Buried treasure, lost gold mines
and Spanish gold have all played their role in the history of the Superstition
Wilderness. The history and legend of these rugged and beautiful mountains
continues to captivate the imagination of those who enjoy them.
Contemporary tales of lost
treasure in the Superstition Wilderness do not haunt the minds of treasure
hunters as much as old stories of lost gold in the region. Many of these tales
are far different than the ordinary tales of lost gold. One of these treasures
is a cache of hidden paintings and sketches done by Arizona’s famous artist
Ettore "Ted" DeGrazia. This is the story of one man’s struggle with
his inner self and his environment. It is about a man in search of
self-identity, and he had spent decades trying to find his niche in life.
The celebrated and famed artist
Ettore "Ted" DeGrazia was born in Morenci, Arizona Territory on June
14, 1909. He was the son of an Italian miner and a Tarahumara Indian. As a
child Ted found painting with different colors an interesting challenge. He
loved to collect colored rocks from around the hills near Morenci. This
interest in color later in life helped him to create some of his famous
paintings.
DeGrazia, like most artists, had
a difficult time finding his place in the real world. He studied under Mexico’s
greatest artists, men such as Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco. DeGrazia
finally built a gallery in Tucson at the corner of Campbell and Prince Roads.
He called it the Gallery in the Sun.
In the desert north of Tucson in
the 1940’s, DeGrazia adopted a new form for his work using vibrant colors. The Arizona
Highways were the first to discover Ted DeGrazia’s vibrant use of colors.
The legend and fame of DeGrazia’s work was spread worldwide when his "Los
Ninos" was used on an UNESCO stamp. The rest of DeGrazia’s success is
history.
Ted DeGrazia claimed he became
interested in the Superstition Wilderness Area when he first worked for some
unsavory characters out of Superior, Arizona in the late 1920’s. He said when
he was attending the University of Arizona he worked a summer helping some
bootleggers in the Superstition Mountains near a place called Whiskey Springs.
This early introduction to the myriad of canyons and towering spires
overwhelmed his imagination. He returned to the Superstition Mountains often
during the remainder his life. He painted the "Dutchman" series,
wrote a book about Superstition Mountain, guided people through the mountains
and told stories about the mountains.
DeGrazia become entangled in a
legal battle in the early 1970’s with the United States Internal Revenue
Service over Inheritance Tax. He organized a special pack trip with Billy Clark
Crader around May 12, 1976. The purpose of the trip was to haul several of his
paintings and sketches into the Superstition Wilderness and burn them in
protest of the Inheritance Tax. Crader packed DeGrazia, some news media
personnel and several friends to Angel Springs Basin.
The following are quotes from
various newspapers about the trip into the Superstition Wilderness and the
hiding of the paintings:
"The paintings range in size
from miniature originals to full size canvases. The value of an original
DeGrazia could range from $3,000 to $33,000."
"The artist said only one
other person knows where the paintings are hidden... an Indian who accompanied
him to the spot."
DeGrazia and one of his Papago
friends hid the paintings in a small cave or tunnel according to reliable
sources. The San Diego Union headlined a story "Artist Raps IRS.
Burns Paintings," on May 15, 1976. The article stated, "Arizona
artist Ted DeGrazia has burned 100 paintings that he valued at over $1.5
million in protest over U.S. Tax laws, the Phoenix Gazette reported yesterday."
Ten people witnessed the burning
of DeGrazia’s paintings. The paintings and sketches DeGrazia burned and hid
that day were from his early days as an artist. A witness claims DeGrazia
burned two insignificant oils, ink and pencil sketches. Another witness who
worked for Billy Crader’s Wilderness Safaris claimed DeGrazia only hid one
insignificant oil, a couple of ink sketches and a few pencil sketches. The
number of paintings, ink and pencil sketches burned is still conjecture among
many people.
The action of Ted DeGrazia in May
of 1976 is what creates legends of lost treasures. His "fire of
protest" may have consumed some of his work, but he left behind a legacy
involving a hidden treasure near Angel Springs in Roger’s Canyon. To this day
people continue to probe the area around Angel Springs looking for DeGrazia’s
cache. Some estimate DeGrazia’s cache of paintings to be worth more than a
million dollars. Others claim all he buried were insignificant pencil sketches.
The DeGrazia Treasure of the Superstition Wilderness Area will certainly live
on in the annuals of the American Southwest.
Today, around Apache Junction,
there are many people who claim they accompanied Ted DeGrazia on his trip with
Billy Clark Crader. Also there are those in Apache Junction who know exactly
who was there and how long they stayed. Again there are many stories still
emerging about others who claim they helped DeGrazia bury his oil paintings.
Please don’t invest money in any of this idle conversation. It is not the
truth. Ted DeGrazia was brilliant entrepreneur and thoroughly understood
business, marketing and the promotion of a product. I personally leave it up to
a good businessman to say whether or not he burned one or two million dollars
worth of oil paintings and ink sketches at Angel Spring or even hid an equal
number. Not too long ago a map was floating around Apache Junction attributed
to Bob Ward. Some claimed Ward was with Ted DeGrazia when he hid the paintings.
I will leave that up to those who really know.
Yes, DeGrazia was an unimaginable
eccentric in many ways, but he was always in control of his business, he
thoroughly understood marketing of his own talent, and knew how to manipulate
his associates. I knew DeGrazia, but I am not too sure I knew him at all. He
would stop at my home in the late seventies wanting me to work on his old
International Travel-All. The float in the Travel-All’s carburetor would often
stick. I would take a screwdriver and tap on it and the engine would run
smoothly again. Ted always had to have a good reason to stop. He couldn’t say I
am stopping by just to say "Hello".
Ettore "Ted" DeGrazia,
a miner son, became a renowned world artist of Native Americans and Hispanic
work, died of cancer on September 17, 1982, in Tucson, Arizona. The University
of Arizona, his alma mater, refused to hang his artwork in the 1940’s because
of his association with Orozco and Rivera, strong Mexican "leftists"
in Mexico City. DeGrazia’s tenacity to choose his own associates came back to
haunt the university four decades later. His legacy and the legacy of his
adopted mountains will live on forever in America and throughout the world.
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| Arizona artist Ettore "Ted" DeGrazia |