New Evidence Surfaces About the Location of
The Lost Dutchman Mine

For more than 120 years, the legend of the Lost Dutchman Mine has haunted the minds and souls of treasure seekers throughout the world. It is said to be the most famous lost mine of all time, and to this day it continues to draw prospectors to the Superstition Mountains of Arizona in search of its rich gold.

DesertUSA Magazine has recently obtained new evidence about the location of the Lost Dutchman Mine. Since this new information has surfaced, we thought it would be timely to publish existing research and documents relating the famous legend, including the new evidence. This article will be the first of two in which we will revisit the Legend of the Lost Dutchman Mine and present the new data, which was sent to us, by a man calling himself Pegleg, in May, 1998.

As a writer for DesertUSA, I have come across numerous mentions of and stories associated with the Lost Dutchman Mine. On a recent visit to the Phoenix area, I toured historic route 88, the Apache Trail. Along the route is the ghost town of Goldfield and Lost Dutchman State Park, located at the foot of the imposing Superstition Mountains.

The day of my visit, the Superstitions were shrouded in misty clouds, which were a warning sign of an impeding storm. Moments later, I was drenched with heavy rain, and the range disappeared in the storm. This moody weather evoked a sense of mystery and danger, which triggered my memory of the Apache curse associated with the Superstitions Mountains.

In many of the stories I had read about the Lost Dutchman Legend an Apache curse, which protects the sacred burial ground of Apache Indians, has been mentioned. The curse also protects the treasure of the Superstitions, whose secret location the Apache are said to know, which may include the Lost Dutchman Mine.

The curse is traced back the early 1500s, when Jesuit priests from Spain began to build missions in the area now known as Arizona and New Mexico. It was during this period that the Jesuits established relations with Native Americans, who helped them mine gold, some of which was sent back to the King of Spain.

In the late 1700s, after a falling out, the King ordered the Jesuits out of Mexico. Some believe they hid away their records of mines, treasures and ore deposits before leaving the country. Others believe that they Jesuits convinced Native Americans that bad things would happen if they ever revealed the location of these riches to outsiders. For centuries, Native Americans have kept the treasures a secret and to this day many are reluctant to provide any related information.

There is, however, another side to this story. Before the Lost Dutchman Mine was discovered by Jacob Waltz (the Dutchman) in the early 1870s, there was a legend of another rich mine which was discovered in the same area and mined by the Peralta family from Sonora, Mexico. It is believed by many that the Lost Dutchman Mine is only one of the rich mines discovered by the Peraltas.

Historians say there is no hard evidence establishing that the Peralta family actually mined in the area, but they have become a significant part of the legend. According to this legend, the Peralta family made a number of gold mining expeditions to the Superstitions.. Their last is said to have occurred between 1847 and 1852. Before this expedition could return to Sonora with gold, it was attacked by a band of Apache Indians.

Different versions of the story portray a variety of outcomes. One version says the Peralta expedition consisted of two groups, the Gonzales group and the Peralta group. It was the Gonzales group that was massacred by the Apaches while the Peralta s made a safe return to Sonora loaded with gold. Another version of the massacre left only one survivor of the Peralta expedition, who escaped to Sonora to tell the story of what happened. Which, if either version is correct, is left to the reader's imagination.

There is evidence of a skirmish between the Spanish and the Apaches at the area of the said massacre. Since the turn of the century, remnants of mining equipment, high-grade gold ore, old guns, weapons, gear and a pack train have been discovered at the site of the massacre.

The legend includes details on how the Peraltas buried the rich mines with rocks to hide their discovery. Some also believe that after the Spanish miners left the area, the Apache removed up all evidence of mining by filling holes, mines, tunnels, etc. with dirt and rocks.

Peirpont C. Bicknell, a free-lance writer and seeker of lost mines, was the first person to link the Peraltas and Weaver's Needle (a pinnacle landmark) with Jacob Waltz and the Lost Dutchman Mine in written documentation dating January, 1895.

Barry Storm's later investigations made the same connections with the addition of the Spanish Jesuits. His work had a more significant impact on prospectors and treasure seekers than any other writer.

But in 1952, the infamous "Peralta" stone tablet maps were discovered in the foothills of the Superstition Mountains by a man on vacation with his family. These stone maps have been authenticated by more than one authority as being more than 100 years old. In the following pages you will see photographs of these stone tablet maps with some interpretation of what the symbols and signs on the maps mean.

The stone maps were found by Travis Tumlinson, a police officer from Hood River, Oregon. The year being about 1954. Travis Tumlison and family were returning from a vacation in Texas. They stopped beside the highway between Florence Junction and Apache Junction, Arizona. Travis had strolled only a few feet from the car when he noticed the protruding corner of what we now call the "witch map". At first the stone appeared to be the corner of a brick. Upon close scrutiny and after digging out the stone he observed the Spanish writing there-on.

The Tumlinson's spent the winter in Hood River in much anxiety awaiting the next vacation. The vacation came and they spent this one in Arizona. After some trial and error the Tumlinsons found the no.2, no.3 and no.4 stone maps. After several years of fruitless search and after Travis Tumlinson passed away. His widow Aileen Tumlinson sold the stone maps for $1,200 to Moel, Inc. The stones at present are still retained by Moel, Inc. The four stone maps were taken by members of Moel, Inc. to a Prof. Dana of the University of Redlands, Redlands CA. Prof. Dana gave them a letter of authentication stating that the carving on the stones was definitely over 100 years old.

It is believed that the letter of authentication coupled with many logical explanations of the maps which are contained in this article, will prove beyond doubt that some of the stories of old are fact, not fiction. We can definitely believe a good portion of the stories concerning Apache Gold, The Lost Dutchman and the adventures of the Peralta family in these great hills of Arizona.

It is not the intentions of the writer to imply that the following study and explanation of the maps is entirely correct. It is doubtful that we shall ever come to a full understanding of all that they originally intended to convey. This will be virtually impossible due to the fact that treasure hunters in past years have destroyed most of the trail markers. It is supposed that the idea was to prevent anyone else from following the trail and eventually finding the cache.

Certain codes, symbols and formulas have been broken and with certainly the area at the trails end is now known. With actual ground observation and follow through, it is hoped that the greatest mystery of modern day treasure hunting will be solved.

I wanted to give the meaning to these stones. What they lead to is the alms received in Santa Fe for a long period of time. When the Jesuits were removed they attempted to transport the people's donations back to Spain. They followed the salt river and were attacked by Indians. They left the treasure near the river. It was there for some time then other Spaniards or trusted families returned and moved these church donations to a secret hiding place. This place was near mining areas and water.

When the Apaches started to attack on regular basis the miners moved to higher ground. They moved these alms to a location on the way out. They carved these stones because they were unable to take it because of Indian attack. The time line is 1500's, FIRST EXPLORATION 1600's JESUITS FORCED OUT 1700's TREASURE MOVED FROM RIVER TO SECRET HIDING PLACE1800's TREASURE MOVED TO PLACE ON THE WAY OUT.

This treasure listed as 200,000 coin, 40 bars gold 2 lbs each, 1 cross 900 lbs gold. The treasure is probably still there seeing the heart was carved to take as a key. The carvers all got killed in the 1800's. Their resting place is the massacre grounds near apache junction. The Spaniards would normally leave towards the south after some time in years. But they left towards the west because it was quicker to the desert when under attack. The Indians knew this and set an ambush, obviously they were successful.

The Peralta Stones

A very interesting find, and, if in fact, they are genuine, could hold the answer to the location of all the Peralta mines in the Superstition Mountains and surrounding areas. While most people believe there is only one mine, there may be as many as eighteen different mine locations.

The "Peralta Stones" where originally discovered in 1949 (some people claim the discovery was in 1956) by a man who has only been fictiously identified as "Jack" while he was on a summer vaction in Arizona with his family. He had pulled off the highway (only identified as 60-70-80-89 to keep the exact location a secret) so he could get out of his car to get a better look at the Superstitions and hopefully, Weaver's Needle. Leaving his family in the car, he climbed a small hill nearby in an effort to use the higher elevation to get a better view. While on top of this hill he stumbled over a piece of rock slightly exposed in the sand below his feet. Thinking the rock was rather finely shaped, he inspected it closer and ultimately dug it out of the sand. What he had discovered was a rectangular piece of sandstone appearing rock, measuring approximately 17"x 22"x 3" and weighing about 25 pounds. This stone was the "Horse and Priest Map". In 1950 he returned to the same area and located two more stones, plus a smaller heart shaped stone which would fit exactly into the "Heart Map". The third stone located was the "Trail Map".

Without figuring out the clues on the maps, "Jack" died six years later. He had been good friends with Travis Marlowe, so in 1956 Jack's widow gave the stone maps to Marlowe. Marlowe then began many years of research on the stones, succeeding to some extent in locating trail markers and following clues, yet never discovering the actual mine(s). On June 12, 1964 the "Stone Maps" were publicly unveiled (to some extent at least, as certain clues were covered up) when an article was published in Life Magazine regarding the Peralta Stones.

Much has transpired over the years regarding these stones. At some point they were displayed in the Mesa Southwest Museum in Mesa, Arizona. However, litigation ultimately caused the stones to be entrusted to the non-profit A.L. Flagg Foundation, a mineral-oriented organization. In 1996 I was able to locate these stone maps at the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum in Phoenix, Arizona. They are not on display (or they were not then), and must be asked for if you wish to view them. At the time I viewed them, I was charged $50.00 to photograph them. The following graphics are actual photographs I shot of the stones themselves.

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Found, Then Lost

Arizona? Huachuca Mountains have many legends of buried Spanish treasure, but the greatest one of all may have been found and lost by a soldier named Robert Jones.

Jones, an illiterate black man from Dallas, was stationed at Fort Huachuca as an infantry private in 1941. Taking a Sunday stroll on the reservation one afternoon, he fell into a sloping brush-covered shaft some 32 feet deep. At the bottom he discovered a chamber containing at least 100 gold bars that weighed about 50 pounds each and another 100 bars of silver ·millions of dollars in bullion.

Private Jones went back to his company and reported his find to the first sergeant. A few days later Jones threw a $400 party for his friends and paid for it from the $800 he received from a jeweler in nearby Douglas, Ariz., for part of one gold bar he had obtained.

A few days later Jones was shipped to the Pacific, before he could revisit his bonanza, and was seriously wounded while overseas. For years, between long sieges in veterans·hospitals, Jones told about his hidden treasure.

Between the time he came home and late 1959, he visited Fort Huachuca in his quest for the treasure several times, only to be told he couldn? dig on the reservation. Finally, in 1959, his story reached Major General F.W. Moorman, commander at Fort Huachuca.

General Moorman realized that Jones just might be right. And if he was, the government, under the law, would get 60 percent of the treasure, plus taxes on Jones·40 percent.

The general called Jones in and told him to start digging. Jones and a companion went up Huachuca Canyon with picks and shovels. Along the way, Jones pointed to a wooden shed blazed with his initials. A little farther on, Jones picked a spot and said, "It? just about here and about 32 feet down." But after a day of fruitless digging, Jones went back to headquarters for help.

He was offered a drill on condition that if it didn? hit an underground cavity at 32 feet, he would go back to Dallas. The drill ground down through the earth? crust and at just the right depth, vanished into emptiness.

A full colonel, Elbridge Bacon, was assigned to the search with a crew of men and equipment. For two full weeks they dug and clawed through the rotten granite with pneumatic drills, scoop shovels and bulldozers. When underground streams flooded their excavation, they brought up pumps.

Finally, after 15 days and an estimated $1,000 invested in the hole, the Army officials decided they would blast, and if there was no gold, they would quit the search. They drilled a hole 35 feet deep and dumped 30 sticks of dynamite in it. The blast revealed no gold.

Jones thanked them and said goodbye, but he was not giving up his search. His confidence unshaken, he conceded he might have been a few feet off on the location and firmly declared he would go to the Pentagon or to the U.S. Treasury Department for more help. However, Jones was never able to get any U.S. official to listen, so the gold is apparently still there.

This site, since the U.S. Army believed Jones and tried to help him, certainly needs further investigation. The estimated value of this treasure is between $28 million and $100 million. Fort Huachuca and Douglas are located in Cochise County. There is no record of this cache being found.

2) Lost Spanish Treasure

The following site is unusual in that there are two valuable things to search for:

·The lost mines from which the gold and silver was obtained, and

·The vaults where hundreds of bars of gold and silver were hidden.

Somewhere north of what is the Arizona-Mexico border, in Pima County, the Lost Mission Treasure is believed to be buried. Some believe it is hidden in a black sugarloaf mountain south and east of Gunsight Well. Others have sought for it in the vicinity of Sonoyta, as the lost treasure belonged to the San Marcelo Mission there.

San Marcelo, founded by Father Kino in 1699, was destroyed when a bloody Indian revolt drove the Spanish Jesuit priests from their missions and their gold mines throughout this territory. The Indians grew tired of working the gold mines of the padres and decided to revolt.

On Nov. 21, 1751, the Indians turned on the padres and every Spaniard who did not flee was slain. Arrastras and smelting furnaces were destroyed, and gold mines were filled in and hidden. At Sonoyta, the San Marcelo Mission was plundered and burned to the ground. Its underground treasure vaults of gold and silver and the mines were sealed up and hidden under rocks and earth.

Parts of bronze mining machinery from Spain and bits of broken arrastras and smelters have since been found in the area, but the secret of the hidden gold mines and treasure vaults of the padres has not been learned.

3) Stagecoach Loot

Records in Mohave County could help on the following site.

In 1872 a stagecoach on its way from Prescott to Fort Mohave was robbed of $72,000 by two men near Canyon Station, located about 12 miles from Kingman, on the Stockton Hill Road in Mohave County.

The story is that one of the robbers was killed by a sheriff? posse. The second one was captured and sent to prison where he died years later. While in prison, the man told of the cache, which had been buried near the holdup site. Attempts to locate it were unsuccessful.

In 1915, a man named John Goodwill owned the property where the original station stood. One day he saw an old man searching around the foundations of the station. When he approached, the man told Goodwill that he had been in prison with a man in the 1890s who told him that he was one of the robbers and that the money had been buried near the station.

The man was given permission to search, but after several days he told Goodwill that the area had changed and he could not find any of the landmarks that the old robber had told him to locate.

It appears that the $72,000 is still hidden near the old Canyon stage stop.

4) Spanish Gold

It was in 1690 that a group of Spaniards camped between Sedona in Oak Creek Canyon in Coconino County and Perkinsville in Yavapai County. While they ate a meal one of the small boys wandered away. When he was missed, the men began a search. They found the boy and a rich outcrop of wire gold.

The entrance to the canyon was narrow, and all but covered with brush and trees. The party built cabins and settled down to mine the gold. How long they labored is unknown, but when they had enough gold they carried it back to Mexico City and reported the find to the church, as was the custom.

Others were sent to help at the mine, but this did not last long. The Indians were angry and drove them from the area, and many were killed. None of the Spaniards ever returned.

It is known that during the 1870s, a prospector stumbled upon the old Spanish camp and found it in a state of ruin. Everywhere was visible evidence of the early Spanish activity.

The prospector examined the mine tunnels and found they contained a fabulous amount of wire gold. He immediately set out for supplies and secretly made his way back to the mine, making sure no one had followed. Retimbering the old tunnels, he set to work extracting the gold and melting it into bars. He had mined only a short time when Indians attacked, driving him from the area.

It wasn? until 1905 that two or three people on separate trips stumbled onto the old Spanish camp. However, the story of the gold had not been known to them. Upon hearing about the mine, these people made several attempts to retrace the route, but could never find the place.

There is no doubt that the mines existed, are rich in gold and a knowledgeable prospector could find them.

5) Silver Cache

South of Tucson, near Arivaca in Pima County, a cache of over $70,000 in silver bullion is buried. In bar form, it was stolen from the Cerro Colorado Mine by the mines·Sonoran foreman, Juanito, during the Civil War.

John Poston, who was in charge of the Cerro Colorado workings for the Sonora Mining and Exploring Company, knew that silver was being stolen by company miners and being buried nearby. Therefore, when he finally caught Juanito making off with a load of stolen bullion, he decided to make an example of him and shot the Sonoran.

Shortly thereafter, a band of Sonoran outlaw friends of Juanito? attacked the Yanqui miners, killing John Poston and two German workers. But they were unable to locate Juanito? buried gold.

For a number of years after this, the war arrows of the Chiricahua Apaches discouraged further search for the treasure. It is believed to lie buried somewhere near the mine.

SOURCES:

An Album of Maps to Lost Treasure. Printed as an annual in 1961 by Charlton Publications, Darby, Conn.

Directory of Arizona Minerals. State Bulletin No. 3, Federated Writers Project for Arizona.

Newsweek magazine. Oct. 12, 1959.

Pen Pals. A publication devoted to treasure hunting, June 1964.