Legend of the Superstition Mountains Episode 2: Mysteries of Fish Creek

ten Grazia is the most famous painter come out of Arizona primarily known now today since he passed away in 1982 for his gallery and the Sun located out in Tucson but um Ted actually opened a gallery in Apache Junction was always tuned into and had a love for the Superstition Mountains bag besides the gallery he published a book on the Superstition Mountains he has a collection I believe of about a hundred paintings concerning the Superstition Mountains he was a known prospector he searched for the loss of mine and even took guided tours through the mountains with people on horseback so as extensive as his relationship was with the mountains his love with the mountains Ted in 1976 realized that he felt that uh let me try it it'll work I think I got it now Ted B Grazia the most famous painter come out of Arizona if gallery in the Sun down in Tucson is an exceptional place designed by Ted in fact he was known as not just a painter but as a sculptor and a bit of an architect but what's not always commonly known as Ted opened a gallery in Apache Junction a superstition gallery a closed I believe in 1987 was a five acre property he lived there off and on a bit and he had a lot of ties the superstition about the place he'd love to go he spent an enormous amount of time in the mountains and prospecting searching for the Lost Dutchman mine he guided tours of the Superstition Mountains on horseback in 1976 Ted Grazia decided that the federal government's inheritance II tax was unfair his family would literally have to sell off most of his collection to pay the tax after he passed away so on protest of this he took a number of paintings out to Angel Springs of the Superstition Mountains built a tepee like structure and he burned and the number changes but somewhere between 30 and 100 paintings it's also said that he hit a number of paintings and sculptures while he was out there now there's different discrepancy of what he burned and whether or not it might have been a publicity stunt but there's also an additional story of he and Ian Papago when in the mountains and hid a bunch of paintings and caves and various areas of the mountains at another date his wife Marian once spoke about how he would leave late me means with a bag full of stuff to return from the mountains early the next morning and the bag would be empty but with all these stories and it appears that Ted was possibly Heidi millions of dollars worth of art in the mountains one of the most intriguing is Bob Ward his book ripples of lost echoes speaks of Ted who was a friend stopping by and let's give Bob to give him a hand because of the inheritance e-tax he wanted to find a way around some of it to provide his wife with an income so his idea was he took a number of tubes three paintings per tube and he dug a number of holes and they would bury these and then he does Bob well you draw a map you saw it to my wife and then she can sell it to people and she could make some money off of them looking for the treasure of these paintings Bob Ward did not say where it was there is a map and he included in his book with the story and Frank thinks he has something that has close ties to the story a stone walkway which is very similar to some of what that gallery in the Sun and an empty hole that had been previously dug out now I don't know what all the ties are but I'm interested and I'm intrigued taking a look at this and seeing if there is some way we can tie in these coordinates on this map to this area - Frank found [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] Frank and I are out here this is the spot Bob she's took us for the math alignment for the Gonzales and the Peralta is obviously the blazes are still here if you turn can you look right through and follow my finger you can see weavers needle right through the gap and then if you turn this way and look this way you see four peaks sticking right through so you got the alignment he was talking about right through here looks like the plant has had better days but if we walk over here the alignment of rocks that were placed here boulders that this Bush is obviously going into is those here and kind of follow the line one of the most important reasons we're in this area obviously as Bob chooses alignment Gonzales Peralta maps that there was a camp in this area and there's so many other things to feed this an individual knows patchy Jack claimed and Simms Ely and Jim Bart confirmed there were meal bones all over on horse Mesa where they had slaughtered the Mules from the massacre but even more intriguing is there's so many places in the superstitions you can take and more clues in I generally dispense with so many the clues because I don't think they're as valid as people would like to think we know generally it's Reinhardt petrache and Julia Thomas and we have to take what they said and so much what they said is very general in terms three Red Hills there's reddish Hills all through the mountain ranges does it mean you got to pass all three are they all three together does it mean when you pass the third if you've passed all three are you too far in the area there's plenty of red dirt there's plenty of red area so it could hold to this area it's at a north/south the reckon Canyon you know that runs tributary to in the river that fits perfectly too so north-south Canyon in a north-south trending Canyon that fits as well with that area so it could be that logically fits we have four peaks to the north we have the alignment sighting of Weaver's needle to the south a lot of these clues do fit but again I always want to point out to people as they're so generic you can fit them and that's why so many people believe the Lost Dutchman's in so many places the reason we like this area is while all these things can fit there's so little stories published about these areas and people searches in the areas they're very brief and Sims eelis Lost Dutchman mine they talk about the best day Dutch hunting they ever had was up on horses Mesa and they were in that area and they never tell you what it was and I I know a number of people have always been intrigued what did they find or what was it they thought they were on to Jon Chunin Herrmann petrache Jim barks Sims Ely so many people search that area in the mountains and it's never been you won't find it in anywhere published much mentioned about their searches in that area I'm sampling looking the mineralization see what we can find and more importantly as we move along looking for artifacts encampments anything that leads us to believe because it would be a huge feather in our caps to find evidence of the Peralta's of the Gonzalez's something we can not just time stamp but we can actually tie to them and start bringing the story together out piece at a time so kind of definitely an interesting spot don't you think so for right in fact that it lines up with the map is kind of always being interesting can't beat the day in the temperature today though much better than when we were filming yeah I wish that we were coming in this sight better than anything else definitely the site here nobody messed with us I'm a contender you don't know where it that's true we probably just spoiled it my new sad Queen Spencer found another hill like this over that way okay there's another hill that has a similar there's an alignment and there was a hole right a pit some work somebody dug yeah we come down in there sitting dinner nothing yeah [ __ ] good a little way up always something else to do all right get moving over here there was one advantage that people just don't think about in doing the TV show while we were filming we were in some very interesting areas and we found some very interesting things to follow up on and what the team is doing right now is we're working on following those areas up because every single spot that we went to and filmed there was something there there was some basis to the story that you saw on television and some of the stuff we kept to ourselves some of the stuff we talked about a little bit it's just a very very interesting area and it gave us an opportunity on their dime to go out and find new locations and come up with some new ideas on things to look for and the team is working on that this is interesting see it's really making up removed all that around so someone's moved it was a perfect hmm no that's all lined up next it's been there a while yeah you can see what's up again and what does it lead to never sweetie tracking y-yo and okay one zombie slap it just ends on this end here that way in there so I blew over the past we've been there that one right in here you see it [Applause] we're not here laughs it was a much better shape Frank Augustine solved the puzzle the deal of something when I told you the story that these guys would do this and like the cell is our survey you come to a point they'd have a picture and they'd survey and then it wouldn't lead to something else it didn't necessarily mean something you could see this might be a point to work off of what thought here is regardless they did it they didn't put anything on the end they just ended now at this point yeah so there's a sever one across the road upload but same thing and there's one down just keep flattened so it's up the road another hill it's that that ones on the right okay it's on a hill on a hill and then the other ones across the hill from us the other ones down to escape flat but this one okay so that's four there's no time sorry our string adjust at the one over here though the alignment point which would be four hills in a row right oh yeah I say what's points to what right here this isn't nice borrow marks whare mark Saguaro like that Frankie's realized the marks tomorrow of the alignment point of the Gonzales map is sitting right there see if I can home in on it there is so much Saguaro was there and then at the end point of this tap I think point is Jeff actually circles finishes right where you would finish in your perfectly lined up with the Saguaro the blaze Saguaro level line of the maps kind of actually pretty cool so Frank where's the gold I don't see it anywhere pretty neat entre pretty cool I'm sure someone will come out here and destroy this man you know we need to do on some of the stuff set trap cameras catch these [ __ ] wall as we like come out and do this stuff yeah that took some breakup took us a lot this Roger than half which has been there obviously a very very very long time and afterwards he showed us a hole that had actually been backfilled in and could possibly be a site where the Grazia's paintings once were we want to take a look at that and kind of just get the feel and have Frank described what they were doing out there so how far did how how did you find the hole and what we're not just saying preparing here okay okay de gracias paintings yeah so we came up with some equipment we dug it out any was down about that far and ended what made him think they were buried in there because of the long way but why wouldn't it be nearer the walkway why would it be right here okay her Minds okay then you back filled it is why wouldn't you dig at the end of the path what Pat the path over there that's a path up there okay why wouldn't you dig at the path why would you I don't want to show when you guys done here because they've been pretty sweet dog did you dig or did you just sit and watch no I did a dig you did the digging but okay previously been duck okay so you know it been previously done a hole that already been dug out yeah you weren't sure how old it been compacted back okay that makes more sense explain no it was just odd that somebody would dig a hole there that deep yeah thank you I don't know where they're at you're over there somewhere on Coronado across from us okay I'm going to shoot a couple shots out and this is what I have to deal with while the DeGrazia stuff is a very intriguing and needs a follow-up it's more important that we're burning a lot of daylight here and we only have so much time we're going to be able to spend in the mountain okay there's a lot of miles to get down Fish Creek and I thought to the second time you have got speed also we need to get going and start putting some time in on the trail on solely shady it's always cool no one's been here for walkers there's usually a fire pit here or it's washed away there's been obviously plenty of rain but there's always firewood here so it's a good spot stops usually mine one of my lunch spots I usually see up on these ridges up here's where I see bighorn sheep and then today though so back when I was scouting her second season locations I came across this outcropping a rock looked like there was copper silver possibly some specks of possible gold in it and I broke off some nice and a lot of crystal a lot of quartz crystals in the area I'm intrigued I want Frank to take a closer look at this not just take samples but look at this area with a closer eye right right check the spot of the end of my finger legged feed it everywhere but was spotless big my finger [Applause] yes John mica so mica through here mica red quartz crystals I need to get Frank over and take a look at the cave it's very unusual the formation the low wall the dimensions actually even fit what's written on the map and get his take on what this was I think Frank's eyes are going to open a little it's hidden back in the brush I don't think I think that's what's going to intrigue him is that it's actually hidden away yep in January 2015 prior to the show coming out they were already discussing of doing a second season one of things we wanted to do is scout areas look over the area where we were working while doing so I spent most of the scouting time on my own and I released the video when I did a return trip to the area enforcing I didn't know what I was in there wasn't thinking of it at the time I was taking still photographs though at the time so I took a collection of still photographs of various areas where we would possibly film areas where we could coordinate the schedules where we could do different things while I was there there was a small area and had some potholes up in the ledges and one just particularly pulled to me it was probably about shoulder high to me they had a little wear on and I was you looked back in and after about a foot foot and a half it kind of turned and I looked back in and it didn't look like I was trying to understand why I was seeing debris what kind of debris I'm looking at and I could tell was some sort of possibly cloth or paper I guess I wasn't thinking about the safety of this but I stuck my arm in and started to poke around and slowly try to pull it out once I touched it I realized it was clop it was something very soft or not soft but pliable and I started kind of working it out as carefully as I possibly could it was it was going to be near impossible without causing some damage I don't know what anyone could have done because it was not really very visible when I worked it out there were papers in there you could see that there had been something either written or printed on it but you couldn't even it wasn't even legible it literally was sold it fell apart it just turned into such small fragments it was it was not going to be able to it wasn't anything even be able to do with it I kept all that the ziplock bag but it's just even after I got home I went through everything I realized there wasn't even a single letter or number anything I could there was no way to piece that together but in there there was a straight razor and a few other different things the cloth was just like deteriorating I don't know it was just kind of a yellowish brown and I don't know if it was that was the original color but the one thing I found in there that was very intriguing was this pocket watch Frank Augustine actually has worked on pocket watches and antiques and Frank was able to determine this probably around the mid late 1800s he said and I will get to it he's going to actually restore it and make it functional he believes he can make it functional again which is incredible but it was actually just wrapped in there and sitting in there one of the coolest things I've ever found the mountains obviously considered now maybe some kind of a lucky charm a good charm after I worked in that area I looked around because I thought of someone placed something here there has to be something else I worked myself further up Horse Mesa the southern slopes and I was looking for anything that would have been a camp or looked down below me anything that below me might look like a camp at one point I found a kind of a open area had a little bit of a cover over it it wasn't you wouldn't call it even up in any kind of shelter but it probably would break the wind a bit from you from a side about a side and a half and while I was there I just running my feet through the ground and just kind of looking around and thinking this would have been a good place for a camp and what came up out of there was this the manatee no one's a silver dollar no metal detector just pure dumb luck but and all I saw was the edge of it but the edge I was able just to catch enough to realize the shape I saw odd very steer clear shape so I reached down just to pick it up picking it it's a piece of trash or you know what is that because I could see that very very into the edge of the way it just curved and I picked it up and I found this so two things one of the reasons we're going to concentrate in this area and it's in a relationship with Bob Ward's map and other in that area but for me it was a bit of a thrill not 1830s 1840s 1850s but definitely putting us somewhere late 1880 80s into the early 1900s of someone back in that area which is um interesting because progress in the building of the dam didn't begin till around 1925 so it would have been very early prospecting and individuals back in there still looking possibly looking for the Lost Dutchman mine [Applause] Bob Ward put a little map in his book in an area that we were interested in and what's cool about it you can go to that location and actually find things on that map and Bob had a little story about a lost mind down in that section so there's something going on down in that spot so here we go Bob Wars and ripples of lost echoes talked about a gentleman that ran into him at a restaurant he I guess he went to look at her searched Bob out knew who he was didn't introduce himself Bob Orton says he never got the man's name the man said he was passed along a map and a story from a gentleman many many years before the man had said around 1909 he had been down at Fish Creek Canyon and while traveling through two men called out they've been working something up on a Ledge above him in the canyon they asked him if you wanted to come up for some coffee they had been working a silver ledge how high graded that was we don't know but he drew map gave it to this other individual the other individual I guess had never really done anything with it had gotten too old and he passed them along to Bob Bob took that map one in the area located it the value of silver the price of silver probably isn't worth a while to do much with and there might be a little gold but it's intriguing and interesting when you find a story someone's written about and you go to into an area and you find those landmarks and what I've actually done is for some time I've been intrigued by there was something nudging at me in the back of my mind there's something about this area what is it and then one day while reading ripples of lost echoes I saw the map and realized I'd actually seen the place where the spring that came with the wall and everything wasn't perfect in place that is an area of definitely while we're taking samples an argument escape I want Frank to look at it too and see if he's come to the same conclusion as I have that this is the place Bob Ward's map Oh explain this Frank and you can even see where they had a doorway three-two-one you distracted you know start again I love it when things just come together I mean you have a map that shows a cave with a little wall and you go out and you find a cave with a little wall now when you find actual physical evidence that something you're looking at exists it gives you an idea that maybe there's something there if people haven't flown so next up is taking Frank from he's able to look at the map see the cave look at the area the bend and fish creek but show him the spring I think that is going to be where he's going to understand is this absolutely fits even the drawing of this spring area it's identical to the spring that's actually physically there no footprints nothing middle of a desert Canyon [Applause] thank you for sharing [Applause] it looks like a human leg bone it's what it looks like it isn't it yeah and it's got a piece of gold in it right there it's got a piece of gold in here on leg bone that will pocket it it's got a carving on it Peralta yeah yeah weird huh I guess what it's an arm bone I think it's an armored leg bone I don't know that's an R but look what is it human seems awful thick yeah no no you dealt with that stuff I happen well Frank Agustin finding that bone down in fish creek was very very interesting we're having kind of one of those days were just very puzzling things more mysteries you know we're not getting answers we're getting more and more questions of what's going on but uh he finds his bone I have to defer to Frank's the fact that he was a former police detective and that he believed it was a human bone I was thinking more mule bighorn sheep or something that bone could have washed anywhere from lost touch Canyon or fish creek in the wilderness many many miles it could have been years and Frank seemed to think that it was very very old that it was literally becoming petrified bone at that point well even when you get to that point and you sit there and say well if it can possibly be an animal bone for some unknown reason and we were able to look at it closely later someone had taken an ink pen and I don't know it didn't look like a ballpoint but like a fountain pen or I'm not sure what it was but they've written the letters JOA on it who would write the letters Jo e on a boat and dispose of it and leave it in the canyon to wash through who was Jo why did Jo on the bone it's just another one of those things as we travel through the mountains just completely unexplained completely for no reason one of the odds you know you may find human remains you could find animal remains but what on earth drives someone to write the word Joe on the bone and then can leave it there in the mountains so that's a mystery that's never going to be answered and but it will probably always stick to the back of my mind all right okay so Frank your estimation is fine as you move out may need a wash invite a secret cave it is kind of weird yes and someone could have been washed out in here where's the rest something well come on Frank you this we used to be a trail I think it's pretty much gone it could be a lot of it all through here Trevor it could be scattered everywhere because it's so light it's on the totally buried and it could be bury got a copper priority in here yeah you can say Clement look how long it's been out here this is old what's that a marking on it that's I said what is it no that's weird it's like a Spanish mark what is the marking on the bottom line hey Jacob waltz oh yeah okay I think you better hold it I love it this is from Jacob's nephew yeah keep that yeah you want I can bag it bag it you walk right past those one right huh no liver balls going for gold silver snakes a lot of kind of hook for bass it's call you want it yeah well the school ID probably knows there might be 100 you keep lookin English airway yeah that would be the end of our day and we'd be sitting there while at that point I don't know I guess we delete the videos and bury it at the parking lot and decide we're going to go home because I don't want to spend the rest of the day here miss Americo paint it hey we might get Dave Ayers you know that yeah it's an old old old bone Oh doing that I'm going to continue up through this pathway that is one of the whole thing is unusual I said joint to guys like this what's unusual we find a little of everything today so after finding the bone Frank it's oddly enough comes across some pipe I've seen the pipe before and Frank's fear it has a different theory than I had I thought it was possibly a water pipe that had once run from the spring but he has a different idea on what the pipe will served as yeah you're out in the middle of nowhere and there's a pipe just it's a piece so it came from somewhere else so it's part of it I told you that putt the pipe I saw was more up that way but this must have come down broke off what is it part of what what prank that one you use the water okay what was this pipe for what hey you didn't Rev hey good doing you know pretty big in here quiet so the pipe Frank's conclusion is there was possibly some sort of zipline running down the mountains someone was running supplies because we could actually see other pipe up the mountain so from here though we're just going to work our way down the canyon and get to that secondary vehicle hopefully nothing else pops out at us it's been a strange enough day as it is knowing something different huh Frank yeah hey what's this [ __ ] that's why I just said well I said more weirdness good day of weird no a bunch of boulders and stuff it wouldn't be a good place to camp no fire pit yeah there's no fire pit ceilings not blackened could've someone could have used it once or twice and it's all washed out but the ceilings not black so but uh I don't know Frank been a weird day I think it's just been a kind of a bit of a strange day all the way around hmm put that bone okay so we've continued the deccan obviously still weird things continue to happen and lo and behold after coming across these rocks and who would pick all these rocks up and set them there I don't know we have a Joe bone we have that everything keeps going and now there's the circular pattern up on the canyon wall and I know there are a lot of people read into what that is I just find it just fascinating that today things that I didn't even notice the first time out I'm picking up on all these things as we're leaving the mountains it's a circle another way to define that right circle Markham big border frog but I've heard you get back in here the big storms that actually come with movers and I can believe it looking at this stuff well you never where we climbed up the waterfall all the big rocks they all rolled down and we're on different places trevor next Hey I know it's very strange isn't it and their [ __ ] helicopters again here Frank we fund we go storm coming up behind here dark sky stuff going to dump on us alright when I'm going to hurry too much cuz it's coming up explain which is the best place for it to be right behind us in the water flows this way we were going to be ahead of it the number one prospect or in Arizona my opinion is woody and he's the guy that we want to show our samples to because he'll know exactly what we have so on the drive out I turn the Trevor and we're talking and I realize we have this bone stuck in the bag I feel like it's possibly an animal bone a Frank is a former detective I shouldn't take chances with this back packing out human remains so I told Trevor we're going to stop the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and do the right thing by this I don't think there's any way they could track trace or you know understand where these human remains came from but doing the right thing is go by them and have them verify see if they can do the forensics and give us an idea is it animal is it human and kind of satisfy our curiosity and kind of our minds put our minds at ease about traveling around Linda's bone in the backpack from the backseat now the sheriff's deputy didn't want to be on camera he asked not to be filmed but he took the bone they took a number of pictures they called in someone to give a forensic analysis on visual analysis and they were able to determine there that they believe it was animal bone and there is an incident report so we we feel comfortable with not only it's an animal bone but our right and ability to keep it and so it's you know we could cast it off but I think at this point it JoJo's just coming home with us regardless of how he wouldn't feel at home and Joe will have a place in our home probably for the rest of our lives [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Legend of the Superstition Mountains

Views: 121,084

Rating: 4.6890244 out of 5

Keywords: the legend of the superstition mountains, chasing the legends of the superstition moutains, chasing legends of the superstition mountains, jacob waltz, lost dutchman mine, lost dutchman, superstition mountains, trevor tuttle, wayne tuttle, frank augustine, woody wampler, eric deleel, gold, prospecting, gold prospecting, fish creek superstition mountains, fish creek, ted degrazia, mysteries of the superstition mountains, legend of the superstition mountains

Id: jE9Y0AEpZEw

Length: 46min 17sec (2777 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 04 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/DragNBawlz]

Gotta love Frank!