1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:03,333 [tense music] [footsteps] 2 00:00:03,333 --> 00:00:07,375 - Tonight, the most famous lost mine in the old West. 3 00:00:07,375 --> 00:00:10,042 - The quantity of gold in the Lost Dutchman mine 4 00:00:10,042 --> 00:00:13,250 is over half a billion dollars. 5 00:00:13,250 --> 00:00:16,042 - People have been searching well over a century, 6 00:00:16,042 --> 00:00:17,250 but no one's found it. 7 00:00:18,500 --> 00:00:20,167 - The clues to its whereabouts are intriguing, 8 00:00:20,167 --> 00:00:23,375 but some say the land is cursed. 9 00:00:23,375 --> 00:00:26,875 - Anybody who trespassed against this sacred land 10 00:00:26,875 --> 00:00:28,250 would face death. 11 00:00:29,542 --> 00:00:32,667 - The Superstition Mountains are unusually dangerous, 12 00:00:32,667 --> 00:00:35,000 they're rugged and unforgiving. 13 00:00:36,042 --> 00:00:38,375 - Now, we explore the top theories 14 00:00:38,375 --> 00:00:41,167 surrounding the Lost Dutchman's mine. 15 00:00:41,167 --> 00:00:45,458 - Lo and behold, they have these cryptic symbols on them. 16 00:00:45,458 --> 00:00:48,333 - The heart on the stones is the key to the entire puzzle. 17 00:00:49,375 --> 00:00:51,375 [explosion] - As legends suggests, 18 00:00:51,375 --> 00:00:54,625 is it possible the gold and the land it's hidden on 19 00:00:54,625 --> 00:00:56,083 are somehow cursed? 20 00:00:56,083 --> 00:00:57,375 - Many people have died 21 00:00:57,375 --> 00:00:59,375 trying to find the Lost Dutchman mine 22 00:00:59,375 --> 00:01:01,792 and there are people that are still willing 23 00:01:01,792 --> 00:01:04,083 to risk their lives to find it. 24 00:01:04,083 --> 00:01:07,667 - Where is the Lost Dutchman's mine? 25 00:01:07,667 --> 00:01:10,417 [dramatic music] 26 00:01:23,792 --> 00:01:25,958 Spring 1891. 27 00:01:25,958 --> 00:01:28,375 On the outskirts of Phoenix, Arizona, 28 00:01:28,375 --> 00:01:31,458 83-year-old German immigrant Jacob Waltz 29 00:01:31,458 --> 00:01:34,000 is having a string of bad luck. 30 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:35,250 - Jacob Waltz is a prospector 31 00:01:35,250 --> 00:01:37,042 who has come to Arizona 32 00:01:37,042 --> 00:01:40,042 during the Gold Boom in the 1860s. 33 00:01:40,042 --> 00:01:43,792 - By 1891, he is a farmer 34 00:01:45,208 --> 00:01:48,958 and his farm home has been basically ruined 35 00:01:48,958 --> 00:01:50,583 in a massive flood. 36 00:01:52,083 --> 00:01:53,583 - Some accounts have him spending 37 00:01:53,583 --> 00:01:56,417 as many as two nights in a tree to avoid the water, 38 00:01:56,417 --> 00:01:58,667 contracting pneumonia in the process. 39 00:02:01,125 --> 00:02:02,667 - Jacob is nursed back to health 40 00:02:02,667 --> 00:02:05,417 by a woman named Julia Thomas, who's 29 years old, 41 00:02:05,417 --> 00:02:08,000 so she's much younger than Jacob. 42 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:09,125 Now she runs a boarding house 43 00:02:09,125 --> 00:02:11,000 that Jacob eventually moves into, 44 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:12,542 and since they both speak German, 45 00:02:12,542 --> 00:02:14,667 they eventually develop a rapport. 46 00:02:14,667 --> 00:02:15,750 - What happens next 47 00:02:15,750 --> 00:02:18,875 is Jacob is visited by some of his friends, 48 00:02:18,875 --> 00:02:21,292 who bring five sacks of gold 49 00:02:21,292 --> 00:02:23,833 that they recovered from his farmhouse. 50 00:02:25,042 --> 00:02:27,250 - Julia perks up as anyone would, 51 00:02:27,250 --> 00:02:29,083 and she starts to realize, you know, 52 00:02:29,083 --> 00:02:31,875 maybe there's more to this scruffy looking man 53 00:02:31,875 --> 00:02:33,583 than she first thought. 54 00:02:33,583 --> 00:02:36,042 - [Fishburne] Julia plays nurse for several months, 55 00:02:36,042 --> 00:02:37,292 taking care of Waltz, 56 00:02:37,292 --> 00:02:39,042 and they grow close. 57 00:02:39,042 --> 00:02:41,125 - With that growing trust and friendship, 58 00:02:41,125 --> 00:02:42,875 Jacob could find some Julia 59 00:02:42,875 --> 00:02:45,375 where the gold his friends brought, is from. 60 00:02:49,167 --> 00:02:51,750 - He tells her that the gold is from a mine 61 00:02:51,750 --> 00:02:55,208 that is hidden in the Superstition Mountains nearby 62 00:02:55,208 --> 00:02:57,500 and that it's filled with gold. 63 00:02:57,500 --> 00:03:00,083 - [Scott Wolter] Jacob confides in Julia, 64 00:03:00,083 --> 00:03:03,625 this mine has over $20 million in gold, 65 00:03:03,625 --> 00:03:07,667 which in today's dollars would be around 700 million. 66 00:03:09,292 --> 00:03:10,708 - The Superstition Mountains 67 00:03:10,708 --> 00:03:13,500 are sacred territory to the Apache Native Americans 68 00:03:13,500 --> 00:03:15,500 who are indigenous to this area. 69 00:03:16,333 --> 00:03:18,375 - So according to Apache lore, 70 00:03:18,375 --> 00:03:20,667 the Superstition Mountains are named as such 71 00:03:20,667 --> 00:03:23,208 because it's the hum of their thunder god, 72 00:03:23,208 --> 00:03:25,375 who lives in the mountain. 73 00:03:25,375 --> 00:03:26,917 And according to their legend, 74 00:03:28,542 --> 00:03:31,250 he will kill anyone who trespasses there. 75 00:03:33,375 --> 00:03:35,417 - The historical root of this tradition 76 00:03:35,417 --> 00:03:38,875 seems to lie in events from the 1840s. 77 00:03:38,875 --> 00:03:43,625 - There was a family from Mexico City called the Peraltas, 78 00:03:43,625 --> 00:03:48,042 and they made it a point to mine the gold in there. 79 00:03:48,042 --> 00:03:49,708 And the Apaches told them 80 00:03:49,708 --> 00:03:52,750 that they should not be in the mountains. 81 00:03:52,750 --> 00:03:56,708 So one day, the Peraltas got tired of the harassment 82 00:03:56,708 --> 00:03:58,792 and so they decided to pack up and leave 83 00:03:58,792 --> 00:04:01,833 and take their whole operation back to Mexico, 84 00:04:01,833 --> 00:04:04,250 but they only got so far. 85 00:04:04,250 --> 00:04:06,708 When they were exposed in the clearing, 86 00:04:06,708 --> 00:04:10,500 that's when the Apaches swooped down on the whole party. 87 00:04:10,500 --> 00:04:13,167 - The Peralta family don't have a lot of history 88 00:04:13,167 --> 00:04:15,125 on what happened next. 89 00:04:15,125 --> 00:04:16,458 One version of the story is that 90 00:04:16,458 --> 00:04:19,542 there was a big fight with the Apache 91 00:04:19,542 --> 00:04:21,625 and that a lot of people died. 92 00:04:21,625 --> 00:04:23,958 The other story is that they were all massacred, 93 00:04:23,958 --> 00:04:25,167 but one or two people, 94 00:04:25,167 --> 00:04:27,292 who managed to escape back to the family. 95 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:31,125 - The last thing the Apaches did 96 00:04:31,125 --> 00:04:33,250 was to go and take mules 97 00:04:33,250 --> 00:04:36,542 with saddlebags full of gold ore, 98 00:04:36,542 --> 00:04:40,125 and they took them back into the mountain. 99 00:04:40,125 --> 00:04:41,833 [explosion] 100 00:04:41,833 --> 00:04:44,708 - The Apache's dynamite some of the mines closed, 101 00:04:44,708 --> 00:04:48,208 but according to legend, one of them stays open. 102 00:04:48,208 --> 00:04:51,042 - Waltz claims that 10 years later, 103 00:04:51,042 --> 00:04:53,333 while prospecting on his own, 104 00:04:53,333 --> 00:04:56,375 he comes across the last Peralta mine. 105 00:04:57,667 --> 00:05:00,292 - [Gottlieb] Waltz goes inside and what does he find? 106 00:05:00,292 --> 00:05:01,667 Gold everywhere. 107 00:05:01,667 --> 00:05:03,708 So much gold, he can like cut it off the walls. 108 00:05:03,708 --> 00:05:06,333 It's embedded in quartz, it's gold ore, 109 00:05:07,125 --> 00:05:09,333 there's veins of gold everywhere. 110 00:05:11,208 --> 00:05:13,875 - Then, many years later on his deathbed, 111 00:05:13,875 --> 00:05:15,458 he makes something of a confession 112 00:05:15,458 --> 00:05:18,208 to what might have been his only friend. 113 00:05:18,208 --> 00:05:20,208 - He says that when he recovers, 114 00:05:20,208 --> 00:05:22,458 he's going to take her to this mine, 115 00:05:22,458 --> 00:05:25,042 but his situation only gets worse. 116 00:05:25,042 --> 00:05:27,500 And so he develops a stroke, 117 00:05:27,500 --> 00:05:29,375 he's partially crippled, 118 00:05:29,375 --> 00:05:32,625 but he's still able to draw this map 119 00:05:32,625 --> 00:05:34,542 and it has these cryptic clues 120 00:05:34,542 --> 00:05:36,833 to the location of this mine. 121 00:05:38,167 --> 00:05:40,792 One of the clues that Jacob leaves behind for Julia, 122 00:05:40,792 --> 00:05:43,375 is he says that at the entrance of the mine, 123 00:05:43,375 --> 00:05:46,375 it looks like an upside down funnel. 124 00:05:47,625 --> 00:05:49,333 - One of the other clues is that 125 00:05:49,333 --> 00:05:50,750 from the mine's entrance, 126 00:05:50,750 --> 00:05:53,042 you can see what he calls a military trail. 127 00:05:54,375 --> 00:05:56,417 - Another clue says that a particular shadow 128 00:05:56,417 --> 00:05:58,708 would be cast from Weaver's Needle, 129 00:05:58,708 --> 00:06:01,000 which is a distinctive geological formation 130 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:02,917 in the Superstition Mountains. 131 00:06:02,917 --> 00:06:04,250 - The entrance to the mine 132 00:06:04,250 --> 00:06:06,875 is within the shadow cast of Weaver's Needle, 133 00:06:06,875 --> 00:06:09,958 and the sun will shine into the mine's entrance 134 00:06:09,958 --> 00:06:14,375 and the mine is located on a north-south running canyon; 135 00:06:14,375 --> 00:06:16,333 with a rock face near the entrance. 136 00:06:17,792 --> 00:06:19,708 - [Fishburne] Waltz also tells Julia 137 00:06:19,708 --> 00:06:22,542 that from the mine, you can see four peaks 138 00:06:22,542 --> 00:06:25,167 that appear to be lined up as one. 139 00:06:25,167 --> 00:06:26,667 - The four peaks landmarks 140 00:06:26,667 --> 00:06:29,375 is about 40 miles outside of Phoenix. 141 00:06:29,375 --> 00:06:32,333 It's part of the Tonto National Forest. 142 00:06:32,333 --> 00:06:33,958 - But did he mean they line up 143 00:06:33,958 --> 00:06:35,000 and look like one peak, 144 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:37,500 or can you see all four peaks at once? 145 00:06:37,500 --> 00:06:39,875 No one knows quite exactly what he meant, 146 00:06:40,917 --> 00:06:42,458 and where to start from. 147 00:06:45,458 --> 00:06:49,417 - [Fishburne] Waltz dies on October 25th, 1891, 148 00:06:49,417 --> 00:06:53,417 taking the mine's exact location to his grave. 149 00:06:53,417 --> 00:06:55,292 - Julia immediately determines 150 00:06:55,292 --> 00:06:58,458 to go and find the lost mine. 151 00:06:58,458 --> 00:07:01,583 But after months of searching, 152 00:07:01,583 --> 00:07:05,000 using the clues in the map that Waltz had left, 153 00:07:06,208 --> 00:07:08,375 they are unable to find anything. 154 00:07:08,375 --> 00:07:11,458 No gold, no mine, nothing. 155 00:07:11,458 --> 00:07:12,583 - She gets to the point where 156 00:07:12,583 --> 00:07:15,167 she becomes financially destitute, 157 00:07:15,167 --> 00:07:17,250 and eventually she has to give up 158 00:07:17,250 --> 00:07:18,667 because she can't find it. 159 00:07:18,667 --> 00:07:21,500 But she does decide to tell a newspaper 160 00:07:21,500 --> 00:07:23,708 everything that Jacob had told her. 161 00:07:23,708 --> 00:07:25,708 - And the story begins to spread 162 00:07:25,708 --> 00:07:29,875 and this is how this whole new fervor starts, 163 00:07:29,875 --> 00:07:33,583 looking for gold in the Superstition Mountains. 164 00:07:33,583 --> 00:07:34,917 - With these articles, 165 00:07:34,917 --> 00:07:38,542 the term "Lost Dutchman's mine" is invented. 166 00:07:38,542 --> 00:07:43,083 Interestingly enough, Waltz is not Dutch, he's German. 167 00:07:43,083 --> 00:07:45,625 A lot of German immigrants during this period, 168 00:07:45,625 --> 00:07:47,875 and the Americans hear Deutsch, 169 00:07:47,875 --> 00:07:49,667 which is German for "German," 170 00:07:49,667 --> 00:07:51,375 but the name Dutch sticks; 171 00:07:51,375 --> 00:07:54,125 and so they become known as Dutch immigrants. 172 00:07:54,125 --> 00:07:56,667 - People now pour into the Superstition Mountains 173 00:07:56,667 --> 00:07:59,083 in search of the hidden treasure. 174 00:07:59,083 --> 00:08:00,292 - [Fishburne] Initially, 175 00:08:00,292 --> 00:08:02,958 many of these fortune hunters alight on one spot. 176 00:08:08,500 --> 00:08:12,042 - Weaver's Needle is a very unique land formation. 177 00:08:12,042 --> 00:08:16,583 It is the remnant of what used to be a prehistoric volcano, 178 00:08:16,583 --> 00:08:19,792 on the very eastern part of the Superstition Mountain. 179 00:08:20,583 --> 00:08:22,875 It eroded throughout time 180 00:08:22,875 --> 00:08:26,083 and all that's left now is a huge, tall pinnacle 181 00:08:26,083 --> 00:08:29,542 and it looks like a real tall skinny mountain. 182 00:08:29,542 --> 00:08:32,083 - [Fishburne] It's named after Pauline Weaver, 183 00:08:32,083 --> 00:08:33,708 a mountain man and scout 184 00:08:33,708 --> 00:08:36,875 who explored the area in the 19th century. 185 00:08:36,875 --> 00:08:39,958 - You can see from it, a military road. 186 00:08:39,958 --> 00:08:41,292 And if you remember, 187 00:08:41,292 --> 00:08:45,167 Jacob Waltz refers to being able to see a military road 188 00:08:45,167 --> 00:08:47,292 from the entrance of the mine. 189 00:08:47,292 --> 00:08:49,042 - But, there's a size problem. 190 00:08:49,042 --> 00:08:51,750 Weaver's Needles very big, it's like a thousand feet high, 191 00:08:51,750 --> 00:08:54,583 so it casts a very big shadow. 192 00:08:54,583 --> 00:08:57,625 Doesn't make finding the actual mine very easy. 193 00:08:58,708 --> 00:08:59,750 - [Fishburne] Even before Jacob Waltz 194 00:08:59,750 --> 00:09:01,542 makes his deathbed confession 195 00:09:01,542 --> 00:09:04,500 and the Lost Dutchman's mine gets its name, 196 00:09:04,500 --> 00:09:06,625 the area around Weaver's Needle 197 00:09:06,625 --> 00:09:08,917 earns a sinister reputation. 198 00:09:10,208 --> 00:09:13,500 - In 1880, two former soldiers travel into Phoenix 199 00:09:13,500 --> 00:09:16,042 and they approach a silver mine 200 00:09:16,042 --> 00:09:18,708 and the manager there looking for work, 201 00:09:18,708 --> 00:09:21,750 and they have gold ore with them. 202 00:09:21,750 --> 00:09:23,875 Remember, at this time, Phoenix isn't very big. 203 00:09:23,875 --> 00:09:27,917 It's a small rural community, about 2,500 people. 204 00:09:27,917 --> 00:09:31,333 So if someone rolls into town with a bunch of gold, 205 00:09:31,333 --> 00:09:33,167 people are gonna notice. 206 00:09:33,167 --> 00:09:35,292 - They sell some gold ore 207 00:09:35,292 --> 00:09:36,708 and the person buying the ore 208 00:09:36,708 --> 00:09:39,458 is struck by the quantity, 209 00:09:39,458 --> 00:09:40,667 as well as the quality of this ore. 210 00:09:40,667 --> 00:09:42,333 And he asks these two soldiers, 211 00:09:42,333 --> 00:09:45,083 where did you find this gold? 212 00:09:45,083 --> 00:09:46,208 - And they said, well, 213 00:09:46,208 --> 00:09:47,708 there's tons of it laying around this mine. 214 00:09:47,708 --> 00:09:49,000 So he tells them, well, 215 00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:51,333 if you guys think there's that much gold, 216 00:09:51,333 --> 00:09:54,167 I'll outfit you and you bring back some more samples, 217 00:09:54,167 --> 00:09:56,750 and I'll invest and back you on this venture. 218 00:09:56,750 --> 00:09:59,708 So the soldiers then leave, outfitted. 219 00:10:01,875 --> 00:10:03,208 - [Fishburne] After two weeks, 220 00:10:03,208 --> 00:10:05,042 the soldiers failed to return. 221 00:10:05,042 --> 00:10:07,375 Hoping the men haven't run off with the gold 222 00:10:07,375 --> 00:10:09,458 or been taken by the Apache, 223 00:10:09,458 --> 00:10:11,208 a search party is sent out. 224 00:10:11,208 --> 00:10:13,875 - And they eventually find the two men, 225 00:10:13,875 --> 00:10:18,250 naked and dead, each shot in the head. 226 00:10:18,250 --> 00:10:20,375 Murdered for the gold? 227 00:10:20,375 --> 00:10:22,208 We're not sure. 228 00:10:22,208 --> 00:10:23,458 - The reality is that 229 00:10:23,458 --> 00:10:26,042 this is a really treacherous landscape 230 00:10:26,042 --> 00:10:30,250 and mining is a very dangerous, cutthroat business 231 00:10:30,250 --> 00:10:31,792 and people are afraid. 232 00:10:31,792 --> 00:10:34,208 - It lends credence to the curse. 233 00:10:34,208 --> 00:10:35,208 It makes it more real. 234 00:10:37,125 --> 00:10:39,000 - [Fishburne] Well into the 20th century, 235 00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:41,500 People searching for the Lost Dutchman's mine 236 00:10:41,500 --> 00:10:42,875 close to Weaver's Needle, 237 00:10:42,875 --> 00:10:45,042 have met with tragic ends. 238 00:10:45,042 --> 00:10:46,792 - Some people are murdered. 239 00:10:46,792 --> 00:10:49,042 You have dehydration, starvation. 240 00:10:49,042 --> 00:10:52,000 These are very treacherous conditions in these mountains, 241 00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:56,708 so there's a lot of mystery and legend tied to this. 242 00:10:56,708 --> 00:10:59,958 - But with so many deaths and so little gold found, 243 00:10:59,958 --> 00:11:01,583 treasure hunters are now beginning 244 00:11:01,583 --> 00:11:03,708 to search other locations for the mine. 245 00:11:07,875 --> 00:11:09,542 - [Fishburne] Numerous lives have been lost 246 00:11:09,542 --> 00:11:11,333 in Arizona's Superstition Mountains, 247 00:11:11,333 --> 00:11:14,167 in the hunt for the Lost Dutchman's mine. 248 00:11:15,875 --> 00:11:18,625 Some swear an Apache curse is to blame, 249 00:11:20,000 --> 00:11:22,250 but that hasn't stopped prospectors 250 00:11:22,250 --> 00:11:24,417 from carrying on the search. 251 00:11:24,417 --> 00:11:25,750 - And along with Weaver's Needle, 252 00:11:25,750 --> 00:11:26,917 there is another location 253 00:11:26,917 --> 00:11:28,583 that's long been associated 254 00:11:28,583 --> 00:11:30,042 with the Lost Dutchman's mine. 255 00:11:31,375 --> 00:11:33,875 - This spot isn't without its tragedy as well, 256 00:11:33,875 --> 00:11:35,458 and it's home to one of 257 00:11:35,458 --> 00:11:37,708 the most well known and puzzling 258 00:11:37,708 --> 00:11:39,667 attempts to find the lost goldmine. 259 00:11:40,792 --> 00:11:44,375 - In 1914, Erwin Ruth, 260 00:11:44,375 --> 00:11:48,750 the son of an amateur treasure hunter named Adolf Ruth 261 00:11:48,750 --> 00:11:50,917 travels to Mexico on business. 262 00:11:51,958 --> 00:11:53,458 - While he's in Mexico, 263 00:11:53,458 --> 00:11:55,167 one version of the story is that 264 00:11:55,167 --> 00:11:57,792 Erwin saves the life of a government official. 265 00:11:58,708 --> 00:12:00,208 - The official learns about 266 00:12:00,208 --> 00:12:02,833 his father's interest in Western folklore and treasure, 267 00:12:02,833 --> 00:12:05,750 and it so happens that this Mexican 268 00:12:05,750 --> 00:12:08,000 has some connection to treasure in the American West. 269 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:11,458 He is in fact a distant relative of the Peraltas, 270 00:12:11,458 --> 00:12:14,000 and he gives to Erwin some maps; 271 00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:16,833 maps of the fabled Peralta mines 272 00:12:16,833 --> 00:12:19,750 somewhere in the Superstition Mountains. 273 00:12:19,750 --> 00:12:22,042 Erwin is not especially interested in the maps, 274 00:12:22,042 --> 00:12:24,875 but his father certainly is. 275 00:12:24,875 --> 00:12:26,292 He has them inspected and dated 276 00:12:26,292 --> 00:12:28,375 to around the time of the Mexican revolution, 277 00:12:28,375 --> 00:12:31,958 which seems to provide some sense of authenticity. 278 00:12:33,750 --> 00:12:38,000 The maps are in some ways legible, 279 00:12:38,000 --> 00:12:40,458 in that they seem to denote a particular area; 280 00:12:40,458 --> 00:12:41,958 the Superstition Mountains, 281 00:12:41,958 --> 00:12:44,750 but other things about them don't make sense. 282 00:12:44,750 --> 00:12:45,917 - He's studying this map 283 00:12:45,917 --> 00:12:47,042 and he's looking at the geography, 284 00:12:47,042 --> 00:12:49,750 and it doesn't quite match up. 285 00:12:49,750 --> 00:12:52,667 - Ultimately, Ruth concludes that 286 00:12:52,667 --> 00:12:53,875 people have been looking 287 00:12:53,875 --> 00:12:55,167 in the wrong place the whole time. 288 00:12:55,167 --> 00:12:58,125 Weaver's Needle is not the key. 289 00:12:58,875 --> 00:13:00,375 It's, in fact, 290 00:13:00,375 --> 00:13:02,125 another equally distinct geological formation: 291 00:13:03,708 --> 00:13:04,875 Blacktop Mesa. 292 00:13:09,542 --> 00:13:11,208 - So Adolf Ruth decides to go 293 00:13:11,208 --> 00:13:14,167 on this solo expedition to blacktop Mesa, 294 00:13:14,167 --> 00:13:16,750 using these maps to try to find 295 00:13:16,750 --> 00:13:19,042 this secret hidden mine 296 00:13:19,042 --> 00:13:22,083 that it supposedly holds the clues to. 297 00:13:22,083 --> 00:13:24,792 - [Fishburne] Adolf Ruth arrives in Arizona 298 00:13:24,792 --> 00:13:27,208 in the spring of 1931; 299 00:13:27,208 --> 00:13:31,000 a 66-year-old with chronic pain and a limp. 300 00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:32,875 - Adolf Ruth is about five feet tall 301 00:13:32,875 --> 00:13:35,000 and just about a hundred pounds wet, 302 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:36,917 so he's not the guy to be 303 00:13:36,917 --> 00:13:38,917 going into the mountains at that time. 304 00:13:40,542 --> 00:13:43,875 What happens is, Ruth finds some ranch hands 305 00:13:43,875 --> 00:13:45,875 that are willing to make a few extra bucks 306 00:13:45,875 --> 00:13:48,583 to take Ruth in and set him up in a camp. 307 00:13:48,583 --> 00:13:50,875 - So June 14th, 1931, 308 00:13:50,875 --> 00:13:53,458 they take him to a place called Willow Springs 309 00:13:53,458 --> 00:13:55,042 and that's where they leave him. 310 00:13:56,250 --> 00:13:58,042 - After about a week, they don't hear from him, 311 00:13:58,042 --> 00:14:01,833 so they go into the mountains looking for him 312 00:14:01,833 --> 00:14:03,417 and they don't find him. 313 00:14:03,417 --> 00:14:06,208 His camp has been abandoned. 314 00:14:06,208 --> 00:14:10,292 - Nothing more is heard about Adolf Ruth for several months 315 00:14:10,292 --> 00:14:15,333 and then some campers eventually make a discovery. 316 00:14:16,125 --> 00:14:17,542 - Over near the Salt River, 317 00:14:17,542 --> 00:14:20,625 some campers end up finding a message in a bottle 318 00:14:20,625 --> 00:14:24,167 and it's allegedly from Ruth. 319 00:14:24,167 --> 00:14:28,750 And it says, I'm under a tree, I'm injured, 320 00:14:28,750 --> 00:14:31,208 PS: I found the Lost Dutchman's mine. 321 00:14:33,083 --> 00:14:34,917 - Fast forward to December, 322 00:14:34,917 --> 00:14:37,833 they eventually do find Ruth's skull; 323 00:14:37,833 --> 00:14:40,167 just a skull, no body, 324 00:14:40,167 --> 00:14:42,958 and there is what appears to be a bullet hole in it. 325 00:14:44,167 --> 00:14:45,875 - About a month after they discover Ruth's head, 326 00:14:45,875 --> 00:14:48,208 his body is found. 327 00:14:48,208 --> 00:14:51,458 And none of his belongings are missing, 328 00:14:51,458 --> 00:14:54,292 except for the maps. 329 00:14:54,292 --> 00:14:56,292 - In a bag, he has a checkbook 330 00:14:56,292 --> 00:14:58,000 in which he's written some notes. 331 00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:01,292 One of the most relevant notes is the Latin phrase, 332 00:15:01,292 --> 00:15:04,750 Veni, vidi, vici, which is Julius Caesar's words, 333 00:15:04,750 --> 00:15:06,792 I came, I saw, I conquered. 334 00:15:06,792 --> 00:15:09,750 - Does that mean that Ruth found 335 00:15:09,750 --> 00:15:11,875 the fabled Lost Dutchman's mine? 336 00:15:11,875 --> 00:15:13,500 Well, some of his other scribbles 337 00:15:13,500 --> 00:15:14,792 suggest that maybe he did. 338 00:15:14,792 --> 00:15:18,083 - Unfortunately, most of what he writes doesn't make sense. 339 00:15:18,083 --> 00:15:21,292 The only thing he does leave that you can read, 340 00:15:21,292 --> 00:15:23,750 is something about a mysterious circle 341 00:15:23,750 --> 00:15:26,875 and then fields of black basaltic rock. 342 00:15:28,208 --> 00:15:29,375 - [Fishburne] The Ruth story 343 00:15:29,375 --> 00:15:31,833 grabs headlines around the country 344 00:15:31,833 --> 00:15:34,375 and the public becomes obsessed. 345 00:15:34,375 --> 00:15:37,083 - All of these elements add up to a media sensation, 346 00:15:37,083 --> 00:15:39,208 which is attractive to audiences 347 00:15:39,208 --> 00:15:41,750 in the depths of the Great Depression 348 00:15:41,750 --> 00:15:44,625 where their eyes look west 349 00:15:44,625 --> 00:15:47,833 to a place where most Americans will never go, 350 00:15:47,833 --> 00:15:49,542 except in their imaginations. 351 00:15:49,542 --> 00:15:51,375 A place where they can imagine themselves 352 00:15:51,375 --> 00:15:53,208 leading more authentic, more exciting, 353 00:15:53,208 --> 00:15:55,250 more dangerous lives. 354 00:15:55,250 --> 00:15:58,083 It reignites interest in the Lost Dutchman mine, 355 00:15:58,083 --> 00:16:00,458 interest that has not abated to this day. 356 00:16:03,583 --> 00:16:08,333 - Initially, they rule Ruth's death a suicide, 357 00:16:08,333 --> 00:16:11,000 but then they realized he never fired his gun. 358 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:13,250 So now they believe that he died 359 00:16:13,250 --> 00:16:16,708 because of natural causes, the harsh conditions, 360 00:16:16,708 --> 00:16:19,375 dehydration, starvation, 361 00:16:19,375 --> 00:16:24,083 and they believe that the holes are from a predator 362 00:16:24,083 --> 00:16:25,958 and happened after he died. 363 00:16:27,042 --> 00:16:28,542 - [Fishburne] But even after all these years, 364 00:16:28,542 --> 00:16:32,042 many people theorize that Ruth was murdered 365 00:16:32,042 --> 00:16:35,417 by someone who wanted the Lost Dutchman's mine 366 00:16:35,417 --> 00:16:36,500 all to themselves. 367 00:16:37,458 --> 00:16:40,875 - Ruth's argument for Blacktop Mesa 368 00:16:40,875 --> 00:16:44,167 being the locale of the lost mine, 369 00:16:44,167 --> 00:16:47,875 is persuasive to him and has been to other treasure hunters, 370 00:16:47,875 --> 00:16:49,375 but it doesn't line up 371 00:16:49,375 --> 00:16:52,250 with all of the clues that Waltz left on his deathbed. 372 00:16:53,625 --> 00:16:55,167 - Blacktop Mesa is not 373 00:16:55,167 --> 00:16:57,125 within the shadow of Weaver's Needle, 374 00:16:57,125 --> 00:17:00,042 so that clue is kind of outta play. 375 00:17:00,042 --> 00:17:02,833 - However, it is geographically sort of close 376 00:17:02,833 --> 00:17:05,958 and the black basalt sort of fits in 377 00:17:05,958 --> 00:17:08,000 with the note he left in his checkbook. 378 00:17:09,667 --> 00:17:10,917 - There are other points 379 00:17:10,917 --> 00:17:13,458 that are in favor of Blacktop Mesa. 380 00:17:13,458 --> 00:17:16,375 It gets its name from its top of basalt, 381 00:17:16,375 --> 00:17:19,208 which is also more impervious to erosion, 382 00:17:19,208 --> 00:17:21,208 that gives it its flat top. 383 00:17:21,208 --> 00:17:24,667 We also know that volcanic eruptions can, 384 00:17:24,667 --> 00:17:26,083 under the right circumstances, 385 00:17:26,083 --> 00:17:28,000 help to produce precious metals. 386 00:17:29,292 --> 00:17:30,667 - [Fishburne] Could the blacktop 387 00:17:30,667 --> 00:17:33,500 sit on top of a layer of gold? 388 00:17:33,500 --> 00:17:37,917 - Blacktop is also located above the canyon floor, 389 00:17:37,917 --> 00:17:42,042 so you can see a military road from there. 390 00:17:42,042 --> 00:17:43,667 - Because Blacktop Mesa 391 00:17:43,667 --> 00:17:46,417 is relatively close to Weaver's Needle, 392 00:17:46,417 --> 00:17:49,458 the rest of the clues left behind by Jacob Waltz 393 00:17:49,458 --> 00:17:52,125 line up about as well as they do for Weaver's Needle. 394 00:17:54,625 --> 00:17:57,750 - Whatever Ruth did or didn't discover, 395 00:17:58,958 --> 00:18:01,667 whatever did or didn't happen to him, 396 00:18:03,167 --> 00:18:05,458 those are secrets he took with him to his grave. 397 00:18:11,333 --> 00:18:12,708 - [Fishburne] The 1950s and sixties 398 00:18:12,708 --> 00:18:14,125 brings new types of gold hunters 399 00:18:14,125 --> 00:18:16,333 to Arizona's Superstition Mountains 400 00:18:16,333 --> 00:18:19,250 in search of the Lost Dutchman's mine. 401 00:18:19,250 --> 00:18:21,208 Some are meticulous researchers 402 00:18:21,208 --> 00:18:24,375 with intricate plans forged over years. 403 00:18:24,375 --> 00:18:26,500 Others are professional businessmen 404 00:18:26,500 --> 00:18:30,042 with the money to invest whatever it takes. 405 00:18:30,042 --> 00:18:32,250 - With the 1950s and sixties 406 00:18:32,250 --> 00:18:35,083 comes a new breed of treasure hunter. 407 00:18:36,042 --> 00:18:38,125 Taking advantage of new surveying 408 00:18:38,125 --> 00:18:40,542 or geological tools that can not only 409 00:18:40,542 --> 00:18:43,042 look at the land but look into the land, 410 00:18:43,042 --> 00:18:45,208 in ways that haven't been possible before. 411 00:18:45,208 --> 00:18:47,333 - In addition, they aren't just looking 412 00:18:47,333 --> 00:18:49,708 at Weaver's Needle and Blacktop Mesa, 413 00:18:49,708 --> 00:18:50,875 they're looking elsewhere. 414 00:18:52,583 --> 00:18:54,542 - [Fishburne] But there's one fortune hunter 415 00:18:54,542 --> 00:18:57,875 who's convinced Adolf Ruth was onto something. 416 00:18:57,875 --> 00:19:01,375 - In the 1960s, a private investigator from Oklahoma City 417 00:19:01,375 --> 00:19:03,042 by the name of Glen MaGill 418 00:19:03,042 --> 00:19:07,083 becomes interested in Ruth's story. 419 00:19:07,083 --> 00:19:09,250 - He's a respected man in his community 420 00:19:09,250 --> 00:19:10,875 and he's actually interested 421 00:19:10,875 --> 00:19:13,792 in debunking myths and mysteries. 422 00:19:13,792 --> 00:19:16,042 - MaGill reads about Ruth's maps 423 00:19:16,042 --> 00:19:18,250 and he concludes that there's no way 424 00:19:18,250 --> 00:19:20,875 he would've brought the original map that he had, 425 00:19:20,875 --> 00:19:24,458 into the Superstition Mountains when he was prospecting. 426 00:19:24,458 --> 00:19:27,292 He concludes that the original maps 427 00:19:27,292 --> 00:19:30,375 had to still be at Ruth's original home. 428 00:19:30,375 --> 00:19:32,042 - [Fishburne] To test his theory, 429 00:19:32,042 --> 00:19:35,125 he tracks down Adolf's son, Erwin Ruth, 430 00:19:35,125 --> 00:19:36,542 and arranges a meeting. 431 00:19:38,583 --> 00:19:41,458 - MaGill learns from Ruth's son, that yes, 432 00:19:41,458 --> 00:19:43,333 his father had taken the originals. 433 00:19:43,333 --> 00:19:44,917 - But, and Erwin says, 434 00:19:44,917 --> 00:19:47,292 he did make copies and I have one. 435 00:19:48,708 --> 00:19:52,542 - MaGill and Erwin strike up something of a friendship 436 00:19:52,542 --> 00:19:57,542 and so Erwin eventually gives MaGill a copy of the maps. 437 00:19:59,250 --> 00:20:01,667 - Being the good private investigator that he is, 438 00:20:01,667 --> 00:20:04,083 MaGill also contacts and speaks with 439 00:20:04,083 --> 00:20:05,417 members of the Peralta family 440 00:20:05,417 --> 00:20:07,333 to see what they know. 441 00:20:07,333 --> 00:20:09,542 - MaGill eventually concludes 442 00:20:09,542 --> 00:20:11,708 that all of Jacob Waltz's cryptic clues 443 00:20:11,708 --> 00:20:14,625 lead to a spot called Cañon Fresco, 444 00:20:14,625 --> 00:20:17,667 which translates to the cool or fresh canyon. 445 00:20:25,083 --> 00:20:26,833 - This is a good spot to look, why? 446 00:20:26,833 --> 00:20:30,125 Because it's in the shadow of Weaver's Needle, 447 00:20:30,125 --> 00:20:32,375 you can see the four peaks from it 448 00:20:32,375 --> 00:20:34,542 and you can see the military road. 449 00:20:34,542 --> 00:20:36,167 Incidentally, you can't see 450 00:20:36,167 --> 00:20:38,417 from the military road, up to the area. 451 00:20:39,500 --> 00:20:41,125 - MaGill is a private eye, 452 00:20:41,125 --> 00:20:42,458 he's not a mountain man. 453 00:20:42,458 --> 00:20:45,875 So what he does is in December of 1964, 454 00:20:45,875 --> 00:20:47,292 he hires a helicopter 455 00:20:47,292 --> 00:20:49,750 so he can look at the location from the air. 456 00:20:50,750 --> 00:20:53,750 He takes hundreds of aerial photographs 457 00:20:53,750 --> 00:20:55,375 of the Superstitions, 458 00:20:55,375 --> 00:20:59,375 hoping to correlate those to the copies of Ruth's maps. 459 00:20:59,375 --> 00:21:01,542 - Based upon the aerial photographs in the flyover, 460 00:21:01,542 --> 00:21:03,292 he finds this green area 461 00:21:03,292 --> 00:21:05,375 which he decides to investigate. 462 00:21:06,708 --> 00:21:09,542 - MaGill identifies a hidden green canyon 463 00:21:09,542 --> 00:21:12,000 atop Bluff Springs mountain. 464 00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:14,250 He thinks this is Cañon Fresco. 465 00:21:14,250 --> 00:21:15,750 He heads out to investigate. 466 00:21:17,833 --> 00:21:19,708 - And when he is able to make it there, 467 00:21:19,708 --> 00:21:22,583 he finds mule shoes in the ground 468 00:21:22,583 --> 00:21:25,542 purportedly from the Peralta's stock. 469 00:21:25,542 --> 00:21:27,417 - [Fishburne] MaGill assembles a small team 470 00:21:27,417 --> 00:21:29,375 and returns for a closer look. 471 00:21:29,375 --> 00:21:32,125 - He and a team decide to go into the mountains, 472 00:21:32,125 --> 00:21:33,958 in this particular area. 473 00:21:33,958 --> 00:21:35,250 And in the process, 474 00:21:35,250 --> 00:21:40,042 they find this hidden vertical mineshaft, 475 00:21:40,042 --> 00:21:42,042 which matches the description 476 00:21:42,042 --> 00:21:43,375 of the entrance to the mine 477 00:21:43,375 --> 00:21:46,250 that Jacob Waltz had reflected on 478 00:21:46,250 --> 00:21:49,250 in his cryptic clues that he relayed to Julia. 479 00:21:50,417 --> 00:21:52,542 They end up going into that mine shaft 480 00:21:52,542 --> 00:21:55,500 and find even more clues. 481 00:21:55,500 --> 00:21:57,875 - You find some rough hewn timbers, 482 00:21:57,875 --> 00:21:59,042 exactly of the type 483 00:21:59,042 --> 00:22:01,958 that the Peralta said that they used in their mines. 484 00:22:01,958 --> 00:22:04,167 So, all this is coming together. 485 00:22:04,167 --> 00:22:05,958 He's super excited. 486 00:22:06,917 --> 00:22:09,042 - MaGill is so confident 487 00:22:09,042 --> 00:22:11,417 that he has found the Lost Dutchman's mine, 488 00:22:11,417 --> 00:22:13,583 that he files a claim to start excavating; 489 00:22:13,583 --> 00:22:16,333 which is huge national news. 490 00:22:16,333 --> 00:22:18,917 Only trouble is, there's no gold. 491 00:22:20,250 --> 00:22:22,875 - He spends thousands and thousands of dollars 492 00:22:22,875 --> 00:22:24,958 going in to the mountains 493 00:22:24,958 --> 00:22:28,042 and going to this specific spot in Cañon Fresco. 494 00:22:28,042 --> 00:22:29,500 - But, he finds no gold; 495 00:22:29,500 --> 00:22:30,875 but he doesn't give up. 496 00:22:30,875 --> 00:22:34,292 He really believes he's in the right spot. 497 00:22:34,292 --> 00:22:36,417 - [Fishburne] References to MaGill's expeditions 498 00:22:36,417 --> 00:22:38,333 slowly fade from the news, 499 00:22:38,333 --> 00:22:40,417 but his work breathes new life 500 00:22:40,417 --> 00:22:43,458 into the search for the Lost Dutchman's mine. 501 00:22:45,208 --> 00:22:46,708 - Even though it turns out 502 00:22:46,708 --> 00:22:49,250 that MaGill didn't find the treasure, 503 00:22:49,250 --> 00:22:53,417 he did find this green area, Cañon Fresco, 504 00:22:53,417 --> 00:22:56,167 that none of the other treasure hunters 505 00:22:56,167 --> 00:22:58,500 before him had discovered. 506 00:22:58,500 --> 00:23:01,042 - But I think what a lot of people don't understand 507 00:23:01,042 --> 00:23:03,000 is that in desert regions, 508 00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:05,875 climate can change very quickly. 509 00:23:05,875 --> 00:23:08,583 This can wreak havoc with some of these older maps, 510 00:23:08,583 --> 00:23:11,125 because the terrain changes. 511 00:23:11,125 --> 00:23:12,542 - It's hard to say if MaGill 512 00:23:12,542 --> 00:23:15,333 found Cañon Fresco from Ruth's maps, 513 00:23:15,333 --> 00:23:17,000 or he found a different spot. 514 00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:20,375 The original clue from the maps might still be valid. 515 00:23:24,208 --> 00:23:25,083 - The tale of Jacob Waltz 516 00:23:25,083 --> 00:23:26,250 and the Lost Dutchman's mine 517 00:23:26,542 --> 00:23:29,667 has been told and retold so many times over the years, 518 00:23:29,667 --> 00:23:32,250 it's impossible to know where the truth ends 519 00:23:32,250 --> 00:23:34,250 and the legend begins. 520 00:23:34,250 --> 00:23:35,708 Hundreds of treasure hunters 521 00:23:35,708 --> 00:23:38,708 have ventured into the supposedly cursed land 522 00:23:38,708 --> 00:23:40,708 of the Superstition Mountains, 523 00:23:40,708 --> 00:23:44,042 only to come up empty time and time again. 524 00:23:44,042 --> 00:23:46,458 But what if the tale of an accidental discovery 525 00:23:46,458 --> 00:23:48,958 of a relic on the desert floor 526 00:23:48,958 --> 00:23:52,583 could be the key that finally unlocks the mystery? 527 00:23:54,167 --> 00:23:55,750 - Throughout the 20th century, 528 00:23:55,750 --> 00:23:59,500 Adolf Ruth's maps, as complicated as they are, 529 00:23:59,500 --> 00:24:01,542 were considered the only legitimate maps 530 00:24:01,542 --> 00:24:03,375 to the Lost Dutchman's mine. 531 00:24:03,375 --> 00:24:04,750 But it is possible 532 00:24:04,750 --> 00:24:06,708 that there is another guide out there 533 00:24:06,708 --> 00:24:09,458 just waiting to be decoded. 534 00:24:09,458 --> 00:24:10,583 - [Fishburne] One local legend 535 00:24:10,583 --> 00:24:13,500 goes back to the late 1940s. 536 00:24:13,500 --> 00:24:16,208 Oregon police officer Travis Tumlinson 537 00:24:16,208 --> 00:24:18,417 is vacationing in Arizona. 538 00:24:18,417 --> 00:24:19,458 On the long drive, 539 00:24:19,458 --> 00:24:21,042 he pulls off the side of a highway 540 00:24:21,042 --> 00:24:24,167 some 10 miles from the Superstition Mountains 541 00:24:24,167 --> 00:24:26,208 to stretch his legs. 542 00:24:26,208 --> 00:24:28,625 - He's walking along Highway 60, 543 00:24:28,625 --> 00:24:30,708 outside Apache Junction in Arizona, 544 00:24:30,708 --> 00:24:34,542 and he trips on what appears to be four stones. 545 00:24:34,542 --> 00:24:36,083 He picks them up. 546 00:24:36,083 --> 00:24:39,708 They have these cryptic sketches and carvings on them. 547 00:24:39,708 --> 00:24:42,875 - One has a carving of a priest and a cross, 548 00:24:42,875 --> 00:24:47,583 one has a horse, another has a heart with an inscription. 549 00:24:48,875 --> 00:24:49,917 - He's curious. 550 00:24:49,917 --> 00:24:51,917 He thinks he's found some southwestern art, 551 00:24:51,917 --> 00:24:54,542 so he sells it to a local collector. 552 00:24:54,542 --> 00:24:57,083 - But then, the Dutch treasure hunters come in 553 00:24:57,083 --> 00:24:58,958 and what they see is something very different. 554 00:24:58,958 --> 00:25:00,792 They see stones that can be put together 555 00:25:00,792 --> 00:25:03,833 in such a way is to reveal a map. 556 00:25:03,833 --> 00:25:07,083 A map to what? The Lost Dutchman mine. 557 00:25:08,375 --> 00:25:10,500 - What could be the real clue on the stones, 558 00:25:10,500 --> 00:25:11,542 is that there seems to be 559 00:25:11,542 --> 00:25:14,375 an inscription of a name, Miguel. 560 00:25:14,375 --> 00:25:17,792 Miguel is a Peralta family member. 561 00:25:17,792 --> 00:25:19,750 - There are also words that translate to, 562 00:25:19,750 --> 00:25:22,208 I pasture north of a river. 563 00:25:22,208 --> 00:25:23,667 There's also this phrase, 564 00:25:23,667 --> 00:25:27,083 18 places to get to El Corazon. 565 00:25:27,083 --> 00:25:29,542 It does sound like a cryptic treasure map. 566 00:25:29,542 --> 00:25:33,042 - And one of the stones has a shape of a heart 567 00:25:33,042 --> 00:25:36,208 with the year 1847. 568 00:25:36,208 --> 00:25:37,708 Well, that is a year before 569 00:25:37,708 --> 00:25:40,583 the Peralta family is massacred. 570 00:25:42,042 --> 00:25:43,167 - Decades have gone by, 571 00:25:43,167 --> 00:25:45,083 no one can decode these stones, 572 00:25:45,083 --> 00:25:46,833 not for a lack of trying. 573 00:25:47,667 --> 00:25:48,875 - One of the things 574 00:25:48,875 --> 00:25:50,875 that the stone maps have going for them, 575 00:25:50,875 --> 00:25:53,792 is that unlike their paper counterparts, 576 00:25:53,792 --> 00:25:56,375 they're unchanged by the passage of time. 577 00:25:56,375 --> 00:25:58,542 They're not as easy to manipulate 578 00:25:58,542 --> 00:26:00,417 and they can't be redrawn 579 00:26:00,417 --> 00:26:02,500 like the paper maps may have been. 580 00:26:03,833 --> 00:26:07,208 - Eventually, the stones end up in a Phoenix museum. 581 00:26:07,208 --> 00:26:08,833 - Decades later, they become 582 00:26:08,833 --> 00:26:10,708 very interesting to a couple, 583 00:26:10,708 --> 00:26:13,583 Robert Kesselring and his wife Linda. 584 00:26:13,583 --> 00:26:15,292 - He's a missile systems engineer, 585 00:26:15,292 --> 00:26:17,000 she's a computer scientist. 586 00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:18,958 They spend a lot of time and energy 587 00:26:18,958 --> 00:26:22,625 trying to decode those stone carvings. 588 00:26:22,625 --> 00:26:23,875 - They take the stones 589 00:26:23,875 --> 00:26:26,125 and they compare them to topography maps 590 00:26:26,125 --> 00:26:28,667 and they really focus in on one part of the stone, 591 00:26:28,667 --> 00:26:31,083 which is this heart indentation in the stone. 592 00:26:31,875 --> 00:26:33,875 - [Fishburne] Starting in 2009, 593 00:26:33,875 --> 00:26:35,875 the Kesselrings spend years 594 00:26:35,875 --> 00:26:37,708 trying to decode the clues. 595 00:26:37,708 --> 00:26:39,958 Finally, in 2013, 596 00:26:39,958 --> 00:26:42,125 they think they've cracked the mystery. 597 00:26:42,125 --> 00:26:44,042 - Robert Kesselring seems to believe 598 00:26:44,042 --> 00:26:47,917 that the heart is one of many mining symbols 599 00:26:47,917 --> 00:26:50,208 that date back to the time of the Peraltas; 600 00:26:50,208 --> 00:26:51,750 and to Kesselring, 601 00:26:51,750 --> 00:26:53,875 the heart along with other symbols 602 00:26:53,875 --> 00:26:58,208 like crosses and circles are part of what is 603 00:26:58,208 --> 00:27:00,375 kind of like a secret code. 604 00:27:00,375 --> 00:27:02,542 For Kesselring, the heart is 605 00:27:02,542 --> 00:27:05,250 almost like an arrow pointing to the mine. 606 00:27:06,833 --> 00:27:09,208 - The Kesselrings head out to the Superstition Mountains 607 00:27:09,208 --> 00:27:10,708 to narrow their search area. 608 00:27:11,792 --> 00:27:14,875 - Using a combination of aerial photography 609 00:27:14,875 --> 00:27:17,083 and on the ground observation, 610 00:27:17,083 --> 00:27:19,125 they determined that the place we should be looking 611 00:27:19,125 --> 00:27:21,458 is somewhere else in the Superstitions. 612 00:27:21,458 --> 00:27:23,083 - The Kesselrings think the mine 613 00:27:23,083 --> 00:27:25,042 is in a spot called Deering Canyon. 614 00:27:25,042 --> 00:27:28,208 They also think this area lines up to Waltz's clues. 615 00:27:32,667 --> 00:27:34,875 - Having concluded that Deering Canyon 616 00:27:34,875 --> 00:27:36,667 is where Waltz's mine is, 617 00:27:36,667 --> 00:27:39,250 they set out to search the area. 618 00:27:39,250 --> 00:27:41,583 - In route, they pass by some tribal remains, 619 00:27:41,583 --> 00:27:45,208 which make them think of the curse of Superstition Mountains 620 00:27:45,208 --> 00:27:47,625 so they really think they're on the right track. 621 00:27:47,625 --> 00:27:49,708 - [Fishburne] The Kesselrings setup camp 622 00:27:49,708 --> 00:27:53,167 and search the area for signs of the lost gold mine. 623 00:27:54,667 --> 00:27:56,000 - Against a cliff face, 624 00:27:56,000 --> 00:27:58,708 Kesselring finds what he believes was once 625 00:27:58,708 --> 00:28:00,625 the entrance to a mine shaft. 626 00:28:00,625 --> 00:28:02,000 - He says he sees 627 00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:04,958 what he believes are Spanish mining symbols 628 00:28:04,958 --> 00:28:06,958 around the entrance to the shaft, 629 00:28:06,958 --> 00:28:09,542 and he believes that this is evidence 630 00:28:09,542 --> 00:28:12,375 that the Peraltas once mined in this area. 631 00:28:12,375 --> 00:28:13,458 - They think this could be 632 00:28:13,458 --> 00:28:15,917 one of these sealed Peralta mines. 633 00:28:15,917 --> 00:28:17,333 - According to Kesselring, 634 00:28:17,333 --> 00:28:19,167 the entrance to the mine shaft looks like 635 00:28:19,167 --> 00:28:21,875 it's been filled up through natural erosion. 636 00:28:21,875 --> 00:28:23,958 - Next to that first caved in mine, 637 00:28:23,958 --> 00:28:26,417 they find a series of others 638 00:28:26,417 --> 00:28:28,583 and that aligns with legend 639 00:28:28,583 --> 00:28:31,625 that the Apaches sealed up the mines 640 00:28:31,625 --> 00:28:34,792 after trespassers had come through. 641 00:28:34,792 --> 00:28:37,208 - As they continue to survey the area, 642 00:28:37,208 --> 00:28:40,208 they notice a distinct patch of very tall grass 643 00:28:40,208 --> 00:28:43,542 suggesting that at some point in the not too distant past, 644 00:28:43,542 --> 00:28:45,750 that ground had been disturbed; 645 00:28:45,750 --> 00:28:47,208 that its composition is different, 646 00:28:47,208 --> 00:28:49,708 enabling a different type of vegetation. 647 00:28:49,708 --> 00:28:51,583 - Kesselring uses a piece of tech 648 00:28:51,583 --> 00:28:53,625 called a ground phase recorder. 649 00:28:53,625 --> 00:28:55,083 It's kind of like radar 650 00:28:55,083 --> 00:28:56,708 and it creates a hologram image 651 00:28:56,708 --> 00:28:59,750 of what is under the surface of this earth. 652 00:28:59,750 --> 00:29:02,500 - And underneath, they seem to see a mineshaft 653 00:29:02,500 --> 00:29:04,167 a couple feet below the surface. 654 00:29:05,333 --> 00:29:07,333 - [Fishburne] What the Kesselrings think is a mine 655 00:29:07,333 --> 00:29:10,375 is covered with two feet of dirt and overgrowth. 656 00:29:11,458 --> 00:29:12,750 - Looking at the cliff face, 657 00:29:12,750 --> 00:29:15,042 Kesselring believes that he could see cracks 658 00:29:15,042 --> 00:29:17,000 that are known as fault gouges. 659 00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:19,375 These cracks are pinkish-white. 660 00:29:19,375 --> 00:29:22,042 - Kesselring believes that this pinkish color 661 00:29:22,042 --> 00:29:24,208 comes from rhyolite lava, 662 00:29:24,208 --> 00:29:28,000 which sometimes can be an indicator of gold. 663 00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:30,708 - For Kesselring, this is the moment of truth, 664 00:29:30,708 --> 00:29:32,917 the moment of proof that the mine exists. 665 00:29:32,917 --> 00:29:35,792 I know where it is, here it is. 666 00:29:35,792 --> 00:29:40,292 But as with his predecessors, that isn't enough. 667 00:29:40,292 --> 00:29:42,750 There's something that's going to stand in his way. 668 00:29:42,750 --> 00:29:46,625 Now fortunately for Kesselring it isn't death, 669 00:29:46,625 --> 00:29:48,000 it's the federal government. 670 00:29:49,417 --> 00:29:52,542 - Deering Canyon, like the whole Dutchman search area, 671 00:29:52,542 --> 00:29:55,292 is part of the Tonto National Forest. 672 00:29:55,292 --> 00:29:57,583 - There's this thing called the Wilderness Act. 673 00:29:57,583 --> 00:29:58,875 They're in a national park 674 00:29:58,875 --> 00:30:01,583 and you can't dig and mine in a national park, 675 00:30:01,583 --> 00:30:02,750 without permission. 676 00:30:02,750 --> 00:30:04,708 So until the government gives permission 677 00:30:04,708 --> 00:30:06,708 for people to excavate this area, 678 00:30:06,708 --> 00:30:08,917 they could have found the Lost Dutchman mine, 679 00:30:08,917 --> 00:30:10,917 but no one's gonna know. 680 00:30:10,917 --> 00:30:12,083 - [Fishburne] Some find reason 681 00:30:12,083 --> 00:30:14,333 to question the Kesselrings' findings 682 00:30:14,333 --> 00:30:18,042 and the validity of the Peralta stones themselves. 683 00:30:18,042 --> 00:30:21,042 - Many have argued that the Peralta stones are fakes, 684 00:30:21,042 --> 00:30:23,583 that they aren't ancient stones, 685 00:30:23,583 --> 00:30:26,958 that they're the product of more contemporary hands. 686 00:30:26,958 --> 00:30:29,958 - The heart in particular seems like machine cut; 687 00:30:29,958 --> 00:30:33,750 like it seems too perfect of a heart 688 00:30:33,750 --> 00:30:36,667 to have been carved in the mid 19th century. 689 00:30:36,958 --> 00:30:38,458 - So whether or not the Peralta stones 690 00:30:38,458 --> 00:30:40,958 actually relate to the Lost Dutchman mine 691 00:30:40,958 --> 00:30:42,875 and whether they are real or not, 692 00:30:42,875 --> 00:30:44,375 it matters, but it sort of doesn't. 693 00:30:44,375 --> 00:30:48,375 Why? Because it really brings the idea of the lost mine 694 00:30:48,375 --> 00:30:49,208 front and center. 695 00:30:53,250 --> 00:30:55,125 - [Fishburne] Stories of the Lost Dutchman's mine 696 00:30:55,125 --> 00:30:58,625 continue to echo throughout the Superstition Mountains. 697 00:30:58,625 --> 00:31:00,208 And in the early 1980s, 698 00:31:00,208 --> 00:31:03,625 a new treasure trove of information about the mine 699 00:31:03,625 --> 00:31:05,042 comes to light. 700 00:31:05,042 --> 00:31:07,625 - Ted Cox is a local, born in the 1920s. 701 00:31:07,625 --> 00:31:09,917 Very interested in a lost mine. 702 00:31:09,917 --> 00:31:12,750 Cox has been looking for the Lost Dutchman's mine 703 00:31:12,750 --> 00:31:15,500 his entire life, and based upon his notes, 704 00:31:15,500 --> 00:31:16,500 he thinks he found it. 705 00:31:17,625 --> 00:31:18,917 One of the important things about Cox 706 00:31:18,917 --> 00:31:22,208 is that his father was a contemporary of Waltz, 707 00:31:22,208 --> 00:31:24,167 so he's a little more closely connected 708 00:31:24,167 --> 00:31:26,875 than other people who've been looking for the mine. 709 00:31:26,875 --> 00:31:28,625 - Like many Arizona miners, 710 00:31:28,625 --> 00:31:30,833 Cox is raised with the stories 711 00:31:30,833 --> 00:31:31,917 of the Superstition Mountains, 712 00:31:31,917 --> 00:31:33,708 which come to include 713 00:31:33,708 --> 00:31:36,375 the Peralta family legend very quickly. 714 00:31:38,333 --> 00:31:41,167 - When he dies in the spring of 1983, 715 00:31:41,167 --> 00:31:42,708 all of his prospecting notes, 716 00:31:42,708 --> 00:31:46,750 2000 pages worth are uncovered. 717 00:31:46,750 --> 00:31:48,667 - Cox's Widow gives the papers 718 00:31:48,667 --> 00:31:52,417 to a local Dutchman treasure hunter, Ron Feldman, 719 00:31:52,417 --> 00:31:54,250 who begins to go through his papers, 720 00:31:54,250 --> 00:31:57,417 which are the story of his life. 721 00:31:57,417 --> 00:31:59,083 - What Feldman learns from the notes 722 00:31:59,083 --> 00:32:01,042 is that Cox concludes, 723 00:32:01,042 --> 00:32:04,208 partly based on the information he gleans 724 00:32:04,208 --> 00:32:06,667 from his personal connection to Jacob Waltz, 725 00:32:06,667 --> 00:32:08,375 that the majority of 726 00:32:08,375 --> 00:32:10,542 the searches for the Dutchman's mine 727 00:32:10,542 --> 00:32:12,375 have been in the wrong area. 728 00:32:13,708 --> 00:32:16,292 The mine is not in the west side of the Superstitions. 729 00:32:17,917 --> 00:32:20,625 - In 1957, Cox is sure 730 00:32:20,625 --> 00:32:23,083 that he has found the Lost Dutchman's mine. 731 00:32:23,083 --> 00:32:25,250 It's located on the eastern side 732 00:32:25,250 --> 00:32:27,708 of the Superstition Mountains. 733 00:32:27,708 --> 00:32:29,333 The mine that Cox discovered 734 00:32:29,333 --> 00:32:32,667 matches up with Waltz's original clues. 735 00:32:34,042 --> 00:32:37,208 - The mine Cox finds has a funnel shaped entrance, 736 00:32:37,208 --> 00:32:39,042 just like Waltz described. 737 00:32:39,042 --> 00:32:42,167 You can see a military trail from the location, 738 00:32:42,167 --> 00:32:43,875 but not vice versa. 739 00:32:43,875 --> 00:32:47,708 And Weaver's Needle is visible from the mine. 740 00:32:47,708 --> 00:32:49,500 - The mine that Cox discovered 741 00:32:49,500 --> 00:32:54,167 even has a rock in the formation of a horse 742 00:32:54,167 --> 00:32:57,083 that could match one of the Peralta stones. 743 00:32:57,083 --> 00:32:59,375 - From his voluminous records, 744 00:32:59,375 --> 00:33:02,000 it's clear that at this moment Cox believes 745 00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:05,250 that he is on the precipice of a great discovery; 746 00:33:05,250 --> 00:33:06,833 that there is gonna be gold, 747 00:33:06,833 --> 00:33:08,167 so he begins digging. 748 00:33:09,375 --> 00:33:13,458 He digs until he's too old to dig anymore. 749 00:33:13,458 --> 00:33:15,625 And what he does not find, is any gold. 750 00:33:20,042 --> 00:33:21,750 - [Fishburne] According to his notes, 751 00:33:21,750 --> 00:33:23,375 Cox doesn't find the treasure, 752 00:33:23,375 --> 00:33:25,458 but he does dig up what he believes 753 00:33:25,458 --> 00:33:29,167 is the true story of the Lost Dutchman's mine. 754 00:33:29,167 --> 00:33:31,083 - Cox believed that Waltz was working the mine 755 00:33:31,083 --> 00:33:32,750 without any claim. 756 00:33:32,750 --> 00:33:35,583 So Cox, like Waltz before him, 757 00:33:35,583 --> 00:33:38,042 conceals the mine when he's not digging, 758 00:33:38,042 --> 00:33:40,042 not wanting anyone else to find it. 759 00:33:40,042 --> 00:33:41,125 - He does this research 760 00:33:41,125 --> 00:33:43,167 and then discovers that 761 00:33:43,167 --> 00:33:47,500 probably somebody had already swooped in after Waltz, 762 00:33:47,500 --> 00:33:48,792 and taken the gold. 763 00:33:48,792 --> 00:33:51,250 That's why he's not finding anything in the mine. 764 00:33:51,250 --> 00:33:53,375 - A prospector named James Rogers, in fact, 765 00:33:53,375 --> 00:33:56,208 filed a claim in 1875 for the mine and it turned out 766 00:33:56,208 --> 00:33:59,292 to be an incredibly lucrative proposition. 767 00:33:59,292 --> 00:34:01,333 - This would've been roughly 20 years 768 00:34:01,333 --> 00:34:03,542 after Waltz discovered the mine. 769 00:34:03,542 --> 00:34:05,667 - [Fishburne] Rogers files the proper paperwork 770 00:34:05,667 --> 00:34:08,375 and is able to claim the mine as his own. 771 00:34:08,375 --> 00:34:12,083 Naming it, the Silver Chief mine. 772 00:34:12,083 --> 00:34:15,083 - The mine becomes a rich producer for Rogers; 773 00:34:15,083 --> 00:34:18,625 the most bountiful producer in the entire area 774 00:34:18,625 --> 00:34:20,292 during the Gold Rush. 775 00:34:20,292 --> 00:34:21,917 - Rogers and a partner 776 00:34:21,917 --> 00:34:25,000 ended up making a million dollars. 777 00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:26,917 - [Fishburne] If Cox's theory is right, 778 00:34:26,917 --> 00:34:32,083 it means the Dutchman's vast treasure is already long gone. 779 00:34:33,083 --> 00:34:35,667 But science may have a way to prove 780 00:34:35,667 --> 00:34:38,583 if the Silver Chief and Lost Dutchman's mine 781 00:34:38,583 --> 00:34:40,417 are one and the same. 782 00:34:40,417 --> 00:34:42,833 - A year after Jacob Waltz passed away, 783 00:34:42,833 --> 00:34:44,958 a piece of his quartz 784 00:34:44,958 --> 00:34:47,042 that had the gold laced in it 785 00:34:47,042 --> 00:34:49,583 was taken and made into a matchbox. 786 00:34:49,583 --> 00:34:51,500 That matchbox now exists 787 00:34:51,500 --> 00:34:53,875 in the Superstition Mountains Museum. 788 00:34:53,875 --> 00:34:55,208 - The type of gold ore 789 00:34:55,208 --> 00:34:59,000 in the so-called Waltz matchbox embedded in quartz, 790 00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:00,375 looks very similar to some quartz 791 00:35:00,375 --> 00:35:02,958 with some veins of gold running through it, 792 00:35:02,958 --> 00:35:04,750 that was found in the Silver Chief mine. 793 00:35:04,750 --> 00:35:08,125 - Some modern Dutch hunter enthusiasts take the matchbox 794 00:35:08,125 --> 00:35:09,917 and they decided they're going 795 00:35:09,917 --> 00:35:11,917 to do some extreme analysis 796 00:35:11,917 --> 00:35:13,542 to try to match it 797 00:35:13,542 --> 00:35:16,208 to some other locations in the Superstition Mountains. 798 00:35:17,958 --> 00:35:20,375 - Purportedly, the matchbox was tested 799 00:35:20,375 --> 00:35:21,708 against a variety of samples 800 00:35:21,708 --> 00:35:24,292 from different places in the Superstition Mountains, 801 00:35:24,292 --> 00:35:26,042 but the only good match 802 00:35:26,042 --> 00:35:28,333 was the one from Silver Chief Mine. 803 00:35:29,542 --> 00:35:33,083 So if we have direct signature that corresponds, 804 00:35:33,083 --> 00:35:35,292 we have done scientific testing, 805 00:35:35,292 --> 00:35:37,333 process of deduction suggests that 806 00:35:37,333 --> 00:35:40,167 well, maybe the mines were the same. 807 00:35:40,167 --> 00:35:41,208 So, maybe the Silver Chief mine 808 00:35:41,208 --> 00:35:42,625 is the Lost Dutchman mine. 809 00:35:44,292 --> 00:35:47,625 - The most distinguishing feature of the matchbox 810 00:35:47,625 --> 00:35:50,417 is its high concentration of mercury, 811 00:35:50,417 --> 00:35:54,417 which also exists in the Silver Chief Mine. 812 00:35:54,417 --> 00:35:56,458 - Mercury is not very common 813 00:35:56,458 --> 00:36:00,292 to find associated with other mineral deposits. 814 00:36:00,292 --> 00:36:03,083 It doesn't occur very often in mines like this, 815 00:36:03,083 --> 00:36:05,750 so, this is a pretty important clue. 816 00:36:05,750 --> 00:36:09,250 But skeptics argue that the Silver Chief mine 817 00:36:09,250 --> 00:36:10,958 can't be the Lost Dutchman mine, 818 00:36:10,958 --> 00:36:13,542 because the word silver is in the name. 819 00:36:13,542 --> 00:36:15,875 But silver and gold also occur together. 820 00:36:15,875 --> 00:36:20,375 And in this case, who knows why the silver name was chosen? 821 00:36:20,375 --> 00:36:24,292 But obviously gold was there, too, because it's there. 822 00:36:24,292 --> 00:36:25,625 - [Fishburne] But can we really be sure 823 00:36:25,625 --> 00:36:28,125 the Silver Chief and the Lost Dutchman 824 00:36:28,125 --> 00:36:29,583 are the same mine? 825 00:36:29,583 --> 00:36:31,958 - Lots of the clues are matching up 826 00:36:31,958 --> 00:36:34,917 to what Jacob Waltz left behind, 827 00:36:34,917 --> 00:36:36,250 but it's really hard to tell 828 00:36:36,250 --> 00:36:39,708 because he didn't keep any accurate records 829 00:36:39,708 --> 00:36:41,417 of what he discovered. 830 00:36:45,375 --> 00:36:46,333 - [Fishburne] For generations, 831 00:36:46,333 --> 00:36:47,250 Fortune hunters have tried 832 00:36:47,250 --> 00:36:49,042 to decipher Jacob Waltz's clues 833 00:36:49,042 --> 00:36:52,250 and uncover the Lost Dutchman's mine. 834 00:36:53,583 --> 00:36:56,208 People have searched all over the Superstition Mountains, 835 00:36:56,208 --> 00:36:57,833 but the fortune remains elusive. 836 00:36:59,125 --> 00:37:02,083 One man thinks he has a good idea why. 837 00:37:02,083 --> 00:37:04,083 - John D. Wilburn was a miner 838 00:37:04,083 --> 00:37:06,583 and geologist and an author. 839 00:37:06,583 --> 00:37:09,083 In 1984, Wilburn writes a book 840 00:37:09,083 --> 00:37:11,083 and his intervention into 841 00:37:11,083 --> 00:37:13,250 the Lost Dutchman mines saga 842 00:37:13,250 --> 00:37:15,417 is to suggest that we go 843 00:37:15,417 --> 00:37:20,208 right back to the beginning, back to 1892, 844 00:37:20,208 --> 00:37:25,208 and the suggestion is that Julia Thomas' clues 845 00:37:25,208 --> 00:37:29,458 were either intentionally or mistakenly wrong. 846 00:37:30,708 --> 00:37:33,708 That they have effectively misled generations 847 00:37:33,708 --> 00:37:37,500 as to the true location of the lost Dutchman mine. 848 00:37:38,667 --> 00:37:41,875 - Wilburn has studied rocks and their formations 849 00:37:41,875 --> 00:37:43,417 and he really does not believe 850 00:37:43,417 --> 00:37:46,542 that the formations in this particular area 851 00:37:46,542 --> 00:37:49,375 would produce that much gold. 852 00:37:49,375 --> 00:37:50,833 - Volcanic activity, 853 00:37:50,833 --> 00:37:53,333 like the events that created Weaver's Needle, 854 00:37:53,333 --> 00:37:56,583 a volcanic plug doesn't always lead to gold. 855 00:37:56,583 --> 00:37:58,625 It's a sometimes, not an always thing. 856 00:37:59,917 --> 00:38:01,208 - And we have to keep in mind 857 00:38:01,208 --> 00:38:04,208 that Jacob Waltz didn't say 858 00:38:04,208 --> 00:38:06,708 that the gold mine was at Weaver's Needle. 859 00:38:06,708 --> 00:38:08,917 It was in the shadow of the needle. 860 00:38:10,708 --> 00:38:12,708 - Anybody who's been to elementary school 861 00:38:12,708 --> 00:38:15,042 knows that the Earth travels around the sun 862 00:38:15,042 --> 00:38:16,833 and when it does, shadows change. 863 00:38:16,833 --> 00:38:20,750 So really, how good is the direction of a shadow 864 00:38:20,750 --> 00:38:21,875 gonna be for a clue? 865 00:38:21,875 --> 00:38:23,375 You do the math. 866 00:38:23,375 --> 00:38:25,458 - To Wilburn, the logical place to look 867 00:38:25,458 --> 00:38:28,500 is somewhere there is actual gold, 868 00:38:28,500 --> 00:38:30,542 and there are a number of these places 869 00:38:30,542 --> 00:38:32,542 close to the Superstition Mountains. 870 00:38:34,833 --> 00:38:38,333 There were boom towns that arose when gold was discovered 871 00:38:38,333 --> 00:38:41,958 and then vanished after the mine was played out. 872 00:38:49,208 --> 00:38:50,625 - [Fishburne] Nestled at the base 873 00:38:50,625 --> 00:38:53,542 of the Superstition Mountains, sits a ghost town. 874 00:38:55,375 --> 00:38:57,708 - The mountain runs east to west 875 00:38:57,708 --> 00:39:01,542 and there's a place that they refer to as Goldfield 876 00:39:01,542 --> 00:39:05,333 on the very western part of the mountain. 877 00:39:05,333 --> 00:39:08,208 It's like a little, tiny ghost town now. 878 00:39:08,208 --> 00:39:10,375 It's a tourist attraction. 879 00:39:10,375 --> 00:39:12,958 That's the closest mine that they have in that area. 880 00:39:14,542 --> 00:39:16,625 - [Fishburne] It's in the late 19th century 881 00:39:16,625 --> 00:39:18,708 that gold is first discovered there. 882 00:39:19,875 --> 00:39:21,792 And as prospectors rush into the area, 883 00:39:21,792 --> 00:39:24,875 the town of Goldfield is officially founded. 884 00:39:26,375 --> 00:39:28,167 - Goldfield was a boom town. 885 00:39:28,167 --> 00:39:32,500 In its heyday, there were over 4,000 people living there, 886 00:39:32,500 --> 00:39:35,292 hoping to strike it rich in the gold mines. 887 00:39:35,292 --> 00:39:36,583 - Right by Goldfield, 888 00:39:36,583 --> 00:39:38,708 is one of the largest producing gold mines 889 00:39:38,708 --> 00:39:42,458 in the Superstitions area; the Bulldog Mine. 890 00:39:42,458 --> 00:39:43,958 - The story about Bulldog Mine 891 00:39:43,958 --> 00:39:47,208 is that it was first discovered in 1864 892 00:39:47,208 --> 00:39:50,500 as part of the big gold rush in Arizona. 893 00:39:50,500 --> 00:39:55,500 And then perhaps Waltz worked it starting in 1868, 894 00:39:56,167 --> 00:39:57,000 for about 20 years. 895 00:39:58,958 --> 00:40:01,333 - Why does Wilburn think that the Bulldog mine makes sense? 896 00:40:01,333 --> 00:40:02,708 Well, for starters, 897 00:40:02,708 --> 00:40:04,708 we know not only was there gold there, 898 00:40:04,708 --> 00:40:06,583 but there was a lot of gold. 899 00:40:06,583 --> 00:40:08,542 - The Bulldog mine was in an area 900 00:40:08,542 --> 00:40:10,042 of a lot of producing mines. 901 00:40:10,042 --> 00:40:13,083 Over a million dollars in gold was taken out of there, 902 00:40:13,083 --> 00:40:14,583 and there was a military trail 903 00:40:14,583 --> 00:40:16,333 that traveled through the area 904 00:40:16,333 --> 00:40:18,625 which is one of Jacob Waltz's clues. 905 00:40:20,125 --> 00:40:22,708 - Finally, in 1897, 906 00:40:22,708 --> 00:40:25,000 the gold in Goldfield is played out. 907 00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:26,583 The town disappears, 908 00:40:26,583 --> 00:40:29,583 but the legends of the Lost Dutchman mine remain 909 00:40:29,583 --> 00:40:30,917 and even grow stronger. 910 00:40:32,625 --> 00:40:34,208 - [Fishburne] Some of the evidence supports 911 00:40:34,208 --> 00:40:37,125 Bulldog mine as the possible location 912 00:40:37,125 --> 00:40:38,875 of Jacob Waltz's mine. 913 00:40:38,875 --> 00:40:42,708 But once more, we may never know for sure. 914 00:40:42,708 --> 00:40:46,167 - So in 2003, when some landscaping was being done 915 00:40:46,167 --> 00:40:47,875 by the Bulldog mine, 916 00:40:47,875 --> 00:40:50,875 it collapsed and it was filled in. 917 00:40:50,875 --> 00:40:55,625 So was the Bulldog mine the Lost Dutchman mine? 918 00:40:55,625 --> 00:40:56,667 We may never know. 919 00:40:58,333 --> 00:41:01,167 - But even today, when it rains heavy, 920 00:41:01,167 --> 00:41:02,917 you can find gold in the washes 921 00:41:02,917 --> 00:41:05,542 around Goldfield and the Bulldog mine. 922 00:41:08,208 --> 00:41:10,583 - Even now, the lure of gold 923 00:41:10,583 --> 00:41:14,542 still draws tourists to the area around Goldfield 924 00:41:14,542 --> 00:41:17,583 as well as to the Superstition Mountains themselves. 925 00:41:17,583 --> 00:41:19,333 While digging is prohibited 926 00:41:19,333 --> 00:41:21,417 and many explorers still live in fear 927 00:41:21,417 --> 00:41:23,042 that this area is cursed, 928 00:41:23,042 --> 00:41:25,542 treasure hunters can still be spotted today, 929 00:41:25,542 --> 00:41:28,917 searching for gold with metal detectors. 930 00:41:28,917 --> 00:41:33,417 Is there a billion dollar gold mine lurking underfoot 931 00:41:33,417 --> 00:41:36,292 somewhere in the shadow of Weaver's Needle? 932 00:41:36,292 --> 00:41:37,458 We can only dream. 933 00:41:38,375 --> 00:41:40,208 I'm Lawrence Fishburne. 934 00:41:40,208 --> 00:41:44,542 Thank you for watching "History's Greatest Mysteries."