The Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine

The Claim

There’s a very rich gold mine lost within the Superstition Mountains of Arizona

The tale of gold always lures a few treasure hunters, no matter if it’s a shipwreck or a buried pirate treasure story, but this one has hundreds of people looking for the mines each year, and has caused numerous deaths.

As for the mine, it’s originally believed to have been started by the Apache tribe after they learned how valuable gold was to the settlers, and was mined by no one but them.

The tale of the mine’s existence begins with various stories, which all seem to have different versions of them, depending on who you ask, so I’ll just go over the most common ones.

The first story starts with a man named Dr. Thorne, who worked in the area during the 1850s. One day, a wounded Apache came to him for help, and he treated him even though the relationship between the 2 groups was quite hostile. The Apache was so thankful, he rewarded the Doctor by taking him blindfolded to the site of the mine, where he was allowed to take as much gold ore as he could carry before being taken back blindfolded again.

The Doctor showed the gold ore to various people, but was either unable to locate the mine from his time there, or he was unwilling to do so, as he never told anyone its whereabouts.

The next story involves 2 German explorers, Jacob Waltz and Jacob Weiser, who are said to have found the mine but were attacked by Apache’s who killed Weiser and badly wounded Waltz. On his deathbed, he is said to have told the attending Doctor and a woman named Julia Thomas the location of the mine and also drew a basic map. Many attempts to locate the mine using the map have failed, as it’s too basic and no one seems to be able to identify which one of the mountains is shown in it.

The last story is about several soldiers who came across the mine and took some of the ore to show people; however, shortly after showing their Superior, they all disappeared, never to be seen again, and were believed to have been killed.

So there’s a Gold mine just sitting in the Superstition Mountains? Could that be true?

Well, there’s a very good chance of it, as gold is much more common than people think it is. It appears in every single country in the world and is only so expensive due to how hard it is to mine and how low the gold-to-ore ratio normally is.

America has some huge gold mines, and rocky desert-type areas have been the site of many gold ore discoveries, but what about the Dutchman mine?

The Apache’s were known to have mined gold and obviously would be reluctant to share its location with the people they were trading it with, so a secret Apache mine is completely possible. There would also be no signs of the usual mining works, such as pulley systems and cart tracks, as they didn’t generally do things in this manner, instead having a much simpler method of digging a hole with pickaxes.

The fact that no one has found it yet does raise suspicion about its existence, but the stories are believed enough to make thousands of people over the years come here to try and find it, with some even dying in the process.

In 2010, 3 hikers got lost in the mountain range while trying to find the mine and were not found until the following year, when it was presumed that they died in the heat.

The previous year saw another prospector dying on one of the mountains after getting stuck in a small canyon he seemed to have climbed into. He wasn’t found until 3 years later by a search and rescue team that was looking for the body.