Most historians accept the story that an old prospector
named Jacob Waltz created one of the most popular legends in American
Southwestern history. Storytellers will tell you he spun yarns and gave clues
to a rich lost gold mine in the Superstition Mountains.
However, historians will claim Waltz was a very
quiet and secluded individual preferring his privacy. These clues and stories
attributed to Waltz continue to attract men and women from around the world to
search for gold. The search for gold in these mountains is pure fantasy to
many, however others believe this legendary mine is as real as the precious
metal itself.
Who was this man who left this lingering story
of lost gold in these mountains? The story of this mine remains the legacy of
this old German prospector.
Jacob Waltz was born somewhere near Oberschwandorf,
Wurttenburg, Germany sometime between 1808 and 1810. The exact date and place
of his birth is still controversial. The precise date of his birth has not been
documented with baptismal records or any other type of documentation. To
further confuse the issue here, there was more than one Jacob Waltz born during
this period of time.
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| ‘Superstition Joe’ (Cecil Vernon, circa 1960) is part of Apache Junction’s legendary past. |
His childhood was quite obscure because few
records remain about his early life in Germany. There are no documents or
records that Jacob Waltz had any formal education. There are certainly no
records that prove he was a graduated mining engineer as claimed by some
writers.
I have a very close friend who lives near
Baden-Baden, Germany named Hemut Schmidtpeter. He has researched Jacob Waltz
for the past twenty years or so.
The name Jacob Waltz is quite common in Germany
and this fact alone confuses research on the topic. Ironically, some of the most damaging information
about Jacob Waltz was passed on to Helen Corbin when she wrote her book titled Bible
On The Lost Dutchman Mine and Jacob Waltz.
This information was passed on to her by a
researcher named Kraig Roberts. Experts in documentation studied these records
and found them to be altered. Did Roberts alter them or somebody else? Nobody
knows for sure.
Since the Olbler transit records have
been “proved to be altered,” it appears in all probability Waltz may have
entered the United States through the port of New York or Baltimore as
originally proposed by Jerry Hamrick. The Obler ship passenger’s
manifest was definitely altered with the addition of Waltz’s name and others.
Now we can only rely on the existing facts.
Waltz did sign his “letter of intent” in Natchez, Mississippi on November 12,
1848, to become a citizen of the United States.
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| Lost Dutchman Monument on N. Apache Trail |
He soon traveled to the Bradshaw Mountains near
Prescott. Waltz staked three mining claims there between 1863-1868. Waltz also
signed a petition for Arizona Territorial Governor Goodwin to form a militia to
stop the predatory raid of the local Native Americans on miners and prospectors
in the area.
It is highly unlikely Waltz spent any time around the Vulture Mine or Wickenburg. He did settle on a homestead on the north bank of the Salt River. He filed papers on the homestead in March of 1868.
Waltz farmed a little and raised a few chickens. He was known for selling eggs in Phoenix. He prospected the mountains around the Salt River Valley.
Did he have a rich gold mine? It is not very likely he did. After his death in 1891 his legacy began to build with the many stories written by newspapermen and authors. Many had a story to tell and didn’t care how they told it.
Fiction replaces fact and we have the story
today that is told around campfires and in cafes around Apache Junction.
Wherever there is a gathering of individuals interested in lost gold mines you
will find the story of the Lost Dutchman mine. This story is still alive and doing
well some one hundred and twenty-five years later.
August 8, 2016 © Thomas J. Kollenborn. All Rights Reserved.
August 8, 2016 © Thomas J. Kollenborn. All Rights Reserved.
