| The Lost Dutchman Mine was named after it's discoverer Jacob Walz who earned the nickname "Old Snow" because of his beard's white color. In truth he was a German and in the 1870s he made a trip that took him across Superstition Mountains which to this day is supposed to be home to different paranormal phenomena, including malicious ghosts and Indian curses. Anyway, Walz was well on his way, when he was nicked by an arrow that forced him to duck and run for his life. When night came he crawled like a hound dog across the desert floor and by noon the next day he was suffereng from exposure. While making his way through the sand he came across three Mexicans who had been camping. They gave him food and water, and after he had recovered Walz asked them why were they camped out in the middle of the desert of all places. The Mexicans replied that the had recently aquired a mine, and showed Snow Beard their digs which had yielded tons of raw nuggets of gold. Edging back Walz decided to play the oldest trick in the book, pointing in the distance he asked if they saw some men, and when the Mecixans looked to see what he was pointing at he shot them, and buried them in the cliffs. After he had shot the gift horses in the mouth, Walz gathered up all the nuggets he could, and high tailed it back to Phoenix where he bragged about his find. He was then tailed by some men and shots were heard that very same night. A few days later some cowboys found the remains of two well know buisnessmen not far from where Walz had been camping. Another man named Phipps made his way to the mine, but a freak cave in took his life. The next victim was another man named Deering who set out with a drinking buddy who for some reason stabbed him in the heart when they reached the mine. Old miners say that Deering was the seventh man to be killed over the gold of Superstition Mountain. Walz then invited his nephew from Germany to come with him, and they packed out gold on two mules. In Phoenix his nephew was living high on the hog, until Walz shot him in the head. A few years later Welz came down with pneumonia, and while dying confessed to the murders but tried to tell his friend Dick Holmes where the mine was. Before he drew his last breadth he said that the key was a stripped Paloverde tree with one limb left on pointing away from Weaver's Needle, about halway from it and Weaver's Needle 200 yards to the east is the richest mine in the world. Unfortunately Holmes nor his descendants have ever found the Dutchman's mine. Maybe that is for the best. |