Joe---
Thanks for your opinions. I had about the same opinion a while back, and that's why I switched to studying the maps that are online from the Apache Junction Public Library. I felt that even though all the publicly available maps could be hoaxes, since it seemed that they were drawn at different times by mostly different people, there might be something there that they had in common. The thing is, they are mostly not of the LDM, but supposedly show "old Spanish or Mexican mines," which some presume the LDM to be one of.
Since all of the clues are, at best, second hand and thus subject to alteration (either intentional or unintentional), and at worst entirely fabricated, someone would need clues to which clues might be more accurate. And that is a very iffy proposition.
I thought that the "pit and tunnel" clues, which seem to have some validity due to their many sources, would be a good confirmation of the true LDM, until I read
De re Metallica, with several pictures and descriptions of their common mine configurations. It appears that there could be many such combinations in any area where "knowledgeable" mining professionals, in those olden days, worked. So that part doesn't excite me much anymore.
Until someone publishes whatever real evidence they might have, and are holding private, I don't think anything convincing will show up in an online forum, as to the whereabouts or confirming evidence of, the Lost Dutchman Mine.
But until then, the opinions of those most experienced in the history and actual exploration of the area, are very interesting, and will have to do....
Thanks again,
EE