The Flying Dutchman: Myth or Reality?

Anyone up for a treasure hunt? I hope you said “yes” as today’s story is about a lost gold mine somewhere in the mountains of Arizona. Be there gold in them thar hills or have quite a few people lost their lives for nothing and sometimes in pretty suspicious circumstances?

We’re talking about the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine which was suggested in the comments by youtube user “Btetschner”, so thanks for that, all suggestions gratefully received. This can be seen as a sister episode to our Oak Island one, where Simon mentioned that he’d eat the script if treasure was ever discovered there. I don’t think any new, remarkable breakthroughs have been found there but maybe leave off a similar statement here in case one day you end up adding more paper to your digestive tract.

The Legend of the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine

Back in 1891, Jacob Waltz, a German migrant to North America, was dying due to a bout of pneumonia. He was in his 80s at this point and, on his deathbed, he beckoned over his friend and nursemaid, Julia Thomas, and gave her directions to the huge amount of gold he had stashed away somewhere in the mountains of Arizona. Then he died.

Julia organized an expedition, pulled together a few willing participants and set off to find the hidden mine Waltz had told her about. Unfortunately, they were never able to locate it but Waltz’s past luck with finding gold and the story he told to Julia Thomas was enough for people to believe in the possibility of a hidden mine or stash of gold in the mountains, which were appropriately called The Superstition Mountains. Those are real, by the way, they’re really called that.

As time went by, more and more people tried their luck at finding the lost mine which became known as the “Lost Dutchman’s Mine” or sometimes just “the Lost Dutchman.” Waltz was actually German so either the “Dutch” part just evolved from the German word for German, which is “Deutsch”, or the locals at the time didn’t really care that much about where he was from and called him a Dutchman just because they wanted to. Anyway, many, many people over the years since Waltz’s death have explored the Superstitions looking for the mine or even a clue as to where the entrance might be.

Some have been helped, or perhaps hindered by some mysterious carved stones, known as the Peralta Stones, generally thought to be a map to the gold. There are also clues that have been shared between treasure hunters, seeming to zero in even further on the location of the hidden riches. But beware all ye who enter these mountains, because foul play’s afoot and maybe there’s something out there that never wants the mine to be found at all.

The History of the Lost Dutchman’s Mine

Jacob Waltz was a real person, as was Julia Thomas. In his on-again-off-again career as a gold prospector, Waltz did strike it rich a couple of times and was known for going around Phoenix, Arizona, paying with gold nuggets. At the time of his death, he owned a large piece of land which he farmed, although it was destroyed by a flood in 1891 which led to him falling ill.

By 1892, less than a year after Waltz’s death, an Arizona newspaper was reporting on Julia Thomas’s efforts to find the mine which gives the whole deathbed confession thing a pretty good shot in the arm. As previously mentioned, Thomas obviously didn’t find the mine or this episode wouldn’t exist. While I’m not sure if this was reported in the paper or not, she apparently knew how to make a quick buck and needed to recoup the money she’d put into her expedition so she started selling maps to the mine instead, although they were clearly not very accurate.

So, the story of the lost mine started very shortly after Waltz’s death and has maintained a hold on adventurers, treasure seekers and puzzle-solvers for the last hundred and thirty years. What has kept the whole thing going is not only the tantalizing prospect of being the person to finally find a butt-load of gold, it’s the puzzle-solving aspect of the clues that have been gathered and the mystery of the Peralta Stones. So let’s take a look at the elements that some treasure hunters believe hold the key to the lost mine.

The Peralta Stones

For a big chunk of the gold seekers, these stones are the key to finding the mine. They were discovered sometime in the early 1950s in the Arizona desert and consist of five stone blocks engraved on both sides and a smaller stone in a heart shape. They were called the Peralta Stones after the family that owned that area of land in Arizona in the 1800s and also two names of family members appear on the stones. One stone shows the figure of a priest or possibly a witch - it’s wearing a pointy hat and brandishing a cross.

Various symbols and letters are coming out of the cross and in slightly misspelled Spanish, there’s an inscription saying: “This path is dangerous. I go to 18 places (or locations). Seek the map. Seek the heart.”

The next stone is known as the “horse stone” because it’s got a big old engraving of a horse on it. The outline of the horse is connected to a wavy line, possibly indicating that the top line of the horse is actually a continuation of a map line. There are a few other lines, letters and numbers around the horse and a carving saying “el cobollo de Santa Fe.” This is probably a mistake as the Spanish word for horse is actually cAbAllo and in this context, it’s been suggested it refers to a missionary being a servant of the holy faith as that is what “Santa Fe” means when translated literally.

Anyway, this ties in with the priest-esque figure on the other stone. On the other side of the horse is a phrase “yo pasto el norte del rio” which means “I graze to the north of the river.” There is a river marked on the stone.

The next Peralta Stone is the Heart Stone, which has a recess carved into it in the shape of, guess what? A heart. In this recess are the numbers 1847 and a few other symbols. The rest of the stone has what appears to be a map, seemingly showing mountains and a few trails. On the left there’s a dagger with a little arrow in its hilt pointing at the heart and at a number 1 next to it. On the back of this stone is a large carved cross.

Going with this stone is a smaller heart-shaped stone that fits into the recess. On one side of this separate heart piece are a number of lines and stuff that seem to complete the map when it’s fitted into place. On the other side of the heart piece are six rectangles, but if you put it in that way round, it lines up with the number “1” on the main stone, making the number one million, oooooh! One million dollars!

The last stone is known as the “Trail stone” and has a load more symbol and line gubbins all over it. When lined up under the Heart Stone, it forms a larger map and there’s what looks like a mathematical formula or equation in the bottom corner. On the back are three letters - DON which could be part of a name, such as Don Peralta, but it could also mean “gift”.

The number “1847” on the Heart Stone does seem like a date. It’s not really clear how much time passed between Jacob Waltz finding the mine and his death so it could be pointing to the same mine. Maybe he just stumbled across it by accident one day. According to the Lost Mine lore, the Peralta family who owned the land and were pretty successful at extracting gold from it, were massacred by a native tribe of Apaches in 1848.

This has led to some people thinking that the “mine” is actually a hidden cache of gold, buried either by the Peraltas or the Apaches after they killed the Peraltas. This is as opposed to a mine where gold needs to be extracted from rocks.

These stones have really captured the imagination of the Lost Dutchman’s Mine seekers and you can just imagine the obsessive amount of detail some people have gone into over it. Is it a code to crack? Or is it just a load of old balls? Let’s check it out!

Decoding the Stones

The veracity of the Peralta Stones has always been in dispute. For one thing, there’s no definitive origin story. They have been said to have been discovered anywhere from 1949 to 1956 by some bloke who was wandering along a trail.

I don’t think they were buried or hidden away somewhere, he just seemed to have found them on the ground. And I also saw that he found two stones one day then went back and found 3 more at a later date. We don’t know who this person is either, apart from that he might have been called “Jack”, although a much more specific name of “Travis Tumlinson” has also been thrown in the mix.

This Tumlinson also apparently found another heart shaped stone just lying on the ground a little further away from the location of the original stones. This had carvings on both sides and came to be known as the “Latin Heart” due to, you guessed it, the carvings being in Latin. And not your bog-standard Latin either, this was some form of ancient Latin and there were also ancient Roman numerals on the other side.

There are phrases all over one side of the heart with directions and clues, mentioning things that can be translated as water falling over gold, narrow gorges, archways and the like. There’s also a note to look for a triangle. This whole thing seems to be getting very complicated. What is the point of hiding something and then creating such a weird map to find it again?

I mean, multiple stone tablets, removable, interchangeable heart shaped pieces and inscriptions in a language literally no-one in the area would realistically have any knowledge of? And even more bits were found, two stone crosses also popped up with random bits of information on them. Honestly, there are better ways than this of creating a secret map. Or maybe there aren’t, seeing as how no-one appears to have cracked it.

Also, it doesn’t appear that the stones have ever been seriously tested to see how old they are. If they’re showing the location to the lost mine, they should probably be at least 100 years old but as far as I can tell, nobody’s actually checked or been allowed to do a test. I guess that would be bad for the legend business.

As of 2022, they’re in the Superstition Mountain Museum if you fancy going to look at them first hand. Some experts have said that the lines engraved into the stones look to have been made by modern power tools and the misspellings of Spanish words indicate that maybe it was not a Spanish speaker than actually made the map. Apparently the traditional symbol of the heart was not in use by Spaniards in the 19th century although personally I’m not sure about this point as the now-common Valentine heart shape has been in existence for a very long time.

Another telling point against them being genuine is that they’ve been linked to the Peralta family for no real reason. There is no name or clue on the stones that link to the Peraltas in any way. It seems that the supposed land grant the Peralta family had in Arizona when the Lost Dutchman’s Mine was first mooted didn’t exist.

The Peraltas were and are a real family, it’s a very common surname, but as far as gold mining or prospecting went, there was no wealthy Peralta family doing it in Arizona in the mid 1800s. The names that were carved into one of the stones were “Pedro” and “Miguel”. No surname was given.

These were and still are very common names and while there were and are Pedro and Miguel Peraltas, again they were not in the Superstitions at the time of this story. The Peralta Massacre, where a group of Apaches killed a load of Peraltas and buried their gold also probably didn’t happen. The whole Peralta angle is probably therefore a red herring but what about the actual information on the stones?

Does it lead to any real location?

I find all the interpretations of the map pretty hilarious as there are many, many forums discussing them, with everyone sure that they have cracked it and everyone else is a blithering idiot. I don’t know what gives some people the idea that they have an extra special insight into some probably hoax carvings but there you go. There is a symbol that pops up a few times of a circle within a circle. To some people this means a zero, to others, it’s the symbol for gold.

To others, it’s where the trail starts or ends. The squiggles and lines are vague enough that they could represent anywhere you want them to and the codes that look like formulae are also very much open to any kind of interpretation.

Very much against my usual methods of research, I watched an entire episode of “America Unearthed: Guardians of Superstition Mountain”. The whole episode was free to watch and, as it had an IMDb rating of 7, I gave it a whirl. Yes, it was presented by the History Channel but it was quite interesting, if just to see some of the characters in it who, of course all have ideas about where the gold is but still haven’t actually found it.

Anyway, when the presenter is looking at the Peralta Stones with a historian called Phil Reinhardt, Phil says: “It’s a very, very precise map and every clue on the map is only visible from the right location on the trail, otherwise you can’t see it. The horse represents Superstition Mountain.”

Here, the host, Scott Wolter, butts in, rightly asking “Why would they relate a horse with these mountains?” Great question, Scott! What’s the answer, eh?

“The four legs of the horse represent the four canyons coming down out of the mountains to the south, and the tail, the last clue on the horse, takes us around to the map on the back.”

I mean, where are you getting this from, Phil? How does a horse’s tail in any way indicate the map on the back? It’s pretty clear if something’s on the other side of a stone tablet, you don’t need to construct an elaborate visual clue to get someone to turn it over.

The map on the back he’s referring to, by the way, is the image of the pointy-hatted person shaking some symbols out of a cross. This apparently points to the start of the trail. While the wilderness area of the Superstitions is quite large, almost 250 square miles, which is just a bit bigger than the Isle of Man, but a little smaller than New York City, the general consensus is that the lost mine is located on the main peak, handily called “Superstition Mountain”, which narrows the search area down quite a lot.

This is because there was gold mining activity around this specific mountain in the past so it seems a likely area for the lost mine to be.

Let’s put aside the stones for now and focus on other clues that have popped up over the years about where the mine could possibly be.

The Other Clues

Here are some more clues floating around about the location of the lost mine. Albert Vetere Lannon pored through writings by explorers and researchers of the legend and collated the following observations about the location:

Treasure hunter Adolf Ruth - more on him later - stated: “It lies within an imaginary circle whose diameter is not more than five miles and whose center is marked by Weaver’s Needle.” Weaver’s Needle is a distinctive column of rock and a well-known landmark in the Superstitions.

Waltz himself was quoted as saying: “There is a great stone face that looks up at my mine.”

Someone called Barry Storm used an apparent quote from Waltz in a book he wrote about trying to find the mine saying that Waltz “could not be seen from the military trail in the canyon below, but that he could easily watch the trail from his mine.”

An early treasure hunter, Joe Deering reportedly said: “There’s a kind of trick in the trail, not much of a trick, but you have to go through a hole to get to my mine.”

I’ve also found a few more that are not attributed to anyone, such as: “If you pass three Red Hills you have gone too far.” but these seem to be later add-ons.

I’ve also seen these clues listed like Waltz set them all out as a kind of riddle but in reality, they were pulled from many different sources. The thing is, if there is so much detail and all these people are so clever, why has nothing ever been found or even some sort of consensus reached as to the exact location? There is no recognized “military trail” on the mountain, so people have made up all sorts of convoluted historical reasons why this trail or that trail might be considered “military”.

Also, the “great stone face” has variously been translated as a large sheet or rock, or a rock that actually looks like a face. If you go down that route, it just becomes seeing clues where there really are none.

I read one treasure seeker’s account of his many, many trips to the Superstitions - he only wrote as “Mr. X” by the way - and at one point, his wife had taken a photo of a possible mine location area and they’d had it enlarged and framed. One day he suddenly noticed a face in the corner of the picture - a great rock face, if you will.

He provided an enlarged photo of the area with a couple of arrows pointing at what he was talking about but maybe he should have put a circle around it because I couldn’t really be sure what he was pointing at. There was a large rock that kind of looked like a face but the area photographed looks like it’s in a canyon and the face is sort of on its own at the top of a peak so if it’s looking up at the mine, it still could be anywhere. Basically, these clues are also pretty useless as people have been interpreting them however they want and bending the results to fit into wherever they decide to look.

Some people are combining them with the symbols on the Peralta stones so you’re adding an extra layer of probable hoax onto a list of generic clues so is it any wonder that nothing’s ever been found? I get the obsession people have with finding lost treasure, I mean how cool would it be to be the one that does it? Unfortunately though, this particular treasure hunt has cost quite a few people their lives and some of the circumstances have been pretty suspicious, if you ask me.

The Lost Seekers

According to Marshall Trimble, an Arizona historian, around 100 people may have died in the search for the treasure over the years. The most recent case I saw was a group of 3 men who went missing in July 2010. Their remains were recovered the following year. Most of these deaths can be put down to accidents or the hot weather in unforgiving terrain but some of them are a little stranger.

One of the most-linked people to this story is Adolf Ruth. His death was quite newsworthy at the time so really we can thank him for perpetuating the legend of the Lost Dutchman mine to this day. Thanks, Adolf. Or maybe I should have said “Mr. Ruth” in case the algorithms pick this up and peg Simon as an extremist sympathizer.

Anyway, in June 1931, 66 year-old Ruth set off into the Arizona mountains and never returned. Interestingly, he did have a map with him which his son had passed on. His son had apparently been gifted some old maps from a descendant of the Peralta family as a thanks for some legal services Ruth Jr. had provided.

Ruth Sr. was interested in this kind of thing at an amateur level so decided to make the expedition to try his luck and find the mine. Just a note here that this 66 year old was venturing into rugged mountain terrain by himself in June where the temps would have been around 100 degrees fahrenheit or nearly 38 degrees celsius every day. He also had injuries from a previous mine seeking oopsie and needed a cane to walk.

Who thought this would be a good idea? Anyway, Ruth failed to return and in December, a skull was discovered which was identified as Ruth. It had a bullet hole in it.

Could he have killed himself? Maybe but in January, 1932, more belongings of Ruth were found, including a fully-loaded gun and a checkbook where he’d written down some clues like the Weaver’s Needle one mentioned earlier, and also the phrase “veni, vidi, vici” which is Julius Caesar’s famous line meaning “I came, I saw, I conquered.” The map that his son had given him was never recovered and it’s not clear how his head became detached from his body.

Does this mean that Ruth actually found the gold and was then murdered for it?

While this is a juicy tale, after sensational headlines came out, the original coroner backtracked somewhat and said he now wasn’t 100% sure that the holes in the skull were bullet holes but the story was already out there and his original report remained unaltered. The map is also sort of odd as it’s been established that the Peraltas have been erroneously attached to the story so God knows what the map actually was.

In 1945, someone using the pen name Barry Storm published a book about his expedition to find the lost mine, called “Thunder God’s Gold.” In it, he wrote about having just missed being killed by a sniper hiding out in the rocks, presumably guarding the mine. He also thought that Ruth had been an earlier victim of this same sniper.

Storm’s book eventually became a movie called “Lust for Gold” which was heavily fictionalized and Storm hated it, especially the way his character was portrayed. It’s currently 6.8 on IMDb though, which is above my arbitrary watching threshold so maybe I’ll give it a whirl one day. Barry also thought the film was made to “Communist specifications”, whatever they were.

He sued Colombia Pictures and published a pamphlet soon afterwards called “I Was Swindled By Red Movie Makers.” Basically he seems like a bit of an attention seeker so I’m not sure how much stock we can put into his account of being shot at.

In 1947, James Cravey failed to return from his expedition to find the lost mine. His remains were discovered not long afterwards but his head wasn’t found for another 6 months.

In 1951, the body of Dr. John Burns was found with a bullet hole in it. Officially the death was ruled as accidental or suicide, although apparently there were no powder burns on the body and evidence from a ballistics expert did not agree with this ruling.

A year later in 1952, a Joseph Kelley disappeared in the Superstitions. When his body was found 2 years later, there was a bullet hole in his skull. While it seemed as though the shot to his head came from above, his death was ruled as accidental.

In 1955, Charles Massey was found dead, shot between the eyes with a heavy caliber rifle bullet. This was ruled as accidental and put down as a ricochet. That’s some bad luck for Charles, plus the fact that his gun was apparently a .22 which is considered a small caliber bullet.

The following year in 1956, the body of New York treasure seeker Martin Zywotho was found with a bullet hole in his right temple. Again, officially no foul play was suggested and his death was noted as suicide, despite the fact that his gun was found underneath his body.

In 1960, the decapitated body of Austrian student Franz Harrer was found.

In 1961, Jay Clapp was reported missing and a search was carried out in the Superstition Mountains. Apparently Clapp had worked as a prospector in the area for over 15 years so it’s not clear exactly when he died. His body was found three years later, minus the head. As of today, it still hasn’t been found.

Hilmer Bohen was also discovered in 1961 by a family out on a picnic. He had been shot in the back.

Again in 1961, Walter Mowry’s body was found with multiple bullet wounds. Perhaps unsurprisingly by now, this was ruled as a suicide.

There are even more examples throughout the years but I think we’re getting the gist of it. Some of these may be put down to rivalries, or, yes, accident or suicide but some are definitely weird. Is there some sort of guardian of the mine up there keeping the lost hoard safe? Or an assassin, picking off people who find something and then taking the treasure for themselves?

I will say that when I looked into these deaths, most of the results I found were just the same few lines of text repeated on different websites but there are enough examples that it definitely makes for mysterious reading. Let’s get on to the actual mine itself, then, the source of all this mystery and death. There are a couple of theories here, perhaps the most disappointing being:

It Doesn’t Exist

Noooooo! It has to! Well, no it really doesn’t.

While there are undoubtedly lots of lost mines around, this particular one is kind of an amalgamation of a few different stories that all end up in the same place. There’s nothing solid anyone can produce to prove any of the legend’s backstory. The Peralta stones seem to be a 20th century prank and as previously mentioned, the Peraltas are not linked to the Superstition area at all.

While Jacob Waltz was a real person, he never mentioned a hidden mine prior to this supposed deathbed confession. We are still not clear on what sort of thing the lost Dutchman Mine even is - a heap of gold he came across one day, possibly that the Apaches had stolen from a party of Peraltas, but obviously not, or an area with a particularly rich vein he’d found in the rocks somewhere. How much gold are we actually talking about?

We don’t even know if Superstition Mountain is the location but that’s where everyone always starts from.

Did Adolf Ruth actually find the lost mine or did he just get lucky and find another stash of gold or a different abandoned mine? Is there even gold in the Superstition Mountains? I saw in several places that as it’s a volcanic range, there’s not likely to be gold there. This is false, however, as gold has been successfully mined out of the area since the 19th century, even leading to the creation nearby of a town called Goldfield in 1892.

Scott Wolter, the presenter of America Unearthed is also a geologist and went scouting about for himself on the Eastern side of the range. He quickly found traces of other minerals such as quartz that point to a possibility of more gold still being there. The location that he and a few other local enthusiasts decided was the best place to look, though, is currently private land. Hmmmmm. There is another possibility, however, that Scott Wolter posited and that is:

It’s Already Been Found

There was lots of gold prospecting in the area when Jacob Waltz was possibly discovering this mine. Maybe he wasn’t the only person who discovered it. As I said earlier, we don’t know how long a period there was between him finding it and his death. When was the last time he went to it?

Could other people have found it and mined it in the meantime? Quite possibly, yes. There was a big gold strike in 1892 which led to the creation of the town of Goldfield. Waltz had died the year before, in 1891.

Had his secret mine been discovered almost straight away? To me, this seems the most likely explanation but it’s not going to put off any treasure nuts from giving it their best shot. If you do want to try your luck one day, don’t go in the middle of summer, don’t go alone and maybe take a bulletproof vest, just in case.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine?

The Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine is a legendary gold mine said to be hidden in the Superstition Mountains of Arizona. The legend began with Jacob Waltz, a German immigrant, who allegedly revealed the location of the mine to his friend Julia Thomas on his deathbed in 1891.

Who was Jacob Waltz?

Jacob Waltz was a German immigrant to North America who was known for his gold prospecting activities. He was believed to have discovered a rich gold mine in the Superstition Mountains of Arizona. On his deathbed in 1891, he revealed the location of the mine to his friend Julia Thomas.

What are the Peralta Stones?

The Peralta Stones are a set of five stone blocks and a smaller heart-shaped stone, discovered in the early 1950s in the Arizona desert. They are engraved with symbols, letters, and maps that some treasure hunters believe hold the key to finding the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine.

What is the significance of the Peralta Stones in the legend of the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine?

The Peralta Stones are believed by many treasure hunters to contain clues and maps that lead to the location of the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine. The stones include symbols, letters, and engravings that some interpret as directions to the hidden gold.

How many people have died searching for the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine?

According to Arizona historian Marshall Trimble, around 100 people may have died in the search for the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine over the years. Many of these deaths are attributed to accidents or the harsh conditions of the Superstition Mountains, but some have been more mysterious.

What is the story of Adolf Ruth?

Adolf Ruth was a 66-year-old treasure hunter who ventured into the Superstition Mountains in June 1931 in search of the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine. His skull was found in December 1931 with a bullet hole, and more of his belongings were found in January 1932. The circumstances of his death remain mysterious.

What are some of the clues that have been shared among treasure hunters?

Some of the clues include statements like ‘It lies within an imaginary circle whose diameter is not more than five miles and whose center is marked by Weaver’s Needle,’ and ‘There is a great stone face that looks up at my mine.’ These clues have been interpreted in various ways by different treasure hunters.

What is the theory that the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine has already been found?

The theory suggests that the mine may have been discovered and mined by others during the time between Jacob Waltz’s discovery and his death. The creation of the town of Goldfield in 1892, just a year after Waltz’s death, supports the idea that the mine might have been found and exploited by others.

What is the significance of the Superstition Mountains in the legend?

The Superstition Mountains are believed to be the location of the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine. The mountains have been the site of numerous expeditions and searches for the mine, with many treasure hunters focusing on the main peak, Superstition Mountain.

What is the theory that the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine does not exist?

This theory suggests that the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine is a myth or a combination of various legends and stories. There is no concrete evidence to support the existence of the mine, and the Peralta Stones are believed by some to be a 20th-century prank.

Sources

• Original Decoding the Unknown video: The Flying Dutchman: Myth or Reality?
• Hero image source by anogh / openverse, cc0.