Mitchell_78613 said:
I am new to the site and just trying to establish facts on a lot of these legends. On the Lost Dutcman mine, how big is the area that the mine is supposbely in? Has there ever been any verified facts that there was a real mine there? I am super curious about this one.
WELCOME TO TREASURENET Mitchell! 
How big an area is a matter of dispute; the area in which the mine could be located covers a very large region. Some of the guidelines which help to define the area are that it took Waltz three days to go to the mine and return, from his home in Phoenix; that it was a two-day trip from the mine to Adams Mill, which was located near Florence; and that his partner Weiser made it from the mine to the Pima villages on the Gila in a day of desperate flight partly on horseback and partly on foot. If you use a drawing compass and draw an arc based on each of those three points, allowing a certain amount of distance for a days travel, you still end up with a fairly large area where the mine could be located.
Beginning with Pierpont Bicknell's article run in 1894-5, other details have been added including that the mine lays within an imaginary 5 mile circle of Weavers Needle, but whether this was the diameter or radius is an open question. That area has been heavily searched, including a determined attempt to blast Weavers Needle to dust, it seems probable that if the mine really were in that area it would not be lost today.
As to the verified facts as to whether there was a mine located there, there are no records of a mining claim, no photos of the mine itself, only the statements of persons who claimed to have seen it as well as the words of Waltz and Weiser; and the few remaining specimens of the ore taken from the candle box found beneath the deathbed of Jacob Waltz which had been made into jewelry by Dick Holmes. These specimens still exist, and according to at least one source have been compared with the collection of ores from all known sources in AZ, and these specimens do not match the ore from any known source. Of course some dispute even this, and point the the great variation possible within even one gold vein, and I am only going by the statements of geologists which say that a gold ore can be identified rather similarly to the way a fingerprint. If the geologists can be believed (and I do) then the specimens from Waltz at least indicate that an unknown source of very rich gold ore exists. When we then consider that Waltz himself, speaking to his friends (Julia Thomas and Reiney Petrasch) pointed at the Superstitions mountains and told them the mine is there, in my own opinion we have a real lost gold mine. Waltz also sold a sizable amount of very rich gold ore when he used the proceeds to bail out his friends Julia and Reiney when she was about to lose her business, and other witnesses (held in doubt by some) reported seeing Waltz sell rich gold ore in Florence and other points, mostly in small amounts.
I would suggest picking up a copy of the book The Lost Dutchman Mine by Sims Ely; Ely interviewed several of the people who knew Waltz personally and spent years in the search himself, also Dr Thomas Glover's book The Golden Dream, The Lost Dutchman Mine of Jacob Waltz pt I, Dr Glover is as far as I know the only person in modern times to have done any actual testing of the famous ore specimens, and The Curse of the Dutchman's Gold by Helen Corbin, wife of famed AZ Attorney General Robert (Bob) Corbin and veteran Dutch hunter; Helen was privy to much information and maps etc and did much research into this legend.
Several of our fellow members here have a vast wealth of experience and knowledge of this legend as well as the Superstition mountains, and would be happy to help you with any questions you might have. I look forward to your posts, again welcome Mitchell and I hope you have a very pleasant day.
Oroblanco
![:-\](https://www.treasurenet.com/smilies/undecided.gif "Undecided :-\")
