Truth from Fiction

October 27, 2014 © Thomas J. Kollenborn. All Rights Reserved.

Prospector ‘Superstition Joe’ (Cecil Vernon, circa 1960)
is part of Apache Junction’s legendary past.

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.

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 the Bible On The Lost Dutchman Mine and Jacob Waltz.

Lost Dutchman Monument on N. Apache Trail

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.

Waltz filed for his naturalization papers in Los Angles, California and became a citizen of the United States on July 19, 1861.

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.

Thomas F. Weedin

October 20, 2014 © Thomas J. Kollenborn. All Rights Reserved.

Thomas F. Weedin was a newspaperman
and the owner of the Florence Blade-Tribune.

Thomas F. Weedin was a charismatic and dynamic individual who had a fascination for tales about lost mines and treasures for most of his life. Ironically, he would not be remembered for his interest in Arizona history and legend, but for his knowledge of ink and paper. Tom Weedin was a newspaperman. 

He became a very important citizen of Florence, Arizona, as a journalist and businessman. You might say Tom Weedin changed the face of Arizona history and was fondly remembered in the Florence area for his accomplishments.

Weedin was born in Cooper County, Missouri, on December 15, 1854 (Arizona Republic, 10/1/1916, p. 1 col.3). He had identified with journalism and newspapers since he was nine years old, starting as a newsboy with the Kansas City Times.  

Weedin worked his way through all of the paper’s departments and attended school at night. He became the editor of the Daily Herald in Fremont, Nebraska, in 1875. The following year he became city editor for the Omaha Herald. After two years in Omaha, he was hired as editor of the Daily Prospect in Silver Cliff, Colorado.

Weedin then abandoned newspaper work temporarily while in Colorado, choosing to explore prospecting and mining. His travels led him to Silver City, New Mexico, and then on to Tombstone in 1880.

Weedin picked up the editor’s pen once again in 1881 and established the Florence Enterprise on March 28 of that year. He ran the newspaper until President Grover Cleveland appointed him Clerk of the United States Territorial Court in his district.

Weedin returned to the newspaper business in 1900, establishing the Florence Blade. He bought the Florence Tribune that same year and consolidated the newspapers under the name Florence Blade-Tribune. 

Early in President Woodrow Wilson’s term he appointed Tom Weedin the Registrar of the U.S. Land Office in Phoenix. 

Weedin was a powerful writer whose editorial comments were thoughtful and interesting and were read eagerly and accepted by the public. He made the Florence Blade-Tribune the voice of the democratic party in Florence and developed a wide circulation with an outstanding advertising patronage. This support made the newspaper a powerful political tool in Pinal County and the rest of the state. He was a member of the 18th, 24th, and 25th Territorial Legislative Councils, serving as the floor leader of his party during all sessions on the side of right, reform and progress. 

Weedin also served as the first mayor of Florence, Arizona Territory. He became an icon of the Florence political scene prior to the turn of the century.

Weedin had varied interests and was always fascinated with lost mines. He wrote stories about them and he grubstaked old prospectors. Weedin made many trips to Goldfield and the surrounding area and, according to one account, he spent time in the mountains looking for good mining property.

He listened to the stories about the Dutchman’s Lost Mine and carefully read P.C. Bicknell’s San Francisco Chronicle article on the Lost Mine that appeared in newspapers on January 13, 1895. Weedin never denied the existence of the Dutchman Lost Mine and added a special interest to this story through his newspaper.

Weedin probably will not be remembered for his many journalistic and political accomplishments. He will likely be remembered more for saving Arizonians from the fraudulent schemes of the Peralta Land Grant hoax perpetrated by James Addison Reavis, the infamous “Baron of Arizona”.

James Addison Reavis produced Spanish documents over several years (1880-1893) that gave him the rights to much of Arizona and New Mexico Territories.

Tom Weedin closely examined the ink and paper of these so-called Spanish Land Grant documents and determined that the documents were not as old as Reavis claimed because the ink used on them was modern.

Reavis was convicted of fraud in the U.S. Territorial Court in 1893 and eventually sent to prison. It was through the efforts of Tom Weedin and others that Reavis’ reign of economic terror over the Arizona Territory was ended in late 1880s.

Thomas F. Weedin passed away in his Phoenix home at 322 East Culver Street on October 6, 1916.

As you drive through Florence today, drive over to McFarland State Park in Florence and then stop by the old 1891 Victorian Pinal County courthouse. Think for just a moment... this old courthouse was a contemporary of Thomas F. Weedin. He walked its halls many times after it was constructed more than 100 years ago.

The Pinal County Courthouse (1891) is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Dutchman's 2014 Rendezvous

October 13, 2014 © Thomas J. Kollenborn. All Rights Reserved.

About eighty to a hundred people attended last year’s “Dutchman’s Rendezvous” at the Don’s Camp.

We are now well into the twenty-first century and the intense interest in lost gold in the Superstition Mountain area still prevails. Men and women continue to come to Arizona hoping to find their fortunes. Most find nothing and others are lucky to get away without the loss of their lives. Sadly, some make poor choices and eventually end up dead.

Death or injury is no stranger to the unprepared and inexperienced in this rugged mountain range east of Apache Junction. Prospectors have died from extreme weather conditions, from gunshot wounds, from falls, drowned in flash floods, and from natural causes.

Since the early 1880s men and women have searched these rugged mountains for gold and lost mines. The most significant lost mine stories centers around an old German immigrant name Jacob Waltz. His mine was allegedly located near a prominent landmark called Weaver’s Needle just east of Superstition Mountain.

Maintaining a camp in these mountains can be difficult at best. The trails are rough and steep making it difficult to deliver supplies. Also pack trains (horses or mules) are a very expensive method in which to move needed items into the wilderness. Also, all camps are limited to fifteen days by forest service regulations.

Camps cannot be established within a quarter-of-a-mile of a water source. This can make camping very difficult in the dry season when water is scarce. One can easily get disoriented in these mountains if they don’t have map reading experience. The lost have died trying to find their way out of the mountains as recent as 2012. No one is immune to the dangers that exist in these mountains, however, caution and common sense will protect most from serious injury or death.

Each year I am amazed at the people who become involved in the search for the Lost Dutchman Mine. There is a continuous list of new prospectors who are searching the mountains for clues. 

Many years ago a businessman and prospector named Joe Ribaudo (who lives in Lake Havasu City) decided he wanted to see the Dutchman legend carried on by some kind of annual gathering. He came up with the idea of the “Dutchman’s Rendezvous.” He held the first gathering just west of Twin Buttes and the coke ovens along the Gila River east of Florence. The first gathering was small with thirteen attending in October of 2005, however there was a lot of enthusiasm for the idea. The next year, the rendezvous was moved to Don’s Camp. This was accomplished with the help of Don’s member Greg Davis. The camp is located at the base of Superstition Mountain near the Peralta Trailhead. Each year the activity is held toward the end of October and has grown. It is a gathering of individuals that are extremely interested in the Superstition Mountains and its many tales and stories. This event has attracted old timers as well as younger folks anxious to learn the stories of Superstition Mountain.

The third year Joe handed over the organizing of the “Dutchman’s Rendezvous” to Wayne Tuttle and Randy Wright. Greg Davis continued to make the arrangements for the Don’s Camp for the rendezvous. Joe and his wife, Carolyn, remained camp hosts and provided some shade and cold water. The scheduled activities include a variety of options. Friday night includes sitting around a campfire and entertaining each other by telling stories about the mountains. There is usually a guided hike on Saturday. After dark on Saturday everyone gathers around the large Ramada to listen to a couple of guest speakers.

I have attended for last three years and I think it was an excellent opportunity to meet a variety of people from all over the United States who were interested in our history. As I look back I should have made an effort to attend and report on all of these events. Please don’t get this event confused with Lost Dutchman Days in Apache Junction. This has nothing to do with that particular event or the Apache Junction Chamber of Commerce.

Last year there were three days of events. The interested, the curious and the very serious showed up last year. Some individuals drove from Texas, California, Oklahoma, New Hampshire, and several other distant locations. The organizers should be proud of their accomplishment. I didn’t personally count each and everyone in attendance, but I would estimate there were about eighty to a hundred people who attended last year’s “Dutchman’s Rendezvous” at Don’s Camp.

A number of old time Dutch Hunters attended, and of course they are legends in their own right. Many authors, who have published books about the Superstition Mountains and the Lost Dutchman’s Mine attended.

The Dutch Hunter’s (Dutchman’s) Rendezvous is an open event, so everyone is welcome. This year’s event is scheduled for October 24, 25 and 26, 2014. There will be guest speakers at the Saturday night campfire gathering (October 25). I promised Wayne Tuttle I would also say a few words. The camp is primitive, so bring what you need to be comfortable— including water, food, and bedding if you are spending the night. For more information you may email Joe at havasho@frontiernet.net