CRAZY JAKE

[johnmark29020]

ELBAYO,

I don't know the map you are refering to. Possibly I have seen it but cannot recall when or where.

I am not promoting either map or the Kochera account, or the Crazy Jake account. I am just passing along the information as I learned it. I would like to learn more as I do not discount the maps and accounts either.

Thanks,

Matthew

I would like to know more about the larger map. If you are free to talk about it.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Treasure of Victoria Peak - Grab it through Amazon!

[Cubfan64]

Hopefully nobody is holding their breath I'd like to know more about the larger map as well, but most things like that are implied about and then kept secret.

 

[johnmark29020]

Hopefully nobody is holding their breath I'd like to know more about the larger map as well, but most things like that are implied about and then kept secret.

Yes I know. I was just messing with him.
I knew there was no chance of seeing it.

 

[markmar]

Joe

Near the Jake's camp , match the " SLEEPING LADY SQUAW " map . This is just my opinion .

 

[Cubfan64]

Joe

Near the Jake's camp , match the " SLEEPING LADY SQUAW " map . This is just my opinion .

There are certainly some similarities to the Sleeping Squaw map(s). There are a number of those maps out and about and not all are the same.

 

[markmar]

There are certainly some similarities to the Sleeping Squaw map(s). There are a number of those maps out and about and not all are the same.

I have this one

 

[Matthew Roberts]

While it's great fun to speculate which map resembles which map, and one map is part of a smaller map, or a certain map leads to a certain treasure legend, there is historical evidence for the cave the gold bars story that concerns Crazy Jake as well as the map that Jake believed showed the way to that cave.

In March of 1974, Crazy Jake and one of his hired men, Lou Burkett, were camped at the top of Squaw canyon. Jake and Burkett (allegedly) discovered what they believed was the cave of the gold bars. Crazy Jake went to News Channel 13 in Phoenix with the story of finding the cave and created great interest. The channel 13 program director did a spot with Jake telling his story and wanted to follow up with Jake by sending a reporter and camera into the Superstitions to film the find.

Jake refused to allow the TV channel to film and the project faded away. Next, Jake went to the Arizona Republic and gave the same story to the newspaper. It again created great interest and this time a staff reporter took down Jake and Burkett's story and published a special report in the paper. The report covered several pages over a couple of issues. In that report, Jake and Burkett were photographed and each told their story of millions in gold bars hidden away in a secret cave in the Superstition mountains. This discovery, and the tale told by Jake and Burkett became the basis for more "cave of the gold bars" stories that followed over the next 30 years.

The strange thing about Jake and Burkett's gold bar story was Lou Burkett himself. Lou was not your typical Crazy Jake hired man fresh out of some jail and desperate for money and a place to hide out. Burkett was a mild manner man, well educated and the head of the Apache Junction Elementary school at the time. How he became mixed up so deeply with Jake I was never able to understand. I learned one thing however, Burkett believed he had found a cave and it had gold bars in it like the one Jake had in his possession. In fact, Burkett was the more insistant of the two in telling the story to the TV and newspapers.

It was not until 1983 that Crazy Jake learned of Walter Gassler's photograph of the same mark that was on Jake's gold bar. Ten years had passed since Jake and Burkett had claimed to have found the cave of the gold bars. There is so much more to this story it would take pages to fill in all the blanks and recount each event that occurred. Jake and Burkett's accounts of the cave can be read by anyone looking into the March-April 1974 back issues of the Arizona Republic and Gazette.

Matthew K. Roberts

 

[ELBAYO]

Matthew, I would think that anyone who discounts the Crazy Jake story is making a huge mistake.....I think he found the Bars, he just blew all the cash on prostitutes, drugs and ice cream...Jake was sure he would locate the source of the Gold he had found...One of my friends I met through Jim Hatt worked for Jake, he sent Jim and I out there just before Jim got sick on a trip to jakes cave to find a metal ring...We found the metal ring that they pounded in the ground....


Double-jack

 

[wrmickel1]

Matthew, I would think that anyone who discounts the Crazy Jake story is making a huge mistake.....I think he found the Bars, he just blew all the cash on prostitutes, drugs and ice cream...Jake was sure he would locate the source of the Gold he had found...One of my friends I met through Jim Hatt worked for Jake, he sent Jim and I out there just before Jim got sick on a trip to jakes cave to find a metal ring...We found the metal ring that they pounded in the ground....


Double-jack

Elbayo

Throw in a pound of bacon and is there any better way to spend the Gold, I'd think not!

wrmickel1

 

[Cubfan64]

Matthew, I would think that anyone who discounts the Crazy Jake story is making a huge mistake.....I think he found the Bars, he just blew all the cash on prostitutes, drugs and ice cream...Jake was sure he would locate the source of the Gold he had found...One of my friends I met through Jim Hatt worked for Jake, he sent Jim and I out there just before Jim got sick on a trip to jakes cave to find a metal ring...We found the metal ring that they pounded in the ground....


Double-jack

Kurt, the problem with Jake's stories are which ones do you believe? This was a man who lied and stole almost as easily as you and I eat and drink.

A case based on Jake's actions could certainly be made that Jake found something of value early on in his searches and became obsessed with finding more. That obsession led him to defraud people, lie, steal, etc... in the justification that if he could only find the "mother lode," he would repay everyone and most importantly prove to everyone that he knew what he was doing.

A case could also be made that he misrepresented everything. That he fabricated it all - maybe he even conned people out of money to buy some real gold bars (or painted lead bars gold colored) and planted them in a cave in order to convince folks that he found something valuable and if they would only give him an "investment," he could find more and make everyone wealthy.

I'm glad you were able to find something that one of the guys who worked for Jake pointed you to, but that doesn't really prove much.

I'd like to think that Jake was onto something out there, but it's almost impossible to know what was legitimate and what wasn't - especially when it's been proven that most of it wasn't.

 

[Dirty Dutchman]

Kurt, the problem with Jake's stories are which ones do you believe? This was a man who lied and stole almost as easily as you and I eat and drink.

A case based on Jake's actions could certainly be made that Jake found something of value early on in his searches and became obsessed with finding more. That obsession led him to defraud people, lie, steal, etc... in the justification that if he could only find the "mother lode," he would repay everyone and most importantly prove to everyone that he knew what he was doing.

A case could also be made that he misrepresented everything. That he fabricated it all - maybe he even conned people out of money to buy some real gold bars (or painted lead bars gold colored) and planted them in a cave in order to convince folks that he found something valuable and if they would only give him an "investment," he could find more and make everyone wealthy.

I'm glad you were able to find something that one of the guys who worked for Jake pointed you to, but that doesn't really prove much.

I'd like to think that Jake was onto something out there, but it's almost impossible to know what was legitimate and what wasn't - especially when it's been proven that most of it wasn't.

I agree with Paul on most of this.... Jake could have made up every story he ever told anyone, but the one thing that he couldn't hide was WHERE he searched. That's pretty much common knowledge. I met one of Jakes guys through Jim Hatt and I remember he told a story about them dynamiting a rock the size of a house off the top, eastern part of Squaw Canyon (Peters Mesa) and it came down all in one piece and shattered at the bottom of Squaw. (You can still see these pieces in the canyon). Now, the story was funny, but the part that interested me more was the location....

Most of the "Jake" stories surround the southeastern part of Squaw Canyon where it meets the western part of Peters Mesa. You could discount this as a lie, but I think it's interesting that Glover also has Black Mountain (The mountain that makes up the southern part of Squaw Canyon) in one of his books. This mountain is supposedly where the sandles and other artifacts were found.... One more interesting thing is, if you approach Black Mountain from the North.... There's a giant Heart coming out of the top of it. I can probably dig a pic up if anyone's interested in the heart on that mountain.

Just my opinion.

Thanks
Travis

 

[ELBAYO]

Cub, There was allot of focus on squaw box when all this was taking place, expand your thinking. What else was going on at the same time. who else was searching? Why was that group all of sudden quiet?



Double-Jack

 

[ELBAYO]

DD I have the video of that blast, it is funny as heck to see.....Have you been out this summer?

 

[markmar]

I agree with Paul on most of this.... Jake could have made up every story he ever told anyone, but the one thing that he couldn't hide was WHERE he searched. That's pretty much common knowledge. I met one of Jakes guys through Jim Hatt and I remember he told a story about them dynamiting a rock the size of a house off the top, eastern part of Squaw Canyon (Peters Mesa) and it came down all in one piece and shattered at the bottom of Squaw. (You can still see these pieces in the canyon). Now, the story was funny, but the part that interested me more was the location....

Most of the "Jake" stories surround the southeastern part of Squaw Canyon where it meets the western part of Peters Mesa. You could discount this as a lie, but I think it's interesting that Glover also has Black Mountain (The mountain that makes up the southern part of Squaw Canyon) in one of his books. This mountain is supposedly where the sandles and other artifacts were found.... One more interesting thing is, if you approach Black Mountain from the North.... There's a giant Heart coming out of the top of it. I can probably dig a pic up if anyone's interested in the heart on that mountain.

Just my opinion.

Thanks
Travis

Travis

From my investigation , this is the region of the X in the stone trail heart .

 

[Dirty Dutchman]

DD I have the video of that blast, it is funny as heck to see.....Have you been out this summer?

I gotta see that... I've only been out once this summer. Too freakin hot... I sent you a PM on here with my new number and I got yours from Badger. I'll touch base with you soon.

Travis

 

[Dirty Dutchman]

Travis

From my investigation , this is the region of the X in the stone trail heart .

I agree 100%. That's the mountain they HAVE to lead too. Once you're on top of that Black Mountain, the Latin heart starts to make sense... But only if you turn it correctly.

Do you have a camp out there? I've found two modern camps close to there lately. Obviously someone else is interested in that mountain as well....

Thanks
Travis

 

[markmar]

Travis

I didn't wrote something about Latin heart . I wrote " From my investigation , this is the region of the X in the stone trail heart . "
IMO , the Latin heart is at the end of the trail and is 10 % of the stone trail heart dimension .

PS
In my quests , I don't leave traces .

 

[Matthew Roberts]

Crazy Jake's first permanant camp in the Superstitions was at the bottom of (new) Squaw Canyon just up and out of LaBarge Canyon. Later he moved that camp about halfway up (new) Squaw Canyon to a large flat area along the trail that ran from LaBarge to the top of Squaw. His last camp was moved to the top of (new) Squaw Canyon overlooking LaBarge below and Peters Mesa behind him to the east.

Before his permant camps were established, Jake was all over the mountains. This was during his time with Bill Barkley and others who spun him in every direction but up. Once he settled at the Squaw canyons area he stayed there for his camps and concentrated on the Peters Mesa, Pistol canyon areas for his searching.

All of Crazy Jakes mining claims were on Peters Mesa, they ran from just east of Black mountain at the head of Charleyboy canyon all the way to the head of Pistol Canyon to the north.

Jake only defrauded people of the bulk of his mining enterprises between the years 1983-1985, about a two year period. In the years he was running to the TV and newspapers with claims of caves of gold bars, 1965-1975 he was relatively quiet with his endeavors. Some people grubstaked Jake in those years, but no one lost vast sums to him as they did in the 1983-1985 time period.

After Jake was released from prison and in ill health, he made two trips back to his last camp (the second time using his camp and Walter Gassler's) . Jake was alone on both of these trips, packed in by Jerry Sherwood. This is not what a man who believed nothing was in those mountains would have done in his circumstances. Like Walter Gassler, I believe he was making one last attempt to find what he had been looking for so long.

Matthew K. Roberts

 

[Cubfan64]

Cub, There was allot of focus on squaw box when all this was taking place, expand your thinking. What else was going on at the same time. who else was searching? Why was that group all of sudden quiet?
Double-Jack

I know there were other folks in that area. Walt Gassler being a solo person, but Kenworthy's group was up that way as well. Mike (gollum) has often told of how someone he trusts was shown a car trunk full of gold ore that Kenworthy claimed came out of the Superstitions .

In several posts within this thread as well as numerous other places over the years, I keep reading about how Jake KNEW he had found the cave full of gold bars (20 tons?) - one or more of his workers believed they had found it as well. Some logical questions pop into my head though:

1) Unless they could actually SEE the gold bars but not get to them for some reason, how did they know exactly where they were?
2) Was there some sort of symbol, marking, etc... that convinced them that for lack of a better description "X marks the spot?"
3) If they had identified the spot, why couldn't they "open" it, either through use of dynamite, or manpower? Was it because they were running out of time (Wilderness Act?)

I won't argue that it's not an interesting area because it is for a wide variety of reasons.

 

[pippinwhitepaws]

Tom Kollenborn Chronicles: 'Crazy' Jake's Camp


"Many people have wondered where he hid all money he talked people out of. I don’t think he hid the money. I really believe he spent a lot of it in the mountains. He was certainly a man with a golden tongue and could talk people out of their money."