Lost Dutchman Gold Mine - Arizona Superstition Mountain Wilderness

Hi Oro, Thanks for the link, good stuff. I have to admit I'm curious about the wordiness and willingness of a police detective to share details of what may have been an ongoing investigation with anyone, much less the family of the victim. I'm very surprised he included any rumors at all, info about...

Skulls are often carried away by vultures and dropped onto rocks to break them apart or at least create holes so the vulture can get to what is left inside. One missing person northwest of Four Peaks was found with out his skull and the skull was found years later about 20 miles away resting in the...

Hi Joe,

I have to log off now but just wanted to say thanks for the tip, I look forward to mulling it over. I'm pretty much stuck as of now and your help is appreciated. Best regards, Jim

Hi Don, I hear ya. I really don't want to believe that Ruth was premeditatively killed, because it will tarnish something I believe in. But what I want to believe and the evidence don't match. I can see how it's perceived that Ruth's death has been used to further the financial interests of the area...

Hi Joe and Deducer, I'm glad that Ron and Jesse Feldman published what they could of the Cox notes, as it gives me a window back in time to people I remember that were a lot like him. Globe, Miami and Superior, even parts of Phx were different towns then, everyone pretty much knew each other and peo...

Hi Don, You very well may be right. It would be easy for a guy in his condition to die out there. You are also right, I think, that no factual conclusion at all can be reached at this point. It couldn't at the time, either, because the M.E. never got a look at his skull. It got sent to DC right afte...

Hi Joe, I also believe he was killed above West Boulder Canyon close to Boulder Basin. That's a location that he could easily reach on foot and with the limited water he carried with him. The story that we have all been fed was to lead subsequent searchers away from what he was looking for I'm stray...

Mike, Just as an aside, I checked Jesse Feldman's book "Jacob's Trail" since he uses the Cox notes quite a bit. It seems to line up. Jesse didn't want to "name names" so he left blanks in the Cox account of Ruth's murder (p. 296), but if you compare it to Crooked Mountain, the na...

I don't know what came first, the chicken or the egg. Period documents indicate Novinger was prospecting in the 4 Peaks area, was wounded pretty badly, taken to Ft McDowell, then lived out his days in Phx. Ely's version has Novinger heading from CA to Rich Hill based on accounts from an Indian capti...

Hi Roy, I guess I should backtrack a bit in the interest of explaining things for people new to the LDM and just starting to explore the forum. I expect you are completely familiar with the connection between the Lost Adams and the LDM, but many people reading this may not be, so bear with me. I wou...

Hi Randy, I haven't ever looked at a map of that area for graves, it never occurred to me. I went up the Agua Fria from Gillett and tried to re-trace the route Swilling's widow described. I was trying to find the cabin site, she gave pretty good directions and described an irrigation ditch J.S. dug,...

Hi Mike, I agree, in fact I was a bit surprised to read about Abe Reid portrayed in that way. I have also read several other accounts that portrayed him in a much more positive light. I never knew him, so I don't know, but I'm inclined to think this portrayal was perhaps a bit of artistic license? I...

:D I know, but I figure hey, why not research it? I'm only in AZ a few weeks a year, so I have to have something to do while getting cabin fever back here in the snow. Thankfully it's finally melting. According to court testimony, Jack Swilling brought Jacob Snivelly's body to Gillett right before h...

It does have some great scenery, and I think we all know very little if any was shot in the wilderness. And the helicopters...I'm sure they all know there's a little helicopter factory nearby that could explain the Apache attack helo. So it must be the producers. What I meant by what a shame it was,...

Hi Randy! I'm not sure about indian origins of this particular structure, but I know what you mean. The lack of mortar for one, but who knows. That is a small time span that indigenous peoples didn't use mortar. I have found two more structures in the area that have period rifle shells and spoons th...

Scott, Whatever the Black Legion is or ever was, Valentines to the end of March sounds like a good time to be in the mountains. Just watch out for snakes... Be advised that the Supes are the most trampled over and searched area in all of Arizona, with the exception of the Grand Canyon. If there is a...

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah9/J0s1E/IMAG0172_zps3b9ace35.jpg Here's a pic of the brown crystals. Anyone know the history of this mine? It's within the public panning area and therefore no longer open to claim, and also subject to Nat'l Forest mineral extraction rules. The mine dump has mo...

This is just inside the mine, and may be why they dug here. Appears to be azurite, but there were some brownish crystals that looked like someone had chipped out the biggest ones...

Farther back along the main shaft. This shaft is relatively straight and is about 100ft long.

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah9/J0s1E/IMAG0159_zps6900ae4b.jpg There's a shaft going straight down from the main shaft, but it's filled with water. This shaft was at least 30 feet deep. Dropped a rock down and followed it down with my flashlight about that far before I lost sight of it.

Here is another location I was wondering about. This is a hard-rock mine that followed a clay-filled crack in the solid rock mountain. Location 34 29 11N/112 21 55W. It's at the base of the mountain on the east side of Lynx Creek just south of Bannie Mine Rd. Here is a picture of the main shaft... h...

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah9/J0s1E/IMAG0338_zpscb31344d.jpg Some of the walls have fallen down. Anyway, does anyone know what this structure is, or have any history on it? It's not far from the old stage route, Gillett, and on the road to top-top mine. Jack Swilling lived here and was ar...

On top of the mesa. The rock wall circles the entire top of the mesa, except for a small gap where you can climb up.

Holy smokes, I finally got it. OK, the pic above is in reference to the fort-like formation on a mesa about 1km west of the ghost town of Gillett. We are standing on the east side, looking up west. You can see the stacked stone wall on top of the mesa. There is only one way in.... http://i1376.photo...

Sorry. Still trying to figure out how to post pics.