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- The Legend of the Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine
- by Jim Gronek
-
- In the early 1870's, Jacob Waltz, known as "The Dutchman," prospected
- into the Superstition Mountains from the mill town of Pinal, Arizona. After
- losing his mules to marauding Apaches, he discovered the camp of two Mexican
- miners. Poorly armed and equipped themselves, the Mexicans were impressed with
- Waltz's breech-loading rifle and his experience as a miner. Proposing a
- partnership, they showed Waltz a gold mine of fantastic wealth.
-
- Without engaging in a discussion of Waltz's sense of morality and fair
- play, suffice it to say, the arrangement was short lived. There were two quick
- shots from the Dutchman's rifle. Waltz hastily buried the Mexicans near the
- mine.
-
- Working from Pinal and Adamsville, and later from Phoenix, the Dutchman
- made secret trips to his jealously guarded mine. Over the years, five more men
- who ventured too close joined the Mexicans in shallow graves. During the
- eighties, two soldiers from Picketpost discovered the Dutchman's mine.
- Returning with supplies, they were followed by a gambler who had seen the gold
- they brought into Pinal. When the soldiers made an early camp the second day,
- the gambler assumed they had reached the mine. Impatient with greed, he
- killed them both. He acted too soon. They had not reached the mine.
-
- Joe Deering, a miner, also discovered the mine, but was killed in an
- accident at Silver King, leaving only scant clues to its location. A man
- named Pipps took gold from the mine while the Dutchman was gone. Pipps died in
- an accident at Round Valley, again leaving only sketchy clues to the mine's
- location. The Dutchman covered his mine in the late eighties.
-
- In his later years, the Dutchman confided much of the story to a Phoenix
- woman, Julia Thomas, and to a neighbor lad, Reinhart Petrasch. These clues
- sparked an eighty year search for the mine, which has taken the lives of over
- forty men.
-
- In recent years, many have dismissed the Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine as a
- myth. Did the Dutchman really have a mine? One thing is certain. Of those
- who personally knew Jacob Waltz, not one ever doubted that he had a secret
- mine. Rienhart Petrasch and his family hunted the mine for decades. Petrasch
- finally committed suicide in Globe. Two generations of the Holmes family
- hunted the mine for sixty years. If these men, who heard the Dutchman's story
- from his own lips, and saw his gold with their own eyes, believed, how are we,
- in another century, to say the Dutchman had no mine?
-
- In the old City Cemetery in Phoenix, Jacob Waltz, "The Dutchman," lies in
- an unmarked grave. And, no doubt, somewhere in the rugged and forbidding
- Superstition Mountains, just east of Apache Junction, Arizona, lies the answer
- to the West's most fascinating secret.
-
- Today, you can experience, with your computer and modem, a little piece
- of the thrill Jacob Waltz felt when he first saw The Gold Mine, from right
- there at your computer in your home or office.
-
- The Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine ROS, in Phoenix, Arizona, is a subscription
- database system providing one of the most complete collections of public
- domain software available. Software available from the Gold Mine is always
- the latest, most up-to-date revision. You may choose from Business
- Applications, Games, Utilities, Communications, programming languages, and
- much, much more. The Gold Mine maintains over 27 MegaBytes of the most
- current items on line at any time and is available 24 hours a day, seven days
- a week, at 300, 1200 or 2400 Baud.
-
- The Gold Mine's Off-Line Catalog offers over 130 disks of software,
- available by mail, in addition to the items maintained On-Line. Subscribers
- without modems, or those who dislike long distance charges, may still reap the
- fruits of the Gold Mine through the mail.
-
- The Gold Mine specializes in dBASEII/III, Turbo Pascal and Kaypro
- specific software, plus extensive collections of communications, utilities,
- games, word processing, alternative programming language interpreters,
- compilers and assemblers, and MS(PC)/DOS utilities, games, communications and
- applications programs.
-
- You are invited to join the list of subscribers to the Gold Mine. You
- may reach the Gold Mine at (602)247-2880 to review the current selection of
- files and download a subscription application, or, you may request an
- application at:
-
- The Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine ROS
- Post Office Box 23937
- Phoenix, AZ 85063
-
- Subscription fees may be charged to your Visa or Mastercard. If you are
- disappointed, we offer a no questions asked Money Back Guarantee.