military trail ??

Doc4261

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Arizona became a United States Territory on February 24, 1863. Fort Whipple, near the future town of Prescott, became the first territorial capital. In October, 1870, commanding officer of the new Arizona Territory, brevetted Major General George S. Stoneman, was exploring an established Native American trail which potentially would serve as a shortcut to Fort Whipple, from Camp McDowell (later Fort McDowell). Along this ancient trail, later called the “the Military Road,” the Army found a lush, riparian area bordering a flowing creek with adjacent bubbling springs. The welcomed creek, was designated “Cave Creek” by the Cavalry because of a sizable, eroded cave found along the bank.
 

Matthew Roberts

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Several years ago I was asked to put together an article on the short history of Cave Creek, Arizona for the local paper. I am a former resident of Cave Creek and the article contained some good information on General Stoneman's Military trail.

Cave Creek Arizona, Yesterday and Today

The Town of Cave Creek is named for Cave Creek, the small stream that originates in the hills near Skull Mesa to the northeast and flows southwesterly for 25 miles before reaching the vicinity of Paradise Valley. The stream derives its name from a high, overhanging bluff along its west bank that forms a wide open-mouthed cavern about two miles north of the present day Town.

Cave Creek can trace its history back 100 years, but Native Americans were living in these hills long before any Europeans came. Various tribes of prehistoric Indians came into the area periodically to hunt game and gather wild foods. The Hohokam settled permanently in small villages along Cave Creek to grow crops. These villages used the waters of Cave Creek and nearby springs to irrigate their fields.

These original inhabitants occupied the land from about 800 A.D. until 1400 A.D. and then disappeared. They left behind the crumbling remains of their irrigation ditches and the foundations of their small houses. Following the departure of the Hohokam, the Tonto Apaches claimed the land. The Tontos did not build villages, but roamed central Arizona in small groups from their homeland in the Tonto Basin east of the Verde River. Their dominance over the land was ended by events elsewhere.

The discovery of gold in California in 1848 brought thousands of miners to the West. In 1863 central Arizona had its turn at gold rush days. As prospectors explored farther eastward, the Tontos resisted their efforts of expansion and also raided their mining camps. To combat these raiders, the US Army established Fort McDowell, on the west bank of the Verde River in 1865.

The actual Town of Cave Creek can trace its beginnings to an Army decision in 1870. Major General George Stoneman military commander of the Arizona Territory at Fort McDowell proposed to build a wagon road from McDowell to Fort Whipple at Prescott. The road followed an old Indian trail which went right through the present Cave Creek area. Stoneman’s men built that first wagon road across the land, which connected Fort McDowell with Fort Whipple. An Army remount station was built on the east bank of Cave Creek near a spring and a large natural cave located about 2 miles north of today’s Cave Creek center.

In 1873, a wagon road was built from the small village of Phoenix about 20 miles north to join Stoneman’s military road near Cave Creek and the flowing springs on the east bank of Cave Creek. When the Apaches became less menacing, prospectors traveled the new roads into unexplored land.

In 1870, Jeriah Wood, a young man from Missouri established the first ranch near the Army’s remount station along the east bank of Cave Creek. Wood brought in some horses and cattle and constructed a stage station for troops and passengers making the trip from McDowell to Fort Whipple. Later the station served the wagon road built from Phoenix. Wood was married to Amanda Roberts the daughter of George Roberts of Phoenix. Amanda’s grandparents were Jeremiah and Kisandra Cavaness the parents of Matt Cavaness, a well known pioneer and freighter in Wickenberg, Phoenix and McDowell. The elder Cavaness’s moved next to the Wood’s and built their own house along the creek. Cavaness and Wood established a general store and blacksmith business which was the first beginnings of the town of Cave Creek. Later, Wood and Cavaness served meals and sold goods to soldiers, miners and travelers.

A small post office, first called Overton was maintained at the Wood’s ranch. In the 1890’s when mining went into one of its periodic slumps, the Overton Post Office closed and Jeriah Wood moved to Phoenix. Jeremiah Cavaness and his wife stayed in Cave Creek and both died there and were buried in the old Cave Creek cemetery.

In 1874 William Rowe located a rich gold mine on Gold Hill, northwest of Cave Creek. His discovery touched off a gold rush to the area. Tales of great riches to be had soon circulated through mining camps and saloons. As the miners came and went, the land began to attract more permanent settlers.

Another Missouri cattleman, Andrew Jackson Hoskin, took over the Wood’s Cave Creek Station. Hoskin moved his family to Cave Creek to live and soon other families moved in. A lively community grew up around the old Wood’s Ranch. By 1886 there was a need for a one-room schoolhouse, and this was built on the banks of Cave Creek.

Mining activity declined around 1894, although it never stopped completely. Around 1900, James D. Houck, a sheep man from eastern Arizona, bought the Wood’s-Hoskin’s Cave Creek Station and turned it into a sheep shearing camp.
Open rangeland surrounded the station in every direction. This, along with the post office, school, and house suited Houck perfectly. He added a rock building to house a store and a saloon. He also began regular stage services to New River, Phoenix and Wickenberg. Houck's shearing camp was a huge success for about ten years, then a series of misfortunes beset him. Stricter grazing laws, drought, and personal problems took their toll and Houck died by his own hand in 1921.

In 1924 Cave Creek Road from Phoenix was rerouted eastward, bypassing Houck Ranch, and the old Cave Creek Station slid into oblivion. Only a few traces of the old Stoneman road and Jeriah Wood’s station remain today. The same conditions that led to the demise of Houck’s sheep business also affected the cattlemen along the creek. Not all of them gave up, some stayed for generations. Remnants of mining and cattle raising are still present today and a few prospectors even pick away at old claims in these hills. The Cave Creek School reopened in 1930.

Around this time period, some former cattle ranches became dude ranches. From 1935 to 1939, the building of Bartlett Dam on the Verde River brought increased activity to the village of Cave Creek. From 1940 to 1943, Horseshoe Dam, also on the Verde River, was cause for another boom for the village. In 1946, electricity and telephones came to Cave Creek, and in 1952, Cave Creek Road was finally paved all of the way from Phoenix. In 1986, The Town of Cave Creek was incorporated.

Before I bought my ranch at New River I lived just north of Cave Creek on Flemming Spring road for a few years. It was before Cave Creek was incorporated and the area experienced its real estate boom. My mail address was Star Route 1 and my mail was sometimes delivered on horseback. Flemming Spring was about a mile north of the present day center of Cave Creek and my brick ranchstyle house was the only place between Spur Cross ranch road and Schoolhouse road. There were few houses anywhere north of Cave Creek in those days. It was a great time to live at Cave Creek before it became “discovered” by mass tourism and rich folks wanting to build mansions in the desert.

In those days Cave Creek and neighboring Carefree were the homes and retreats for a lot of Television and Movie stars from Los Angeles. Dick Van Dyke and Fred Graham built the Southwestern Studios at Tom Darlington Road and Asher Hills just south of Carefree Hi-way. The Dick Van Dyke Show, Mary Tyler Moore show, Glenn Campbell Good Time Hour, B Western movie's and many other popular shows were filmed there as well as feature movies. The studio sat on 27 acres of desert land and had an old west town as well as three large sound stages.

Eddie Basha opened the first grocery store in Carefree-Cave Creek and it was not unusual to be shopping there and see Van Dyke and members of his cast picking up bread or milk or eggs. Hugh Downs lived on Black Mountain in Carefree as did many TV and Movie personalities. Glenn Campbell, Tanya Tucker, Ed Ames, Henry Mancini, Jeanie C. Riley, Edward Robinson, Morrie Amsterdam, Carl and Rob Reiner and many others had part time and winter homes in Cave Creek.
Dick Van Dyke owned the Flying Horse Ranch just west of Spur Cross road at about where 54th street is today. His ranch was just a little northwest of my place and he would drive his jeep down Flemming Spring road every day when going and coming from the studio.

Harold Gavigan had a saloon, called “Gavigan’s” in Cave Creek in those days and it was the popular place to go on Friday and Saturday nights. Many nights Dick Van Dyke, his brother Jerry, Glenn Campbell and others would be there. Van Dyke sometimes sat in with the band and played the drums and sang. There were some wild times at Harold Gavigan’s place and one night after a bout of heavy drinking Dick Van Dyke checked himself into the St. Luke’s Hospital rehabilitation center in Phoenix to end his addiction with alcohol. His wife Margie checked herself in a few weeks later for addiction to tranquilizers. Both were able to overcome their addictions. While at the center Van Dyke refused to be treated solo and went through the program with everyone else at St Luke’s rehab.

Gavigan’s is today the very popular Harold’s Cave Creek Corral in Cave Creek. Harold Gavigan is long gone as is the Southwestern Studios and the Movie and TV stars. Torn down in 1999 the studio site is today an upscale center with a Safeway, Target, Starbucks and high end, high dollar shops. Today Cave Creek has been overgrown and overran. It is nothing like the sleepy small town it was when I lived there. Incorporation came to Carefree in 1985 and a year later in 1986 Cave Creek incorporated and old Cave Creek became a pleasant memory. I was gone by that time and glad I wasn’t there to see it change.

Dick van Dyke no longer owns his Ranch but he still visits Cave Creek a couple times a year. His daughter still lives there and he can be found when in town at his favorite eating establishment, the Horny Toad restaurant on Cave Creek Road.

Cave Creek near the old Wood's ranch..jpg

Cave Creek about where the old Stoneman Military road crossed the Creek. Jeriah Wood's stage stop was just up the creek a short ways.
 

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Matthew Roberts

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Ruins of Stoneman's remount station 1870.jpg

All that is left of the ruins of Stoneman's remount station.

In September of 1870 General Stoneman directed that a road be constructed between Fort Whipple and Camp McDowell, following generally the route scouted by David Clendenin in 1869. Stoneman wanted the road completed by October 1st, 1870 “…in such an advanced condition, as to render it possible for light loaded wagons to pass over.”

On October 1, 1870, General Stoneman found himself at Camp McDowell, nearing the end of an inspection tour of army posts in the territory. Stoneman decided to verify the condition of the new Military road. He ordered most of his command to return to Fort Whipple by the long route through Wickenburg, while he, with a small escort of cavalry and two light wagons (ambulances), proceeded to return to Fort Whipple via the newly constructed road.

His small party left Camp McDowell at 4:00pm on October 1, and camped that evening near today’s intersection of 136th Street and Dynamite Blvd in north Scottsdale. On October 2, the party proceeded to Cave Creek and camped near a large cave and springs there. Stoneman would order a remount station for the Military be built at the spring. Later a Phoenix man would build a stage station and ranch nearby to supply the troops.

Stoneman’s journey along the road was chronicled by John Marion, a newspaper editor who was a member of the group. Stoneman’s career in Arizona ended abruptly with the Fort Grant massacre in 1871, an incident of citizen vigilantism that resulted in the murders of several score Apache women and children whom the Army failed to protect.
 

azdave35

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All that is left of the ruins of Stoneman's remount station.

In September of 1870 General Stoneman directed that a road be constructed between Fort Whipple and Camp McDowell, following generally the route scouted by David Clendenin in 1869. Stoneman wanted the road completed by October 1st, 1870 “…in such an advanced condition, as to render it possible for light loaded wagons to pass over.”

On October 1, 1870, General Stoneman found himself at Camp McDowell, nearing the end of an inspection tour of army posts in the territory. Stoneman decided to verify the condition of the new Military road. He ordered most of his command to return to Fort Whipple by the long route through Wickenburg, while he, with a small escort of cavalry and two light wagons (ambulances), proceeded to return to Fort Whipple via the newly constructed road.

His small party left Camp McDowell at 4:00pm on October 1, and camped that evening near today’s intersection of 136th Street and Dynamite Blvd in north Scottsdale. On October 2, the party proceeded to Cave Creek and camped near a large cave and springs there. Stoneman would order a remount station for the Military be built at the spring. Later a Phoenix man would build a stage station and ranch nearby to supply the troops.

Stoneman’s journey along the road was chronicled by John Marion, a newspaper editor who was a member of the group. Stoneman’s career in Arizona ended abruptly with the Fort Grant massacre in 1871, an incident of citizen vigilantism that resulted in the murders of several score Apache women and children whom the Army failed to protect.

matthew....do you have any info on the sears kay ranch on 7 springs road n.e. of cave creek?
 

Matthew Roberts

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azdave35,

I don't have my notes on the Sears and Kay ranches here with me in LA, they are at Greg Davis house in Tempe but I do remember William Perry Sears (he went by the name Perry Sears) and Harold Kay had adjoining ranches northeast of today's Carefree Arizona. They were large ranches and Jim Bark got the start for his cattle raising, slaughter house and cold shipping of beef from Sears and Kay. Bark married Perry Sears sister Lena.

Some people believe the Lost Dutchman Goldmine of Jacob Waltz is somewhere on those ranches. There is a historical reason for that belief but it would take too long to go into it without my notes to refer to. Weavers Needle in the Superstition Mountains can be seen prominently from a certain place on the Sears ranch and it matches a drawing Jacob Waltz is supposed to have drawn. I have been to that particular place and it is exactly as the drawing shows it to be.

Matthew
 

azdave35

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azdave35,

I don't have my notes on the Sears and Kay ranches here with me in LA, they are at Greg Davis house in Tempe but I do remember William Perry Sears (he went by the name Perry Sears) and Harold Kay had adjoining ranches northeast of today's Carefree Arizona. They were large ranches and Jim Bark got the start for his cattle raising, slaughter house and cold shipping of beef from Sears and Kay. Bark married Perry Sears sister Lena.

Some people believe the Lost Dutchman Goldmine of Jacob Waltz is somewhere on those ranches. There is a historical reason for that belief but it would take too long to go into it without my notes to refer to. Weavers Needle in the Superstition Mountains can be seen prominently from a certain place on the Sears ranch and it matches a drawing Jacob Waltz is supposed to have drawn. I have been to that particular place and it is exactly as the drawing shows it to be.

Matthew

matthew..i have been to the place also,,,the guy that showed it to me had a pretty good argument for why he thought the ldm was there..alot of the clues fit
 

Matthew Roberts

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azdave35,

There is a story told in the Spangler family, and I believe it to be true, that Jim Bark met Perry Sears while hunting the Lost Dutchman Goldmine on Sears ranch. That Bark and Sears never knew each other prior to that meeting. Jim Bark eventually married Lena Sears, sister of Perry Sears.

Sims Ely, Harry Kay, and John Spangler Sr. ( the father of John Spangler who gave us the Bark Notes ) all knew each other very well and socialized with each other in Phoenix. All those men at one time or another hunted Waltz's mine on Sears ranch.
There must be something to those arguments.

I bet I know the guy who showed you the area. Very intriguing. There are indeed a lot of clues that fit including quite an interesting mine that was kept secret for a long time. Very few people have been to that old mine. That was a long time ago Dave, mid 80's if I remember. I don't want to go into too much detail. These days it could start a mini gold rush and the area has a lot of sensitive Indian ruins that today are protected.

Matthew
 

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releventchair

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Ever stay up too late daydreaming while reading some one else's accounts?

Jack San Felice , in referring to John Bourke's maps of the army's use ;and what Felice referred to as the H.T./horse trail was interesting.

Of course that led me to tangling with mine locations on the higher ground.
Was it a vein that had twists and turns requiring leapfrogging tunnels to avoid going out the side towards the trail? Or too deep in places...Or just multiple groups from the same party working the first successful one? Or random events through time?

IF Waltz got in some ones shaft ,pre or post their not being there , or worse after encountering them there ,and other mines were being worked adjacent it would make more sense of his not working such a spot much. Hard to keep an eye out for returning miners when your in the ground...
Get a good load of ore and scram ,caching portions along his return home if the load was abundant. And not be going back to get caught if the mine(s) were another entities claim/fresh workings ,or simply not to get spotted if the mine(s) were abandoned.

Interesting area when Felice tries to orient the trail as the military trail ,and when he tries the perspective viewing the trail from high ground.....
Or maybe just too much coffee late at night.

Not to dwell on Felice alone on the area ,his companions deserve credit for participating too.

A twist to the trick of the trail maybe?

https://apachejunctionindependent.com/history/military-trail-of-jacob-waltz/

https://apachejunctionindependent.com/history/military-trail-of-jacob-waltz/
 

releventchair

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Did you get Capt Jacks new book?

No. Who is Capt Jack? Felice? Do you recommend it?
I'd tell ya how I ended up with finding his trail theory ,but it is not brite , or the thread topic. Was looking for military trail though.

The only author that comes to mind in any books vaguely related I've handled is Karl von Mueller. Bought a used book of his quite a while back.
Others were book store thrift shop finds over the years. Detecting /non related to Ol Dutch; pokin around stuff.
Gave the Lost Dutchman book from a library sale to the relative that moved to Az..Ended up with subscriptions to AZ..Mag in return.

Opinions of others make good winter reading sometimes.
Only interested in reading cook books a little while before wanting real / tangible food though. Same with detecting.
Old books seem more interesting . Stuffed hog maw. Possum. Ect..But they don't actually cook anything themselves. Or make good shovels.

If George Herter had written a Dutchman book it would have been a hoot to read...
 

releventchair

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Alright.
My purpose of the link was to show what I had read ,not to promote his book. A quick look only found one review ,well two..
Mention of celestial navigation on another thread had me looking for any trail in the sky for one example. Multiples exist ...
Aquarius's water leaving urn was referred to as a trail of soldiers /warriors by the Chinese. Was Waltz familiar with Chinese mythology? It was likely he had been around Chinese folks anyway. No. I didn't seek any confirmation.

Can they(the water being poured) be seen from a mine? Maybe at the right time, depending where a given mine is.
Seeing all of them below would also require the right time.

Far fetched but that's what led to Felice. Somehow when revisiting the search for military trails after wandering about nearly aimlessly..

Worse ,somehow that led to more diversions and rechecking where Dutch was found. And Iron mountain as a sort of nearby . Then snow(?) mt. (And while multiple snow mts. share names ,the county their in helps) .
No recall now of why the question was ,can the mountains be seen from each other at 200 miles?
Caffeine probably.

No ,I probably won't be writing a book about "it" soon...:laughing7:
 

markmar

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Ever stay up too late daydreaming while reading some one else's accounts?

Jack San Felice , in referring to John Bourke's maps of the army's use ;and what Felice referred to as the H.T./horse trail was interesting.

Of course that led me to tangling with mine locations on the higher ground.
Was it a vein that had twists and turns requiring leapfrogging tunnels to avoid going out the side towards the trail? Or too deep in places...Or just multiple groups from the same party working the first successful one? Or random events through time?

IF Waltz got in some ones shaft ,pre or post their not being there , or worse after encountering them there ,and other mines were being worked adjacent it would make more sense of his not working such a spot much. Hard to keep an eye out for returning miners when your in the ground...
Get a good load of ore and scram ,caching portions along his return home if the load was abundant. And not be going back to get caught if the mine(s) were another entities claim/fresh workings ,or simply not to get spotted if the mine(s) were abandoned.

Interesting area when Felice tries to orient the trail as the military trail ,and when he tries the perspective viewing the trail from high ground.....
Or maybe just too much coffee late at night.

Not to dwell on Felice alone on the area ,his companions deserve credit for participating too.

A twist to the trick of the trail maybe?

https://apachejunctionindependent.com/history/military-trail-of-jacob-waltz/

https://apachejunctionindependent.com/history/military-trail-of-jacob-waltz/

Hi RC

From the link you posted , I copied a segment from Bicknell account on the Dutcman's clues :

In a gulch in the Superstition mountains, the location of which is described by certain landmarks, there is a two-room house in the mouth of a cave on the left side of the slope near the gulch. Just across gulch, about two hundred yards, is a tunnel, covered up and concealed in the bushes. Here is the mine, the richest in the world, according to Dutch Jacob. Some distance above the tunnel on the side of the mountain is a shaft or incline that is not so steep but can climb down. The shaft goes right down in the midst of a rich gold ledge, where it can be picked off in big flakes of almost pure gold.— PC Bicknell

This segment describes clearly the Perfil mapa without the head landmark , many years before the Perfil mapa to come into the scene .
Here is a trick , not of the trail , but where Waltz was situated when he " saw " and gave this clue . I can give you the answer and is on you if you will believe it or not . Waltz had given the clue as he " was " at the tunnel mine , and looking downslope at the Military trail .
 

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releventchair

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Hi RC

From the link you posted , I copied a segment from Bicknell account on the Dutcman's clues :

In a gulch in the Superstition mountains, the location of which is described by certain landmarks, there is a two-room house in the mouth of a cave on the left side of the slope near the gulch. Just across gulch, about two hundred yards, is a tunnel, covered up and concealed in the bushes. Here is the mine, the richest in the world, according to Dutch Jacob. Some distance above the tunnel on the side of the mountain is a shaft or incline that is not so steep but can climb down. The shaft goes right down in the midst of a rich gold ledge, where it can be picked off in big flakes of almost pure gold.— PC Bicknell

This segment describes clearly the Perfil mapa without the head landmark , many years before the Perfil mapa to come into the scene .
Here is a trick , not of the trail , but where Waltz was situated when he " saw " and gave this clue . I can give you the answer and is on you if you will believe it or not . Waltz had given the clue as he " was " at the tunnel mine , and looking downslope at the Military trail .

Hi Markmar.

Felice Seemed to leave Bicknell's site description of house and gulch rest while searching elsewhere. Though he did visit the gulch/house.

His (Felice's ) trying to have a different trail be the trail ,put him on ground that seemed very different than the Bickell account of gulch or mine site.

I'm not arguing in support of either one. Just found it interesting that he tried a different trail. That if a rich mine had existed above ,would have been a "trick" when others were focused on a different trail!

I would believe your answer. But keep it safe with you.
As mentioned , I was chasing a different question when "stumbling" upon Felice's interesting writing about his searching.

Stay well Markmar!
 

Steve Jenkins

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I live in Cave Creek and have been to the Sears Kay ruins many times.

One thing to factor in is that while Weavers Needle is visable from this area Pinicle Peak is much closer and clearly visable all around the area between Sears Kay and Cave Creek and I am told back in the time of Jacob Waltz, Pinacle Peak was known as the Needle. The current name I suspect is a product of real estate marketing.

I think many good arguments can be made for the area in question to be a viable location and if one faces the the road from the top of the hill at the ruins, the mountains and hillls in plane view are laced with quartz veins. The entire area is part of a well known mining district.

If one turns 180 degrees from the direction facing the road you will see the remains of an old volcanic mountain. The geology is very different in one direction vs the ofher. The line between the two lies directly under the hill you are standing on at Sears Kay. One side is Quartz and the other is heavily concentrate in iron. I am told gold can follow iron and in this case it has.

There is one major problem with this idea that the LDM is located here in my view. The party that had all the original info direct from the horse’s mouth went east and not north in their original search. One would think they could have done better.
 

JohnWhite

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Heck...Even I can say...I can see the camino real from my hole in the wall...But you can not see my hole in the wall from the camino real...lol

Ed T :)
 

Lucky Baldwin

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Hi RC

From the link you posted , I copied a segment from Bicknell account on the Dutcman's clues :

In a gulch in the Superstition mountains, the location of which is described by certain landmarks, there is a two-room house in the mouth of a cave on the left side of the slope near the gulch. Just across gulch, about two hundred yards, is a tunnel, covered up and concealed in the bushes. Here is the mine, the richest in the world, according to Dutch Jacob. Some distance above the tunnel on the side of the mountain is a shaft or incline that is not so steep but can climb down. The shaft goes right down in the midst of a rich gold ledge, where it can be picked off in big flakes of almost pure gold.— PC Bicknell

This segment describes clearly the Perfil mapa without the head landmark , many years before the Perfil mapa to come into the scene .
Here is a trick , not of the trail , but where Waltz was situated when he " saw " and gave this clue . I can give you the answer and is on you if you will believe it or not . Waltz had given the clue as he " was " at the tunnel mine , and looking downslope at the Military trail .

Hey markmar here's the original article.

DutchJacob1.png
DutchJacob2.png
DutchJacob3.png
DutchJacob4.png
DutchJacob5.png
DutchJacob6.png
 

markmar

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LB

All are almost correct in the Waltz's clue . The only wrong written ( I don't know the reason ) detail is about the "200 yards " . There are about 200 feet ( 150 for instance ) like correct Adolph Ruth mentioned in his paper note . How Ruth came to that conclusion maybe we will never learn .
You have to think about Military trail as a trail name and not as a military troops route from that era . Remember the Waltz's clues given to Holmes and you will understand of what Military Trail we are talking about .
 

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