[music]
right now we're going to talk to Larry Hedrick who is the co-creator of the
Superstition Mountain Museum and responsible for making it what it is
today so you're actually the only one that I really know that has found a
treasure up in the superstitions tell us about that. yeah because when we when we
were in talking to Jake at the Superstition Inn after I breached the
subject and he calmed down Tom my friend was talking to him and I noticed
a display over in a deal it had a wooden box like this with an open top and a
shovel in it and it was a stand with with a display and I walked over and
looked at it it was a Hyrum Walker's Canadian Club hide a case program, and
I took the clues there was several clues in a little pocket I have it over to
house that you can see and I just took it and took it home I didn't pay any
attention to it there and I went and read the thing and the first clue was..
see they had hid a case of whiskey all over the world, Mount Kilimanjaro the
Australian Barrier Reef you name it they had this case of whiskey buried
everywhere and gave clues on how to find it. So here on the Lost Dutchman thing
they used the clues to the Lost Dutchman legend to find the whiskey and the first
clue when I decided to go out and look for it said camp beneath the needle rock
but like you said everybody knows that's Weavers Needle but the second clue was..
the one that threw everybody it said travel west from here to a quote
well-traveled unquote Indian trail well there isn't any well travel within
trails in the superstition There are Indian trails but they're not well traveled it
was Apache trail what else could have been. so I never went to Weavers
needle and I never even went out there and this is now travel north towards the
lakes that weren't here when the Dutchman was here. well none of the lakes were
here when the Dutchman was here. So I'm driving in my Jeep
it had a picture I can't call a pinnacle but a hill what was very distinct
kind of like a knob a round knob on top of a hill and.. and it said travel to North to
the lakes that weren't here when the Dutchman is here until you can see
Weavers Needle, the needle in the distance.
all right! Larry this is.. this is
fantastic we are out in the thick of things now we are out here on location
we're one of the few treasures was found and it was found by you to the right of
us here we have Gonzalez Butte behind us we have Weavers Needle and the old
Apache Trail we're in sight of that, and yet we are at a historic site let's go
take a look here because we even have a marker to mark where you found one of
the lost treasures one of the only treasures out here that's actually been
found tell us a little bit about it
Well
You know the first clue they gave
was a misdirection clue it took you deep in the wilderness because it said camp
beneath needle Rock but anybody that knows the legend the second clue took
you right back out because it said travel a well-known Indian Trail and an
Indian Trail was in quotes well there's trails out there through
Hohokam ruins but they're not well travel the only well-traveled trail
is Apache trail State Route 88 then it said go north towards the lakes that
weren't here when the Dutchman was here and we went straight north towards
Apache lake and Canyon Lake and it's it had a picture of a Butte and
I recognized that Butte as being Gonzales Butte it was photographically reversed
and I didn't recognize it immediately but I asked him later on if that was an
accident or if that was on purpose and they said it was an accident but anyway
it said take a trail that is partly washed in places well we just came down
that trail and and it said within sight of the camp
you will find your golden cache of Canadian Club well
they made a mistake because in the picture I got out of a magazine it said within sight of the
fire there's a big difference between those two you can stand in a camp and
look within sight of it but if you're looking for a fire you're going to see
the smoke and from a long distance off so I just kept looking around and found
this campsite here with these boulders over here making a three-cornered fire
three walled fire and off over here little ways was a ring of rocks on
bedrock and then over here a little further was another ring of rocks on an
angle on bedrock and I thought well that triangles trying to tell me something if
I pace off between them and take that distance towards the point of the
triangle well there was nothing out there that could be dug up it's all
solid rock and stuff so I came back to the campfire and I decided
there was just sticks in one of them and little bigger sticks but neither one of them
had been lit on fire this one actually had had a fire in it so that was the
first day I found it but I didn't come out here with a shovel or anything I was
just checking area out so I went home next morning I came out with a shovel
and dug up the fire pit and there it was I got down about this far and it was a
huge rock, flat rock I thought I almost gave up but I saw a little bit of a
corner of a brown plastic bag and I knew I had it and I went ahead and took it out
well afterwards they came out and Canadian Club put up this sign which has
been totally shot to pieces now you can't even read it but, but it's here
it's here it's rusted and it's here this was 40 years ago and so anyway inside
the wooden box that was wrapped in the plastic bag to keep it from rotting was
a letter and I opened it when I got home it was laminated and all that and had a
phone number said call this number and tell him
you know announce that you'd found it so I call that New York number and hello
and I said surprise! and there was dead silence for just a little bit
Man! this woman you guys out west are quick okay well now they had to verify that I
found it so they called the people in Phoenix and this guy made arrangements
to come out with and and we went to the site and all this sort of stuff he
verified that it was good so I was credited with finding it on a third day
of the campaign and it blew a multi-million dollar campaign all to pieces
you know and they didn't bury anymore after that. there had been 14 cases
buried in exotic places all over the world by that time and 11 of them were
yet to be found and they've only found one sent one on
Mount Kilimanjaro somebody accidentally stumble across it wasn't even looking for it.
so there's still several of them still out there
there are still about 10 out there
well-aged
[laughter]
so
it was interesting eventually I got a call from the
President of Hiram Walker and he says Mr. Hendrick he says how would you like
to go to South America
I said I'm your man let's go
I said why he says we're
burying the next one at the North Pole we don't show anywhere near it .
[ loud Laughter and clapping]
and that was
1978 in 2010 I got a call from now Hiram Walker had sold out to another big
whisky company if I fail the name right now and they were no longer calling it a
Canadian Club but they invited me all expenses paid to go to New York
and address the Explorers Club well hey because they're going to kick
off another campaign the Explorers Club anybody that's anybody has been a member
of that Sports Club Teddy Roosevelt Edmund Hillary their pictures are all
over the walls it's one of the fanciest places I've been
it's got like six bars on the different floors all this sort of stuff
and so I went back and gave my speech and I enjoyed that immensely
and I sent all my stuff back the box it was found in the cardboard display
case the bottles there was twelve bottles involved in this thing I gave a
couple friends one of them I sold a couple of them for $500 I have half of
them still here you didn't drink oh I didn't I'm a teetotaler
[Laughter]
and that's another thing people...Why did a teetotaler go out looking for a case of whiskey
I said because I heard the rumor that there was Gold Krugerrands buried
in the box too and by the way I was hard pressed to dig up a drink
[laughter]
and if you want to, like I said we're not going to tell you how to get here no.. no... no.. no but
I will tell you that we're just down below Gonzalez Butte and we can see
Weavers Needle and the old Apache trail from here that's all we're going to tell
you have some fun yourself
explore the Superstition area you know but the hole
is still here some what are those the rocks though - that was the fire
there and of course the sign is here and it's a beautiful area great for day
hiking do not come out here when it's too hot do not come out here unprepared
make sure you have water and you're totally prepared to come out this way
but you know have some fun explore the area
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