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welcome to another episode of Mysteries of the Superstition Mountains and
recently we had the pleasure of sitting down and I was able to talk with Ron
Feldman now Ron owns the OK Corral here in Apache Junction this man has looked
for the gold he knows a lot of the players that we talk about on this show
he is the go-to guy to talk about anything you want to know about those
mountains and recently I asked him about the location of the mine and it really
surprised me what he had to say let's take a look
Ron Feldman you are a gentleman I've been wanting to talk to you for a long
time but we've never been able to really sit down and talk about the Superstition
Mountains it's kind of exciting to be here with you today Ron because I don't
think there's hardly anybody around that knows the mountains as well as you do
you actually found something up there mine our prospect rather can you tell us
a little bit about that
well there's been many claims of many people that
have found mines out including the Lost Dutchman nobody can back them up nobody
we actually have historical evidence documentation that we actually have
found Spanish mine out there that we excavated under United States Forest
Service treasure trove permit in 2004 2005 it was headed off by the
archeological team Dr. Glen Rice out of Arizona State University he was on our
payroll you might say and so it was all well documented it's not just Ron
Feldman saying that hey I found a lost mine this archaeology pictures of it
yeah okay yeah but but then again too and we'll get there I suppose but you
might say the Lost Dutchman mine itself could be included in something that I
claim maybe I know where it is. oh! but you're not gonna tell us I didn't say
that oh okay you gotta pick up my book and read it!
I will pick up your book I will pick up your book pick them all up.
I just gathered all my books that I've had stored away for many years including two
that my family purchased from you the Berry Storm books. oh ok. given as gifts. okay
well you can throw all those away
[Laughter]
because they're all lies
OKAY?
Honestly some of the better books are the ones that have been written more recently
including mine, my sons, Jack San Felice has a very very good book out on the
Dutchman but there are other books to their more recent.... Sims Ely
The lost Dutchman mine still I consider the Bible of the
Superstition Mountain. I have that one it's a phenomenal story it's a it's a story
and it's a book that took me to the Superstition Mountains it lured me here
and Berry Storm accounts and I've got all the books you know and but yeah they
were just a fun fun read so so when you say a fun fun read like going back to
Berry Storm because they made that movie that he sued over that Lust for Gold yeah you're
just saying it's a fun read these are conjecture this is stuff that he's kind
of said wow this could be but it's... Berry Storm absolutely I feel hasn't he never
found much or anything he never found a mine and nothing that he could even call
historical as far as I'm concerned he wrote a good tale he wrote a good book
some of the things that are in Berry Storms book though there's some
historical information in there but not anything's gonna lead you to the mine
now why, why would the more current books have more detail than something that was
written 60 years ago or so as far as up there I mean I would have been actually
closer to the time. okay well it's not that they have more detail necessarily
what it is is that information has come out of some of the things that we
actually did back in the superstitions that proved and documented some things
that were able to be written about and more accurate information than all of
the fables that were spread in the legends and the lies back then.
they didn't find anything okay then there was nothing to write
about factual now certainly Sims Ely you know he knew the Barkleys and and he was
close to some of the original people I'm in Jim Bark that wrote Dutchman, the
Dutchman mine so certainly he had first-hand information on some of the
characters of the Superstition Mountains but back then as far as information
about the mine it just didn't really exist today there are several books for
instance I've written a couple books my son's written on things that we found
now there are other people writing about that information that'll take you
somewhere that'll give you some information we've written enough
information that you can walk to the Lost Dutchman mine itself
honest-to-goodness lost Dutchman mine? as far as I'm concerned yes then why hasn't it been found?
you're not listening what I said. no I
know but I'm segwaying here.
It has been found
Ok..Ok and hum...
should I ask were?
It is in the Superstition Mountains
now what since you're segwaying that I'll give me a good segway
for many many years when I first came out here first 25 years of my Dutchman
hunting career I became an expert I follow everybody else's footsteps all
read all the books Sim Ely's book included Berry Storms book. I read
everything I researched everything and I followed everybody else's footsteps on the
west side of the Superstition Mountain weavers needle, blacktop mountain, Peters
Canyon, lebarge Canyon and I became an expert on where the Lost Dutchman mine
was not
[laughter]
now I was lucky enough to get into some information in a manuscript
very detailed manuscript by a man named Ted Cox who was probably the man that
knew more about these mountains and history and people and locations than
anybody I've ever known in my life unfortunately he was dead by the time I
got his information but I knew his wife and son and they essentially turned me
to all his stuff they gave everything to me and I studied him for two years
and when I read it through it and study it he was so different he led you to the
east side not the West End now when I say that I'm talking about oh let's say
the anything east of lebarge Canyon you're getting into kind of the east
side of the mountain okay well it was so different that I said oh my god this guy
he's got he's nuts he doesn't conform to everybody else's
information so I decided okay let's go out there and let's do some research.
I found everything he talked about
and you know here's the thing
Gold's where you find it but if the right geological conditions don't exist
you're not gonna find the mine you're not gonna find anything as far as
mineral okay
on the west side there is no geological evidence for even the
ability for gold silver or anything to form it's not conducive to that
The quartz is wrong on the east side you're getting closer to Superior, Miami... Miami
and Globe the mining companies and Silver King... and the geology starts to
change and when you start researching the east side was heavily heavily mined
a lot of silver and some gold too came out of those mountains so does the
Dutchman mine exists yes I'm telling you it does where is it it's in the
Superstitions and on the east side where gold can be could have been deposited
not on the west side well there is a story there's a reason why everybody has
searched the west side but the east side is wear it is at! so when you're
talking about the east side are you talking about places like Queen Valley
you know areas like that like that you're getting over there yes yes have
the Dutchman or he was German yes right right Dutchman Jacob Waltz who was in
he's what late 60s.. early 70s yeah and he was located in Phoenix correct
all right so how long would it take Jacob Waltz to go up there three days a
week well it's a very good point and understand that this at that time 65 in
let's say he was that's an old man mm-hmm maybe not
so much today and then he's riding or dragging a
burro or a mule through hostile environment either summer heat
or the Apaches or whatever or other miners trying to kill him how many times do you
really think the old man got out to the mine I'm gonna tell you he wasn't out
there more than three times it was a difficult trip a very difficult very
dangerous trip back then so consequently I don't believe that he got back there
very often he didn't have to and a lot of times what people don't understand
too is where he actually entered the mountains from was he he'd go to
Florence and Florence is just straight north into the into the Iron Mountain area
so you're saying that he went up there three times
maybe a half a dozen okay so did he
like much have a stash that he would put somewhere else where it was easier the
only the only thing that we know about Jacob Waltz having a stash yes he may
have made a stash out there I don't know but first of all why would you take gold
and make a stash out there because now you got to come back to go get it.
Well that's what I did he take it out of here and that's what he died with
that was the 48 pounds of very gold very rich coal ore that was under his
bed when he died it came from the Superstition Mountains no question
So to get to the mine per se you're saying that he was only out there maybe three
times three to six times let's say one of the things people always wonder about
is Jacob Waltz's partner was it Jacob Weisner, Jacob Weser and did he really
have a partner it's hard to document that he had a partner I do believe his
partner was Jacob Weiser yeah I think he did there's a little bit of proof to it
supposedly he died he was wounded back there and died on the Walker ranch
outside of Florence
yeah maybe
I know that I did find a piece of land up by
Prescott that was owned by Jacob Weiser that was mining up there it might have
been him oh it's kind of common name sure it's a very common name
but whether he was his partners it's kind of nice to think about but it's
immaterial to the legend well the legend shifts back and forth did the Dutchman
kill him, did the Indians. No I believe from the research I was able
to do through Ted Cox's information that Jacob Weiser did exist he was the
Dutchman's partner this is what Ted said and he was he was basically mortally
wounded by Apaches okay and he made it to the the ranch in Florence and that's
where he died and I'm gonna mention a book here that you gonna grimace at
probably and that's the killer Mountains well yeah but that's the one that got me
interested in the mountains Glen McGill that's a history I was coming and going
here and going back to California at the time and his... Apache Sentinel
published some papers on.... newspapers on him. it was April 1966 and I still have those
newspapers as a matter of fact and they came out with and realized I was
deep into the Dutchman I thought I had it! I knew where it was and I didn't but
we all did and he came out there stories that we found the Dutchman and this is
what existed and just came out with some information that being a Dutchman hunter
if in fact he found the Dutchman at that time what I thought those things
couldn't exist all right so I started writing into the editor and they started
publishing my... what I was writing so it was a back and forth from Glenn Miguel's
people to me and Glenn McGill was a con artist he was a con and still to this
day I won't mention a name but still to this day every year we packed one of his
guys back into the mountains to that place. you're talking about the needle
Canyon place well up on top up of Buff Springs. up on top. I've been up there
right right it's not anything like what they described in the book. no! but it, but
it is there. yeah if you want to go and I just I found that what I was glassing
off a blacktop Mesa I see the Rope in the right the water.... fall area
there and went up there now there last time I went there was a big orange new
orange rope somebody had put up that's probably the guy that I packed out there.
yeah but it is a fascinating place to go. The whole mountain is! but but now isn't
that well the mountain is but I you know if you read some of these things in the
books it's interesting to go and look for these places and find them whether
that's why I had a field day with the information that I got
eventually from Ted Cox's manuscript because I could go there and find
everything he ever talked about and that's what's fun and he claimed that he
found the Dutchman. well if he claimed it and everything that you had found of his
was up there then there's no reason to not believe that no he was there. He had the right
ore. it's there.
profile map let's use the profile map okay let's assume
that I told you you go to a hundred places and find locations that it
matches to. but if you go up to Angel Springs the room and you look out
through the canyon you're you're looking at South Sema
ok
it's there
So
and hum
it could be buzzards roost
you know there's a lot of things out there they could be
a lot to think about
well with the help of Ron Feldman we
just may be able to find geologically and area wise where the Lost Dutchman
mine actually is and help solve one of the mysteries of the Superstition
Mountains
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you