Junction

Okay, I can practically hear Morgan’s eye-rolling from here. And Abby might even be a little annoyed at this topic. But I’ve got a duty to cover any and all things with this. And it has been a suggested theory, albeit one that basically everyone has ignored, that the energy of the mountain might have something to do with our missing girl. And by energy I mean these things a lot of people out here seem to believe in called vortexes.

I’ll give you a minute to get your laughs out. Vortexes are a huge part of the New Age culture out here. Thanks to crystal shops like the ones practically blanketing Sedona up north. But I’m giving you another thirty seconds to get your chuckles out before we continue…

Time’s up.

So, let’s start ley lines since they’re more broad. What are these suckers? Well, they’re basically like invisible alignments between places of geographic importance. For example, several manmade monuments might sit along a straight ley line several to hundreds of miles apart. One more concrete example is in England where a ley line is said to run through the ridge of Malvern Hill, through several natural springs, and into a well. It doesn’t sound that impressive, but it’s believed that these alignments follow a spiritual energy and our ancestors knew something about that.

So what about vortexes? These are believed to be pockets of energy that can be the result of magnetism in ley lines. The really hardcore believers look at vortexes and think of them as places where the laws of physics won’t apply because the energy is that intense. Obviously that makes, like, zero sense given the Hawking definition of our universe means nothing can break the laws of physics (which is the reason backwards time travel isn’t a thing). But, if we humor this idea for a minute, many people believe vortexes can also be portals to another place.

This might have a little more grounding in reality, weirdly enough. There’s this thing called the many worlds interpretation that sounds like total science fiction, but a lot of scientists actually believe it’s possible. Basically, think of that episode of Doctor Who, “Turn Left” when Donna turned right instead of left and this whole other crappy alternative reality happened as a result. That’s the butterfly effect, that says one decision can alter the course of history. The many worlds interpretation says that there exists an infinite number of universes where you’ve made every choice you possibly could. If you got Qdoba for dinner last night there exists a world where you made the infinitely better choice and got Chipotle instead. Or McDonald’s. Or didn’t eat. Or maybe you died. For every option in life, there exists a version of you that took it.

So, our vortexes. Right now, it’s not possible to interact with these alternate realities (though some sci-fi writers think black holes might be a way to access them). But let’s say for a minute the gravitational effects of vortexes were true and it’s because there’s some kind of tear in spacetime (I know I sound super high right now guys), then it might be possible to find yourself trapped somewhere familiar but not the same at all.

Am I saying Rose got sucked into an alternate dimension through a ley line vortex? No. But I’ve given you the backstory on the more historical stuff, it was time to get a little out there when looking at theories.

So, at a certain point in history, you can say “okay, this is the thing that put this on the map.” There’s certain stuff that just wouldn’t be remembered today if that one thing hadn’t happened. Like the 20th century frenzy over Anastasia possibly surviving the Russian Revolution because one woman in 1921 came forward claiming to be her, and a slew followed. For the Lost Dutchman’s mine, and perhaps all the Superstitions, that one incident is the disappearance and tragic end to Adolph Ruth in the 1930s.

Adolph Ruth was an experienced hiker, not unlike our Rose, and was a well-known treasure hunter, capitalizing on the remnants of the Gold Rush era. The story begins with Ruth’s son, however, back in 1912. Ruth’s son, Erwin, was a lawyer who offered legal advice to a man named Pedro Gonzalez, who, in return, told Erwin about the mine and gave him to heirloom maps to the location as Gonzalez claimed maternal descent from the family. Erwin passed it on to his father who took great interest in another conquest for lost treasure in the wilderness.

In the early summer of 1931, Ruth, elderly and walking with a cane, set out on a two week journey into the mountains to follow the map. Ruth met many oppositions to his trek from friends, noting that at 66 years old and somewhat handicapped, it was a perilous feat. But, ever the adventurer, Ruth journeyed on. Two weeks passed and there was no sign of Ruth (is this starting to sound familiar?). Several search parties were dispatched but no trace of hims turned up as summer ended and fall brought nothing as well.

And then December of that year hit. A human skull was founded in the Superstition Wilderness. It was examined by respected anthropologist Dr. Ales Hrdiicka who compared the skull to Ruth’s dental records and several photos.

He positively id’d the skull as Ruths. The chilling part though, is what Dr. Hrdiicka discovered that did not match any picture of Ruth: two bullet holes in the head from a high powered rifle. The doctor noted that the wounds indicated the weapon had been fired at point blank range. By January 1932, it only got more bizarre.

More human remains were discovered that month, the body missing its head. The scattered remains were identified as Ruth’s by the personal effects and the pins in the hip which matched the ones Ruth had that forced him to walk with a cane. Also discovered was a journal and a pistol, with no missing shots. The map was missing. Within the journal was contained a handwritten message on Ruth’s checkbook claiming he found the mine along with the message: “Veni, vidi, vici.” Ruth’s death was ruled accidental, the result of heat or hunger, but that didn’t satisfy many in the town, especially his family.

What we can conclude from this is that Ruth did not kill himself, despite one assertion by authorities that that was the case. Even if Ruth had someone managed to reload his own pistol after shooting himself in the head (to account for the lack of missing rounds), it doesn’t explain that the wounds match that of a much more high powered gun. And how exactly did he go about removing his own head after doing so? To this day, most reject the theory that he died of any sort of suicide or natural cause in the desert. The story made national news after that and remains a mystery of history.

So, what do we glean from this? At the very least, people have been willing to kill for their belief in this mine. I have no doubt Ruth was murdered, like prospectors of old, for gold. We also have the most recent story of the Peraltas from a somewhat direct source thanks to Pedro Gonzalez. This fabled map, is still nowhere to be seen almost a hundred years later and the mysterious murderer, still anonymous. But Ruth’s story strangely preludes Rose’s own–at least I hope it doesn’t end the same way.

This is something that should probably also be a two parter, all things considered. But, the Peralta Stones are separate and we’re still on a Lost Dutchman kick. So, this week’s post is all about the stranger and headache inducing clues we’ve got staring back at us from the bowels of history. I’m not even sure you could classify these as “clues” since they raise a lot more questions than they answer, but with the advent of Google Maps and Siri, there might be some new ways of going about it. After all, I doubt Waltz could have predicted GPS or our ability to take photographs from the sky. Many of the clues listed below are my own abridged version of Waltz’s own clues and notes from previous treasure hunters.

So…here we go. It’s daunting to even start so I’m sorry if this post is coming off a little choppy, but it’s not like I’m getting points taken off for articulation….

Clue #1

It lies within an imaginary circle whose diameter is no more than 5 miles from Weaver’s Needle, which is its center. Go to the first gorge on the south side of the west range until you find a trail that will lead over the ridge and down to Sombrero Butte. Follow the canyon to the north until you hit a tributary canyon, along the canyon you will find a cave. If you hit Red Hills, you’ve gone too far. A second entrance is farther up the canyon from the cave, identified by an old house made of Spanish stone.

Clue #2

You can watch the military trail from the mine, but you cannot be seen from the mine.

Clue #3

The westward setting sun will shine into the shaft and upon the ore.

Clue #4

From the mine you can look upon Four Peaks and see it as one.

That’s about it for the clues I was able to translate into human speak. A lot of the stuff is repetitive. The hardest part is trying to make sense of it the way Rose might have. Though it’s not difficult to figure out words like canyons and gorge, it gets tougher when that’s laced in with counts of paces up from “gulches” and pinnacles. Mostly, I’m posting this in the hopes that someone else out there maybe has a better understanding than me. I’ve considered bringing it to Jenn, Rose’s hiking partner we interviewed but it’s hard not to feel silly chasing stories like this.

But Rose did seem to believe this stuff, which makes it important. So those are the most decipherable clues I could gleam from research. Not even help from the curator at the Lost Dutchman Museum could really lend a hand in figuring this out. But, what else is a century old mystery for? So if you think you can crack this code at all, give us a shout, otherwise look for our next update and my next blog post!

Hey there! So, last we left off our legendary Dutchman had passed away at a ripe age after catching a serious bout of pneumonia thanks to a freak flood in the valley. But, like all good tales, that turned out to only be the beginning. During his life, Waltz was said to boast of his hidden gold in the desert, so much so that he was often followed by would-be thieves. Well, he took the secret of the location to his grave…or did he?

Waltz had one confidant at the end–well, technically two. Julia Thomas was an innkeeper at an establishment Waltz frequented and was with him in his final days. It is said that it was to her and Dr. Walker, who attended him during his illness. He did this in the form of a crude map and cryptic clues (which we’ll delve into later). Turns out Julia and the doctor could not make sense of the clues and map and ultimately sold the artifacts for $7 and let the matter become lost to the pages of history.

And then there’s the soldier’s story. Depending on the source, this story could be dated before the time of Waltz’s death or after. But the story goes two army troopers came into town proclaiming they’d found a wealthy vein of gold in the desert. When their story was challenged they ventured out into the desert to relocate the gold and return with proof. However, they missed the mark on the returning part and were never heard from again. This is one of the earliest accounts of people gone missing in the hunt for gold, accounts that will only get stranger and stranger as time goes on, I assure you. Now, Morgan has sent me notes and insisted I include her own little tidbit below…

The story of the two soldiers is another account stolen from other parts of the southwest. I know it’s super tempting to think of this story as true, wanting to believe in the spooky aspects, but it should be noted stories like this were common elsewhere. In fact, the story of the soldiers is actually related to the true story of Dr. Thorne I talked about before. Like a lot of rumors, it got twisted and morphed to match the narrative and is now taken as fact. I hate to sound blunt about it, but it didn’t happen. But, as we’ve said, Rose probably believed it did. So it’s important.

…Anyway. There’s something of a gap in history after this. Without Waltz there to tell people all about his mine, and with the clues passed around and followed to no avail, the mysterious gold in the desert became a relic. And with the end of the American gold rush, diehard interest in getting rich quick off gold began to die off. In my next post we’ll examine the very cryptic and crazy clues a bit more closely since they’ll require some serious explanation (if there is any truly to give).

But, that’s the bulk of the original story of Jacob Waltz, our Lost Dutchman. From this point on, things only become stranger and stranger, so check back for more guidance down this crazy rabbit hole.

I’m back folks! And I’m here with another two parter but this time it’s going to be all me on both. This is the one all our posts have been working towards: the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine. For those of you who live elsewhere in the world, you should know this legend is like the lifeblood of this place. It’s one of those things that I don’t remember being told but I’ve just always known about. It’s so much part of the culture that museums and parks were named after it. So whether you think the story I’m about to tell you is real or not, the thing to remember is that a lot of people do. And a lot of people are willing to do crazy, crazy things because of that belief. So, here we go.

So, we know mining in this part of Arizona was a thing since the 1700s. We also know that the region had a penchant for the occult thanks to the spiritualism of local tribes. Also, the mountain just looks stupid weird, right? Like it juts up and right out of the earth in a freaky way. But that aside, this is where German-born immigrant Jacob Waltz enters the story (“Dutchman” is kind of a misnomer by modern standards). He landed in New York earlier in the 19th century and after some business ventures, decided to make his way out west to chase gold, like everyone else. We have documentation that he became a citizen during this journey somewhere in the American south/midwest region.

That’s another thing too, this part of the story is factual. There was a real Jacob Waltz who owned land in this part of Arizona and claimed to have struck it rich. Whether his tales are to be believed is the another story.

So, Waltz gets to Arizona and begins working in mines. His prospecting didn’t lead to much real success and he bought a farm around the Phoenix area. The story goes that he bought land, once owned by the Peralta family, where he and his partner, Jacob Weiser, stumbled upon a rich deposit of gold. Two different versions of events exist for what happened next. In one tale, Waltz murders his partner for his share of the gold and to protect the location of the mine. In another, Weiser dies of natural causes, leaving Waltz as the only living person with knowledge of the gold. Either way you slice it, Waltz ends up solo on this gold venture.

So, for a couple years he’s mining, coming into town, bragging about it, and heading back out to do it all again. Naturally he gets followed a few times but to no avail as those who went after him into the desert never returned. Another point of historical fact is how Waltz died. In the 1890s there was massive flood in the valley and Waltz’s farm was among the many places it hit. As a result, he contracted pneumonia and died shortly thereafter.

Now, this is one of those stories where the pieces become more and more famous after the death of our protagonist in question. With the exception of the possibility of murdered gold snatchers, Waltz lived a fairly typical and even boring rags to riches story that many people hoped to have happen during their hunt for gold. It’s what came after his death that truly put this mine and all its treasure on the map–or, maybe not? Puns. Anyway, that’s the topic for my next update. See you then!