Finding The Arizona Motherlode

Dan Starkey

2015

© All Rights Reserved

Published by Liberio http://liber.io

ISBN 9783863730628

Made with Liberio

http://liber.io

Finding The Arizona Motherlode

Dan Starkey   copyright 2015

Chapter 1    The Summit

I’m as far as I can get with a motorized vehicle,  the rest of the trek will be on foot.

Its a beautiful winter day in central Arizona about 51 degrees, 9:30 am. The sun is shining and there is no wind. I check my backpack and count the number of water bottles I plan to carry up the mountain. Not enough water and that could be bad, too much and I can’t make it to the top of the picacho. I have six bottles, the magic number, just right.

Off I go, I’m planning a different route this time, one that is easier than the last. I’ll go farther west and follow and gently rising ridge line that will slowly get me higher up the side of the mountain. Its always easiest to hike up a gentle slope than a steep slope. The desert here is very pretty, the brush isn’t too thick so its a nice walk. The ocotillo plants are plentiful and all have their leaves, a sign of recent rain

.

Ocotillo plants.

About an hour of walking and I am close to the base of the mountain. I have been looking at the hill ahead to plot my course always looking for the best route.  The hills can fool you because everything looks smoother from a distance, then when you are close you can see the obstacles.

.  I pick my route and up I go. The first hill of the day is the worst, your lungs are burning and your legs get tired fast. After a quick break, to let my heart rate slow down.  I can get into a rhythm, walking up several steps and a quick rest to catch a breath. Now repeat that for 8 hours and I will be there. The goal is to get to the ridge line and then follow the ridge, usually easier to walk, less brush and less uneven ground.  I am farther west than before almost to Cathedral Rock. I

decide to make my way up along the east side of the pinacle, an hour ago I was planning to take the west side but routes change as you get to obstacles.

If I was hiking with someone I would have to discuss route changes and negotiate which way to go. I like to travel by myself  I can move faster.

View from above Cathedral Rock looking south.

After about an hour and a half I think I am close to the ridge line, I am constantly talking to myself saying, the ridge is close, this is no problem, I’m going to be there soon. This is like running a marathon, very mental, you have to keep encouraging yourself to keep walking. I get to where I think the ridge line is and there is more hill and bigger obstacles to climb or traverse around. Another half hour and this time I’m sure I’m at the ridge, however this time there is another valley to cross and then another large hill to climb, probably 500’. It would be easy to stop and talk myself out of continueing but at the end of the trip there just might be a lot of GOLD! Good place to have a bite of food, and look around  and soak up the landscape.

Finally I’m on the ridge however east of me on the ridge is another large hill with some large outcroppings that may be tricky to get over. I get past them and am higher now but the summit is still another 1000’ of altitude. Here I stop to survey the area, looking for anything that might indicate mineralization or past human workings. I see down into a valley below me a family of javelina, they are a part of the rodent family but if you have ever been around a hog farm you know, if it smells like pig shit it probably is pig shit. A mile and a half farther east and I walk across a saddle connecting two ridge lines, this would be a good camping spot. I look around for signs of old cabin sites or firepits anything to get a feel for what once took place here. I am about 3200’ elevation and see a old very worn horse shoe laying on the ground.  How did a horse get up this far? Its pretty amazing how prospectors and cowboys got equipment and supplies into these rugged places but, where there is a will, there is a way.

Elephant Butte in the distance.

Miners Needle.

Close up of Miners Needle.

I’m close now to the area I had been to on a previous trip but by the east  route up the face of the mountain. I can see over a couple of distant hills and the picacho, that is the best kept secret in Arizona old west lore, the Dutchman Mine. Its afternoon now and I think I can get there in an hour or less. I get a second wind from the adrenaline of walking up to the mine. I’m sure others have been here but they didn’t recognize the place for what it is.

The view to the south.

View of La Barge Canyon.

Weavers needle above.

About 3:30 in the afternoon and I reach the hill just above the valley south of the mine location. I stop and look over the far hillside closely surveying the ground and wanting to see something spectacular. Nothing to see. I go over in my head what the Dutchman told his friend on how to get to the mine by following the long ridge line then crossing on a saddle to a lower ridge line then to the highest point on that ridge and then down to the mine. I see from a distance the side of the hill where that could be and see a vertical wall in the side, That could be it right there. Wow I think I have found the Dutchman Mine. I have to climb on more hill then traverse along the side of a very steep hillside to get to the saddle that connects to two ridges. I am sure horse couldn’t get through this. Another 45 minutes of hiking and I will be there.

Chapter 2   Mineralization

Five years ago I was looking over a mine in the Bradshaw mountains with a consulting Geologist and we were talking about the ore shoot direction of this mine. He said the mines in this area have ore shoots that pitch to the north. I thought wow, can we figure out where the mineralization originates. Nothing much more was said and we continued sampling the rock. As time went by I kept thinking about the ore shoot direction and how this should be better understood.

After a couple of years of research of the area I was working, I started to see different directions for the ore shoots. I kept all this information in the back of my mind. One night I was studying a VTEM air geophysics survey map, one that i had looked at hundreds of times before and noticed an image of resistivity that looked like a fan of water from a garden hose as it is poured out on the ground. It occurred to me that this showed a direction to the mineralization. I struck a couple of lines on the map to see where these lines would intersect. The intersection was in a different looking area as far as topography was concerned, flatter not peaks like the surrounding area.  I wondered how the ore shoot directions of the surrounding mines would layout against this. I plotted a few ore shoot directions and they all intersected the same spot as the geophysics fan layout. This wasn’t a coincidence.

I had recently been to The Arizona Historical Foundation at ASU and been researching the files of Geologist Mason Coggins. Mason Coggins was a well known Geologist  and had a lot of mine information from around the southwest. Mohave county has a lot of mines that have good documentation and plenty of geologic description. Mainly ore shoot direction. The main description of mineral veins are strike, dip, and pitch.  The ore shoot pitch isn’t called out very often and sometimes its difficult to discern a direction from the workings. If no ore shoot is described in the written description, the working drawings can  sometimes indicate the direction. Usually I can get at least one mine with descriptions of the ore shoot pitch but you need at least two. The intersecting point is the vent. The more mines pointing to the vent the better. Once the intersecting point is established then look at satellite imagery and geological maps to verify that the vent is there. These volcanic centers can have deposits of many different minerals, gold, silver, rare earths and gems. Here is the geological chain of events that was the source, the plumbing, and the trap of the minerals. I believe this method will work all around the Pacific Ring of Fire. I have begun studying the Canadian Shield for this same type of plate tectonic mineral source.

Approximately the beginning of the Laramide Orogeny, Plate tectonic forces started the magmatism of the southwestern area of the North American Continent. Possibly earlier episodes, the Nevadan and the Sevier Orogeny, affected the area as well.

The Farallon Plate subducted under the North American Continent in an east northeast direction. These lateral forces caused a horizontal thrust fault that is believed by some to extend up to two thousand miles east. (See figure A).

This movement causes great compressive forces that seal most vertical faults in the crust. This horizontal fault is a very large trap for volcanic fluids. As the shallow subduction of Farallon plate continues the oceanic crust melts and rises thru the mantle wedge, collecting minerals and silicates on its path to the crust. (See figure B).

When this thick fluid reaches the crust it finds the path of least resistance. There are few faults at this time that aren’t under tremendous pressure but the fluid can use older plutons or thin layers as its pathway up. When this fluid finds the horizontal fault it follows this pathway for as far as 15 kilometers. (See figure C).

There are several pulses of fluid that takes place over millions of years. As faults are filled and these branches heal another branch is used and so on. This horizontal fault runs through Precambrian Yavapai schist and granite plutons.  The Bradshaw Mountains have a central location for the vertical traveling fluid. (See figure D). In the region these volcanic centers are approximately 25 kilometers apart.

The Farallon Plate continues eastward the Precambrian schist starts to fracture at its weakest points. These plates are approximately 600’ thick.  As these thin crust sections, (which are approximately 800’ to a 1000’ long,) of schist start to ramp up on its predecessor the process repeats itself over and over. As the plates of schist are pushed up on the next, it gouges out large sections of the predecessor plate; this area becomes filled with loose schist. Eventually the thin crust plates are near vertical angles. This horizontal force compresses the thin schist plates against Precambrian plutons.(See figure F). Schist plates that are within the granite plutons are protected from the horizontal pressure and are only 25 to 30 degrees from horizontal.

At the end of the Farallon plate movement there was a 25 to 40 million year volcanic null. During the Mid Tertiary time the Pacific Plate began to pull west on the North American Plate. This time of extension is quite evident by the mountain ranges and the valleys between. See Arizona Geological Survey Report Middle Tertiary Tectonics Of Arizona and Adjacent Areas by Jon E Spencer and Stephen J Reynolds. Reversing this movement of the mountain ridges back through time and the volcanic center distribution areas become evident. The tension of the continental plate cause many fractures allowing volcanic fluids several paths to ascend through the crust. This thinner fluid spreads through the faults large and small. When this fluid reaches the pre Cambrian plutons it stops at the still horizontal fault and then branches from there as before. When this fluid reaches the now near vertical faults in the schist it fills the loose schist zone, from the plate gouging, and then follows the fault farther up towards the surface. (See figure F). This fluid alters the previously deposited minerals and relocates some.           Figure F below.

Rhyolite dikes intrude the schist and pluton zones at a later date and also supply heat and fluids to the minerals. These rhyolite dikes have beta quartz in some areas indicating a larger mass of the dike.  (See figure I). These areas could be the feeder ducting for the dikes.

The Precambrian plutons are very large measuring up to 100 sq. miles. They range in elevation from 2500’ to 7000’ above sea level. There are many historic gold and silver mines around the perimeter of the pluton from 2900’ on the east side to 5000’ above sea level on the west side of the pluton.  This is evidence of the horizontal fault that was mineralized in the Mesozoic. These historic mines are in faults that are 25 to 30 degrees from level. These mineralized faults can be from 600’ to 4000’ in depth. These mineralized faults form a louvered plain. There are vertical faults in these plutons that run from the surface down to the horizontal fault. Several historic mines are located at these areas. Rhyolite dikes penetrate these plutons as well and could be another source for minerals.

The volcanic center of the region was located by indicators from the VTEM air survey.  Historic mining in the area has left indicators to the source as well.  The mines located in the schist area were the best mines and most of the mines strike at 25 degrees NE, most dip 70 degrees to the west. The mines with the best development had as built drawings showing shafts, drifts and ore shoot direction. The mines around Crown King have ore shoots that pitches north. With an ore shoot pitch to the north at 40 degrees and a strike at 25 degrees NE the direction of the source can be determined. With the evidence of the horizontal fault known, the strike stays the same and the pitch can be used to calculate the bearing from the strike bearing. Mines that are north of the volcanic center have ore shoots that pitch south. When plotting many mines, the bearings all have a common point of intersection.

The volcanic center is made up of a monzonite porphyry with several other intrusives indicating the vent. Certain minerals spike in quantity at these volcanic centers such as: Potassium, magnesium, phosphorus,  strontium,  titanium,  aluminum,  barium,  calcium, and vanadium.  Rare earth elements can be found with some of these elements.  From satellite imaging the crater of the volcano can been seen.

Sixty-four million years ago viscous magma formed plates at areas of healed faults and slowly accumulated to form massive plutons. Large uplifting occurred and lifted the entire region, and penetrating in thin areas ( Crown King Pluton). Schist and Precambrian plutons were all uplifted, but not at the same rate. The schist belt was lifted higher because of the thinner section. The Rhyolite dikes also intruded this younger pluton.

VTEM air surveys have been performed over the schist belt area of the Peck Mine district. Several conductive anomalies have been indicated and require further exploration. See the graph from the Survey results showing a large tabular body approximately 60 meters down to the top and dipping west 70 degrees for a depth over 120 meters. This tabular body may continue lower, and with additional ground geophysics this can be confirmed. Below the tabular body is a conductive halo of possibly disseminated mineralization. This disseminated body could be the gouged area of the schist plates created when the horizontal movement of the Farallon plate moved east. The gouged area was filled with loose material and then later filled with mineralized fluid from the tertiary time. Several samples of this conglomerate are exposed at the historic mines in the area. These samples contain high amounts of AG and Au. The geophysics patterns of this area indicated this disseminated gouge zone is very extensive with the top starting approximately 600’ below the surface. There are hundreds of square miles of this schist belt to be explored and similar results should be expected. The large areas of Precambrian granite plutons should be explored with VTEM air surveys initially to locate the mineralized horizontal thrust fault and vertical faults. These areas are also hundreds of square miles.  The historic mines only explored the perimeter and large faults of these large plutons because the depth was prohibitive. Calculating the depth of these faults can be done by using existing mining information and interpolating the elevation at the point of interest. Approximate depths are 950’ to 2000’. The distribution elevation of the volcanic center is approximately 800’ to 1300’ in depth from the surface. Air geophysics will help located the target.

There are several volcanic centers in the Transition Zone in Arizona and the same principals of mineralization can be used. Only about 5% of the mineralization has been discovered. Where the veins are exposed to the surface they have been exploited. The horizontal thrust fault that remains fairly horizontal in the pre cambrian granite plutons still have yet to be exploited. Air geophysics will locate  those deposits but at great costs. In real estate it’s location location location. In geology it’s structure structure structure.

Chapter 3      Arizona Volcanic Centers

The map, labeled figure 2, shows the volcanic centers I’ve located by researching historic mine documentation. There are about a half dozen across the Transition Zone of Arizona. the Precambrian vents are indicated by the colored areas. The younger volcanic fields in Arizona that are known and obvious are shaded in black. There is not much mineralization in the younger volcanic areas.

Three things are needed to form gold deposits: a source, the plumbing, and a trap. The source is the Farallon Plate subducting under the North American Continent. The plumbing is the vent in the crust that takes the mineral rich fluid up through the crust to these horizontal thrust faults. Here these faults are the conduit for the minerals to be distributed and spread out until they find the trap. The trap is a place where changes in pressures take place, or the surrounding rock has just the right chemistry, or the temperature changes.

The Mohave county area is a well known mineralized area.  With extensive research I was able to plot the ore shoot direction of about 6 mine.  As the map of the area shows the red arrows don’t really point in any common area.  This area has mountain ridges with wide valleys between that is a sign of the southwest part of the North American continent rifting apart. The Pacific plate is pulling or stretching the southwest to the west. The mineralization took place in the    Cretaceous or around 80 to 100 million years ago. The rifting is fairly recent as far as geologic time goes. If the mountain ridges are pulled to the east as you go back in time the ridges come closer together as they were when the mineralization took place.These mountains have rifted apart about 25 miles.

Here the ridges are close together and as you can see now the red arrows have a common intersection point, indicated by the orange circle. when the intersection point is located study the satelite maps and look for signs of a very old volcano.

This picture is a close up view of the volcanic center. The round area is about 6 miles in diameter. Referencing the geologic maps of the area and you will find a younger material covering the precambrian vent. This paleozoic layer is around 1600’ thick but you can make out the line of the vent below because the upper layer filled in the vent crater. The color variation clearly defines the ring.

In southern Nevada I found some good mine documentation of the mines near Searchlight . These ore shoot directions point west towards Mountain Pass. As you can see on the satellite imagery, if you reversed the rifting back in time to the east, the basic contour of the mountains and the colors of the soils were once together. The volcanic center is hard to see but it is just south of the rare earth mine at Mountain Pass. A good exploration project in this area would be the New York Mountains, they were once between the source and the trap in Searchlight Nevada.

The Carlin Trend and the Cortez Trend are a good example of  the southwest rifting. Along the red lines are clusters of mineral deposits.  If the rifting is reversed back toward the east the clusters of  mineral deposits come together and have one single volcanic center that fed the entire area. Most exploration in the area along the lines of the trends, they should however explore across the mountain ridges away from the center.

This satellite imagery shows the feeder path of the volcanic center of the Mount Graham area. The area shaded in yellow would be the best exploration area in search of minerals. Most of the mines in the area are in the shaded area.

When the feeder path is located start looking at geological maps of the area. Find the precambrian rock. Look for the fault lines that may have been horizontal at the cretaceous around 100 million years ago during the Laramide Orogeny. Study these areas carefully, then walk the areas and look for any sign of mineralization. As most placer miners know look for float at creek beds and rivers. Gravity brings this float down hill, so go uphill following the float and watching for the fault lines that contain the mineralization, quartz,volcanic plutons, or volcanic extrusives. Old mines are great exploration targets also because they will tell you what the area has and what rock the plumbing is in.

The old adage that, gold is where you find it, only applies to the uniformed prospector. Remember….. structure structure structure.

Chapter 4     Picacho Butte.

Its about 9:00 pm I’m sitting at my desk looking at satellite imagery thinking I’ve looked at everything. Thats like saying, I’ve finished the internet. It occurs to me to see how the volcanic center method of exploration will work for the Lost Dutchman Mine. A few years ago someone gave me Helen Corbin’s book, The Bible on the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine and Jacob Waltz, for a Christmas gift. I had read the book and when I was done, thought, if I were ever to look for the mine I would look near La Barge Canyon, so I marked the map and forgot about it. Now I know where the volcanic center is for the area from a couple mines that have good mineral structure descriptions. I strike a line from the center to a known mineral deposit. The deposit is  Gold Field on the west side of the Superstition Mountains, the volcanic center is Globe. Now I start looking along this line for any sign of fault lines that might have released fluid from the feeder plumbing when the mineralization pulsed. I spot a butte that has some pronounce fault lines. I mark the spot and dig out my archive maps to see how this matches up with my location from the book. It hits the roughly the same area. Wow, this isn’t just a coincidence.

Using Google Earth I can zoom in on a mountain or any geographic feature and really analyse a feature. I can rotate, move around to any view. I start thinking about how to explore the hill and how or if I can climb it. I see a valley meandering up the west side of the Butte and mark the path with a red line for later reference.

I realize I have seen this line before, from the book about Jacob Waltz. As Jacob was on his death bed he described how to get to the mine to a friend of his. That friend, later on, sketched out the map. Its a close match.

Jacob Walsh wasn’t an educated man and his map making abilities were self- taught. I think his map is more a profile view than a plan view that most researchers would think. He is telling a story as he draws the pictures. He starts with Weavers needle profile.

Many people have heard of the lost Dutchman Gold Mine. There are many stories about the location and what type of deposit. Some believe it was an Apache stache, some believe it was Spanish gold, some believe it was a gold vein. Whatever the story no one has found it. Plenty have died looking for it. Some say the people that did find it died on the way out of the mountains by forces unknown. The stories center around the Superstition Mountains of Arizona.

The Apache Indians considered the Superstition Mountains sacred and protected it. Jeronimo used the mountains for a hideout.

One version goes that Jacob Walsh was a German immigrant and came to America in the mid 1800’s. He slowly worked his way across America and ended up in Arizona. He was with a group of army scouts and prospectors looking for gold in the Bradshaw mountains. The people in that group were experienced prospectors and knew what they were doing. Some of the discoveries made by those prospectors include: The Walker Mining District, Vulture Mine, Lynx Creek.

Jacob Walsh ended up with a close friend named Jacob Weiss, the two came upon an injured mexican named Miguel Peralta.  Miguel was part of the wealthy Peralta family  that was given the mining rights to the southern part of Arizona by the King of Spain. Miguel was attacked by Apaches and narrowly escaped with his life. The two Jacobs helped Miguel get back to his home in Mexico. Miguel hired Jacob Walsh and Jacob Weiss to lead an expedition back into Arizona to mine this very rich gold mine. They mined a lot of gold ore from the mine and split the take. Miguel had a gambling problem and wanted their share of the gold to pay gambling debts. They cut a deal and he took their share for the mining rights to the mine.

While mining the two were low on supplies and Jacob Walsh went to town and Jacob Weiss stayed to protect their claim. When Walsh returned Weiss was gone and it looked like a fight had broken out at the mine. Weiss had been attacked by Apaches and received injuries but managed to make it to a homestead. He later died of those injuries and Jacob Walsh never knew what happened to him.

Jacob Walsh was watched by people who had heard rumors of his mine. He knew he was being watched and would use different trails to get out of the Superstitions to confuse his followers.  When I was hiking the mountains I realized I would go up hill one way or route then use a different route to go down. I could go down steeper routes that were a shorter distance back out. he may have been just being practical when traversing the mountains. An insight only a person that hikes the mountains off trail would understand.

Jacob Walsh caught pneumonia in a heavy storm on his farm in Phoenix and died in 1891. On his death bed Jacob drew a map for the people he was staying with.

Chapter 5       The Peralta Stones

In the fall of 2014 a TV show featured a story about the Lost Dutchman Mine. They were showing the Peralta Stones and I noticed a curving line with dots that had a similar shape to the red line I had drawn up the butte. Up to this point I had intentionally stayed away from treasure maps and other information on the LDM figuring they were bogus. I started to study the Peralta Stones and all the markings on them. There are four pieces and a heart shaped rock  that fits in a heart shape indention in one of the square pieces. See picture.

The horse stone is saying who claimed this mine, A horse of Sante Fe or A servant of Faith. Meaning a Priest from The Church. The stone also says- the pasture north of the river.  At the north end of Queen Creek there is a pasture at the base of the Butte, in fact it is still used today for grazing cattle. This stone is telling you how to get from the marker location to the butte.

The Priest stone also has 1847 written on it and says - This place is dangerous- I go to 18 places             ( meaning the 18 dots on the trail up the fault line) Look for the Map- Look for the Heart. The little cross on a rectangle is the contract this person had with the Church or the King of Spain. Each ranking member of the exploration party signed a contract stating they would be honest about all discoveries and pay the required fees to Spain, one fifth.

I think the 18 Lugares actually means places or placer, a Spanished derived word. Placer is a type of mine that is in a river or alluvial deposit. Below the vein is the curving canyon that takes all the erosion down the hill. It is shown on the map stones with 18 dots on the line. This canyon should be very good placer mining. I have named this canyon, Aurum Pylae, or Gold Canyon.

During the research I discovered there are other stones that also have clues to the mine.

I realized that the Peralta Stones are not trying to conceal the location of the mine but are claim markers that tell the location, who claimed the mine and the mineral deposit information. An old world version of a  Modern Geology Report and claim markers all in one.

The map stones have a dagger, old world maps sometimes used daggers as compass direction to orient the map, Also the top of the map stone is East, today most maps have North at the top of the map.

The map stones have words in Spanish and Latin. Arabic numbers and Roman numerals.  Pictures of animals and topography.

The two stone cross’ have the date of 1751. This is the time of the Pima Indian Revolt. The Pima Indians revolted against  the Jesuit Priests because of harsh discipline and slave labor demand to mine gold and silver. Also written on a cross, The Treasure of the Church of Sante Fe. I believe the Jesuits were shown the gold by the Pima Indians prior to 1751 and staked the markers when the Indians revolted, knowing they would have to leave the area for sometime. On the Latin Heart Stone there is an area called out as the Religious Area. I could see the Jesuit Priest being told by the Indians of their sacred spot and they found gold laying on the ground.

The map stone with the heart indentation has 1847 written in.  I believe the Church  knew Mexico was losing control of the area and re staked the deposit and recorded the mineral information on the Peralta Stones.

Notice the number 10 below the 1847, that indicates how many  highly concentrated mineral locations. The donut shape next to the 10 is a symbol for gold, or sun.  When you follow the map heart stone to its location you replace the heart stone with the Latin Heart stone.

This map orients your map with geographical features of the butte.

The Latin Heart Stone.

Overlay the Latin Heart stone on the satellite image and orient the map with the land features. Significant points are: the triangle, the gorge, the south peak,religious area, etc.

Translations:

DESILIENS AQUA AURUM          water over gold

MEUS               mine

SPECUS    cave or void of some kind

CACUMEN      point, tip top, peak

NOTO MEDULLA     observe the middle

NOTO          observe, or notice

MEDULLA           marrow,  middle, heart

FAUCES      narrow pass, gorge

TABULA     flat top area

TRANSEO ECCLESIA     religious assembly area

DOMUS    house or camp

FORNIX     arch

INTER SEPTENTRIONES ET OCCASUM SOLIS     great bear, north

four peaks to north

NOTO TRIANGULUM       observe the triangle

MERIDIES CACUMEN     highest point to the south

MONETA         smelter or arrasta

CAVERNA AURUM      cavern of gold

BARATHRUM         lowest point

This orientation also agrees with the dagger compass direction. A very interesting marker is the Latin words- Noto Triangulum. This translates to Observe the Triangle. From satellite imagery from Google Earth I was rotating the Butte and noticed a shadow cast by the ridge of the mountain. This shadow is there summer and winter. Mountain face also has a triangle shape.

Now overlay the Roman numeral heart over same orientation. Translate the Roman numerals to Arabic numbers. I believe these are assay numbers or estimates of the gold concentration of samples taken at these locations. At this period Pennyweight was commonly used as a unit of measure. 1 pennyweight equals 1/20th of an ounce.

The Roman Numeral Heart Stone.

Translation:

1-I

2-II

3-III

4-IV

5-V

6-VI  or G

7-VII

8-VIII  or  IIX

9- VIIII  or  IX

10-X

11-XI

12-XII

13-XIII

14-XIV

15-XV

16-XVI

17-XVII

18-XVIII  or  XIIX

19-XIX  or  XVIIII

20-XX

30-XXX

40-XL  or  XXXX

50-L

60-LX

70-LXX

80-LXXX  or XX(

90-X(  or  LXXXX

100-(

200-((

300-(((

400-((((

500-D  or  1)

600- I)(

700-I)((

800-I)(((

900-I)((((

1,000-(1)  or  M

10,000- ((I))

100,000-(((I)))

Overlay both the Latin heart and the Roman Numeral Heart on the Butte and see how the mines and the assays  are called out.  No explorer wants to discover a deposit and then not be able to find it again. This is a good record of that exploration. The Priests were working for the Company of Jesus, they were employees of the Pope and had to record their findings so the Church could find these deposits in the future. The same is done today with exploration companies.

The Peralta Stones were found along Queen Creek near some rolling hills not far from present day Florence Junction. This is a good spot to set claim markers and map information for someone from the Company ( Church). It is on the edge of the Valley of the Sun near the Gila River. You could give some one general directions to find the marker location and then once there you could make your way to the mountain and the hot spot or heavily mineralized locations.

The equations at the bottom right of the map stone ( 2=3- 0 -18=7) are to get you from the stone markers to the mountain and then up the mountain. From the stones to the mountain the distance is 18 kilometers.  18 = 7,  7 means 7 leagues. A league is how far a man can walk in an hour. Typically that is 3.4 miles on flat and clear land. The combination of the 18 and the 7 gives you a reading of how difficult the journey will be.  Once to the mountain go 2 kilometers up.  2=3.

Two kilometers equals 3 leagues. It will take 3 hours to make the 2 kilometers. More difficult than the trip to the mountain.

Initially I didn’t want to learn about Dutchman lore because i didn’t want to get distracted by the bad clues. When I first saw the curvy canyon on the Peralta Map Stone I knew these were the real thing. Knowing where the deposit is helps decode the Peralta Stones. If I hadn’t studied the Stones I would have had a harder time finding the deposit. This along with the Dutchman’s last words helped to locate the spot.

Chapter 6       Jacob Waltz

Jacob Walsh was a German immigrant and came to America in the mid 1800’s. He slowly worked his way across America and ended up in Arizona. He was with a group of army scouts and prospectors looking for gold in the Bradshaw mountains. The people in that group were experienced prospectors and knew what they were doing. Some of the discoveries made by those prospectors include: The Walker Mining District, Vulture Mine, Lynx Creek.

Jacob Walsh caught pneumonia in a heavy storm on his farm in Phoenix and died in 1891. On his death bed Jacob drew a map for the people he was staying with. This is the only known map of Jacob Walsh’s.

See map below from Helen Corbin’s book The Bible on the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine and Jacob Walsh. This is probably the best book on the subject of the Lost Dutchman mine. I read this about four years ago and came to a conclusion of where I would look based on the information.

The stories go, that Jacob Walsh met Manuel Peralta and received the location of the mine. The Mexican that showed him the mine wasn’t necessarily Manuel Peralta, he did say he was the 12 year old boy that escaped the Peralta party massacre.  This mine could have been the property of the Peralta Family when Mexico took the Franciscan mines and treasure during the  secularization period. I have seen no information supporting that but it is possible. Jacob Walsh supposedly mined the deposit until his death.

Many people have looked for the Lost Dutchman mine through the years with no luck. They used the last words Jacob spoke on his death bed on how to get there. Imagine being on your death bed, falling in and out of consciousness and verbally describing a map coherently. A good map is hard to make on your best day.

On Jacob Waltz’s death bed he confessed to Dick Holmes how he located the mine and how many people he killed and finally where the mine was located. Jacob was a transient miner, meaning he traveled Arizona searching for riches and not staying long in any one spot. In 1877 he left Picket Post military camp and headed to Fort McDowell. Three Apache Indians chased him away from his camp to steal his outfit and he became lost. He happened upon three Mexicans and they gave him water and food. They had several bags of gold ore with them and they told him they would show him the mine the next day. Once Jacob saw the shaft with the 2’ wide vein in it he decided he wanted it for himself, at any cost.  One of the Mexicans told the story of the Peralta party being massacred by Apache Indians. Only one 12 year old boy got away and he was that boy and the other two men were his cousins. The next day Jacob killed all three men.

The next winter Jacob went to the mine and found two soldiers working his mine. he followed them a few miles away from the mine and killed them. He made it look like the Indians had done it. Their bodies were found about a mile east of Weavers needle. Another time he saw an old prospector in the area and he killed him without even questioning him.

He sent word to his sister to send her son out west to help him. After a time of mining this nephew thought they should stake a claim. Jacob did not want to because he wasn’t a US citizen or that he had intentions of becoming a citizen, those were the qualifications needed to stake a claim. They had a very bad fight about this and jacob shot and killed his own Nephew.  Thats eight people he killed protecting his mine.

Jacob told Dick to follow the military trail to San Carlos from Fort McDowell until the trail turns south. Go to the left and follow a long ridge to the saddle, then cross the saddle to the lower ridge then along the ridge to the highest point then down to the mine. The ore is two feet wide and runs along the face of the mountain about four hundred feet. It outcrops at the wash where he dug out any sign of the vein.He told Dick that there was about 75,000 dollars worth of ore at the bottom of the shaft that was already broken off. Thats about four million dollars in today’s prices. Jacob left about 4800.00 dollars worth of ore under his bed when he died. He sent around 200,000 dollars of gold to his sister, which in todays prices would have been about 11.4 million dollars.

The map below is an exact copy of the map drawn by Jacob Waltz and given to Rheinhart Petrasch, about a month before his death in October 25,1891.

Chapter 7       Nueva Espana

In 1539 Friar Marcos de  Niza was one of the first Europeans to explore New Spain north of the current border of Arizona and Mexico. He traveled with a Moore that was a former slave into New Mexico. He sent his companion north to scout a village and they were all killed. Friar Niza saw the village from a distance and thought he saw shelters made of gold. He traveled south and described this village to the Governor of New Spain as the Seven Cities of Cibola that were made of solid gold. The Governor charged Coronada to go explore this Cibola in 1540. Coronado went north searching for this city of gold and never found it. He traveled all the way to Kansas but returned empty handed. Friar Niza was ruined.

That was the last expedition into new Mexico for 40 years then in 1604 Don Juan Onate and Captain Marcos Farfan de los Godos lead an expedition into northern New Spain in search of minerals.  They traveled north thru Sante Fe and west to the San Francisco Mountains and south to Bill Williams Fork. They made some good mineral discoveries south of Williams, possibly Bagdad.  Samples and reports were sent to his Excellency and samples were assayed by the Royal Mint in Mexico City. They found eleven mine prospects on sample was half silver, another was twenty marks per quintal. These men were professional mineral explorers of their time.

In 1680 there was the Pueblo Revolt and many priest were killed. Not until 1687 to 1710 Father Eusebio Kino ( Kuhn) was there another expedition into this area. Kino established the Mission of Nuestra Senor de los Delores in the San Miguel River Valley a hundred miles south of Tucson. He later founded the mission of San Xavier de bac, Guevavi, and Tumacocori. Kino traveled north into Pimeria Alta several times and traveled along the Gila River five times. This was his opportunity to discover or be shown the Dutchman mine area. The Pima Indians likes Father kino and his missions prospered when he was there.

Father Kino was born in trent which is on the German and Italian border in 1644. He was educated at the Universities of Freiburg and Ingolstadt and excelled in mathematics. During an illness when he was twentyfive he decided to join the church. He wanted to go to China but was sent to New Spain instead. In 1683 he joined an expedition into California as the Cosmographer and Superior of the Missions. When he returned he was sent to Pimeria Alta. Pimeria Alta was the home of the Pimas and Kino was the first to map the area and have many converts. He was the best map maker of his day and proved that Baja California was a peninsula and not an island as was thought at that time. he created Pimeria Alta as province of Spain. As he traveled he would use latitude and leagues to describe his locations. I believe father Kino made the maps of his exploration of the Dutchman mine deposits and later that information was placed on stone tablets that we know today as the Peralta Stones.

In 1751 there was a Pima Indian revolt.  Many missions were destroyed and many were killed. the indians were tired of the harsh discipline that the Jesuits used.  The Indians were used as slave labor to mine the valuable silver and gold. I think the stone cross’ found at near Florence junction were placed there to mark the claim to be found when tensions cooled down. The King of Spain was always strict about not treating the native people harshly and this may be the reason the Jesuits were expelled from New Spain in 1767.  The Missions system declined when the Franciscans had control of all New Spain.The Jesuits Missions in new Spain were very prosperous at that time and up until they were expelled from New Spain for reasons unknown. Theory is that they became too wealthy and powerful and the King of Spain was jealous. Most never made it back to Europe by crossing the Atlantic Ocean in dangerous conditions. The Franciscans took over the task of bringing the Christian word to New Spain. The Apache Indians were still very hostile at the end of the 18th century so most missionary work stayed to the southern edge of Arizona.

In 1821 Mexico gained its independence from Spain. The Mexican Government secularized the country and took all the Church assets, probably all their exploration documentation as well. During this time the Missions were not functioning.They thought the local people had rights to the gold and silver and not the Church.

1847 the united States seceded a part of Mexico and the Treaty of Hildage Guadalupe was signed. The Peralta Stones have 1847 carved into the heart indentation stone. I believe the Church knew Mexico was about to lose control of the area and wanted to stake a claim for the near future. The stones maps were made from exploration documentation that Father Kino had made a hundred and forty years earlier. This is all speculation but makes perfect sense. When there is treasure at stake, people and governments and even the Church become very greedy.

A few years later  in 1853 the Gadsden Purchased  bought the rest of New Mexico, and Arizona  for ten million dollars. The Gadsden Purchase  was negotiated many times and eventually the border was agreed upon and the previous mine claims were not included.

Chapter 8       Finding the Route

I have just arrived at the Peralta trailhead. This is as far as you can drive a motorized vehicle.

The Superstition Wilderness is part of the Tonto National Forest about 35 miles northeast of Phoenix.It is the end of summer but still in the 90 degree range. I have been waiting for the weather to cool down, before scouting the area,  to learn the terrain and vegetation. Real brushy and it doubles the difficulty. Large rock faces and it becomes a mountain climbers paradise. I prefer easy gentle slopes and sparse vegetation. I don’t know if I will be in brush eventually so I take my snake chaps to protect against rattlesnakes. I haven’t prospected in about 2 ½ years so I am out of shape and want to see how I can manage. Studying the satellite images for the past months I have a plan of attack to traverse the mountain to get to the mine location. I hike about 2 ½ miles east of the trailhead and as I’m walking I look for rock types. Looking for quartz and some volcanic rocks that might be associated with minerals. I see some dikes of volcanic extrusives but not the ones I want to find. I spot some quartz close to the base of Miners Needle, kind of  the southeast side.  This is the first sign of quartz so far. It looks fairly barren so I keep going. It does have limonite and manganese which is seen in the Dutchman gold samples. I head to some tall spires to get a closer look at the rock type. The outcropping, I later discover is called Cathedral Rock. I’m up along the west side of Cathedral Rock and this slope looks like a nice gradual ascent to the ridge line I want to use. I look at the time and its later than I thought.  I need to head back to the vehicle because my feet hurt and my water is low. This is the hottest part of the day and there is no shade. On the way back I stop again at the base of Minor’s Needle to look at the quartz. I take some samples back to examine closer at home. I grab 4 or 5  rock and off i go. About a mile from the trailhead and I’m tired, my feet hurt and its about 97 degrees, hot. The only shade is a bush so I crouch down in its shade to rest and take a drink. I reach in my backpack and I discover there is no more water. Shoot I left my last bottle in a paloverde tree near Cathedral Rock as a stache. I thought I had one more. Well I can make it its not that far. When I make it to the vehicle I am plenty thirsty. Usually there are lots of people milling around but this hot afternoon there was no one except an older gentleman with a friendly face. I stop and chat with him. We start talking about the geology of the area and the conversation goes to the Dutchman mine. I ask him how to get to Reeds Water, its a route I had seen on maps that might have a short route to the mine. He says it is north of Queen Valley and you have to drive along the golf course and north on a rough road to get there. He  also mentioned that Jacob Waltz was seen at Reeds Water.

I now have a good feel for the mountains and know what I am up against. I can study the satellite images again and really map out a course. I need to find another route so I

won‘t have to walk as far to get to the base of the mountains.

A couple of months later I travel to Queen Valley with a friend to scout the area. We eventually find the road around the golf course and travel about a mile north through private land  and cross into state land. Now I can plot a course up the mountains from this route, it looks like a shorter walk than from the Peralta Trailhead. I study the maps again for a few weeks and during this time I’m training for the hike. I think in about a month I will be ready and the temperature will be down, maybe Christmas weekend.

Christmas weekend comes and its a three day weekend, perfect to hike for a day then rest or heal before the work week starts. This Christmas its a cold spell, lows in the low 30s and higher elevations even colder.  This trip I load the side by side on the truck so I can drive the truck until the road get rough and then ride the side by side to the trails end or the Wilderness boundary. Its four miles of very rough old roads that are really washes. I get to a water hole that the ranchers water their cattle and stop. The rest of the expedition is on foot. Its pretty chilly and there is no wind but plenty of sunshine. I start out.

I get to the wilderness boundary gate and I see some cowboys on a cattle drive. They are driving the cattle to the south pasture for the winter.  I step back into the brush so as not to scare the long line of cattle coming through the gate. Once the cattle are through the cowboys close the gate and turn around to ride back to their ranch. I ask them if they would consider taking someone to the base of the mountain by horseback, but they said they can’t because of insurance reasons. You can tell times have changed, even the cowboys are run by the lawyers.

I’m through the gate and headed to the mountains.  The desert here is very nice with all the ocotillo and various small trees and cacti. As I get to the base of the first slope I spot some deer. They cut through an opening in a large dike of rock that looks like the Great Wall of China. The deer know their way around so I use their route. Its around 11:30 am and I’m really just getting started climbing steeper slopes and as I travel up I notice the east end of the mountains look impassable with giant rock faces, so I head in the west direction hoping this route will get me to the ridge.

After an hour or so I decide to take a break, maybe eat something. I think I am close to the ridge but as I get higher I notice there is another slope above this one. I traverse around the face of this hill only to find that there is a valley between me and the ridge I want. The other side is sheer vertical cliffs. No way I can make that, so I head east against my better judgement. The alternative is heading all the way down, then west a mile and back up, so east it is. After a couple hours still heading up hill and to the west I reach a ridge line and see a huge series of cliffs. Looks like the end of the hike, I’ll probably will have to head back down. I stop and catch my breath and slow my heart down and refocus on the route. Studying the cliff face I see a small ledge following the bottom to the east and around a corner out of sight from my perspective. I hike up there and follow the ledge to see if it goes anywhere or dead ends to more cliffs or just drops to a canyon below. I get around the corner and it looks like cliff face and I will have to turn around. I take my backpack off and rest awhile, frustrated.  I see a crevasse that might be a way up, might be dangerous but still a path to the top. I leave my backpack to lighten the load and explore the large crack in the mountain. Looks I can do this, don’t want to turn around because I’ve been hiking most of the day I would hate to turn around now. I scramble up the crevasse going around clusters of agave plants like a skier on a race course. When these plants prick you it feels like a pitch fork. Their wounds ache for hours. I’m on my hands and feet scurrying up through loose rock and gravel, very slippery trying to slide back down. Falling down and getting injured would not be good. No one knows where I am. No phone service. No 911. Break a leg and you crawl back to the vehicle.

Finally I’m at the top of the crevasse. The ridge line I have been after is  only a hundred yards away. Yehaw.

From the ridge I can see the South Peak from the Peralta Stones Latin heart stone. This peak isn’t visible on the satellite maps so it was good to see finally. I look at my watch and see its 3:30.  This is the point of no return. If I don’t turn around now I will have to stay here the night. At 4000 ‘ elevation it will surely be in the low 20s tonite. I have been sweating all day and my clothes are damp, and with no change of clothes I would probably get hypothermia. It will take everything I can muster to make it down the hill and to the trusty side by side before dark.

I decide to turn around and head to the vehicles. The route down the mountain can be different, gravity makes it easier. I still have to take the path through the crevasse but below that I can take a direct path down. I stache a couple bottles of water at a nice area just below the crevasse for later trips and lighten the load. I see an old fence line the ranchers had put up long ago, and figured they put the fence in the best path. Following it down a very steep incline sometimes holding on to the fence for support, I make it down. I realize why people have said the Dutchman uses different paths to his mine, its not because he is being sneaky its because its human nature to take the shortest and easiest path. I have been in the mountains there several times and each time I try a different route hoping to find a gentler easier path, not likely. My legs feel like rubber and I need to stop frequently to rest, don’t want to make a stupid mistake and fall. I make it to the rolling hills of the pasture at the head of Queen Creek and its smooth sailing back to the side by side.  I get back to the truck just at dark, a half hour later and I wouldn’t have made it. It takes a while to warm up on the drive home from being sweaty and in the cold wind on the side by side chilled me to the bones.

The next trip, I decide, will have to be a two day trip,  with a change of clothes to stay warm at night. Also I would pick a warmer day.

Looking west for route up to ridge.

Looking east from water stache location.

At water stache location.

View of pasture below, Elephant Butte near center of landscape..

High up on east route.

On east route looking for path up.

On east route looking southwest towards Mesa.

Bottom of crevasse.

Looking at South Peak from east route.

Looking down hill along east route ledge.

Looking south toward Whitlow Canyon.

Looking up hill I just came down along part of fence line.

Chapter 9     Legends and Lore.

In 1541 Coronado heard stories from the Pima Indians of a Winged Beast that would kill men at night. It would swoop down with deadly silence and take their heads. Coronado named the mountain range the Superstition Mountains.

Many men have searched for gold in these mountains for hundred years. Many have died from the elements, some have died at the hands of others, while others have disappeared without a trace. Some say the mountain is Cursed.

Adolf Ruth was given a map that was made by the Peralta family. The wife of a man named Gonzales was a Peralta and she gave Adol’s son the map for taking her to the safety of Texas. Her husband was a General of Mexico and had just been ousted from power. Adolf went in search of the mine with his son’s map in the summer 1931. Bad mistake. He had some cowboys take him into the mountains to look for the gold. He told them all about his map. Not smart telling a bunch of Dutchman mine hunters that you have a map. The cowboys returned but he did not. A few months later his head was found and a mile away, his body. His skull had a bullet hole in it. What happened to him is not known for sure, but the evidence points to other men, not spirits.

Walter Gassler was another Dutchman Hunter. He started in 1933 shortly after reading about Adolf Ruth. Walter eventually died in his 80’s on his way out of the mountains supposedly carrying gold ore.

In 2011 three men from Colorado went into the mountains to look for gold and did not return.

Some accounts tell of 68 men that have died looking for the Dutchman mine.

Chapter 10       El Sombrero

King Woolsey came to central Arizona looking for a mountain shaped like a sombrero in 1861 with gold laying on the ground. In 1861 the Superstition mountains were a very dangerous place. Apache Indians were in the mountains and did not like people invading their sacred mountains. King Woolsey never found the sombrero mountain but did later become one of the founding fathers of Arizona. He was part of the first Territorial Legislature of the Arizona.

I am standing exhausted after an all day hike up 1800’ of elevation over rough terrain and through cactus, and looking at a sombrero shape butte. I can see most of the geographical points the Peralta Stones describe. I can make out the high ridge line connected by a saddle to a lower ridge line. I see the highest point on the ridge line and look down the side of the mountain to some rock ledges. That must be the mine location. I can hardly contain my excitement.

I have to get there, its around 4:30 pm and it gets dark about 6:00pm. I start cutting across the mountain face heading to the saddle forgetting what Jacob Waltz said about following the ridge line. As I’m descending the hill side gets rougher and suddenly I’m at the side of a large cut on the hill side. The cut is about 15’ deep and straight down on each side.  I go straight down to a point where the gully has sides that I can traverse. Hanging on to trees as I go into the gully keeping an eye open for snakes or other critters. I make across and have to rest. I didn’t think I would have this much trouble getting down the side. I should have stayed on the ridge. After about a half hour I make it to the saddle. Its several hundred feet across to the other ridge. I have looked at this spot many times while studying the satellite maps, now to see it in person was very cool. I can imagine the Jesuit Priests and Jacob Waltz and probably others setting up camp here to explore for gold. It is fairly brushy and as I walk across the saddle I spot rocks stacked  in a pile. Looks like a mining claim marker or survey monument. My imagination is running at full speed so I am thinking this could have clues written on the rock or something buried under them. I scratch around but find nothing. The  top stone is shaped like an arrow or long triangle, land surveyors long ago used to bury these with half sticking out of the ground as a monument marker. While working on a mineral exploration project in the Bradshaw Mountains I have found many of these  monuments so they stick out, like a sore thumb.

I keep looking around the area, its kind of a flat spot, might be a good place to work ore. I look south of my location and see the triangle shape on the mountain face, the latin stones say Noto Triangulum or in English - notice the triangle, wow thats really cool. I see the gorge that is in the middle of this mountain running north, I see the table top area the latin stones show, I see a good place for another adit across the gorge thats is mark on the latin stones. My head is swirling with the thought that the stones are documenting this place. Twenty feet from the monument I spot an old digging into an outcropping of odd looking rock. Later I realize that it’s rhyolite and  it is documented in the  USGS paper. Someone has dug about a cubic yard of the outcropping out. I can still see the pick marks. If anyone has used a pick to excavate rock before will know this is no easy task, you really have to want it. I don’t see any sign of quartz. Its possible the quartz was dug out and the seam ran out. I record the coordinates with my GPS and continue on.

I follow the lower ridge and come up to the highest point and like Jacob Waltz said headed down the hill side. I get to the same type of rhyolite, its kind of white and is made up of pieces of quartz and feldspar.  I get to the rock ledge I saw from across the valley and start looking around. There is a large pile of rocks and boulders covering the base of the ledge, thats the spot I want to see. Some digging has taken place on the face of the ledge at the top of the boulders.  Discouraged that I didn’t find quartz with limonite but I keep looking. Years ago part of an Apache Tribe spent the winter at the mine and covered any sign of the mine to keep people out. The woman threw rock and any tools they found down the shaft and pushed boulders over the ledge to the shaft opening. The men hunted and made mescal up at their camp, probably the flat spot where I first sight the sombrero. Down the south side of the flat area is a spring, you need water to make mescal.

I remember to take some samples of the broken off chips from the dike. Nothing special, I can analyse them back home to see what they are. I record the coordinate point and continue west along the dike.

I am slowly descending down the hill and see another spot that has been sampled. I take some more samples and record the coordinates. Its almost dark and I better get ready for a long night.

I find a somewhat smooth spot next to a ledge of this rhyolite that stands about 12 ‘ above the shelf. I change out of the wet clothes and lay down on the sleeping bag. Its only 6:30 pm and now I watch the sunset overlooking the valley of the sun far off in the distance. Earlier I got scent of a skunk, I hope he doesn’t visit me tonight, you don’t want to walk around at night on the side of a hill above a large raveen. I get my samples out and the miners loop that has a light attached and look at the samples. I see metallics glittering in the sample and finally spot some pyrite also some chalcopyrite. These are good sign of mineralization so I am more encouraged. In the hard rock mining arena, pyrite or sulphides are good, they contain gold. Most placer miners are looking for free gold or gold thats not trapped in the sulphides. It takes a large operation to work enough gold ore to be economical in the hardrock business. Placer miners look for very rich gold or nuggets so they don’t have to work as much rock. When I’m prospecting even a little whiff of gold is a good thing. It usually means there is more gold somewhere near or deeper.     When I get back to the office I can use the microscope to look at the samples closer. I start going over in my mind what I had seen earlier at the ledges and the sample pit and the pile of rocks at the ledge and realize, THIS IS IT. The rhyolite dike is about 400’ in length, Jacob Waltz had told someone that.

He said he dug out a small outcropping at the dikes end so no one would see signs of the vein material I have seen that.

As the sun goes down the city lights below light up the sky, its quite a sight. I’m laying there looking at the stars slowly roll across the sky. I see the little dipper and some other constellations and then I see a streak of light. Whoa, what was that? Am I going to see UFOs out here, that would be cool. I see some lights shining against the mountain to the west of me about 4 miles away, higher in elevation that me. I have to refocus my eyes to see it clearly. Its about 9:30 pm and there shouldn’t be anyone there now. The light flashes again and it looks like someone shining their flashlight and walking up the hill, probably a hiker. Someone as crazy as I am.

A few mosquitos are buzzing my head so I have to cover my head with the sleeping bag, going to be a long night. The night is dead still and around 40 degrees I would guess. Every now and then I get a whiff of skunk and hear a branches breaking of in the night, I use my pistol for a pillow.

I wake from a cold chill and decide to check the time, Its probably midnight. No its six am, great I might as well get my boots on and wait for the sun, it should rise about 7:00am. I drink my last water, about four ounces. No problem I know where water is.

The sun is up and I start back to the saddle to explore some more. I spot a survey brass cap monument. It’s a section quarter corner and was set in 1919. That Surveyor was about 200’ from the lost dutchman mine and never knew it.

At the saddle and I’m  thinking, if this wasn’t Wilderness area I would stake a claim right now. This mineralization is a good candidate for air geophysics and ground geophysics to find drilling targets. The story is good enough to raise money for a Exploration Company. Once a target is found the a Plan of Operation would be submitted to the Forest Service and about eighteen months later you could drill. When initial drilling is completed you know if it is worth raising money to mine. If I could stake a claim I could sell the mineral rights to another company and let them worry about drilling and mining.

I’m anxious to get back to civilization to think about the find. One last hill to climb and then it’s downhill from there. It takes about a half hour to get to the top of South Peak, this time I don’t cut across the face of the hill. Great views from the summit. On down I go to another ridge. I decide to look over the edge to see if there is another route that might be easier. The safest route would be the east route that I know will get me two bottles of water, and I am thirsty. I look over and this route looks pretty good, I can see the start of the fence line below that I will follow down. I decide to try it.  On the way down, there is a lot of fluffy weeds, some sort of sage I guess, and you can’t see the ground under them. I step into one and turn my ankle, not badly but enough to make me more careful. About 400’ down and I come up to a large drop off, probably 40’ to 50’ straight down. I don’t want to go back up because I am tired and hungry. I didn’t eat breakfast so my body wouldn’t use as much water so I’m very hungry and thirsty, brilliant.  I decide to walk along the edge to find a path down. I do find one but I’m not sure if it is doable without a rope. I keep going, if it is more than I can jump down, say five feet, I have to go back up, probably 400’. Next to some sahuaro cactus I see some jagged rocks and enough to get off the edge and to another slope. I stopped and thanked God.

I make it to the fence, I know this way but man am I thirsty. Rule number one, don’t pass up water in the desert.  Walking down the slope is really, sliding and stumbling down the slope. My legs are like rubber and I am tired and thirsty. One step and my left knee hyper-extends. Doesn’t hurt terrible but sensitive, stupid. I keep going. I can make it, I keep telling myself.  Actually I am talking to myself outloud, you can make it. Over and Over again. Careful where you step, you must not fall and get hurt. Keep going. When I’m off the slope I thank God again. Now its easy walking for about a mile to the side by side vehicle, hope no one stole it.  I would hate to walk another five miles to the truck. No cell service.

I’m imagining sitting at the water hole guzzling water by the gallon, pouring it over my head. Another half mile to go. I finally get there and immediately go to the the cow trough and fill my water bottle, looks clean enough. I drink about a liter of water and take a breather. Ahhh.

The seat of the side by side sure does feel good. For some reason I keep pushing on, I have time to rest even nap if I want but I push on. Those ghost stories of men dying on there way out after finding the mine is in the back of my mind. Must get home.

On the drive home the traffic was heavy, its Sunday but still heavy. I’m thinking I hope I don’t get in an accident on the way home that would be bad. I actually feared for my life more on the freeway than the whole expedition into the mountains. Some parts of Phoenix are way more dangerous than the Superstition Mountains, any day. No more bandits out there only families hiking and Eagle Scouts working on a merit badges. Don’t let the stories fool you. The terrain and temperature can get you if you’re  not ready for it but the bandits are long gone.

I get back to the house and look at my samples with the microscope. Gold! Lots of gold and every piece that I picked up has it. The dike alone may be economical to mine let alone the high grade quartz and gold that Waltz mined.  There is quite literally gold laying on the ground there, not nuggets but microscopic gold. King Woolsey should have had a microscope with him.

Location of Adit.

Survey Monument.

Notice the arrow shaped rock on top. Typical survey Monument from the early 1900’s.

See the triangle shape on the mountain face. This is called out on the Latin Hearts Stone.

The outcropping dug out with pick. As described by Jacob Waltz.

Same outcropping.

Another adit indicated by the Latin Heart Stones.

The Gorge called out on the Latin Stones. The Latin word is Fauces.

Four Peaks to the north. The Latin Heart Stones call it The Great Bear.

Debri covering the main workings.

More debri covering main workings. Could have been placed their to hide mine or from earthquake in the late 1890’s.

Survey monument set in 1919 next to dike of rhyolite.

Sunset from camp.

City lights start to shine. The whole valley is lit up all night.

Standing next to South Peak at the summit.

Wet cool water.

Chapter 10          Summary

The key to finding this deposit is: in the faults, look for diorite, andesite, gabbro or rhyolite type volcanic rocks. The gold can be in quartz with limonite, as is the Dutchman gold.

The geological sequence I believe is this. Two billion years ago this was the bottom of an ocean the schist was formed and metamorphosed. One hundred million years ago the Laramide Orogeny took place and the mineralization and then the  deformation of the schist took place. The schist is on it’s side pushed together and more metamorphosis takes place. Around 35 million years ago the southwest continent of North America starts to rift apart. This rifting leaves room for new volcanic rock  that is less dense than the older rock move towards the surface. This is the rhyolite.  fifteen million years ago the young volcanic rock moves through the rifted faults and digests most of the pre cambrian rock. As the rifting continues the valleys become larger and move away from the Superstition mountains proper.

The Superstition Mountains remain standing, a large volcanic stock, a very different structure from the pre cambrian rock. The pre cambrian rock  that had the rhyolite penetrate its layers was protected from the digestion of the volcanic episode. The Picacho Butte mountain is approximately a square mile  and is still together,  not broken with  recent rifting.  Erosion has taken place since that time and we see what is the result.  The rhyolite penetrated the schist, at the horizontal thrust fault that is now vertical, where the quartz with the mineralization had formed, and the extrusive brought the quartz vein, most of it pulverized into small fragments, to the surface.  Structure structure structure.

This geology section through the area shows the precambrian remnants as well as a rhyolite extrusive.The mine location is in this rhyolite dike. Under microscope there is plenty of gold. Possibly enough to mine this rhyolite alone. The gold that was under Jacob Waltz’s bed was quartz and limonite. The rhyolite is composed of tiny chunks of the vein that Jacob Waltz had dug out.

Near Miners Needle there is another dike of this rhyolite, I went to this dike and found a spot of quartz right along side the dike. This shows how the rhyolite moved along the contact and took fragments of the mineralized quartz with it. That is how the gold particles got included in the rhyolite. I haven’t found the high grade quartz because any sign of it was removed by Jacob Waltz and later, by a group of Indians.  The quartz at Miners Needle has a little microscopic gold and the rhyolite is barren, the rhyolite at the dutchman dike has a lot of microscopic gold proving that the quartz vein was probably high grade. If the Forest Service ever allows mining someone can excavate the shaft area and find this high grade.

Bibliography

The Bible of the Lost Dutchman mine and Jacob Waltz.

Helen Corbin

Geology of the Florence Junction and Southern Portion of the  Weavers Needle 7.5’   Quadrangles, Pinal County AZ.

By Charles A Ferguson and Steven J Skotnicki

Arizona geological Survey Sept 1995

DesertUSA.com, Jim Hatt

Treasurenet.com

Wpedia.goo.ne.jp

en.wikipedia.org

Google Earth

Ancient Lost treasures.yuku.com

Timothy King 2008

Awesomeactionadventures.blogspot.com

University of Oklahoma Press  1979

Wikimedia Commons

Historical Atlas of Arizona, Henry P Walker and Don Bufkin

1 oro 1 The Treasure Hunters Reference

Coasttocoastam.com

Robert L Kesselring and Lynda R. Kesselring

Ionsafko.com

www.disclose.tv

About the Author

Dan Starkey has spent the last seven years researching and prospecting for the source of the mineralization in Arizona. Studying historic mines and large deposits around the world,  he has gained insights that may not have been considered. Learning geology from the school of hard knocks, Dan was able to look outside the box of conventional geologic studies. Geology is an inexact science, so Dan used his thirty years experience at Building Construction Engineering and Land Surveying to calculate the direction of the mineralization feeder paths thereby pinpointing the volcanic centers or Source of the mineralization.  Geometry IS an exact science.