he did participate in: shooting contests. Perhaps he hoped that his prowess with a rifle would discourage those who might want to kidnap him and force him to reveal his secret. All the while his reputation continued to grow. Did he ever feel like a fledgling mockingbird surrounded by greedy cats?
In February 1891 the old Dutchma
n’s luck finally ran out. A disastrous one-hundred-year-flood struck, devastating Phoenix. Situated near the north bank of the Salt River, Waltz’s house was caught in a sudden onslaught of water. He was forced to climb a tall cottonwood tree which stood near his home. Eighty-three years old, Waltz lashed himself to the tree, knowing that lack of sleep or fatigue would cause him to lose his grip, plunging him into the swirling waters.
Two days later, he was sighted, rescued and taken to the home of Mrs. Julia Thomas, who owned a boarding house and confectionery store. But, the exposure had caused him to contract pneumonia, at that time a death-causing disease. The old Dutchman hung onto life, fighting as best he could. He died several months later.
Jacob Waltz was barely laid in his grave, when a rumor started that during his last moments, as a gesture of gratitude to Mrs. Thomas, he had revealed to her the whereabouts of his mine.
Mrs. Thomas’ actions certainly suggest that something important had transpired just before his death. With no explanation to anyone, Mrs. Thomas sold her store and, taking with her a 17-year-old boarder, Rhinehart Petrasch, she set out for the Superstition Mountains. After some months of searching, she appealed to Rhinehart’s father and brother, who were experienced prospectors, to join them. The search continued for another year before it was abandoned.
Many years later, when Mrs. Thomas was quite old, she revealed to Jim Bark, a prominent Arizona rancher, the information Jacob Waltz had told her. “Waltz told me,” she said, “that the mouth of the mine could be found on a spot upon which the shadow of the tip of Weaver’s Needle, that well-known peak, rests at exactly four in the afternoon.
“Mr. Bark, the directions seemed simple enough,” said Julia, “until you realize that the sun’s shadow moves every single day throughout the year. But, we followed that shadow, we carefully searched the surrounding area. The only thing we found was a trench dug on a claim near Goldfield, but never a mine. I believed him,” said Mrs. Thomas. “It sounded so real. He said that the mine had a ledge of rose quartz with an additional few inches of crystal hematite. How could he have made this description up?” she muttered to herself. “One-third of those few inches was gold, and the rose quartz was generously sprinkled with pinhead-size lumps of gold. He told me that it was a king’s treasure waiting, waiting for someone to discover.”
Julia Thomas laughed bitterly. She had lost her boarding house and her store believing the old Dutchman’s story. “I think now he made it all up because he couldn’t pay me at the end. But he had gold. We all knew he had some gold—he lived on it for years. All I know is that he made it sound so very, very real.”
Beginning with a misconception, does the story also end with a misconception? The old Dutchman’s tale continues to be repeated throughout Arizona and throughout the country. It leaves more questions than it ever answered. Was there a mine? Was it the fabled Peralta mine? Why did Jacob Waltz never exploit his mine, return to Germany and flaunt the wealth he claimed was his?
Charles Hall and the Peralta Legacy
Around the turn of the century, a mining prospector from Denver came to Prescott to work. Charles Hall decided that while he was in Arizona he would look around for mining possibilities and check out the Superstition area. He was particularly interested in Goldfield Hill, which was not far from the site of the Peralta massacre. As he looked over the terrain, Hall began to question the part of the story that suggested Peralta had retreated to this mesa. Closely examining the type of rock on the mesa, he began to suspect that Peralta had in fact mined from the mesa itself. Charles Hall decided to try out his theory. He bought the mining claims to Goldfield Hill from some Mormon owners, and then put together a mining operation.
Hall decided to sink his first shaft directly down the center of the hill. What he found was high-grade gold concentrate. During the next few years, Charles Hall took out millions of dollars of gold from his Mammoth Mine. It now appeared that this man had finally found the elusive gold of Don Miguel Peralta and Jacob Waltz. The search was over, the puzzling questions resolved.
But what of the Indian belief that this sacred land of their Thunder God would punish all who trespassed? One day, after several years of successful mining, black thunder clouds began to build up and lightning flashed ominously over the mountains. At first Charles Hall was not alarmed; the area was known for its thunder clouds. Then the rains came like a river of water pouring off the mountains, joining together in an ever-increasing force. This also did not appear to be unusual. But the rains did not diminish, instead they became worse. An awesome flood of torrential waters crashed over the Mammoth Mine’s site. Machinery was smashed and thousands of tons of sand and earth completely filled the shafts, burying everything.
Hall, who was quite old by the time of this exceptional storm, made no further effort to resurrect the mine. Perhaps he finally believed the medicine men’s warnings. Perhaps he was just tired of adding more to his millions in wealth.
When he died, his daughters sold his holdings to George Young, a former mayor of Phoenix. Young sank a probe shaft down into the mesa, only to find an underground river of such pressure that in spite of the use of pumps working day and night, Young was unable to eliminate the underground water. The Mammoth Mine was finished.
Not everyone believed that the Mammoth Mine fully explained Jacob Waltz’s description to Julia as to how the gold was formed. These people wondered if there was yet another shaft, another mine still undiscovered.
A Final Discovery
One day, not too many years ago, a man named Alfred Strong Lewis went to visit a business friend of his who lived in the Superstition Mountains area. Al Lewis was so excited he could hardly form his words in coherent sentences. “I know it sounds crazy, after all this while, but I think, I just think I’ve found the old Dutchman’s mine.”
His friend, Ted Sliger, just smiled and said, “Hey, slow down Al, don’t tell me you’ve finally fallen for that old story.”
Al Lewis paid little attention to his friend, continuing to speak almost as if to himself. “I was exploring in an area just a short way from the northwest part of the Superstitions and no more than a mile from where the Peralta massacre occurred. That’s when I saw this large boulder. When I examined the boulder closely, I noticed what looked like a mysterious little entrance right under it. At first I thought I was mistaken. Sometimes things look contrived when in fact they are just a natural phenomenon. Anyway, I explored further and I found the remains of a neatly-dug passage. I decided to get me a few sticks of dynamite and topple the boulder. Ted, I found a shaft made of old timbers of ironwood. The wood was fashioned the way the Spaniards used to work ironwood over one hundred years ago. It looks like it might be an old Peralta mine shaft.”
By this time Ted Sliger had stopped smiling in an amused fashion, every ounce of his attention riveted on his friend. Al Lewis continued speaking, “I have a chance to buy the mineral claim for the area, but I don’t have enough money, can you help me?” Ted Sliger not only agreed to help Al, but contacted two wealthy business friends of his to also join in helping Al Lewis gain possession of the claim.
Later that night, the four men contacted the owner of the property and bought the mining rights for $20,000, backing the agreement with a $5,000 deposit.
When the men began to explore the shaft, they could see where someone had broken off chunks of ore which contained a high percentage of free gold. Everything seemed to point to this being not only one of the Peralta shafts, but also Jacob Waltz’s lost mine.
The four associates began to take ore out of the shaft as fast as they could, amassing about $42,000 in gold. Then the shaft abruptly stopped. They decided to continue the shaft further; when they started to expand it, they broke through a wall of rock and found themselves in what appeared to be another abandoned shaft. This one was of a much more modern construction. It appeared to be a branch of the Mammoth Mine’s mining shaft.
Exploring this shaft as far as they could, they discovered that
some sort of landslide had cut off the vein. The flooding of the Mammoth Mine seemed to have mixed up everything underground. The vein seemed to be gone, lost, broken and churned up in some sort of cataclysmic episode. The men brought some large dirt-moving machinery and began scraping and digging the surface around the two shafts. There was gold in every foot of the ground, enough to pay for costs, but not enough to make a profit. The men continued to move enormous amounts of earth in hopes of hitting the lost vein. Eventually they gave up. To work for costs alone was not enough.
What do geologists say about all these stories coming out of the Superstition Mountains area? Geologists tell us that the Superstitions themselves developed earlier than the age of mineralization. Weaver’s Needle is a volcanic plug composed mostly of basaltic rock which is not the right kind of rock for mineral ores. Could there be any circumstance which might cause some sort of mineralization in a volcanic area? It would have to be a rare kind of circumstance, they always answer. Occasionally, during a volcanic episode, a chimney vent is formed to allow for escaping gas. Later, during the cooling down period, the rock vent can become filled with minerals normally foreign to the area. Could that elusive vein of gold be a product of such a vent?
The saga of the Superstitions never seems to lose its ability to fascinate. Periodically a new book or a new magazine article will be published and a new rash of speculation will begin again, a new set of questions will be asked. Will the sacred home of the Thunder God ever reveal all of its secrets? Will new dreamers of great treasure continue to search for that tantalizing vein of quartz with its filings of pure gold?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Allen, Robert Joseph, The Story of Superstition Mountain and The Lost Dutchman Gold Mine, Pocket Books, Simon and Schuster, Inc., 1971.
Arizona Legends and Lore Page 7
