Clues to the Lost Dutchman Mine
The following is a list of Lost Dutchman Clues compiled by Bradley "Brad" Williamson (http://www.treasureexpeditions.com/clues_lost_dutchman_gold_mine_bradl ey_brad_williamson.htm). The actual clues have been culled from various sources over the last 145 years or so. Are they all accurate? I don't know, but they are often repeated.
It might be fun to see how many of the clues are used/solved in the History Channel show.
1. It lies within an imaginary circle whose diameter is not more than five miles and whose center is marked by Weaver's Needle, about 2,500 feet high, among a confusion of lesser peaks and mountainous masses of basaltic rock. The first gorge on the south side of the west end of the range, they found a trail which led them northward over a lofty ridge, thence downward past Sombrero Butte into a long canyon running north, and finally to a tributary canyon very deep and rocky and densely wooded with a continuous thicket of scrub oak. Then up a side canyon past water. Its about 200 feet across from a cave.
2. If you pass three Red Hills you have gone too far.
3. You can watch the military trail from the mine, but you cannot be seen from the military trail.
4. The setting sun shines through a break in the mountains and glitters upon the ore and shaft
5. You have to climb a short ways from a steep ravine in order to see Weaver's Needle to the southward from above the mine.
6. You can see Weaver's Needle to the south and Four Peaks to the north where Four Peaks looks like one peak.
7. From the cave you go about a mile up the same canyon, which runs north-south, until you find a ridge upon the end of which is a natural stone face looking upward to the east. Directly across from the face is a high narrow ravine where you will find the inclined entrance to the mine. Down the slope below the mine shaft is a walled up tunnel. The canyon can be identified further by the tumbled ruins of an Old Spanish-built stone house near its head
8. There is a roofless two room house made of heaped-up stones in the mouth of a large cave near the mine. The cave is near the bottom of a high bluff and faces northward and you need a tarpaulin hanging in the entrance to keep out the north wind and rain.
9. The shaft goes down upon an eighteen inch vein of rose quartz which is studded with pinhead nuggets of gold with and beside it, a three inch hanging wall of hematite quartz that is itself about a third pure gold
10. The first gorge on the south side from the west end of the range. There the trail is marked northward over a lofty ridge. Then on down past a high pinnacle rock into a long canyon running north, and finally through a tributary canyon which is very deep and rocky. Traces of mining operations are to be found on the southern slop of the mountain in front of a hat-shaped hill at the entrance to a canyon of willows. Nearby are the ruins of a stone adobe house and a half buried stone monument.
11. Start from the first natural stone face near the western end of the mountains. From the direction of approach over the desert you have to go up the first deep canyon from the western end of the range, climb northward over the backbone of the mountains until you come within sight of a huge, sombrero-shaped peak. Travel downward past the base of this La Sombrero into a long canyon running north until you find on the east side a tributary canyon which is very deep, pot-holed and densely wooded with scrub oak. Then turn about and go back southward up this tributary canyon until you reach a point where the outline on the horizon matches the outline upon the map. You go up a steep tributary arroyo which seems to run right into the shadows of overhanging cliffs, but instead ends finally in a miniature hidden valley. The gold shaft is in this valley
12. In a gulch in the Superstition Mountains, the location of which is described by certain landmarks, there is a two-room house in the mouth of a cave on the side of the slope near the gulch. Just across the gulch about 200 yards, opposite this house in the cave, is a tunnel, will covered up and concealed in the bushes. Here is the mine, the richest in the world. Some distance about the tunnel on the side of the mountain is a shaft or incline that is not so steep but one can climb down. This is carefully covered. The shaft goes right down in the midst of the rich gold ledge where the gold can be picked off in big flakes.
13. Go to First Water, then to Second Water, then take the old Government trail to San Carlos. Where the trail turns south, you will see over the point of the ridge, you can look north and the Four Peaks are lined up to look like one peak. In the other direction you will see a high needle-pointed rock. In the canyon under you is the hidden camp. You can't get down there because it is too steep, but go to the mouth of the canyon and then back. You can find the rock house with very little difficulty. You won't be able to see it until you are right upon it. After finding the camp, come back out of the canyon. Across the canyon and up it is a side canyon. Go up this side canyon to a cave. Opposite the cave is a tunnel and the mine.
Notice there is no mention of any heart-shaped stones in the clues. All "heart" references only came into play after the discovery of the Peralta Stone Maps in the 1950's.
On the last episode, the team discovered the remains of an old rock house. This seems to relate to clue number eight (and clues 12 and 13), but the house did not seem to be in the "mouth of a large cave". Perhaps it is in reference to the "Old Spanish-built stone house" mentioned in clue seven. Or even the "ruins of a stone adobe house" in clue 10.
The team also discovered a "stone face" as mentioned in clue seven. I have to admit, though, it didn't look much like a face to me. Could anyone that watched the episode determine if the face was "looking upward to the east"? In fact, there appears to be more than one stone face (as evidenced in clue 11).
Clue nine talks about a vein of gold in "rose quartz". Rose quartz is relatively rare and you would think the distinction would be important to the team - yet they haven't mentioned it (at least not yet).
share