The LDM Is Real And Is Still Out There!!!
April 10, 1999 at 20:21:43
In Reply to: Was there really ever a dutchman mine?
posted by Richard Walburn on April 08, 1999 at 18:27:10
I lived in Phoenix from 1990 to 1998 and spent 5 years researching the Lost Dutchman Mine. I've dug through microfilm copies of 100 year old news papers, investigated rare book sections of libraries, read every relevant book available on the LDM, collected old maps of Arizona-old U.S. Geological Survey Maps, over 100 treasure maps to the LDM, talked to many of the old "Dutch Hunters" (Tom Kollenborn, Clay Worst, Greg Davis, Chuck Kenworthy) and the newer generation of Dutch Hunters (Ron Feldman, Jim Hatt). And I have backpacked into the Superstitions - climbing 5000 ft mountains from Malipais to Tortilla with no trails - and climbed into old mine shafts that one should have stayed out of. It was a fun and challenging "hobby" and I enjoyed it very much.
To your questions. Yes, gold has been found in the Superstitions and several mines operated in and around the Super's around the turn of the century. Also of note was the finding of raw gold ore by several individuals with the latest documented case of Kochera's gold in 1964. The best place to get a readable documentary of the LDM is a book by Helen Corbin who is the wife of Bob Corbin, the ex-Attorney General of Arizona who hunted the Dutchman for many years with Tom Kollenborn as his partner. The book, The Curse of the Dutchman's Gold, is available from the Superstition Mountains Historical Society throught their Museum web site at:
http://ajnet.ci.apache-jct.az.us/museum1.htm
I didn't find any gold in the Superstitions but it was a great place to look. I have seen gold that Ron Feldman owns that is part of the Kochera gold that was found in the Superstitions and has been analyzed and shown to have not come from any known mine around the Superstitions. Every mine's gold has its own signature of mineral content. Even today, one can pan gold from the Tortilla Creek which flows out of the Superstitions.
I do believe that the LDM did exist and is still not found. Chuck Kenworthy's last book claims that he had located the LDM, but I believe he only located one of the mines that the Indians covered up after the Peralta massacre. This may well be the mine contained in the heavily coded Peralta Stone Maps but is not the LDM.
Probably haven't answered all your questions, but did provide some input on the LDM - real or not? There is enough documentary evidence and evidence of mining in the Superstitions to validate the existence of Jacob Waltz's mine of the 1880's. If you ever get to Arizona, go visit the area. It is beautiful and beckons one to search for its secrets.
Roger
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