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You know there's not very many people in this world that can make the claim that
they had extensive conversations with Jacob Waltz especially during his illness and on his Deathbed
but there are four people that we know did have extensive conversations with Jacob
one was Julia Thomas the owner of a bakery Renie Patrash who worked at the bakery
Richard Holmes and Gideon Roberts, Gideon Roberts was as old as the Dutchman and died
a short time later but here we have the only known picture of Jacob Waltz
in this picture you see behind the bar is Renie Patrash behind him
is Mr Thomas and of the three gentlemen seated at the counter the middle gentleman is Jacob Waltz
now this picture was taken by a photographer who was doing photography of the businesses to
put in the Phoenix business Gazette. The Story Goes pretty much like this
in October of 1891 there was a flood on the on the Salt River and one of the stories goes that Jacob
Waltzes the Adobe was Swept Away in the flood but there's another story that when they sent
out a boat to rescue people they found Jacob Waltz in his Adobe at about two feet of water
and I believe that story more than I believe the one about the Salt River flood because
Walters 160 Acres was 450 yards from the Salt River but on the Southeast corner of his property
he allowed the Dutch ditch to be dug across the corner of his property and it was the Dutch ditch
that overflowed and left his Adobe standing in about two feet of water and you know what water
does to Adobe his foundation began to dissolve and his house began to collapse and left it unlivable
and this is you know a lot of people have asked the question well if these houses Swept Away in a
flood how did they say why wasn't the gold swept away well his house wasn't slip away it it just
simply dissolved and they were able to save all of his Goods including the box of gold out of
his Adobe and take it to Julia Thomas's where she took care of him during his illness because he had
contracted pneumonia Renie and Julia were subject to many statements by the by Jacob Waltz during
this illness time but when it got really bad she went searching for a doctor and it was Gideon
Roberts and Richard Holmes that was watching the Dutchman while she was searching for the doctor
now Julia was really upset when Richard Holmes ended up with the gold she thought that it should
a rightfully be hers because she took care of the Dutchman during this whole period of
time from October to December when he died but there was some legal activity involved in this
and she claimed that her Holmes had stolen that gold but Holmes had Gideon Roberts as a witness
and he was awarded to gold now another name that we have that's been come up a few times in history
that uh may have known the Dutchman may have spoken to him from time to time but certainly
has a great deal to do with the lost Dutchman Legend and that's a man named Joe Portie,,
Joe Portie was a Frenchman he came to America when he was 15 years old
and became a high quality assayer there in fact he he was the chief assayer for the Vulture Mine
and when Holmes sold the gold to the Goldman jewelry store he was the one that done the
actual assay then he put to bed the rumors that had been circulating that Waltz had
High graded the gold out of the Vulture Mine and this is where the gold came from but Portie said
yeah there was some rich gold in the vulture mind but it was absolutely nothing like the Dutchman's
goal and in fact many historians have searched and there's absolutely no evidence whatsoever that
Jacob Waltz ever worked at the Vulture Mine Joe Portie would certainly know the difference between
the Dutchman's Gold and other gold in Arizona because not only was he the chief ass there
for the Vulture Mine he also was the chief assayer for the mammoth mine at Goldfield and undoubtedly
did assays for other mines in the immediate area we have here a picture of a assay report
for the mammoth mine and you can see how many assays were done at each level down around a
thousand foot area on each of the drifts numerous assays were done I think a lot of people believe
that you know somebody goes out here and they find some ore with some gold in it they bring it
to an assayer he tells you how many ounces per ton you'd be expected to get out of your work workings
but no essays go on constantly inside of mines we have a picture here of of some faults showing how
false slipped from side to side up and down and even make curves and stuff like that and while
you're mining the gold here and you run into a fault that fault has shifted and now you've got
to search for the vein again and you've got to take assays to see if you're making any money
while you're doing that there's just a lot goes on here with assays and every mine even even hundreds
of yards apart have different qualities in the order that makes them a fingerprint and a good
ass there not only knows what mine an assay came out of the aura came out of he knows what level
of the mind it came out of so Joe Portie was in a perfect position to be able to tell you whether or
not the Dutchman's goal came from any of the mines in Goldfield area now here we have a photograph at
the black queen mine which is several hundred yards north of the Mammoth mine and I want you
to notice on the picture where a line is drawn almost down through the middle of the drawing
and it shows the Granites or the Bedrock on one side and is labeled Volcanics on the other side
we've always heard that there's no such thing as gold in volcanic areas and all this area
is a collapsed Caldera from volcanic activity all the Goldfield area and here's a drawing an actual
drawing of of Volcanics right up against bedrock here we have another picture of of a diagram of
an intrusion in the mammoth mine showing where the Volcanics burst through and covered several
mines including the WASP mine and another mine that I hadn't heard of that's close by
so to close this story I want to remind you that the owner of the matchbox which is alive in the
well today subjected his Matchbox at the School of Mines in Nevada to a non-destructive test
and that test was compared to all the known mines in the Goldfield area and the Vulture Mine
and the test proved that the Lost Dutchman's goal is from a totally unknown source in other
words any mind that's already been assayed that would be compared to the matchbox should prove
or that it did or did not come from any of those known acid mines and the Dutchman code is from a
totally unassayed unknown mine many people have claimed to have found the lost Dutchman mind
but not one of them has come up with a piece of gold that's been compared to the matchbox
and that's why we have a mystery of the Superstition Mountains
thank you for watching this episode of Mysteries of the Superstition Mountains
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