For more than 150 years, many people have risked everything, even their lives, to find the “lost Dutch gold mine” in the dangerous Superstition Mountains (USA). But most of them had to die.
Bellhop Jesse Capen, 35, is fascinated by the legend of the “lost Dutch gold mine”. Bellhop spent most of his free time reading and learning about this legend.
In 2009, believing that the “gold mine” really existed, the 35-year-old man decided to go to the Superstition range, near the city of Phoenix, Arizona, USA, to search. But Bellhop never returned. Three years later, Bellhop’s body was discovered in a fissure 10 meters deep in a cliff.
The legend of the “lost Dutch gold mine” has attracted the attention of thousands of “gold enthusiasts” in the US. Illustration: Getty
In the following years, there were 3 more “gold enthusiasts” looking for “the lost Dutch gold mine”, but they also disappeared without a trace.
After 19 days of searching, the US police were forced to stop the rescue operation because they knew that the victims could not survive the intense heat of summer in the Superstition Mountains. The bodies of the three men were found six months later.
With its rugged cliffs and numerous canyons, the Superstition range will be a “death trap”. If lost here, the victim will have to endure the harsh sun of summer or the bitter cold of winter.
Over the past 150 years, many people have died searching for “gold mines” in the Superstition Mountains, where local authorities have banned people from finding or mining for gold. Gold mining is illegal in this area. However, that still doesn’t stop the “gold fanatics” from flocking here and dying.
Many people flocked to the Superstition Mountains, USA to find “lost gold mines”, but most died. Illustration: Getty
The legend of the “lost Dutch gold mine” was spread nearly 2 centuries ago with many versions. One of them is that in 1850, the Peraltas (Mexican) family accidentally discovered a mine full of gold but was murdered by Apache Native Americans to appropriate it.
Years later, a doctor named Thorne treated an Apache chief and was rewarded with a blindfold, taken to a “gold mine”. Dr. Thorne was allowed to take as much gold as he could.
In another version of the legend, German miners found a “gold mine” but were attacked by the natives. One of them escaped but did not live long. Before he died, this person drew a map leading to the “lost gold mine”.
Such legends are easily dismissed as myths, but they are based on a few facts.
In 1891, Jacob Waltz, an American immigrant nicknamed “the Dutchman,” lay on his deathbed. Jacob told friends that he had discovered a “gold mine”. Under this man’s bed was a container containing a strange gold ore.
Usually, a mine with 0.07 kg of gold/ton of rock is considered a bargain. But Jacob’s gold ore has twice that amount – 1.4 kg of gold/ton of stone. Jacob also left behind a map supposedly leading to this treasure.
In 1931, treasure hunter Adolph Ruth was given some maps by a descendant of the Peralta family and went in search of a “gold mine”.
This person has been missing since then. Six months later, Adolph’s body was found with two bullet holes in his skull. A piece of paper in the victim’s body said that Adolph had found the “gold mine” and knew its location in detail, but the map was lost. At the end of the paper, there is a summary sentence: “I have come, seen and conquered”.
In 1949, another discovery related to the “gold mine” was spread. A pedestrian tripped over a sharp piece of rock and found four flat rocks buried in the ground. On it, there are instructions engraved in Mexican and a map.
The clues include details of where to start, a description of the layers of the canyons and two maps with 18 locations marked to find the “gold mine”.
Since then, the legend of the “lost gold mine” has attracted the attention of tens of thousands of people, with many books and TV shows talking about it.
However, the problem is that the terrain of the Superstition Mountains is very dangerous, not to mention the fact that there are many indigenous people here.
George Johnston, one of the first treasure seekers in the 1950s, once told Cowboys and Indians magazine: “The natives claimed control of the mountains there. They often fired shots. warning guns to scare off those who trespass. If you keep going in, you could be shot dead.”
Src: kenhthoisu.net
