Gollum wrote
That is interesting Mike, however I did not state that Barry Storm was the
“originator” of the Ludy story. In fact I had not seen Garry’s article before now. I do my own research, you should know that by now, and had found that
the Ludy/Peralta story was in circulation in AZ years before Waltz passed away.
On that “other channel” (LDM forum) if you check, it was me that brought it up about the 2 Soldiers story not being in the Superstitions and should not be linked with the LDM. Again this was from my own research, not through anyone else’s, whatever you may believe. What surprises me is that Barry Storm was able to find some of these and did not recognize that they should not be linked with Waltz. A fair case can be made that several different, unrelated lost mine stories have gotten mixed in with the LDM over the years, like the Dr Thorn story which began life as a lost placer.
It is high time that we should start getting it sorted out properly.
I do not rely on the research of others and frequently check things that is found by others, like with this topic not the Olbers manifest only but also that naturalization certificate which named Wurtembourg as Waltz’s home origins, yet I found that on the census, he told the census taker that his homeland was
Prussia. Small errors like that have led to the confused mess we have today, with so many thousands of people hunting for the LDM based on a strange mix of clues from a half dozen different, unrelated mines! No one will ever find it that way because the mix of information is deeply flawed.
Anyway yes I had found the roster where the two Ludy men enlisted in the US Army, believe it was in Missouri, very probably the same enlistment roster found by Joe, and the Ludys later went to Arizona where their adventures became confused with Jacob Waltz and his partner. This is not the only documentation on them that I have.
Part of the reason may be due to the common “Dutchman” tag but also they were working in the same general region. Heck those two “Germans” that came into Florence in 1878 announcing their find of a rich
silver vein, had come into the very same town that Waltz went to in order to get supplies and a portable drywasher. I am pretty sure they are the Ludys because a drywasher would not have helped much in locating a silver vein, but for Waltz hunting gold, it would have been useful indeed.
Please don’t ASSUME that when I state something, that I MUST have gotten it from some other Dutch hunter.
Hal - don’t you know, that anyone that lives in AZ must be an expert?
Books => bad, 
which is why we have our own library of refs. Hmm for some reason I can't post a pic of it at the moment, will try again in a bit. EDIT got it.
View attachment 1249486
That worked, although I have no idea why it flopped my pic sideways.
Wishing everyone a very
Merry Christmas,
Roy ~ Oroblanco

