Roy,
You wrote in another thread:
In defense of Ely's <and Willey's> book, in comparison with some of the books available, how would you rank it?
First off, I doubt my ranking would be based on anything in which treasure hunters are interested, since my focus is the history and not any treasure, I first look for footnotes, primary documents, references, indexes and bibliographies. I also give a lot of weight to anything that is a contemporary account.
The worst book I have ever read is “The Story of Superstition Mountain and the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine” by Robert Joseph Allen (1971) The violent, tragic, “true” account of the gold-hungry men who challenged the treacherous peak sacred to the Apaches.
Why is it bad? One doesn’t know where to start but just one example has Dr. Thorne visiting Cochise in his tepee.
Although the book is terrible it falls into the category above, relating to the modern day evolution of the LDM story. It appears to be the seed for some later stories of another notorious modern day fabricator of history.
Garry
I think everyone needs to take a step back and look at Lost Dutchman Mine books (all Lost Dutchman Mine books) in their proper context.
You cannot ask the question, what is the worst or the best book without understanding and adding to the equasion the reality of all Lost Dutchman books.
Robert Joseph Allen's book, The Story of Superstition Mountain and the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine, was never written as a historical account of an actual historical event. Therefore, if you judge his book purely on historical evidence the book will of course fall short of your perceived expectations. And passages such as Dr. Thorne in Cochise's teepee will seem outrageous to you.
Allen's book was written in 1970-1971 and classified under Library of Congress Class 1.7G Subclass Western Folklore and Legend.
Folklore and Legend means things with a basis in reality but not a true, proven historical event. Other examples would be the Lockness Monster, Bigfoot or maybe Unicorns.
There are two types of literature Garry, Fiction and Non-Fiction. Non-Fiction means true and historical accounts and Fiction means a story or tale without true historical documentation.
There are some things about the LDM that can be documented in history such as Jacob Waltz was a real man with a birthdate and death date but the central basis of the story, the lost mine, is a western folklore, legend, unproven tale or story. But the same is true for Bigfoot sightings, Lochness sightings and Unicorn sightings. Just because there are some incidental facts concerning details of places, and people who reportedly saw or were involved with these various accounts and stories, does not make the Lost Dutchman Mine story a proven historical ( Non-Fiction) account or book. Robert Allen had every right to weave Thorne and Cochise into his story and it was entirely appropriate under it's context.
I think the basis of the misunderstanding is with modern day LDM authors who sell and market their books as if they were 100% true, factual, documented accounts while their sources were many times never intended as true, factual, documented accounts. The modern authors blended the two and erased the line leading readers to believe they were reading 100% pure history when in reality they were reading roughly 40% historical accounts and 60% folklore, legend, and stories passed down through the decades as different individuals knew them or had interpreted them.
Everything needs to be kept in the proper perspective and context Garry. If you vilify RJ Allen as a terrible LDM author and liar because you are swept up purely in documented history and do not understand the proper context his book was written in, the problem is with you, not Mr. Allen.
This is just my take on the question of worst or best LDM book.
Thanks for reading,
Michael Swartz
I hope you find the treasures that you seek.
Actually all of the fairly true bits of data on the Lost Dutchman mine can be put into a small pamphlet. So If you are to sell a new book you have to embellish it a bit.
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