The Frank Fish map and story has been around for many years but I never tried to figure out its provenance. Recently somehiker reposted a 2004 post by Greg Davis that explained the modern day provenance of the original Fish map. It piqued my interest and the question that I had was; How did the Fish map become associated with the Lost Dutchman Mine?
Greg also mentioned that the story of how Fish got the map and how it became tied to the LDM was covered in an article he wrote for the Superstition Mountain Journal, Volume 12, 1994. His information was sourced from Lake Erie Schaefer Book “Deadmen Do Tell Tales”. Greg was also in personal contact with Erie and it’s possible some his article could have contained information contained in those contacts.
I do have access to the SMJ article and Greg also lists as a source, Frank Fish’s book “Buried Treasure and Lost Mines”. Both Erie and Frank’s books are rare and I do not have access to either. I hope someone can share some details.
Frank Fish’s Book
From the internet I found the following information.
Google Books (Bibliographic information)
Title Buried Treasure and Lost Mines
Author Frank L. Fish
Publisher - Amador Trading Post, 1956
Length 68 pages
Amazon
Written by treasure hunter and historian Frank L. Fish. 68 Pages. Includes 93 descriptions of treasure and mines. A must-read for treasure hunters. I also saw somewhere that 68 of the stories were based in California
The 1956 date for the first publication appears in error as all of the other references list 1961 as the first publication. Greg’s article also uses the 1961 date.
My questions:
Does Frank’s book include the LDM story and is there any mention of a tie to the Fish Map? If someone has the book and can share the LDM portion it would be greatly appreciated.
Can anyone verify the First Publication date of 1956 is in error? It’s messing up my chronology!
From Erie’s book Greg relates that Fish was in contact with Erwin Ruth in 1915. Frank would have been 14 or 15 years old and a farm boy in Oklahoma. There are other elements of Frank’s story that also raise red flags but that will have to wait until I get my own copy of Erie’s book.
At this point, this particular story seems to be an extremely weak tie of the Fish Map and the LDM. Greg mentions that Ruth’s map and been published (Arizona Highways - MY ASSUMPTION) and Frank recognized it as similar to his Map. Or perhaps it was sometime after Frank had seen the Ruth map that he created the Fish map himself?
I’ll probably order the two books if I can find them for a reasonable price and maybe this will answer a lot of my own questions but any help will be appreciated.
Garry
Greg also mentioned that the story of how Fish got the map and how it became tied to the LDM was covered in an article he wrote for the Superstition Mountain Journal, Volume 12, 1994. His information was sourced from Lake Erie Schaefer Book “Deadmen Do Tell Tales”. Greg was also in personal contact with Erie and it’s possible some his article could have contained information contained in those contacts.
I do have access to the SMJ article and Greg also lists as a source, Frank Fish’s book “Buried Treasure and Lost Mines”. Both Erie and Frank’s books are rare and I do not have access to either. I hope someone can share some details.
Frank Fish’s Book
From the internet I found the following information.
Google Books (Bibliographic information)
Title Buried Treasure and Lost Mines
Author Frank L. Fish
Publisher - Amador Trading Post, 1956
Length 68 pages
Amazon
Written by treasure hunter and historian Frank L. Fish. 68 Pages. Includes 93 descriptions of treasure and mines. A must-read for treasure hunters. I also saw somewhere that 68 of the stories were based in California
The 1956 date for the first publication appears in error as all of the other references list 1961 as the first publication. Greg’s article also uses the 1961 date.
My questions:
Does Frank’s book include the LDM story and is there any mention of a tie to the Fish Map? If someone has the book and can share the LDM portion it would be greatly appreciated.
Can anyone verify the First Publication date of 1956 is in error? It’s messing up my chronology!
From Erie’s book Greg relates that Fish was in contact with Erwin Ruth in 1915. Frank would have been 14 or 15 years old and a farm boy in Oklahoma. There are other elements of Frank’s story that also raise red flags but that will have to wait until I get my own copy of Erie’s book.
At this point, this particular story seems to be an extremely weak tie of the Fish Map and the LDM. Greg mentions that Ruth’s map and been published (Arizona Highways - MY ASSUMPTION) and Frank recognized it as similar to his Map. Or perhaps it was sometime after Frank had seen the Ruth map that he created the Fish map himself?
I’ll probably order the two books if I can find them for a reasonable price and maybe this will answer a lot of my own questions but any help will be appreciated.
Garry
