![inanga > We have real evidence...
Yes i found the Lost Dutchman's Mine on Treasure Island - that is a wrist amulet still around the radius and ulna bones of a treasure hunter - but i am here in Aotearoa (NZ) 'miles from nowhere' and would dearly love to be walking north up Peralta Road at the moment towards Miner's Needle and beyond... yes Miner's and Weaver's Needles will become important clues later.
But now... the Mexican told me not to trust the Clown as he was a Lutheran, so i knew to trust Gerry the Clown to the max. The Clown knew more about healing plants than any other shaman i had met. Don't trust the Clown - that's your call. Martin Luther was an incredible phi-losopher and raconteur. So much so that one of my true heroes was given his name: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.]
I sat gazing out at the Superstitions that loomed in the east across Apache Trail (now Hwys 60 and 88). The Superstitions were steeped in mystery. Out there in those stark hills was the Lost Dutchman's Mine or at least a vast cache of Jacob Walzer's gold. I knew that in order to find it I would have to tap into the earth energies. Many thousands of treasure hunters had combed the hills looking for the legendary gold and many had died in the process. There are few places of such intense mystery left on this earth.
The Superstitions are said to be the area of twisting canyons, mesa and rock piles between the Apache Trail in the west and Rogers and Reavis canyons on the east of the mountainous bulk. The most prominent feature in this region is Weaver's Needle, which dominates this portion of the vast Sonoran Desert.
i thought through the legends. According to the Pima, relatives of the Tohono o'Odham, the great Montezuma had mined these hills with a large army of captured slaves. The ruler stashed his gold in a great cave in the mountains. He foresaw disaster and gathered together his workers and went to the cave for shelter. The earth shook violently and the mountains were rent apart. The mouth of the cave was sealed, entombing Montezuma, the gold and the slaves forever.
Montezuma was followed by Coronado who mounted an expedition to seek out the riches of the seven cities of Cibola. He found the cities to be nothing more than Zuni pueblo. He pushed on hoping to find the riches of Gran Quivira, but again was disappointed, finding only pueblo and cliff dwellings.
The Apaches tell of other Spaniards secreting an enormous amount of silver and gold in a cave, only to disappear never to return to retrieve the treasure. But Apaches are newcomers to the area, having come north from Mexico, and would only know of recent events. The Spaniards may have been priests, abandoning Santa Fe, New Mexico, who wished to store their treasure closer to where they were intending to settle. Was it from these repositories that Geronimo obtained gold with which to buy guns? The Apache were raiders and nomads and used the fastnesses of the Superstitions to retreat to after raids upon the pueblos of the peaceful Pima and Maricopa. After a considerable time the Maricopa retaliated and followed the Apache into the Superstitions. A great battle followed and many Apache and Maricopa were killed. The Apaches felt that they had been abandoned by their gods. They in turn vacated the Superstitions, leaving it as a zone forbidden to all except their Thunder God.
A hot breeze blew across the mesa rustling the treacherous chollo cactus nearby. I thought of all those gold seekers who had been lost in the Superstitions in search of the gold. Gold, gold, gold… It turns the sane into lunatics, and the lazy into the frenzied. I was wondering whether or not the Lost Dutchman was my reason for coming to Arizona. If I found the gold i could do much for the environment of my home country, Aotearoa. The authorities would never let me take it from the United States but the publicity would be wonderful for the success of a subsequent and lucrative account of the search. What concerned me was that the pursuit of wealth in such a manner smacked of materialistic desire, something that I was rapidly eschewing. With materialism went ego, and ego had no place whatsoever in a spiritual search.
And the spiritual search was paramount. I knew there was a link between the Tohono o'Odham or Hohokam and the pre-Maori Waitaha and later Maori people of my own birthplace.
From where i was sitting I could look back to Phoenix and the plain where the Tohono o'Odham, the finger-language people, had built the elaborate system of irrigation canals in the Salt River Valley. I remembered reading about Los Muertos, the city of the dead, an o'Odham town, a few miles south of Tempe, where their physical bodies had been placed when their souls were taken to the Otherworld. Like their Celtic relatives they had buried their dead with gold ornaments and elaborate pottery. The o'Odham mined copper from which they fashioned bells and they knew how to smelt gold. The ancient knowledge was with them. They had no fear or superstition. For two thousand years their civilisation thrived, perhaps longer. Then they disappeared and were called Hohokam, 'those who have gone'.
i knew that their spirits still dwelt in this land. i couldn't communicate directly with them but someone was guiding me. i stared across the valley towards the mountains. The answer lay in their somewhere and i realised that the Lost Dutchman's Mine on Treasure Island was the enticing carrot, and that another more greater revelation lay beyond. i would enter the Superstitions alone to seek the answers. i must go alone or i would not be shown a thing. The preceding days appeared to be preparation for this adventure.
The first to see gold in the Superstitions was Abraham Thorne, friend of the frontiersman Kit Carson. He was army physician at Fort McDowell and in the course of his duties he treated many Apache and they respected him highly. When he finished service at McDowell the Apache contacted him and expressed their wish to give him a gift. He agreed and they took him blindfolded on horseback to a canyon. When he reached the canyon the blindfold was removed and their was a quantity of gold at his feet. He tried to work out where he was but was never completely sure. After selling the gold in California he returned to look for the canyon. It confirmed that there was gold in the region, and that the Apache knew its location. Thorne never found more gold.
The Lost Dutchman himself was an enigmatic figure. To some he was all bad, to others good, but to all he passed on a legend. Jacob Walzer was a German immigrant who arrived in New York in 1862. Two years later he was in Prescott, Arizona. He wandered the hills in search of gold and on one occasion, near Florence, was in the company of Jacob Wisner when they heard the sound of digging in a canyon. They saw two miners, Ludi and Jacobs, mining on the high side of a hill. The two Jacobs aimed and fired their rifles, killing Ludi and Jacobs.
What were Ludi and Jacobs doing there? In the 1840s a Miguel Peralta of Sonora, Mexico, had sent his three sons, Manuel, Pedro and Ramon on a search for gold in Arizona (Ed note: direct relatives of the Mexican!). Around the area now known as Mormon Flats they found gold. They traced the source towards the mother lode and found more rich deposits, eventually opening up eight mines. All the while they were being watched by the Apaches. They accumulated more gold than they could carry back to Mexico and decided to stash what they couldn't carry. Three maps were drawn of the mine locations, one for each of the brothers. The Peraltas, spurred by the changing political situation between the United States and Mexico, decided to return to gather the remaining gold. Manuel, now married, stayed home and a cousin Gonzales went in his stead. The large group split into three and mined hurriedly, all the time being observed by the Apaches, concerned that such a large number had come to their lands.
The Apaches struck Gonzales's group in Canyon Fresco. Gonzales was the lone survivor, and he struggled back to Ramon's group to warn him. Pedro's group was warned, but when the two groups came together the Apaches attacked again. A pitched battle raged in what is now Peralta Canyon for three days. When the Apaches were sure that all the intruders were dead they sealed all of the mine entrances bar one perched high on a canyon wall. Miraculously it was Gonzales who escaped. He returned to Sonora, Mexico, vowing never to return to the Superstitions.
But legend becomes confused and we switch to Manuel, the surviving Peralta brother. In 1860 he meets Ludi and Jacobs in a bar and they get stuck into the tequila, salt and lemon - as you would in a bar. He has to return to Sonora to attend the funeral of his father Miguel. Before going he hands over the map - one of three of the locations of the eight mines - which had been prepared some ten years earlier. Ludi and Jacobs had heard similar stories before, especially in the boast induced by tequila, so they did nothing for eleven years. The two miners went in search of the gold in 1871, found the rich lode, and began digging. Then along came the two Jacobs, Walzer and Wisner, who shot them dead. The next day the two return to the mine but Walzer shoots his side kick dead. The gold is all his, the secret is all his.
Another story is brief but equally as interesting. Walzer is living with a Native American woman in Phoenix and she knows the secret location of the mine. After considerable persuasion the woman leads him to the gold. Walzer gets the gold but his partner is punished. Shortly after her return to Phoenix, the woman's tribespeople captured her and cut out her tongue so she would never tell another soul.
Lastly, the acceptable version of events. Walzer and Wisner found the mine by chance during a prospecting trip into the Superstitions. Their repeated visits into Florence to replenish supplies caused tongues to wag in the town. Walzer, known as the 'Dutchman', and Wisner had found a rich source of gold. The Dutchman, returning from picking up supplies in Florence, found Wisner dead, the victim of an Apache attack most probably. he then buries his side kick, covers up all signs of the mine and then gets the hell out of the canyon, his saddlebags stuffed with gold. For the next ten years the Dutchman would make a number of visits to the mine to retrieve gold. No one knew when he was going there and he was always careful to cover his tracks. When he was next seen he would be in Phoenix unloading gold from his burro. Walzer only ever gave a few obscure clues about the mine's location. The gold was in a chimney of rose quartz 18 inches wide, no 'miner' would ever find it, there was one large cache of gold remaining near the mine, and that you almost stumbled into the mine before seeing it. He left other clues about a rock formation which looked like a face, and certain other directional information. If Walzer was anything like he appears in his many short biographies then I regarded that he would be trying to pull the collective legs of his listeners. So I disregarded this information. If the Thunder God wanted someone to find the treasures, these King Solomon's Mines of the Americas, then he would lead them through the Superstitions. The search for the poetic myth winds through many intertwining corridors, and temptations are the obstacles placed in the face of the searcher.
For more on Somanetics and Rue look under 'it that is is what it is' in Scrolls and Boxes of Wisdom http://www.hogproductions.com/School/Scrolls-and-Boxes-of-Wisdom/8875993_fXM7v#589442798_ZHvg9 Included therein is a simple cure to many major human afflictions, with full supporting medical documentary evidence. Worth a read!](/img/spacer.gif "inanga > We have real evidence...
Yes i found the Lost Dutchman's Mine on Treasure Island - that is a wrist amulet still around the radius and ulna bones of a treasure hunter - but i am here in Aotearoa (NZ) 'miles from nowhere' and would dearly love to be walking north up Peralta Road at the moment towards Miner's Needle and beyond... yes Miner's and Weaver's Needles will become important clues later.
But now... the Mexican told me not to trust the Clown as he was a Lutheran, so i knew to trust Gerry the Clown to the max. The Clown knew more about healing plants than any other shaman i had met. Don't trust the Clown - that's your call. Martin Luther was an incredible phi-losopher and raconteur. So much so that one of my true heroes was given his name: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.]
I sat gazing out at the Superstitions that loomed in the east across Apache Trail (now Hwys 60 and 88). The Superstitions were steeped in mystery. Out there in those stark hills was the Lost Dutchman's Mine or at least a vast cache of Jacob Walzer's gold. I knew that in order to find it I would have to tap into the earth energies. Many thousands of treasure hunters had combed the hills looking for the legendary gold and many had died in the process. There are few places of such intense mystery left on this earth.
The Superstitions are said to be the area of twisting canyons, mesa and rock piles between the Apache Trail in the west and Rogers and Reavis canyons on the east of the mountainous bulk. The most prominent feature in this region is Weaver's Needle, which dominates this portion of the vast Sonoran Desert.
i thought through the legends. According to the Pima, relatives of the Tohono o'Odham, the great Montezuma had mined these hills with a large army of captured slaves. The ruler stashed his gold in a great cave in the mountains. He foresaw disaster and gathered together his workers and went to the cave for shelter. The earth shook violently and the mountains were rent apart. The mouth of the cave was sealed, entombing Montezuma, the gold and the slaves forever.
Montezuma was followed by Coronado who mounted an expedition to seek out the riches of the seven cities of Cibola. He found the cities to be nothing more than Zuni pueblo. He pushed on hoping to find the riches of Gran Quivira, but again was disappointed, finding only pueblo and cliff dwellings.
The Apaches tell of other Spaniards secreting an enormous amount of silver and gold in a cave, only to disappear never to return to retrieve the treasure. But Apaches are newcomers to the area, having come north from Mexico, and would only know of recent events. The Spaniards may have been priests, abandoning Santa Fe, New Mexico, who wished to store their treasure closer to where they were intending to settle. Was it from these repositories that Geronimo obtained gold with which to buy guns? The Apache were raiders and nomads and used the fastnesses of the Superstitions to retreat to after raids upon the pueblos of the peaceful Pima and Maricopa. After a considerable time the Maricopa retaliated and followed the Apache into the Superstitions. A great battle followed and many Apache and Maricopa were killed. The Apaches felt that they had been abandoned by their gods. They in turn vacated the Superstitions, leaving it as a zone forbidden to all except their Thunder God.
A hot breeze blew across the mesa rustling the treacherous chollo cactus nearby. I thought of all those gold seekers who had been lost in the Superstitions in search of the gold. Gold, gold, gold… It turns the sane into lunatics, and the lazy into the frenzied. I was wondering whether or not the Lost Dutchman was my reason for coming to Arizona. If I found the gold i could do much for the environment of my home country, Aotearoa. The authorities would never let me take it from the United States but the publicity would be wonderful for the success of a subsequent and lucrative account of the search. What concerned me was that the pursuit of wealth in such a manner smacked of materialistic desire, something that I was rapidly eschewing. With materialism went ego, and ego had no place whatsoever in a spiritual search.
And the spiritual search was paramount. I knew there was a link between the Tohono o'Odham or Hohokam and the pre-Maori Waitaha and later Maori people of my own birthplace.
From where i was sitting I could look back to Phoenix and the plain where the Tohono o'Odham, the finger-language people, had built the elaborate system of irrigation canals in the Salt River Valley. I remembered reading about Los Muertos, the city of the dead, an o'Odham town, a few miles south of Tempe, where their physical bodies had been placed when their souls were taken to the Otherworld. Like their Celtic relatives they had buried their dead with gold ornaments and elaborate pottery. The o'Odham mined copper from which they fashioned bells and they knew how to smelt gold. The ancient knowledge was with them. They had no fear or superstition. For two thousand years their civilisation thrived, perhaps longer. Then they disappeared and were called Hohokam, 'those who have gone'.
i knew that their spirits still dwelt in this land. i couldn't communicate directly with them but someone was guiding me. i stared across the valley towards the mountains. The answer lay in their somewhere and i realised that the Lost Dutchman's Mine on Treasure Island was the enticing carrot, and that another more greater revelation lay beyond. i would enter the Superstitions alone to seek the answers. i must go alone or i would not be shown a thing. The preceding days appeared to be preparation for this adventure.
The first to see gold in the Superstitions was Abraham Thorne, friend of the frontiersman Kit Carson. He was army physician at Fort McDowell and in the course of his duties he treated many Apache and they respected him highly. When he finished service at McDowell the Apache contacted him and expressed their wish to give him a gift. He agreed and they took him blindfolded on horseback to a canyon. When he reached the canyon the blindfold was removed and their was a quantity of gold at his feet. He tried to work out where he was but was never completely sure. After selling the gold in California he returned to look for the canyon. It confirmed that there was gold in the region, and that the Apache knew its location. Thorne never found more gold.
The Lost Dutchman himself was an enigmatic figure. To some he was all bad, to others good, but to all he passed on a legend. Jacob Walzer was a German immigrant who arrived in New York in 1862. Two years later he was in Prescott, Arizona. He wandered the hills in search of gold and on one occasion, near Florence, was in the company of Jacob Wisner when they heard the sound of digging in a canyon. They saw two miners, Ludi and Jacobs, mining on the high side of a hill. The two Jacobs aimed and fired their rifles, killing Ludi and Jacobs.
What were Ludi and Jacobs doing there? In the 1840s a Miguel Peralta of Sonora, Mexico, had sent his three sons, Manuel, Pedro and Ramon on a search for gold in Arizona (Ed note: direct relatives of the Mexican!). Around the area now known as Mormon Flats they found gold. They traced the source towards the mother lode and found more rich deposits, eventually opening up eight mines. All the while they were being watched by the Apaches. They accumulated more gold than they could carry back to Mexico and decided to stash what they couldn't carry. Three maps were drawn of the mine locations, one for each of the brothers. The Peraltas, spurred by the changing political situation between the United States and Mexico, decided to return to gather the remaining gold. Manuel, now married, stayed home and a cousin Gonzales went in his stead. The large group split into three and mined hurriedly, all the time being observed by the Apaches, concerned that such a large number had come to their lands.
The Apaches struck Gonzales's group in Canyon Fresco. Gonzales was the lone survivor, and he struggled back to Ramon's group to warn him. Pedro's group was warned, but when the two groups came together the Apaches attacked again. A pitched battle raged in what is now Peralta Canyon for three days. When the Apaches were sure that all the intruders were dead they sealed all of the mine entrances bar one perched high on a canyon wall. Miraculously it was Gonzales who escaped. He returned to Sonora, Mexico, vowing never to return to the Superstitions.
But legend becomes confused and we switch to Manuel, the surviving Peralta brother. In 1860 he meets Ludi and Jacobs in a bar and they get stuck into the tequila, salt and lemon - as you would in a bar. He has to return to Sonora to attend the funeral of his father Miguel. Before going he hands over the map - one of three of the locations of the eight mines - which had been prepared some ten years earlier. Ludi and Jacobs had heard similar stories before, especially in the boast induced by tequila, so they did nothing for eleven years. The two miners went in search of the gold in 1871, found the rich lode, and began digging. Then along came the two Jacobs, Walzer and Wisner, who shot them dead. The next day the two return to the mine but Walzer shoots his side kick dead. The gold is all his, the secret is all his.
Another story is brief but equally as interesting. Walzer is living with a Native American woman in Phoenix and she knows the secret location of the mine. After considerable persuasion the woman leads him to the gold. Walzer gets the gold but his partner is punished. Shortly after her return to Phoenix, the woman's tribespeople captured her and cut out her tongue so she would never tell another soul.
Lastly, the acceptable version of events. Walzer and Wisner found the mine by chance during a prospecting trip into the Superstitions. Their repeated visits into Florence to replenish supplies caused tongues to wag in the town. Walzer, known as the 'Dutchman', and Wisner had found a rich source of gold. The Dutchman, returning from picking up supplies in Florence, found Wisner dead, the victim of an Apache attack most probably. he then buries his side kick, covers up all signs of the mine and then gets the hell out of the canyon, his saddlebags stuffed with gold. For the next ten years the Dutchman would make a number of visits to the mine to retrieve gold. No one knew when he was going there and he was always careful to cover his tracks. When he was next seen he would be in Phoenix unloading gold from his burro. Walzer only ever gave a few obscure clues about the mine's location. The gold was in a chimney of rose quartz 18 inches wide, no 'miner' would ever find it, there was one large cache of gold remaining near the mine, and that you almost stumbled into the mine before seeing it. He left other clues about a rock formation which looked like a face, and certain other directional information. If Walzer was anything like he appears in his many short biographies then I regarded that he would be trying to pull the collective legs of his listeners. So I disregarded this information. If the Thunder God wanted someone to find the treasures, these King Solomon's Mines of the Americas, then he would lead them through the Superstitions. The search for the poetic myth winds through many intertwining corridors, and temptations are the obstacles placed in the face of the searcher.
For more on Somanetics and Rue look under 'it that is is what it is' in Scrolls and Boxes of Wisdom http://www.hogproductions.com/School/Scrolls-and-Boxes-of-Wisdom/8875993_fXM7v#589442798_ZHvg9 Included therein is a simple cure to many major human afflictions, with full supporting medical documentary evidence. Worth a read!")
Thanx Michael - what a beautiful part of the world you live in. Maplewood is a lot like areas of NZ.
Thanx Michael - what a beautiful part of the world you live in. Maplewood is a lot like areas of NZ.
See photo in original gallery.