February 28, 2011 © Thomas J. Kollenborn. All Rights Reserved.
Gold and treasure have attracted men and women to the Superstition Mountain region
for more than a century. Ironically, their quest for lost treasure or
gold has often turned tragic. Searching for treasure in the summer
months with little or no experience in the region can result in deadly
consequences. The vision of riches has led many to their final resting
place among the rocks and cacti of this unforgiving land known as the
Superstition Wilderness Area.
In July, 2010, three men from
Utah embarked upon a treasure-hunting quest that ended their lives
tragically. Curtis Glenn Merworth, Malcolm Jerome Meeks and Adrean
Charles headed for an unknown destination deep in the Superstition
Wilderness Area. In the summer months the ground surface temperatures
can heat up to 180*F. The darker the ground the hotter the temperatures
can be. The air temperature was above 110*F and water was scare within
the vastness of this mountain wilderness. A blind vision of golden
riches drew these men into this internal hell like a magnet. The men
were aware of the dangers apparently because they carried umbrellas to
protect themselves from the burning rays of the sun. However, they
failed to carry enough water to survive the stifling heat. The victims
parked their car at First Water Trailhead around Tuesday, July 6, 2010.
Soon after the men arrived
they were reported missing. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO)
set up a search and rescue command post at First Water Trail Head on
Sunday, July 11, 2010. The sheriff’s office had a helicopter
transporting search crews to different points within the wilderness to
conduct searches. The helicopter crew searched the area by air looking
for any visible clues. Approximately a hundred people were searching the
area on foot, horseback and by air. All of this searching did not
produce a single clue as to what happened to these men or where they had
gone. The MCSO Search & Rescue Command Post was taken down on Sunday
July 18, 2010. Members of the MCSO, Pinal County Sheriff’s Office
(PCSO), Superstition Search & Rescue, and other volunteers continued
searching for the three missing men through December 2010. As of
January 1, 2011, not one clue had been found associated with these three
missing men. It was as if they had vanished from the face of the Earth.
Searching for hikers is one
thing, but searching for treasure hunters is something entirely
different. Hikers and horseman generally remain on wilderness system
trails. However, treasure hunters (Dutch hunters) wander in all
directions over the mountain’s vastness looking for clues to a lost gold
cache. A clue might be a pictoglyph, a certain shaped rock, a cactus or
maybe an old claim marker. These treasure hunters are usually far
removed from system trails and often in extremely rugged country. I’m
sure the MCSO and other search groups did everything possible to locate
these missing men. These officers are dedicated men and women who are
here to protect and serve us.
Once the officials scaled
back their operations the volunteer groups began their search for the
three missing men. I followed the activities of the Superstition Search
& Rescue Teams during their searches. They are a very dedicated and
highly trained group of young men and women who devote hours of
volunteer time to help others. This team is a member of CERTS, a
Community Emergency Response Team working with the Apache Junction
Police Department and trained by the State of Arizona. We cannot fault
anyone for not finding these men sooner because in the end they were far
off any beaten path. They were in an area it was highly unlikely anyone
would search.
Richard “Rick” Gwynn, author
and prospector, was hiking in the Superstition Wilderness Area on
Wednesday, January 5, 2011 trying to piece together clues about the lost
gold of these mountains. Gwynn was about two miles east of First Water
Trailhead when he made a gruesome discovery on the NNE slope of Yellow
Peak. He found two skeletons fully dressed lying on loose steeply
sloping black-basaltic rock talus about 150 feet wide and 1000 feet
long. Nearby he found two umbrellas they had been using for shade. Near
the bodies was a battery-powered lamp. Rick said it appeared the men had
died of natural causes. They had no water. Summer temperature on the
black basaltic rock probably reached an easy 180*F. No human or animal
would have lasted very long lying or crawling across that black rock.
Again the Maricopa County
Sheriff’s Office helicopter and search teams began a search for the
third victim. You must bear in mind this is extremely rough terrain, and
again the search had no success.
After the MCSO was done
searching, the Superstition Search and Rescue Team (SSAR) returned to
the field. They began a search on Thursday, January 13, 2011, searching
northward toward Black Mesa near the southeastern part of the mesa.
About ¾ miles north of the first site that SSAR team found what appeared
to be debris field that included a bone. They had no idea it was human,
but thought it was fresh.
The team returned to area on
Saturday, January 15, 2011 and found skeletal remains. Search Commander
Robert Cooper immediately notified MCSO and a helicopter rescue team was
called out under the direction of Deputies David Bremeton and Jesse
Robinson. They supervised the removal of the third victim’s remains from
the wilderness area.
This discovery and removal of
the third and last body closed another sad chapter in the history of
these mountains and the search for missing utah prospectors. The failure
of these men to understand the dangers of the mountains in the summer
months cost them their lives.
Finally
the three Utah gold hunters had been found— ending one of the most
difficult searches in Superstition Wilderness Area history. Their vision
of lost gold had been a fatal attraction.
