Welcome to Mysteries of the Superstition Mountains I'm Larry Hedrick where we bring
the past into the present for our future viewers today we have another great story
by Hank Sheffer well you've seen the title page for this video and you're probably wondering
what the heck is Wee-Kit Sour-Ah and once you get past that you're wondering and what does
that have to do with anything that we're going to talk about well according to Apache legend
all mountains are known as Wee-Kit-Sour-ah and that means the rocks standing up
it is said that all mountains not just the superstition mountains
are a sort of purgatory that all apaches must pass through at one time or another
that seemed fitting for this story is we're going to talk about another hapless adventurer
out there looking for treasure and he almost meets his demise the same as so many others have
he's a fella that came over here he's an older fellow and he maintained that he knew exactly
where the Lost Dutchman wine was and i can't tell you how many times I've heard people say that
well this is a story by Tom Kollenburn and I'm going to try and tell it the way I think tom
might have told it back then so here goes during the first half of the 20th century Apache Junction
and more correctly the superstition mountains over here in Arizona was a pretty busy place
in large part the insurgence of people coming over here was because of the legends of whatnot
of the Lost Dutchman mines not to mention all the other treasure stories that came about
uh that live up here in the superstition mountains people came from all over the planet with the
hopes of becoming rich and it was usually beyond any dream that they could ever possibly have that
they were gonna find out here as soon as they got in the mountain they're gonna find this treasure
there were a lot of people that were in the mountains already and they had
I don't want it to sound like there were people stacked on top of people but there were people in
the mountain already that had permanent camps or very close to permanent camps that have been there
for years and they were searching for treasures but I want you to understand that from the
pictures we're going to show you throughout this video the superstition mountain isn't the way it's
portrayed on the maps that it makes everything look small the vastness of this mountain is a good
place for anybody to get lost if they don't know what they're doing we have a saying over here that
it's really not all that bad if you get into a canyon just keep walking and eventually you'll get
out but it's big it's a big place to be and you can get lost if you don't know what you're doing
now on Saturday January 19th 1946 a New York magazine writer by the name of Meyer Schubitz
showed up at Doc Nation's camp which was up on the mountain over in near Peralta Canyon area
he was anxious to head up into the superstition as quickly as he could
to search for the Dutchman's gold he sincerely believed that he had an advantage once he got
into the mountains for locating Walt's treasure because he was German and he could think the
same way that the Germans did and his thoughts would be the same as what Jacob Waltz had been,
take that for what it's worth now Andy Sinbad was another old-timer up in the mountain and he always
said that Meyer was nothing more than a crackpot or nothing more than a misguided German adventurer
he was a dreamer and he didn't have much use for him on top of all else Meyer Schubetz was an old
man and he wasn't in very good physical shape he tried to convince Doc Nation there at the camp
to guide him into the mountains but the Doc took one good look at him and he said there's
not a prayer in the world that I'm taking that man up in there he said he just won't survive
however Doc Nations had a friend who was close by and he said that he would take the old man
in fella's name was James Watkins and he agreed that he would be
Meyer's guide getting into the mountain now that area had a couple of permanent camps
where they were where nations was one was old man Pierce's camp in Needle Canyon another was
Chuck Aylor's cabin camp in East boulder Canyon Watkins figured if Schubert's got himself into
any kind of a jackpot that there were people out there that could probably help him get out of it
and that was his reasoning for taking the man in Schubert's and Watkins left the camp early the
following day on January 20th that was a Sunday they made their first camp about a mile and a half
north of weaver's needle in east boulder canyon above chuck Aylor's camp as I said Schubert's
was in a hurry to find what the Dutchman had left behind but crazy as it might sound the next day
somewhere north of Weaver's Needle Schubert's threw all caution to the wind he told this guide
James Watkins to return to camp he said he had no longer any need for his services but Watkins told
him that it would prove to be a fool's game for someone who knew so little about the mountain
nevertheless Schubert's insisted and Watkins was forced to go back to nations camp
it didn't take long before Watkins became concerned about the old man
and the more he thought about it the more he decided he ought to go and look for him
he searched for a half a day or so and couldn't find any signs of him at all and he
decided to walk back to doc's camp and tell him what he had found
from there they contacted chef Jimmy Herron now the Sheriff quickly organized a posse of searchers
he brought them out the Nation's camp at this point
they put out a diligent search for the man and they didn't find anything well by this time Meyer
Schubert's had been missing for two days in the rugged back country of the Superstition Mountains
it wasn't until Thursday when two other men were out prospecting in the La Barge Canyon
that they found the old man in even worse condition than he'd been when they first got there
he was wandering around like so many others that had been out there looking totally disoriented
and lost in the mountains clutches Schubert's insisted he was close to finding the golden
treasure but unfortunately he was in no condition to continue
his treasure hunting pursuits would have to come to an end after breakfast on that Thursday morning
he was taken back to the trailhead near a cabin owned by william linsby once there
lindsby notified Jimmy Herron again up there at Doc canyon's camp Herron immediately
went to linbee's camp's cabin and picked up Meyer to get him back to town and to safety
ironically after recuperating Schubert's left the territory and he never came back again
to fulfill his dream of finding the Dutchman's mind Meyer Schubert's didn't fulfill his dream
but the inexperienced treasure hunter was lucky to escape with his life far too many
others were not as fortunate as he was so he should have considered himself pretty lucky
well I got to tell you my sincere thanks go out to Tom Kollenburn for this story it's one that
you don't hear very often um but he the guy hunting for treasure was just another loser
it is yet another tale about a man and his dream to find golden riches in the
rugged Superstition Mountain area the lesson just never seems to get learned
many have perished in these mountains there's so many people that have gone up there and they've
died they've died of exhaustion they've been shot and killed there's just all sorts of things
that have come about but this doesn't seem to discourage more folks from risking their lives
to look for this gold of Jacob Waltz why was Meyer Schubert's chosen to be such a lucky guy
why was he chosen to survive in the unforgiving superstition
who knows it's just another one of those Mysteries of the Superstition Mountains
thank you for watching this episode of Mysteries of the Superstition Mountains