Miner, at the time, was thought to have been mistaken in his bearings, but members of the party later became convinced that he was merely a liar. Some favorites include: Doc Thornes Lost Gold Mine: Next to the Lost Dutchmans Gold, the most talked about and searched for treasure in Arizona over the last century remains Doc Thornes gold. He was blindfolded and taken to the village, not knowing his direction. Asteroid Ryugu Has Dust Grains Older Than the Sun. Doc is just one of an endless stream of treasure hunters in search of the. Walk down Main Street, explore the many shops and historic buildings. Yavapai County - Rich Hill. Your email address will not be published. The legend continues to evolve: recent additions are versions in which the gold is really a secret treasure trove of the Knights of the Golden Circle, a Confederate secret society active during the American Civil War (1861-1864). Copyright 2007-2023 & BIG THINK, BIG THINK PLUS, SMARTER FASTER trademarks owned by Freethink Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 623.934.6882 The Arizona Daily Star reported that the mine also experienced a fair amount of banditry, which includes approximately $70,000 in bullion (precious metal bars) stolen and hidden. Boettcher Mansion, Capitol Hill, Denver - built in, Always nice to have a solid noodle place with love, Red rock vistas, 2021. The next find was some small heaps of very rich gold rock, probably where sacks had decayed from around the ore, and then, a short distance away was discovered a shallow prospect hole, sunk on a gold-bearing ledge. Click here to view the video Riding on Gold - Pegleg Smith. Entrance is free. From Grant, they marched to the Gila River, up the San Carlos and then to the Salt River. Since its early Gold Rush days, Arizona has produced in excess of 498 tons or 16 million troy ounces (ozt.) These sites exist in some of the most rugged, dangerous wilderness areas of the U.S. Forest Service, said George E. Johnston, president emeritus of the Superstition Mountain Museum. Want to read more travel articles from MDN? All he could be induced to do was to toss his arms and say, Plenty gold here; go hunt. Ben did hunt for years and was outfitted several times by A.H. Peeples, who believed that he finally died of thirst on the desert. Ed Schieffelin, who discovered the Tombstone mines, would later search diligently for the lost mine, but if he found it, he never told. Some thought the mine was located in Arizona, but whatever its location, it has never been found, and may have been only in the imagination of a rum-soaked prospector. The expedition never returned, and the members of the party were later found dead at the foot of the San Ysidro Mountains. Was Peg Leg's Gold Found? The deed was bogus, and Willing never recovered his money. Just a few feet down the trail, we found several people swishing gold pans in the water, while others had more intensive operations with motors set up behind the screen of brush along the riverbed. Most Arizonians are familiar with the Lost Dutchman, but there is a whole host of other tales of lost gold and loot (some with crude maps) still buried in the desert. The stories of lost gold mines still lure prospectors, even today. Thank you! Jacob Snively hit the first major gold strike around 1857 with sizeable nuggets found in the Gila River near Gila City, Arizonas first boom town. Gold in Morgan City Wash: In 1934, Palmer Ashley was helping his father work a difficult, low-grade prospect near Morgan City Wash, 23 miles outside of Wickenburg. 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He claimed that he was the only survivor of a party that had found wonderful placer diggings somewhere near a hat-shaped hill over beyond the Tonto. It was against the tribal law and beliefs of the Apaches to tell others where the gold was located. Numbers of others have tried to find the Ni**er Ben diggings, but they have not been discovered as yet. 928.443.8000 List of Arizona Mineral & Mining Museums. 914.589.3985. Adams understood to have been a San Bernardino colony Mormon, in 1886 heard from a Mexican, a story of a rich gold deposit, and forming a party of 22 men, struck eastward to a point supposed to have been near Fort Apache, where the Diggings were found. What will happen to society when AI lovers fool millions of people? Its location is not exactly known but it is rumored to be somewhere within either the Superstition Mountains which is near the Apache Junction on the eastern side of Phoenix, Arizona. Redwoods provide habitats for many forest creatures and pull more carbon out of the air than any other tree species. The soldiers dug out coarse gold by the aid of their knives. 8284 Lost Mine Rd. Prominent among the lost mines stories of Northern Arizona was that of the Adams Diggings. Most indefinite are the details, and the various locations indicated lie anywhere from the Colorado River through to Globe. They are massacred by the Apache in 1850. Back in 1540 Francisco Vasquez de Coronado led a large expedition across Arizona in search of the mythical Seven Cities of Gold. the historic main street. 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The treasure buried in Skeleton Canyon has never been found, the value of which could amount to $20 million or more today. Through the years, truth and fiction about this mine have been irrevokably mixed up, producing 62 varieties of the legend. During the 1830s and 1840s, Pegleg settled down and started a trading post along the Oregon Trail in Idaho, specializing in the sale of horses. Treasure hunters guard their techniques and secret mining spots like truffle hunters. No one was ever able to follow the Indian into the desert to discover his secret gold mine. The root of this story is the effort of three US soldiers to locate gold in New Mexico based on what Dr Thorne allegedly told them. Where can you find these magnificent perennial plants? 16 Lost Treasures of Arizona Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine Herman Wolf's Treasure Trove Legend of the Lost Opata Mine The Smiling Bandits Lost Loot Red Jack Almer Gangs Lost Loot $72,000 in Gold Coins: Stolen Army Payroll Buried Cans of Gold Coins at Ashurst Ranch Lost Gold at Granite Dells Blacksmith's Lost Booty Hidden Indian Gold Near Lynx Creek Almost every prospector, whether professional or tenderfoot, had his own pet lost mine that he looked for. Henry Wickenburg came to Arizona in 1862. Solid State Batteries Promise Long Life and Rapid Refuel Electric Vehicles, Electric vs. Hydrogen: The Pros and Cons of Greener Transportation. Waltz fell ill and died in 1891, but not before revealing the location of an alleged gold mine to Julia Thomas, the neighbour who cared for him. 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The story goes something like this: Waltz and/or Weiser locate a rich gold mine in the. But the mine remains shrouded in mystery, so much so that it might not exist at all. The Lost Goldmine Trails winds for miles at the base of the Superstition Mountains. Lynx Lake Mineral Withdrawal Area & Gold Panning Trail, Prescott. However, the story and possibility of stumbling across immense wealth has enticed hundreds of people to attempt searching for the gold mine and a fair number of those lives have ended in death. ), The Desert Environment One of the first deaths attributed to the lost mine was Adolph Ruth in the 1930s, whose remains were found with bullet holes a few months after he disappeared into the wilderness. 8248 Lost Mine Rd. The man brought pouches of gold nuggets he dug from the quartz vein to an assayer in Phoenix. the old gold mining town of bisbee, az. 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Long before Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and grifter-socialite Anna Delvey, we had the Gold Rush and even today, plenty of Americans are still fixated on an either long-lost or fictional gold mine in Arizona's Superstition Mountains. P.S. This is a popular trail for hiking and mountain biking, but you can still enjoy some solitude during quieter times of day. A Detailed History of Mining in Arizona from Arizona Mining Association Vekols Buried Silver Ingots: Just a few miles north of the old ghost town of Vekol, near Casa Grande in Pinal County, lies a legendary cache of 300 silver ingots, each weighing 25 pounds. Each step into the desert may bring you a little closer to a fortune. However, the most popular dates to the late-19th century with a German immigrant, Jacob Waltz, or the Dutchman. Around 1870, two U.S. Army soldiers discover a vein of almost pure gold in or near the. Men struck out on his trail and soon found Flannigan, who would have lasted only a few hours longer. Digging for Gold Today Not only has the value of gold, silver and other precious metals surged over the last decade, but financial experts claim that their worth will only increase exponentially in years to come. The best times to visit this trail are September through May. Ruth injured his leg so severely in the process that he developed a lifelong limp. In 1977, Granger noted that the Lost Dutchman story was printed at least 6 times more often than the story of Captain Kidds lost treasure or the story of the Lost Pegleg Mine in California. In 1853, Pegleg organized a second search party which had no greater success in finding the butte where he found his treasured black-coated gold nuggets. 480.982.7661 Click here, Dig Here! But modern-day treasure hunters do exist. Tragicomically, she and her team passed over two enormous gold mines on their search for the Lost Dutchman Mine, which they didn't find. However, when asked if theyd been lucky as of late in their gold-seeking endeavors, one man was only willing to say that he finds enough to keep him interested.. Numerous maps have surfaced over the years, only to become lost or misplaced when interested parties pressed for facts. Word traveled fast and, after Weaver found gold, every miner who had not yet struck it rich in California headed for Arizona. Thorne told his story to three solders in 1858, upon which the soldiers unsuccessfully set out to find the vein. He struck up a friendship with several Yavapai chiefs, even when they were the most hostile to the other miners, and they told him of a place where there was much gold, far more than on Rich Hill, where we were working. Dr. DeCourcy searched for years, and was never able to find the three buttes the miner described on his death bed. This is one of the better counties for gold mining in Arizona. Hundreds of "lost mine" stories have been localized everywhere over the West. Today, the consensus among geologists is that the Superstitions are unlikely to contain a secret gold mine. 8230 Lost Mine Rd. 2023 Warner Bros. It is said that Pegleg got drunk while in Los Angeles, started a brawl in the local saloon and was quickly kicked out of town by the authorities. Supposedly tucked away in the rugged trails of the Superstition Mountains, the legend of unfathomable riches has numerous versions and characters and each insists on being the correct story, with some dating to the first trek Spanish conquistadors made into the northern reaches of the Sonoran desert. A few mines are still being actively worked today, but most mining companies that have tried to revive the old mines have been unsuccessful. This article first appeared on Curiosity.com. There May Be a Long-Lost Gold Mine in the Arizona Mountains By: Mae Rice For more than a century, adventurous souls have sought the Lost Dutchman Mine, and since 1891, more than a hundred people have claimed to find it. But the prospector, with only his burro for companionship, was wont to dream strange dreams and, eventually, to transmute them into what he considered reality. Maricopa County is also popular for prospecting because much of the gold here is found in sizable pieces that can be found with metal detectors . He died in Phoenix in 1880. Finally, in disgust, the different parties separated at Wheatfields and returned to their homes. Experience this 4.0-mile loop trail near Gold Canyon, Arizona. Arizona is known for several mineral types in addition to the elements Gold (Au), Silver (Ag), and Copper (Cu). Two of the most famous lost mines are the Lost Dutchman Mine of Arizona and Pegleg Smith's Mine of Southern California. Mining towns such as Tumco, Bodie, Oatman and Randsberg were once booming with growth due to the mining operations which provided jobs and drew gold seekers from all over the country. Pegleg's questionable character and his reputation for drinking and lying add to the controversy surrounding the legend of his lost mine. lost dutchman state park - arizona gold mine stock pictures, royalty-free photos & images Tourists walk along the buildings on Main Street in the old mining ghost town of Goldfield, Arizona.. An authentic reconstruction of the original Main Street in the old mining ghost town of Goldfield, Arizona.. Ruth was an amateur prospector in the that he had never found gold but had been seeking it for it for years. He claimed to have been abducted by Navajo in 1854, discovering a rich gold vein during his captivity. Related Books & Gifts - Trading Post Quite literally so, according to Southwestern Folklore author and researcher Byrd Granger. In many versions of the story, Weaver's Needle is a prominent landmark for locating the lost mine. Another Lost Soldier Mine was found by a scouting soldier from old Fort Grant in the hills north of the Gila River, not very far from the mouth of the San Pedro. Superstition Mountains, are able to present some of it to a third party but afterwards are killed or vanish. The men searched as far as the Gila River, near San Carlos and then up to the headwaters of the Gila and back again to Fort Apache, but they had no success and still undiscovered are the ashes of an old cabin where Adams told Bell, was buried gold dust worth at least $5,000. Arizona Gold Mining Adventure, Phoenix. Golden Circle, a Confederate secret society active during the American Civil War (1861-1864). You'll receive your first newsletter soon! All rights reserved. Chapter 12 of Thunder God's Gold by Barry Storm (John Clymenson), published in 1945, tells a very interesting story about a large piece of rich gold quartz found by William (Bill) Jenkins while on a picnic in the Superstition Mountains with his family in 1937. New Evidence About the Lost Dutchman Mine One of the most popular Arizona legends also happens to be one of the most deadly: the Lost Dutchman's gold mine. He and his son had searched California's Borrego Desert for gold, but they found none. Superstition Mountains (in some versions they are told the location by a grateful member of the Peralta family, whose life they saved). Desert Geological Terms, Home | About | Contact Us | Feedback | Privacy | Site Outline | Advertising on DesertUSA | Hotels, New Evidence About the Lost Dutchman Mine, 7 Smartphone Apps to Improve Your Camping Experience. Confederate secret society active during the American Civil War ( 1861-1864 ) Hydrogen: the Pros and Cons of Transportation! 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