What REALLY happened to Adolph Ruth?

Discuss information about the Lost Dutchman Mine
Joe Ribaudo
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Re: What REALLY happened to Adolph Ruth?

Post by Joe Ribaudo »

Paul,

Here are a few of the posts from Peter's old site:

Aurum

01-18-2008, 08:43 AM

In another thread the topic of Adolph Ruth staying at the Morse ranch while in Arizona was raised. This thread will attempt to give some information about that stay and the relationship of Mr. Ruth and Cal Morse. The Morse connection has been largely overlooked by enthusiasts because the Ruth death story evolved into a story that contained a lot of false information and rumors. The facts of the matter just may help researchers here get a step closer to unraveling the Adolph Ruth mystery. A mystery that has been confused and twisted by hundreds of conflicting stories and accounts.

Background of Cal Morse (Collins R. "Cal" Morse).

In 1892, 4 prospectors discovered the rich Goldfield gold deposits on the west side of Superstition Mountain. The Mammoth, Black Queen, Bulldog and Wasp were among the mines that sprang from this discovery.

The 4 prospectors were ; Oren and Orlando Merrill, Collins Hakes and Joseph R. Morse. * Joseph R. Morse was the father of Cal Morse.

All 4 of these prospectors became very rich from this discovery and all 4 continued to live in the Mesa area where they owned homes, ranches, mines and numerous business interests. Joseph R. Morse owned a ranch nearby the location of the Buckhorn Baths (Hot Springs) on the Apache trail just west of todays Apache Junction. This ranch became the Cal Morse ranch when his father died in 1918. Cal Morse's neighbor was the Collins Hakes family, a partner of his father in the Goldfield discovery. The Morse and Hakes were a very close knit group. Collins Hakes had married the sister of Joseph Morse.

263

The above photo is from the family photo's of the Collins Hakes family. Collins is the father in the photo, the mother is Mabel Ann Morse and the little boy with his hand on his mothers shoulder is Daniel Hakes. Daniel Hakes will be a prominent figure in the Adolph Ruth mystery in later years.

Like his father, Cal Morse was a prospector and miner in his early years and a life long enthusiast of the Lost Dutchman Mine which he searched for many years unsuccessfully. Later in life Morse became a cattle rancher, planted a large orange orchard along the Apache trail, and operated several business's in Mesa and what would become Apache Junction.

At least two of his business in the 1930's were service stations ( gas and auto repair) in east Mesa. Both Leroy Purnell and Jack Keenan were in Morse employ at various jobs in the summer of 1931. Purnell and Keenan worked at everything for Cal Morse from ranch hands to auto mechanics and even fruit pickers in his citrus orchards. Jack Keenan's relationship with Morse was especially close while Purnell seemed to be more a general laborer. Keenan worked as an auto mechanic in Morse's east Mesa gas station which today would be inside the city limits of Apache Junction. While both Keenan and Purnell knew Tex Barkley and his family, and may have visited his Quarter Circle U ranch on occasion, neither man was working for Tex as a cowboy in the summer of 1931 as is commonly believed.

Adolph and Erwin Ruth became acquainted with Cal Morse in the 1920's when the Ruth's learned of Cal Morse's interest in the Lost Dutchman mine and his efforts at locating that mine. Morse's searching for the mine was well known across Arizona and parts of the west and Morse spent a considerable amount of money in that endeavor. The Morse and Hakes were well known around Arizona and very prominent citizens of the Mesa area. From this mutual interest, a friendship developed between the Morse and Ruth family. Much transpired between the time the two met and Adolph Ruth came to Arizona on his fatal trip in May 1931. Much of that part of the story is not mine to tell and I cannot talk about some of those things, but I can say the Ruth's visited the Morse's at Cal's ranch before May of 1931.

When Adolph Ruth decided to search for the LDM in May of 1931, he came straight to Cal Morse's ranch. Mr. Ruth received his mail at the Morse ranch while in Arizona and his place of contact was with Morse. While Mr. Ruth frequented the Tex Barkley ranch during the 34 days he was in Arizona before he entered the mountains, he did not "stay" at the Barkley ranch. Ruth "may" have spent a night or two at the Quarter Circle U which probably led to the rummor's that is where he was residing.

It was two of Cal Morse's employees, Leroy Purnell and Jack Keenan who took Adolph Ruth into a camp at Willow Spring. They packed Mr. Ruth in through the First Water ranch on the NW side of the Superstitions ( Not through the Quarter Circle U ranch). Notice I did not say they packed him in FROM the First Water ranch, I said THROUGH the First Water ranch. The reason for the conflicting acounts is because Tex Barkley and others at the barkley ranch did not know until later how Ruth had gotten into the mountains. Leroy Purnell and Jack Keenan were not very forthcoming with authorities in the beginning themselves on the specifics of how, when, where and why Ruth got into Willow Springs. Again, this is a part of the story I am not at liberty to divulge or expand on.

When Adolph Ruth came up missing it was Cal Morse, not Tex Barkley, who first knew of his disapearance and alerted the authorities ( Maricopa Co. Sheriff). It was Cal Morse whom Ruth's wife wired reward money for anyone who might find her husband. It was the Morse ranch where Adolph's son, Erwin, came to stay while searching for his father.

Referring back to the above photo of the Hakes and their young son Daniel.

I met Daniel and his wife Melissa at the very last Arizona Pioneers reunion held in Phoenix in 1960. Daniel was in his 80's then and a historian of the Hakes and Morse families. Daniel passed away a few years later but his wife lived on into the mid 1970's passing on at the age of 95. While visiting with Beatrice Lewis of Mesa ( wife of Al Lewis of the Goldfield mines) and Mrs. Daniel Hakes, I had the occasion to listen to the story of Adolph Ruth and the Hakes and Morse involvement, parts of which I have related here in this post.

Hopefully this information might be used to pursue a new and more authentic angle in furthering research on the mystery of Adolph Ruth.

Aurum

____________________________________________

Aurum

01-18-2008, 10:57 AM

Randy,

Why Purnell and Keenan ?

Jack Keenan seemed to be quite close with the Morse family and was probably the most trusted of the Morse employees. Cal Morse was at that time (1931) in his 60's and his days of packing the mountains in the summer heat were behind him. Purnell may have been the better wrangler of the two. Remember, Cal Morse also ran cattle and had horses and stock at his disposal.

Keenan himself alone, may not have been up to the task of taking Ruth into the mountains. Involving Purnell may have come from necessity rather than choice. I believe it was a bad decision to ever involve Purnell.

The decision for Ruth to go into the mountains in the heat of summer was not a decision made by someone who didn't know any better. The timing was planned very carefully. At that time ( May 1931 ) a lot of prospectors and mine hunters as well as transients were in those mountains. It was the depression and many people were jobless and homeless and camping in the mountains and looking for a lost mine was as good a past time as any. As the summer heat set in, the number of people in the mountains would dwindle as men escaped the furnace and left the mountains for cooler spots to camp. Ruth going in those mountains when he did, mid-late June, would insure the least amount of people would be in there to interfere or observe his activities. I'm not trying to say Ruth was some Rambo type superman. He had his limitations and he knew them. What I am saying is Ruth never planned to hike the mountains and look for the mine under his own power. His plan was to be supplied with everything he needed and taken wherever he needed to go. Sometime within the first few days of his arrival at Willow Spring, that plan was interfered with.

It is my understanding that at first, when Adolph Ruth showed up missing, Cal Morse and Jack Keenan did not believe Ruth was dead or in any serious danger, but a little later, as the circumstances unfolded and they became more aware of what might have happened, they opened up some to the authorities, but at the same time, distanced themselves from the publicity that began to fly, allowing the rumors and stories to circulate while they kept a very low profile and worked only with Erwin Ruth. Cal Morse refused to be interviewed by any reporter covering the story and all references to him in relation to Mr. Ruth come directly from the Maricopa County Sheriff and his initial conversation with Cal Morse.

It should also be noted that Cal Morse wife, Florence, as well as Daniel Hakes wife Melissa and Tex Barkley's wife Gertrude, were the closest of friends as each were pioneering ranch families and the three ladies remained close friends and active in Mesa until all three of these fine ladies passed away in the early 1970's.

Aurum

__________________________________________

Aurum

01-21-2008, 10:01 AM

For those of you with a bit of detective in you and not satisfied with being spoon fed the dutchman information you take as gospel, take a look at the following and see if you can draw any conclusions and piece together a puzzle. Why did Adolph Ruth come to Cal Morse while seeking the Lost Dutchman mine and why did he choose Willow spring for his camp ?

Adolph Ruth came to Arizona to hunt the Lost Dutchman mine and stayed with Cal Morse, the son of one of the Goldfield mines founder, J.R. Morse.

Ruth made his camp at Willow Spring. The prevailing story is, Ruth was told to camp at Willow spring by Tex Barkley because it was a place of permanent water. In fact, Barkley didn't know where Ruth had camped until he was told it was Willow spring, AFTER Ruth had disappeared. Here is where the detective in you gets it's chance, .........

Arizona Weekly Enterprise June 18, 1887 page 2 col. 3

Superstition Mountain Mine.

Active work is reported to the north of Superstition Mountain near Willow spring on the mining prospects there located. The claims are strung along for some two miles, the ledge being exposed for a mile and a half. The vein is well defined, having an average width of eight feet. Some twenty-five men are engaged in work upon it, and are obtaining good ore running high in gold.

The claims are all held by men from Mesa city. One placer claim has been staked out, but at present, water is too scarce to do anything with it. We hear none but enthusiastic reports from this district and are inclined to believe that important developments are bound to spring from it.

** This was a mining strike discovered and filed on in June 1887, 5 years before the Goldfield mines were discovered. The location of this strike was along the ridge that seperates east Boulder from west Boulder canyons with Willow spring being below this ridge in West Boulder. **

The men who discovered and claimed this ridge above Willow spring were the same men who discovered the Goldfield mines 5 years later ( J.R. Morse, C.R. Hakes, Oren and Orlando Merrill).

Three days later, on June 21, 1887, this article ran in the Arizona Daily Gazette, page 4, col. 2

Mesa and the Mountains

But a few days ago, our sedate justice of the peace, C.R.Hakes (Collins R. Hakes), and his brother -in-law, Royal Morse (J.R. Morse) took a prospecting tour out around the mountains which resulted in the discovery of a rich gold bearing end.

The discoverers claim that the ledge is twenty-five feet in width and over a mile in length. Some of the rock has been assayed and goes twenty-seven dollars to the ton, and better than all, it is free milling rock. There is no reason in the world to doubt the word with respect to this discovery, of Mr. Hakes and Mr. Morse, for they are both well known as steady and reliable men, and as such not easily carried away by every breath of excitement.

With this rich bearing gold region in our midst, with a railway almost at the entrance of our village, and a good, level, wagon road leading therefrom, it cannot be long before eastern experts will be visiting the Superstitions and testing for themselves the truthfulness of these rich finds.

** Five years later, in November 1892, CR Hakes, JR Morse and the Merill brothers discovered the fabulously rich goldfield mines. This earlier strike above Willow spring produced gold, but not in the quantity first hoped. Morse and Hakes never gave up on the ridge above Willow spring and their sons, Daniel Hakes and Cal Morse, prospected the ledge heavily in later years, always thinking there was more to that deposit than was previously known.**

Aurum

__________________________________________

Much of the above posts, IMHO, are some true history of the subject. Unfortunatly, it's more than possible that the believability of the message is tainted by the messenger. Who knows what is truth and what is fiction?

Take care,

Joe
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Re: What REALLY happened to Adolph Ruth?

Post by Ozarker »

Hello Joe:

Within your post, the last post (by Aurum) quoted a 21 June 1887 article that appeared in the Arizona Daily Gazette. I think it's important to point out that the article was actually misquoted by Aurum. He quoted:

"With this rich bearing gold region in our midst, with a railway almost at the entrance of our village, and a good, level, wagon road leading therefrom, it cannot be long before eastern experts will be visiting the Superstitions and testing for themselves the truthfulness of these rich finds."

The actual article read as follows:

"With this rich bearing gold region in our midst, with a railway almost at the entrance of our village and a good level wagon road leading therefrom to the very mines, it cannot be long before eastern experts will be visiting the Superstitions and testing for themselves the truthfulness of these rich finds."


The emphasis above was added by me. Those few words that had been dropped from the original article actually make it clear that there was a wagon road leading from the railway in the village of Phoenix "to the very mines" the article was actually discussing (my hunch is that they were located north and west of the main Superstition Mountain).

I think everyone is aware that there was never a wagon road leading from Phoenix up to the ridge that separates East Boulder and West Boulder. To suggest otherwise is ludicrous.

I'd like to believe that this was simply an honest mistake which resulted in an improper conclusion.

The alternative is that the words were dropped intentionally to bolster the case that there was a gold-producing ledge on the ridge separating the two canyons, and that this is what Adolph Ruth may have been attracted to.

Regardless, there was no wagon road leading up there, or even into the deep interior of the mountains anywhere near where that ridge is located.

I know you have pointed out before that history gets changed one word at a a time, and this is a prime example of how that can occur. I wish there was enough time to check every detail, but I lost interest in the Morse-Hakes connection long ago.

Larry
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Re: What REALLY happened to Adolph Ruth?

Post by Cubfan64 »

I can't argue with anything Joe or Larry said at all - I looked for awhile tonight, but have not been able to find the independent information I'm looking for that mentions Cal Morse's involvement at the early stage of Ruth's disappearance.

I know it exists, I just can't find it - if I do, or if someone else is able to locate it, please do me a favor and post it here if you would?

Thanks,

Paul
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Re: What REALLY happened to Adolph Ruth?

Post by Ozarker »

Paul:

Depending on which source you believe, Erwin Ruth arrived to help in the search for his father on or about June 30 or July 1. At least three different newspaper articles mentioned at different times over the next week or so that Erwin was staying with the Barkleys, but on July 10 there was a single newspaper mention of Erwin staying at the ranch home of Cal Morse east of Mesa on the Apache Trail (Phoenix Gazette, 10 July 1931, Page 5 column 6 and 7).

This is the only mention I've seen tying the Ruth family to the Morses, other than the stories posted on the forums.

Not sure if this is what you recalled seeing recently, but it's the only thing I found.

Larry
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Re: What REALLY happened to Adolph Ruth?

Post by novice »

Paul,

Go to the LDM Documents page, Adolph Ruth. and Search on the Arizona Republic and Phoenix Gazette (Summer 1931) for MORSE.

According to one account I believe it mentions that Mrs. Ruth sent the offer of the $100 reward to Morse. He apparently then took it to the Phoenix authorities. (From Memory) :!:

Garry
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Re: What REALLY happened to Adolph Ruth?

Post by Ozarker »

Wow! That's a pretty good memory Garry.

The article you remembered was the 26 June Arizona Republic article (BTW, the search capability works great). There are other connections to Morse as well (Ruth receiving his mail there, etc).

All:

I need to correct my previous statement about where Erwin was staying. Only one newspaper article directly stated that Erwin was staying with the Barkleys. The others alluded to him assisting with the search from the Barkley ranch, but did not sepcifically state he was staying there. Sorry for the slip.

Larry
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Re: What REALLY happened to Adolph Ruth?

Post by Cubfan64 »

Thanks Larry and Garry both. The newspaper story I was pretty sure I remembered was the one where Morse notified the Sheriff. I vaguely even remembered the other ones. There's definitely a tie-in with the Morse family here in one way or another.

I believe at one point Tom Kollenborn hoped to find some evidence he had that Ruth had visited the Superstitions at least once before. In fact in his book "Superstition Mountain - In The Footsteps Of The Dutchman," there is a map on the inside back cover and just a bit NW of Herman Mountain and SE of Horse Camp Basin is an X and a notation that reads, "Ruth Camp 1928?"

The suspicion is that Cal Morse and Ruth spent a little time in the mountains on that trip.

Thanks again for getting me on target.

Paul
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Re: What REALLY happened to Adolph Ruth?

Post by Joe Ribaudo »

Paul,

Tom has been trying to find that letter for quite awhile now. It would be a great piece of LDM history to find, but I don't believe it will ever surface again. :cry: You may want to talk to Tom about it at this years Rendezvous.

Take care,

Joe
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Re: What REALLY happened to Adolph Ruth?

Post by pippinwhitepaws »

http://www.lapahie.com/Timeline_USA_1928_1940.cfm

ok...all i am saying..with the evidence that exists...perhaps a man did not murder ruth.
perhaps not a white man either...

if you left the silver king...and headed to phoenix...you go down the valley to the foothills turn right and stop at the board house for some shade and water...that trail is still there...goes right past...

ruth was a livestock inspector ...right? and in the 1930's the over use of the desert combined with a seriously long dry period...left US agents destroying at least 250,000 navajo goats sheep and horse....imagine living in the supers..running cattle...in a drought...and this friendly old government man just shows up on the front porch searching for a gold mine...wonder if ruth had his inspector badge with him?
nothing exists in a vacumn...well..not here anyway...but...
i was out there thirty some years after..an people then knew everybodies: who what when where and with who???
am just saying perhaps we should look to: what person could command such respect an co-operation in a long term coverup...that still has some purty intelligent people ?

just as a madeuppoo.com thought...ruth shows up and lazies around with all the named parties and places...loafed a lot at that board house...that sucker was tall...threw some shade ...water and long talks and some lady waiting on this spoiled old government man she is not quite sure of his purpose... looks at hersideways...she thinks he's gonna order the death of all those damn cows ya can hardly catch and she'll never get to florence for that material...snick...now you two take that old man out to black mesa dump him off the edge...of course they pick his pocket...
but now one can not be accused, without everyone, being a party to murder...

if he was murdered. i still lean on the mountain lion theory.
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Re: What REALLY happened to Adolph Ruth?

Post by Cubfan64 »

PWP - I think you're mistaking Adolph Ruth for Erwin. Adolph Ruth was done working for the government by 1923/1924 and as far as I can remember, he was a meat inspector, not a field work guy.

It sounds like you're implying Tex's wife was in on some plot to get Adolph out of the way because of some fear she had that he was going to get the government to destroy a bunch of livestock. I don't see a dotted line connecting all those things at all personally.

Joe - I know I've talked to Tom about that letter before too and I agree that if it's out there somewhere it's either in the bottom of a pile or in someone's "stash" and won't see the light of day.
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Re: What REALLY happened to Adolph Ruth?

Post by pippinwhitepaws »

no cubfan...that is not the point...
what i am saying is after seventy some years of this guy did it..or that guy did it....
no new evidence has appeared...no ties to bind the murder to anyone...

perhaps one should examine other avenues...
we become so vested in our theory, we forget the simple answer is probable the correct one.
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Re: What REALLY happened to Adolph Ruth?

Post by Joe Ribaudo »

Pip,

"perhaps one should examine other avenues...
we become so vested in our theory, we forget the simple answer is probable the correct one."

That's a very true statement. I don't know how simple the answer is though. If it's so simple, why haven't you named the perp'? You hint that it was a woman....but have not named the obvious candidate. That rumor has been bandied about for some time now.

Joe Ribaudo
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Re: What REALLY happened to Adolph Ruth?

Post by Cubfan64 »

To me, the simplest answer is that he died of natural causes trying to get someplace that he wasn't really that well prepared or fit to get to. Maybe his body was moved afterwards by someone, maybe things were moved by animals.

I guess I'm not in on what the rumor is that's been danced around for awhile. If I missed the point by suggesting you were implying Gus's wife, then I'm at a loss to know what IS being implied.

I'm not vested in any theory at all at this point to be honest - my mind is wide open as to what happened to him. If someone has a theory to throw out, I have no problem talking about it.
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Re: What REALLY happened to Adolph Ruth?

Post by pippinwhitepaws »

i also have leaned to the natural causes event in the death of adolf ruth...
perhaps there was some backstabbing and going through pockets of the dead...but natural demise all the same.
the point was, there were women..not just one..in the area that were hard cases, and more than capable of killing an old man..yet we never even examine the issue..as if their gender made them above review.
all these men acting stupid for what?
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Re: What REALLY happened to Adolph Ruth?

Post by Joe Ribaudo »

Garry,

[The actual article read as follows:

"With this rich bearing gold region in our midst, with a railway almost at the entrance of our village and a good level wagon road leading therefrom to the very mines, it cannot be long before eastern experts will be visiting the Superstitions and testing for themselves the truthfulness of these rich finds."


The emphasis above was added by me. Those few words that had been dropped from the original article actually make it clear that there was a wagon road leading from the railway in the village of Phoenix "to the very mines" the article was actually discussing (my hunch is that they were located north and west of the main Superstition Mountain).

I think everyone is aware that there was never a wagon road leading from Phoenix up to the ridge that separates East Boulder and West Boulder. To suggest otherwise is ludicrous.]

I agree with your conclusions here. If there was "a good level wagon road leading therefrom to the very mines" it's obvious that the mines were not located on the ridge between East and West Boulder Canyon's.

You are probably correct in placing the mines in question north and west of the range.
I would not be so kind to Kraig as to suggest that it was "simply an honest mistake which resulted in an improper conclusion."

I am more inclined to go with your next statement:

"The alternative is that the words were dropped intentionally to bolster the case that there was a gold-producing ledge on the ridge separating the two canyons, and that this is what Adolph Ruth may have been attracted to."

That's easy for me to believe since that was one of the areas I was very interested in. I have changed my opinion in recent years and now believe Ruth was interested in the area to the north of Willow Spring where there is a modern day claim in the saddle seperating the two canyons. I also believe that is where Ruth's body was actually found......as reported by Ely in his book.

Take care,

Joe
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Re: What REALLY happened to Adolph Ruth?

Post by novice »

Joe,

You didn’t mean to reference Garry in your previous post. It was Larry’s post. 8O

Since you have my attention you will get my 2 cents. When the thread you have referenced or another one on the same subject was being discussed, my impression was that one of the ways Aurum was tying the Adolph Ruth story to the Morse/Hakes families was by using the fact that Adolph camped at Willow Springs in Boulder Canyon (1931) and that there was an earlier Morse/Hakes (1890s) story that associated them with a Willow Springs.

I even thought it was you that had the mining claim that Morse or Hakes (I’m not sure whether it was one or both) filed in which a Willow Springs was noted. I also thought that whole scenario was debunked as obviously being different Willow Springs locations.

Help me out here before I get in over my head it I’m not already.

I don’t believe that Ruth’s Willow Springs was mentioned in any contemporary newspaper accounts and the only reference I have seen was one in which Erwin Ruth used the term Boulder spring in describing the camp site. In the last letter that Adolph is “alleged” to have written, he uses the term Water Hole at Boulder Creek Canyon. When did Ruth’s camping location begin to be called Willow Springs?

Garry
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Re: What REALLY happened to Adolph Ruth?

Post by Ozarker »

Garry/Joe/All:

I might be able to save everyone some time here.

I believe the Morse mining claim in question was for the Lucky Boy mine.

The claim was located on the ground by JR Morse and RE Hopkins on 23 April 1887 and filed by Hopkins with the Maricopa County Recorder on 31 May 1887.

(Of course, the newspaper article that was misquoted was dated 21 June 1887).

The mining claim is on line at the Maricopa County Recorder web site in Mining Claims Book 4 Page 226[/b].

The link to the Maricopa County Recorder web site is here:

http://recorder.maricopa.gov/recdocdata/

[Once at the site, you will need to select the older records (1871-1946), then enter the above book and page number in the appropriate fields, then click on "search". In the resulting list, select the second item (Mining Claims) and you will taken to the index for that record. Click on the highlighted link and you will be able to view an image of the actual recorded document from 1887]

The claim was described as being located "...about (4 or 5) four or five miles north of Superstition Mountain and one and one half (1 1/2) miles southerly from Willow Springs...".

Hope this helps.

Larry
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Re: What REALLY happened to Adolph Ruth?

Post by djui5 »

Ozarker wrote: The claim was described as being located "...about (4 or 5) four or five miles north of Superstition Mountain and one and one half (1 1/2) miles southerly from Willow Springs...".

Hope this helps.

Larry
This would have been North of Goldfield. There is a Willow Springs on the West side of the highway, the vehicle entrance to which is just past the Weavers Needle Lookout, as well as a Willow Springs in the Supers. They can commonly be confused with each other.
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Re: What REALLY happened to Adolph Ruth?

Post by Ozarker »

Hello Randy:

Are there any signs of the old Lucky Boy mine left to be seen? Is is common knowledge where that mine was located? I looked in John Wilburn's booklet and he does mention the Lucky Boy (although he has the discovery date wrong) but he doesn't give a physical location like he does for some of the other Goldfield mines.

All:

It's a great day for me when I get to go through old maps. I got interested in Garry's question about when the Willow Springs in Boulder Canyon got it's name, and although I couldn't find a definite answer to that, I can say that the earliest map I've seen it on (in West Boulder) is the 1956 USGS Goldfield quad. It did not appear (at least, not at the West Boulder location) on the 1934 US Forest Service grazing allotments map (even though this map does show other spring locations), or on the older USGS topographical maps of the Roosevelt or Florence quads (although it should be noted that these maps are too large scale to show springs).

The Willow Springs referred to by Morse and Hopkins was also referred to in several other Morse mining claims (Abe Lincoln, American Eagle, George Washington, High Flyer, Old Man). I believe this Willow Springs was farther north from the one that Randy describes, and was actually located in the extreme northwest corner of Section 17 Township 2 North Range 9 East, or about 2 miles northerly of Government Well. It is clearly shown at that location on the US Forest Service grazing allotment map (1934), and works out well with the descriptions given by Morse. For those that don't have the grazing allotment map handy, it's general location was the location of Boundary Marker 2154 on the Goldfield quad (follow the Apache Trail north of Goldfield to find that boundary marker).

[Another interesting note is that others also referred to Willow Springs in their mining claims, so it was a fairly wellknown spring. In fact, one claim from 1893 stated that their claim was also 1 1/2 miles south from Willow Springs, on "the Willow Springs Road", and I'm wondering whether this might have been an early local name for what would eventually become the Apache Trail?]

Of course, the location that Randy gave is the third Willow Springs to enter the discussion. It is shown just where Randy desribed it, west of the highway (Apache Trail) just north of Goldfield. It is shown on the modern Goldfield quad just three-quarters of a mile north of Government Well. This is quite a ways south from the location described by Morse and Hopkins in the Lucky Boy and other mining claims, and which is shown on the 1934 forest service map.

I can only guess that the original Willow Springs location either dried up or became unusable and was no longer included on modern maps, although it has been noted that several historical locations have disappeared from maps in modern times, for whatever reason.

Anyway, this is kind of straying from the Adolph Ruth topic so I'll take this off line with anyone that wants the record locations for any of the above, and will keep an eye open for the answer to Garry's question.

Larry
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Re: What REALLY happened to Adolph Ruth?

Post by Joe Ribaudo »

Larry and Randy,

There is a mine up in that area, but the name is not in my memory bank right now. I will get back with the name and exactlocation.

Joe
Somehiker
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Re: What REALLY happened to Adolph Ruth?

Post by Somehiker »

All:
The 1900 (survey dated) Goldfield Topo indicates that what is now called First Water Creek,was then called "Willow Springs Creek".Could "Hackberry Spring" ,therefore, be a possible candidate for what was previously known as Willow Spring?

Regards:SH
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1900 Goldfield
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pippinwhitepaws
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Re: What REALLY happened to Adolph Ruth?

Post by pippinwhitepaws »

thanks for posting that pieceof map somehiker..

i attempted to address this topic once before...

there was a house, wooden with a concrete foundation..at the junction of apache trail and the new road to firstwater...it had a well for water...the house and foundation are gone now...remains were there untill the late 1980's?

never did find out who lived out there...
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Re: What REALLY happened to Adolph Ruth?

Post by Ozarker »

Somehiker:

Back in the early 1890s, Ephraim Stewart of Mesa owned a half interest in what was then known as the Superstition Ranch located approximately where pippinwhitepaws described the house structure.

In February 1892, Stewart sold his interest in the ranch to CF Rogers and sons (also cattlemen of Mesa), along with 4 water holes which he listed as Willow Spring, Cottonwood Springs, Hackberry Spring, and Second Water. The deed transferring the ranch and springs can be found in Deed Book 29 Page 241 of the Maricopa County records.

The above instument shows that Hackberry Springs and Willow Springs were two separate places.

pip:

I am not sure whether the structure you described was part of Stewart's Superstion Ranch, or whether it was something separate, or even more contemporary. Local research may provide the answer to that. Good luck!

Larry
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Re: What REALLY happened to Adolph Ruth?

Post by djui5 »

Ozarker wrote:Hello Randy:

Are there any signs of the old Lucky Boy mine left to be seen? Is is common knowledge where that mine was located? I looked in John Wilburn's booklet and he does mention the Lucky Boy (although he has the discovery date wrong) but he doesn't give a physical location like he does for some of the other Goldfield mines.
I have no idea, I've only been past the gate at the entrance off of the highway once. I don't even know exactly where "Willow Spring" itself is as I've never hiked into it, though it's clearly marked on a map. I'd like to find the "Lucky Boy" and check it out after I finish up a few things on the East side of the road :lol:

Also,
Somehiker, I see in your map it looks like Willow Spring Creek as I'm seeing a "cr" at the end of "Springs". Looking at a modern topo it seems as if Willow Springs Creek runs from "my" Willow Springs across the highway to the Superstitions side and ends just North West of First Water trailhead. It is "possible" this creek is what your map is describing.

I'm not saying any of this is fact, just offering my OPINION. Please don't chew me out, ahem. :lol:
Randy Wright
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Re: What REALLY happened to Adolph Ruth?

Post by Somehiker »

Larry:
Thanks for the answer to my query.Not likely then,that Hackberry was ever known by another name.Second water and Cottonwood are also identified on some maps,so this still leaves Willow Spring out there somewhere.Randy could have the Wright location. :wink:

From the 1907 Topo......
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