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Howdy welcome to another edition of Mysteries of the Superstition Mountains
we're going to be talking about Ted DeGrazia today you know he's noted for
taking paintings up into those mountains and burning them we have pictures of it but
there's another story about a group of paintings that he took up there and
either hid or buried did it happen we're going to talk about it today on
Mysteries of the Superstition Mountains with Larry Hedrick let's have a listen
okay tell us about DeGracia now I heard the one story but there's actually two
times that he went up in the mountains is that correct?
Ted DeGrazia of course is a well-known artist and he he got in a tiff over... over
Taxes I don't know that he owed him or just what but, but he was just dead set
against all the taxes the federal government was trying to levy and so in protest.
He went up to Angel Springs which is up at the end of Hewlett Canyon
and this is where the cliff dwellings are that we've mentioned
and burned a bunch of his paintings. I've seen pictures of this I've been there after
the fact and found pieces of the burning stuff and what have you.
okay so he burned paintings but did he actually go back up there and bury something.
A few years later he went in he was being packed in by Crater you were mentioning
Donnelly, Donnelly and Crater were well known Packers into the superstitions and
um
and my friend and Crater took them in but they didn't stay they were going to
come back and take him out and there were about five people involved in this
party that stayed in there and I hope I don't forget his name but one of them
was a well-known Packer that worked for very several different
people who had permits to go into superstitions Bud Lane he's passed away
and when I heard about the burring of the paintings I knew that bud was there
so we were on a trip one time where we were in the mountains for six days and
we had a bunch of Eastern Foot people and my friend wanted me to go along with him.
and we went horseback they gave me a free horse and our job was to keep them
on the right path from place to place where the camps were already set up and
food would be and if anybody got hurt get him out that was our job and we the
next to the last day we were at Angel Springs and bud was there and everybody
was gone out of the camp and I went over to talk to bud and I asked him about
what what happened was what went on that day that the paintings were supposedly buried
now I believe what Bud tells me because Bud could tell a story like
anybody else I mean he could have you eating out of the palm of his hand it
would be a complete lie but if you ask him straight up he gave you a straight answer
and the reason I know that is is when I
when I started my Civil War thing I wanted to start by building a three-inch
ordnance rifle full-sized gun to a cannon and I was looking for wheels
off of wagons and he says there's all kinds of wagons up at to Tachi Indian
post north of Gallup and I went up there and bought 20 wagons for $200 apiece
On his word and they were there and I made the deal you know and I built cannon I
built Chuck wagons and stuff like that and and then I went to sell the wagons
and somebody heard that I had him and he come out and he had 20 McClellan saddles
and I traded him wagons for saddles in the Calvary come in to be existence
overnight and that was all based upon this man's work you ask him a
straight-up question you got the truth you're asking BS and he'll give you that
so anyway he told me that he was in the camp alone with DeGracia that everybody
else was up at the ruins and he took the six plastic carts that had the cylinders
that were caped that were on the horses when they come in stuck them under his
arms walked off down towards the springs and
turned south he didn't have a shovel he didn't have a pick he had nothing but
the map cases and he was gone about 15 minutes and he was back and this told me
he didn't dig it bury anything he knew exactly where he was going to put them
even been there before and all that sort of stuff so I based upon that
information I am organized a group to go out on a couple my Calvary guys and some
Boy Scouts were going out there that had done some work with us at the Museum
building maps of the Superstitions the kids were totally uncooperative they
just they were everywhere and they were in the rains mostly they
didn't care about anything because I was there to use them to hunt after these things
but so I took off by myself I went down towards the springs and
turned south and it was a welcome driven path down here because they were still
grazing cattle in there at the time and these cattle were going to where the
water was and I don't know how far it was not very far football field length
maybe maybe two there was a rock Corral about three and
a half feet high and it was water tropes built there and all this sort of stuff I
had already been around the edges of the perimeter looking at the hills and stuff
there was absolutely nothing where you could just hide something without
digging but in this Corral we're a number of places that you could possibly
just hide those map cases I didn't do anything about it at the
time and I came back and and and the next time we went in was several years
later and it was so overgrown because there was no cattle out there grazing
the Forest Service had put a stop to that, and the cat claw was so thick you
couldn't even crawl on your hands and knees and go down where that path was so
I never really got back to to see if I could find them and the time just didn't
allow me to look thoroughly enough the day I was there but I firmly convinced
I know that the maps were taken in there what they were in plastic cases they
were sealed and they were hidden not buried.
Okay now are these maps or are they paintings.
Paintings! painting? map cases the paintings are in the map cases.
this is where now?
Angel Springs so if I go up to Angel Springs and look for some ruins
and I can find the paintings right.
unfortunately I've learned that the... the
chorale has been torn down to make a small dam to retain water
but the troughs are still there there you can still tell when you're there.
and there was some Barbed wire involved too but that's my story and I'm sticking to it
haha you know that's a good story Larry. He burned but why did he go back up and burying things
I think it was just more publicity
I really do this like was strictly for...
it was written up all over the place
Oh lots of people have been out there looking for you know to tell you the
truth I had heard about the burring of the paintings but I wasn't aware about
the burning of the paintings till I went up to the Superstition Museum there and
saw a picture of it. right.. right. there.. that I'm sure came from you but. no. no I
didn't take it, it was a newspaper...but I mean well anyway it's there at the Museum but
I.... I was more aware of the bury that's that's the big story was the burying of
that or hiding things up there everybody thinks they're buried.
I think they're hidden. how can you do that without a shovel or a pick.
he knew what he was doing and what he was going to do.
it after the first airing of
the DeGracia story we got a lot of texts... messages of all kinds about about
the Rangers up here removing the hidden paintings or the the buried paintings in
the tubes from the mountains I reached out to the DeGracia foundation and asked
them about it. they said that they get people calling them all the time saying
that they have the tubes with the paintings and they will sell them back
to him they say there has never been any substantiation of any paintings that
have been buried or hidden up there being found tubes or otherwise and that
if I ever heard of any that they should be notified they say in their opinion
nothing was ever actually hidden up there and that DeGrazia wanted to create
his own Mystery of the Superstition Mountains now people actually did see
him take the tubes up into the Mountains and they actually did see
him come out without the tubes but could he have gone back up there and taken them
back out again... another Mystery of the Superstition Mountains see you next time
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you