Through the mists of legend, can we discern the truth? Not always. Arizona is replete with stories of lost mines. There are lists, books and Web sites. Very few of the publications acknowledge that no "lost mine" has ever been found.
It always fascinated me that someone could discover a fabulous mineral deposit, spend time tunneling into solid rock and then, lose the mine. Gold and silver are heavy metals. I have a hard time believing that if I had a pile of gold, I could somehow lose it. Even though gold is not easy to carry around, it is so valuable that I doubt I would just leave it lying around. Likewise, if I spent days and weeks, perhaps years, tunneling into the side of a mountain, I probably would remember where it was. As I have pointed out in previous posts, there are over 6 million people in Arizona now, averaging almost 50 per square mile. With all of the hiking, camping, ATVs and other vehicles, it seems almost impossible that there are "undiscovered" mines in the state.
Reality has never been a strong point with those who promote UFOs, Monster Animals or Lost Mines. Lost mines and lost treasures are typical of this type of story. Ship wrecks to the contrary, most of the persistent stories of lost gold and silver involve robberies of some kind or another. (You might note that there haven't been that many ship wrecks in Arizona). The robbers always stash the loot, usually thousands of pounds of gold, in some unlikely spot and then all get killed before they can return and claim their ill-begotten gains. Unfortunately, the stories never tell how a few robbers are able to transport the thousands of pounds of gold to the stash point. It is also absolutely certain, that those who believe cannot be dissuaded by the truth. When I was a lot younger, we had an older desert rat of a man who used to come into the law office where I worked. He returned from time to time and I learned that he was trying to raise money for a mine. He claimed to have discovered the Lost Dutchman Mine. I guess he never got the funding because supposedly the mine is still lost.
Maybe this was the reason that I got started on reading about lost mines in Arizona. For years I researched the mines and read everything I could find printed on the subject. The most famous mine story is that of the Lost Dutchman Mine, supposedly in the Superstition Mountains east of the Salt River Valley. The "Dutchman" was really a German immigrant named Jacob Waltz or Walz. He was reportedly born in 1810 in Wurttemberg and died of pneumonia on October 25, 1891 in Phoenix, Arizona. Likely, the report of a mine came about as a result of a dying man's attempt to explain away his "high grading" activities. High grading was the practice of hard rock miners taking high grade ore and smuggling it out of the mine in sort-off pre-social security system. Coincidentally, a major gold strike was made in the area at the base of the Superstition Mountains in 1892. There were 50 working mines and millions of dollars in gold was mined. If there was a mine near Weaver's Needle in the Superstition Mountains, then it was likely the one found.
More on lost mines later.
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