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00:30Oh, my God.
00:59Oh, my God.
01:56Oh, my God.
02:00Oh, my God.
02:26There's a hidden history in this country that nobody knows about.
02:29There are pyramids here, chambers, tombs, prescriptions.
02:34They're all over this country.
02:36We're going to investigate these artifacts and sites, and we're going to get to the truth.
02:41Sometimes history isn't what we've been told.
03:07Somewhere here in the Superstition Mountains lies the most storied treasure in American history.
03:14At least that's what the legends say.
03:18It's called the treasure of the lost Dutchman, and I'm trying to find it on a piece of private property
03:24never searched before.
03:28Clues, carvings, and even a curse figure into this million-dollar mystery and are what led me here.
03:36But my quest to crack the case began with a tantalizing clue I read about, a treasure map carved in
03:44stone that just might lead right to it.
04:01As the story of the lost Dutchman goes, a man named Jacob Waltz discovered a massive mine that made him
04:08rich beyond his dreams.
04:11Everything he bought, he paid for with pure gold nuggets.
04:16Over time, what began as a simple story of a lucky strike took on a life of its own.
04:26The legend of the lost Dutchman was born.
04:30No one knows how much gold Waltz left behind when he died.
04:35In fact, people can't even agree on what kind of gold it is.
04:40Gold nuggets or gold deposits still lining the walls of his secret mine.
04:47I, for one, intend to find out with the help of people who know the story.
04:54This wasn't too tall of an order to have us meet here, was it?
04:57Not at all.
04:58It's the most beautiful place on earth.
05:00Yeah, it is.
05:01I understand you have a lot of history here.
05:04Well, my interest dates back to 1944.
05:06My dad was always a big believer of this lost mine.
05:09And I sort of followed in my father's footsteps, collecting and researching material and trying
05:15to put it all together and figure out if there's any truth.
05:18Most of the myths say that the legend of the lost Dutchman mine seems to be somewhere out here.
05:24Well, the stories are it's behind that mountain somewhere.
05:30Do you think that this mine exists?
05:33What's your thoughts?
05:34I know a lot of good men that have spent a lifetime back here looking for it.
05:37Okay.
05:38And they haven't found it?
05:39And they haven't found it?
05:41I know two actual homicides that have occurred back there.
05:44Uh, associated with looking for gold.
05:46Right.
05:46Okay.
05:51Ever since I was a child, I've heard about the curse of the Thunder Gods.
05:57Native Americans believe the Thunder God protects the sacred superstition mountains.
06:03As the protector of a great treasure, legend says he punishes trespassers.
06:09Some people attribute it to a curse.
06:12Some people attribute it to a curse.
06:12Maybe it's just simple greed.
06:13Greed and also the lack of knowledge and survival in there.
06:22Probably the most unique piece of evidence is Peralta stone maps.
06:26However, half the people believe them, half the people don't believe them.
06:29The Peralta stone maps are what enticed me to come here to look for the lost Dutchman's treasure.
06:35They were named after a mining family in the area that supposedly found the lost Dutchman's mine and carved the
06:41maps to lead them and only them right to it.
06:44No one really knows what they mean.
06:47Supposedly, the heart of the Peralta stones is a big deal.
06:50It's considered the key to the entire map.
06:53There's also a horse.
06:54What looks like a year, 1847, and a figure some have identified as either a priest or a banker.
07:01If I can figure out what they mean, and if they're authentic, I might be able to turn up new
07:06leads on the location of the mine and the treasure.
07:10There are so many people that believe they are absolutely authentic.
07:15There's all kinds of interpretations.
07:17Sure.
07:18If there's one thing that I've learned through looking at many different inscribed stones, there's always something to be learned
07:24from them.
07:25And I think you'd be making a mistake if you underestimated the potential value of these.
07:30They were first found in 1949.
07:33There's two stories how the guy found them.
07:35He stopped his car along old Highway 60, got out to go take a leak, and he stumbled onto these.
07:41The other story is that a Mexican laborer, he uncovered them, and he seen that they were strange and had
07:48Spanish writing on them.
07:50You know, in spite of all the stories, I've heard many times carved stones being fake, being real.
07:55There's only one way to find out, and that's to get your eyeballs on them.
07:59So is it possible I could see these stones?
08:01Yeah, I have a good friend, Ron Feldman.
08:04He's sort of an amateur geologist, and he ought to be able to help you find the originals.
08:09If there's any chance that these things are real and that they possibly have a clue that can help us
08:14find this mine, I've got to take a look at it.
08:16And if Ron is the guy that can help me see these stones, that's my next stop.
08:31The allure of a treasure just waiting to be found has attracted thousands of people here to the desert.
08:38Some of them never made it out.
08:41If there's a curse here, I don't buy it, but there's no denying some people would kill to find the
08:47treasure, and apparently have.
08:49In 1931, the body of Adolph Ruth was found, without his head, which turned up a half-mile away.
08:58But more often, a silent killer is to blame, the desert itself.
09:03In 2010, three Utah prospectors' bodies were found.
09:07They died after getting lost in the heat.
09:11And in 2013, a Denver man whose room was littered with treasure maps and clues he thought would lead him
09:18to the treasure,
09:19reportedly stumbled off a cliff and plunged to his death.
09:24I need to search smarter, and if there are clues on the Peralta stones, I need to see them firsthand.
09:41So, Ron, I recently met with somebody I think you know, Tom Collenborn, is that correct?
09:46That is correct, good friend of mine.
09:47He said that you might be able to help me understand a little bit more about the Lost Dutchman mine,
09:53and specifically about the Peralta stones.
09:55Well, I've hunted the Lost Dutchman mine for 48 years now, and researched it and been in the field.
10:03The rock maps were definitely part of my search for a couple years.
10:06I investigated them and where they came from, what they kind of maybe meant.
10:11There is basically two types of hunters for the Lost Dutchman mine.
10:15Those that followed the Lost Dutchman mine legend and all the stories that have been written about it,
10:21and then those that simply hunted off the rock maps.
10:24Do you think that there is a Lost Dutchman mine?
10:28Absolutely, undeniably, there is a Lost Dutchman mine, and it does exist in the Superstition Mountain somewhere.
10:33So you're saying you know where it is?
10:35I didn't say that.
10:37That's what I heard.
10:37Well, anybody who has seen what I have, found what I have, come up with the idea that the Lost
10:43Dutchman mine, number one, does not exist,
10:45or number two, it's not in the Superstition Mountains, is a moron.
10:49You know, most people who do not believe in the legend have never hunted for it.
10:55They've never put a spade in the earth.
10:56And the number one thing that's going to lead someone to the mine, if it has not already done so,
11:02ha-ha, is geology.
11:04It's geology, geology, geology.
11:06And without that, you're not going to find it.
11:08All the stories aren't going to put you, because they're only stories.
11:12Now, Tom said that you have stones.
11:16And the Peralta stones, to me, are a key piece of evidence in this whole mystery.
11:20Can you show me the stones?
11:22These are the Peralta stone maps.
11:26And they are pretty intricate as far as the carvings and so forth.
11:30I've seen a number of treasure maps on paper, parchment, and stone.
11:35And this might be the most elaborate treasure map I've ever seen.
11:40Um, can I pick this up?
11:43Sure, yeah, go ahead.
11:46Wait a minute.
11:48This isn't real rock.
11:50This is a replica.
12:21Wait a minute.
12:23Can I pick this up?
12:24Sure, yeah, go ahead.
12:25Okay.
12:28This isn't real rock.
12:30This is a replica.
12:32These are not the original.
12:34They were made so you could hang them on a wall, and you didn't have to front and back them
12:37when you look at them.
12:38But they are the same size, same scale, and they have everything on these maps that they have on the
12:44original maps.
12:45And I honestly believe that stone maps are BS.
12:50Okay.
12:51They were created for a reason, but it was not for hunting a lost Dutchman mining.
12:56But suffice it to say, they have become an important part of the story.
12:59A lot of people come hunting their treasure on it.
13:01All right, just for now, let's take them at face value.
13:04Sure.
13:04Let's see if maybe we can find evidence that they are connected.
13:08If you notice, this map and this map actually are front and back.
13:13So these two carvings are the same stone?
13:16That is correct.
13:17Front, back, one map.
13:19Same here.
13:19Front, back, one map.
13:20Right.
13:21Okay.
13:21That helps me.
13:22I was a little confused on that before.
13:24So you have the heart.
13:26And this, the closest that I might have thought at the time, could that be Weaver's Needle?
13:31Weaver's Needle is the most prominent landmark, a pinnacle in the Superstition Mountains.
13:35Like moths to the flame, all of the people that hunt this go to the Weaver's Needle's Lost Dutchman.
13:41Don just refers to Don Miguel Peralta.
13:44Okay, so that's where the name Peralta Stones comes from.
13:47Yes.
13:47It was the family and relatives of the Peralta family, and they were prospecting mining gold in the early 1840s.
13:55The Peraltas were an old and powerful Mexican family.
13:59Legend has it, they were ambushed and killed because they found the hidden gold.
14:05The 1847 is a very good date when the Spanish were in the Superstition.
14:13Let me ask you another question just to get a little more context.
14:17Before these stones were found, and that was when, in the 40s?
14:201948.
14:211948.
14:21Okay.
14:22Prior to that, was the Lost Dutchman Mine a prominent legend?
14:26Did everybody know about it in the community?
14:27Yes.
14:28The Lost Dutchman Mine story and legend is the biggest and most famous Lost Mine legend in the world, and
14:37has been for probably a century.
14:40All right.
14:40And the reason I ask that is because, was it these stones that brought it to prominence, or was it
14:45already a prominent story?
14:47It sounds like it already was.
14:48It already was, but these stones absolutely have helped it.
14:51Took it to a new level?
14:51Yes, that's correct.
14:52Well, you realize that for me to really do anything as far as trying to find information that can tell
14:59us whether or not these are old or whether they're authentic, I need to see the real stones.
15:05Well, that might be a job because they've been moved around from here to there, and none of us are
15:11really sure where they are.
15:13They're somewhere, but you have to track them down.
15:16Okay.
15:22You know, I want to jump on something that you said before that I have to say I completely agree
15:26with you.
15:27Geology, geology, geology.
15:29You have to get off your rear end.
15:31You have to get out in the field.
15:33You got to get your hands dirty.
15:34You need to get out there to find this thing.
15:37So where can we find some geologic clues that may help us locate this Lost Dutchman Mine?
15:43If you want some geology, I'll show you geology.
15:45You just meet me out front.
16:01All right.
16:04So, Ron, before you show me what you have, I'd like to show you something.
16:09Good.
16:11When I graduated from college, my first job was working as a field geologist for a gold company.
16:19And this is the kind of samples that we get with visible gold.
16:24It's very, very nice.
16:25But now let me show you a real gold specimen.
16:28Oh.
16:30Wow.
16:33That is very impressive.
16:35The gold is visible.
16:37It's all through the quartz.
16:38So this represents the ore.
16:41That's gold ore.
16:42Okay.
16:42From the Lost Dutchman Mine, probably.
16:44The Lost Dutchman Mine?
16:45Oh, yeah.
16:46Yeah.
16:47How do you know that?
16:48Well, about 1970s, a customer of mine, named John Cochera, told me a story that in 1962, he and his
16:57brother were out in the Superstition Mountains, and in some bushes on top of a mountain, they found some rotted
17:02saddlebags with 24 pounds of very, very rich ore.
17:05John was dying pretty quickly when I last talked to him.
17:09He said, would you like to buy the last six pieces?
17:11He know of my interest.
17:12Right.
17:13I said, sure.
17:14We took Cochera's ore.
17:15We also had a piece of Dutchman ore that we know came from underneath the Dutchman's deathbed when he died.
17:22You don't have it here?
17:23No.
17:24No.
17:24But Dutchman ore and Cochera's ore were the same exact type of quartz, and the results were there was a
17:3175% probability that those two ores came from the same place or a closely associated geological event.
17:39Well, that's a pretty compelling argument.
17:41Yeah.
17:41Not conclusive.
17:42No.
17:43But compelling.
17:44Nothing's 100%, but you go on what you got.
17:47Okay.
17:47Well, this is all great, but we need to get out there, and I want to see some gold deposits,
17:54hopefully.
17:55I'd like to get a better sense of where the gold occurs, what the general geology is around here, because
18:00one way or another, I've got to find that lost Dutchman mine, and I've got to get my hands on
18:06those Peralta stones.
18:15The legend of the lost Dutchman gold mine started with a guy named Jacob Waltz, and has persisted in Arizona's
18:24Superstition Mountains for close to two centuries.
18:28It's grabbed the attention of reporters, treasure hunters, and now me.
18:34Some people think Jacob Waltz revealed the location of the lost Dutchman mine on his deathbed.
18:42But I have to wonder if that's true, since no one's ever admitted to finding it.
18:52The key to solving this mystery may be comprised of the Peralta stones, four carved tablets that are mysteriously missing
19:00and said to be part of a treasure map.
19:04Treasure hunters have been using pictures of the stone maps to guide their searches for more than a century.
19:31Many passionate Peralta stone believers like Jim Sieglitz, the guy I'm on my way to meet, have reached out to
19:37me and hope that I can be the one to finally prove that the stone maps actually lead to the
19:42lost Dutchman gold.
19:49Well, Jim, I want to talk to you about the Peralta stones.
19:52It sounds to me like you have some information.
19:55You know Ron Feldman.
19:56I know of Ron, yes I do.
19:58He thinks the Peralta stones are a complete bunk.
20:01Obviously you don't, so I've listened to his side of the story, and I'm anxious to hear yours.
20:06I've made a hard copy of each of the stones.
20:09Okay.
20:10A lot of stories have been made up.
20:12A Spanish gold train or Mexican gold train headed back to Mexico was ambushed by the Apaches, and that gold
20:20really has never been found.
20:22Some people say that maybe that's the gold that the Indians placed in a safe place which the Dutchman found.
20:31Okay, all right.
20:33So you think that the Dutchman, unlike many other people who think he found vain gold, you think he found
20:39a cache of gold that was mined much longer ago in the past.
20:44Exactly.
20:45Gold comes in two forms.
20:46Solid gold comes in the form of gold nuggets, like the kind you think of people panning for.
20:52Vain gold is the other kind and is embedded in rocks like quartz.
20:56It has to be mined and extracted.
21:00Now, to smelt the gold, you would have to have what is called an arrastre to break the ore down.
21:07Right.
21:07Crush it up.
21:08Exactly.
21:09And the smoke would go out through an opening in the top, much like what is depicted on the Peralta
21:17map.
21:18You have the tunnel entrance, and you have a hole.
21:22And this was the Spanish way of mining gold.
21:24Exactly.
21:25Now, when you look at this, one of the first issues that people bring up is the 1847.
21:33On two stones, right?
21:34Exactly.
21:34Okay.
21:35To me, it has nothing to do with the date.
21:38It is an instruction.
21:39Okay.
21:40Take 18, take 4, take 7.
21:42That instruction is the number of trail markers.
21:47The trail marker starts at the dot, okay?
21:51And the line tells you what direction to go in.
21:54Okay.
21:55So there's 18 trail markers, plus the last one, that's a symbol for gold.
22:01It's a double circle.
22:03Exactly.
22:03A circle within a circle.
22:04Exactly.
22:05Okay.
22:05It has three meanings historically.
22:08Symbol of the sun, symbol for gold, and a symbol for the star Polaris.
22:13And the symbol of the creator, too.
22:15Well, that's true.
22:15Yeah.
22:16Just to play devil's advocate for a second, when we see the 1847 as what looks like a date,
22:23couldn't people accuse you of kind of picking the numbers you want?
22:27Oh, sure.
22:28Yeah.
22:28In trying to decipher the words that are here, you have to understand that the last thing
22:36they wanted to do was to make it plain to everybody around that may come into the mountains
22:44when they're not there, that that's what's going on.
22:46Right.
22:46And they certainly aren't going to tell anybody it's like they're not going to give away your
22:50honey hole for fishing or hunting.
22:52That's the reason why it's stoned.
22:54You got four stones weighing over 100 pounds.
22:57It's not something that somebody can grab, jump on a horse, and take off.
23:01Okay.
23:01Well, I follow your logic here, and it does make sense.
23:05And that doesn't make it true, of course.
23:07No, that's correct.
23:08But unfortunately, it's very difficult for me to do anything as far as the stones go,
23:13because I haven't seen the stones.
23:15I've looked at replicas.
23:16But if I was able to see the real stones, I might be able to say whether or not your
23:21theory
23:21is valid.
23:22So I'm hoping someday to see them.
23:25I don't know if that'll ever happen.
23:28At this point, I'm certainly going to consider your theory.
23:30I think this is really good what you've presented.
23:32But I also have to get up in those hills to hike around and see if I can find any
23:38evidence
23:38of the lost Dutchman mine in a vein deposit.
23:41Now, if I find a cash, that'd be great.
23:44But I think my best chance is finding some of the vein gold.
23:49Well, one of the areas that has been proposed by a lot of people is the eastern end of the
23:56superstitions.
23:58So you think that the eastern side of the superstition mountains is a good place to look?
24:02Exactly.
24:04Well, I can promise you one thing.
24:05I'll do my best.
24:07If you find it, save a piece for me.
24:10Deal.
24:34Back in the 1800s, Jacob Waltz was a German immigrant.
24:37A Deutschman who started spending gold nuggets instead of cash.
24:42People noticed.
24:45After Waltz died, the story of the lost Dutchman gold mine spread.
24:50Over the years, many have searched for the treasure, and some haven't lived to tell about it.
24:58More than a handful of prospectors have died from the intense heat and harsh terrain, while
25:05others may have been murdered.
25:10I talked to a tipster who interpreted clues on the alleged stone maps called the Peralta
25:14stones.
25:16He just told me to head to the east side of the superstition mountains if I want to get
25:21lucky.
25:37But before I head out into the mountains, I'd like to hear where Ron Feldman thinks I should
25:42search.
25:46That gold that you showed me, that quartz vein that was peppered with gold, you got me
25:51jazzed, so I'm going to give it the best effort I can.
25:54Good.
25:54Good.
25:54Very good.
25:55I pulled out this map of the superstition mountains because I received a tip.
26:00Now, this guy, unlike you, believes that the Peralta stones are legitimate and that
26:06they do refer specifically to the Lost Dutchman Mine, and he thinks they point to the east side.
26:11I understand you're more than skeptical, but I have to check out every lead.
26:17Well, everybody believes the Lost Dutchman Mine is somewhere, and we're all in different
26:22places.
26:22But you know this area probably better than anyone.
26:26Where would you suggest that I look?
26:28The superstition mountain range is 160,000 acres, and if you dissect a line from Canyon
26:35Lake Southeast, you're dissecting in the western half, the eastern half.
26:40The western side, geologically, it cannot support gold deposition.
26:44Okay.
26:44The eastern side does, and there's some private land, which not too many people have gotten
26:49onto to prospect on the east side, and I'd kind of like you to go right about in here.
26:55Okay.
26:55I think if this is the area you think is hot, I'll give it a shot.
26:59Good.
27:00Very good.
27:00What do you got in your hand there?
27:01This is a piece of what you don't want.
27:03This is fool's gold, iron pyrite.
27:06Oh, yeah.
27:07Many people have led lives searching for this, thinking they were rich when they found it.
27:11It does resemble gold.
27:13Its luster is not quite the same.
27:15During the California gold rush in the middle of the 19th century, many prospectors hoping
27:20to get rich were fooled by pyrite, which is where the term fool's gold may have been coined.
27:26But it wasn't worthless to everyone.
27:28It's been used as a component in radios, as a source of ignition in firearms, and even
27:34used as a cathode in some name-brand batteries, the material that electric current flows out
27:39of.
27:40But none of those things matter to gold rush guys trying to get rich.
27:44You know, the way that you can tell the difference between gold and pyrite, fool's gold, is if
27:50I take my knife, I can dent or I can part gold pretty easily.
27:55Right.
27:55If I run my knife across pyrite, it'll slide right across the surface.
27:58That's right.
27:59Because it's slightly harder.
28:00So that's what you don't want.
28:01Well, I don't want the pyrite, although gold does occur in pyrite.
28:05It can run with pyrite, yeah.
28:06But we're looking for quartz.
28:08Wait, that's right.
28:08You're looking for the mother.
28:09Right.
28:09That's quartz.
28:10Quartz is one of the most common minerals on Earth.
28:14The reason I'm going to look for it is because gold is commonly found inside of it.
28:19In fact, most of the biggest gold discoveries in history were found inside quartz, including
28:25gold found during the California Gold Rush.
28:28So quartz is what I want to find here, on the east side of the superstitions, where both
28:34Ron and Jim told me to look.
28:37Well, two different points of view.
28:40Take you to the same place.
28:41That's right.
28:42It doesn't matter how you get there, as long as you get there.
28:44That's correct.
28:56I really want to figure out if the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine is a real location or just an Arizona
29:02legend.
29:04And since I'm searching private land and superstitions that no one's searched before, maybe I have
29:11a better shot than countless others who came before me.
29:17Two different people have told me to search here.
29:19They've got different theories, but both of them lead to the same place.
29:25This is the spot where legends and the Peralta stones, clues carved into a stone treasure map, seem
29:32to connect, right down to the circle on the map a tipster showed me, a symbol he says represents
29:38gold.
29:41There seem to be two possibilities when it comes to the treasure itself.
29:45One is that it's a stash of mined gold that was hidden away by Apache natives and discovered
29:51later by the Dutchman Jacob Waltz.
29:54The other is that it's a mine filled with gold still lining its walls.
29:59I guess the only way to know what the treasure is, is to find it myself.
30:06I'm checking the rocks around here to see if any of them are quartz with gold running through
30:11them.
30:12If I find some, they could hint at a mine nearby.
30:16There's iron and sulfate there.
30:23There's some promising indicators.
30:55Okay, quocha!
31:14Whoa!
31:15Whoa!
31:16Whoa!
31:18Whoa!
31:21Look at this creature, fish!
32:10This is perfect.
32:14These three minerals are usually found in the same place as quartz, so finding them here
32:19means I could be on to the Dutchman's lost mine.
32:42There's gold in here.
32:45This is perfect.
32:49Who knew I'd actually find some gold to show Ron?
32:53But even though I found gold, I'm not so sure I found the gold, a piece of the lost Dutchman's
33:00treasure that Jacob Walt stumbled upon almost 200 years ago.
33:18I'm meeting Ron to show him what I found in a place called Goldfield.
33:24In the quest to find the lost Dutchman's treasure, it's a place I think deserves a good hard
33:30look.
33:30Today, it's pretty much a ghost town, but in 1892 it was anything but.
33:37Just one year after Jacob Waltz's alleged deathbed confession of the whereabouts of his mine, someone
33:44discovered a mine here and extracted a massive amount of gold.
33:48gold.
33:50What I want to know is whether that mine, called the mammoth mine, and the lost Dutchman mine
33:55could actually be one in the same.
33:59If that's true, people could have overlooked the fact that we've known where it was all
34:03along.
34:05Maybe the lost Dutchman's mine was never lost at all.
34:12So Ron, this is the town of Goldfield, right?
34:16Yep.
34:16Let me guess.
34:18The name is self-evident, right?
34:19That's right.
34:21These are the Goldfield Mountains.
34:22These were the gold fields.
34:24And that's the town right there.
34:26Okay.
34:27Goldfield was basically birthed because of the rich discovery of the mammoth mine.
34:34Okay.
34:35The mammoth mine at the time was the richest strike in North America.
34:39So what are we talking about as far as gold content?
34:42How many ounces per ton?
34:44At the time, 1892, 1897, there was over a million dollars worth of gold taken out.
34:51And what was the price of gold at that time?
34:53It was about $20 an ounce.
34:55At today's price, which is about $1,300 an ounce, you're talking about $65 million.
35:01If you've got the math right, it is.
35:03Yes.
35:05I've investigated mines before.
35:07At first glance, I can tell this mine produced some serious gold.
35:13But was it the Lost Dutchman's?
35:16And that whole area up there is green.
35:18That tells you mineralization.
35:20Metals are in there.
35:22Well, Ron, I was hiking over in the area that you suggested.
35:25Take a look at that.
35:27Whoa.
35:27Very good.
35:28That's the kind of stuff you're looking for.
35:30The right type of quartz.
35:31You've got your copper oxides.
35:33Same as in the vein right here.
35:35And I'm confident, Ron, that if we tested this, there would be gold in here.
35:39Because I think I saw a few very small dust-sized particles.
35:43Do you think you found the Lost Dutchman mine?
35:45Well, you know what, Ron?
35:46Based on everybody that I've talked to so far, my conclusion is that I don't think the Lost Dutchman mine
35:54is lost at all.
35:55I think it's more than likely right here.
35:58Well, a lot of people many years ago would agree with you, mainly because it did produce a lot of
36:03gold back then.
36:04I don't agree with that.
36:06But certainly this was a gold producer.
36:09Could it have been the Lost Dutchman mine?
36:10In a lot of people's minds, it was.
36:12Maybe there was a hot spot, a rich part of the vein, that was found way back when by walls,
36:19and he mined that all out.
36:20But there's another scenario.
36:22And that is that both you and Jim were right.
36:26That the Lost Dutchman mine is on the east side of the Superstition Mountains.
36:31And geology, in this case, is a clue that puts it over there.
36:35Hold on.
36:36I'm getting a text.
36:41Well, guess what?
36:42Not only do I think I've located the Lost Dutchman mine, but the Peralta stones have been located too.
37:04The legend of the Lost Dutchman mine and the treasure of Jacob Waltz has taken me deep into the Superstition
37:10Mountains.
37:11And deep into a past filled with clues.
37:16Unfortunately, none of those clues, in the words of a gold miner, have panned out.
37:22I did find gold on the east side of the Superstition Mountains where the mine is rumored to be.
37:27But not enough to say convincingly that the Lost Dutchman mine could be there.
37:32I've chased down clues carved into the Peralta stones that some say lead to the treasure.
37:37But since I've only seen replicas of the stones, there's no way for me to tell if the original carvings
37:44are old enough to be authentic.
37:47But all that might be about to change.
37:51Someone texted me an address for a museum.
37:54It seems as though these stone maps were quietly relocated here.
38:04Well, welcome to the Superstition Mountain Museum.
38:07We're glad to have you here now that we're the official home of the Peralta stones.
38:12Well, I appreciate that, but I'm a little confused.
38:15I was led to believe that they had disappeared forever and they've been here the whole time?
38:20No, in the past they have been in the care of the flag mineral foundation.
38:25We thought the most appropriate place for the stone maps to be would be right here at the Superstition Mountain
38:31Museum.
38:41Well, here they are.
38:43What do you think?
38:44After all the searching, it's great to see the real thing.
38:48What's your take on this? Do you think it's a map?
38:51Oh, absolutely. It's a very, very precise map.
38:54And every clue on the map is only visible from the right location on the trail.
39:00Otherwise, you can't see it.
39:02The horse represents Superstition Mountain.
39:05Why would they relate a horse with these mountains?
39:08The four legs of the horse represent the four canyons coming down out of the mountains to the south.
39:15And the tail, the last clue on the horse, takes us around to the map on the back.
39:20The map on the back identifies the trail you should take into the mountain.
39:25And the trail map takes you to the end of the trail, which is the heart.
39:32So that is the end of the rainbow. That's where the gold is.
39:36I think that's what became known as the lost Dutchman.
39:39Once you've arrived at the end of the trail is you can turn the heart over and you can put
39:43it back in.
39:44And when you put it back in, miraculously, the number one million appears.
39:51One is the six zeros.
39:54A million in 1847 was an unbelievably large amount of money.
39:59So a million anythings, a million pinto beans would make you rich in 1847.
40:06Okay, the first thing I want to do is I've got this portable microscope.
40:10I'd like to take a few pictures, close-ups of some of the carved lines just to get a sense
40:15of what they look like.
40:20Let's go in a little closer.
40:33Well, they don't look like obvious fakes.
40:36And, you know, especially when I look at this stone, they look like they have some age, especially the lighter
40:41colored stone, and probably are authentic.
40:44I think this is a map, just like you said it was.
40:47Now, whether it's to the lost Dutchman mine or not, we don't know for certain.
40:50That's right, we do not know that for sure.
40:53Well, I've talked to a number of people, and they all think they know where the lost Dutchman mine is.
40:59But based on everything that I've seen, there's only one person who knows for sure.
41:11In the end, nothing about the lost Dutchman mine is 100% certain.
41:19Other than that there was a German immigrant named Jacob Waltz.
41:24And a lot of people thought he had lots of gold.
41:29Waltz himself might be the only one who knows where his legendary mine actually is.
41:34A secret he appears to have taken with him to the grave.
41:48The lost Dutchman gold mine is an obsession for some.
41:52The legend clearly has a hold on Tom, Ron, and Jim, three guys I met in Arizona.
41:59When I got home, I wasn't really sure if the lost Dutchman gold mine even existed.
42:05Then, I received an anonymous tip, a tantalizing picture of a glittering mine that leaves the door open to the
42:12mystery.
42:13People say there's a curse associated with hunting for the mine.
42:17I don't believe in curses, but I bet people whose loved ones died looking for the treasure may.
42:23The story of Jacob Waltz is certainly an American legend.
42:27But is it more than that?
42:30Maybe one day I'll find out.
42:34If you have a mysterious artifact or sight I need to see, I want to know about it.
42:39Go to history.com slash unearthed.
42:43Next time on America Unearthed.
42:45They named him Chukal.
42:47The slant-eyed monster.
42:49Cherokee revered him.
42:50Are you saying that there were eight cultures that came here?
42:52Some people believe this rock may have magical powers.
42:55I think that's something I need to see.
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