Lost Mine found in the Superstition Mountains

[Music] welcome to a very special edition of mysteries of the Superstition Mountains and Larry Hedrick and I are right here by bayous Butte that we mentioned in the Dragoon pistols episode and there was so much more to talk about up here we had to get up here we did a hike I actually did an opening before this before we actually went up there but we found that it's so special the things that we found up there and how hard it was to get there that we had to do something different here to tell you that we are going up into this crevice right there we are going to find an actual prospect an old prospect tell us about it well if if our viewers have watched episode 2 of the Lost Irgun pistols it gave the background of how I became involved in Queen Valley area and by use Butte with Hartman's in 1958 Hart and his brother took my dad and I up to a mine that that was explained in episode 2 and showed us a pit that was dug there and you know the Mullins family aware of true pioneers of Arizona his father Fred Mullins was a stagecoach driver and Hart himself was born in 1890 I mean Mesa was only a dozen years old the Silver King mine had just barely been found all this was total wilderness up hidden here and he was he was 15 when Pachi Trail was finished and he was 21 when Roosevelt dam was finished in 1911 and he homesteaded the Queen Valley area and it was about that time in 1915 he was 25 when he found this mine and that makes it from today that he found this mine hundred and three years ago old dig and it wasn't dug by him anyway we came up and looked it all over and I found that wheel borrow that we'd talked about and and that was handmade and that type of thing so as we decided to go look at it ourselves we spent it doesn't look like it's that farm no it doesn't look that much but it was four and a half hours Oh grueling dreaming I wouldn't even call it hiking some of the slopes missed climbing 60% slopes and moose diluvial like material their arm and mine's healing now and the last hundred yards took an hour in itself to get there and dave was the first one to get to the table that's the producer Dave here that that it took him 15 or 20 minutes just to go the last ten yards because the brush had totally if you remember we were at least I was so tired I said Dave just get some pictures and come on down I'm not going up there because I was so sick I know I was sick you weren't feeling well and dave says you got to come up here you you have to take a look at this okay so we had to blaze another trail to get up there because there was no trail and right to the end there used to be four or five hundred yards of trail that was handmade by somebody right up against the cliffs where they leveled off the a de lluvia alluvial fan there and made a that trail but there was only 50 yards of it lived and that's what we had to negotiate right at the end and why it was so tough with a cat claw and all thank you spareness the piece it was awful and the one thing I was certain of is that nobody had been there since I had been there just know that is 1950s 5058 nobody you know what about that ladder that's up there we needed somebody's gonna say wait a minute that ladder is a little more modern well Hart died two years later in 1960 and his brother Jesse lived on after that and they were working this okay they they they were not looking for an or body they were not digging in on or body you know part of the legend the Lost Dutchman was that the Peralta's came up here in a large party and were working several areas and they they were caching some of the ore that they couldn't take back with him I mean once they got a load they just cashed the rest of it and that's what Hart was looking for he was looking for a cache that they had left behind and this mine is old enough when he was born it was only 43 years after the famous infamous Peralta massacre you know yeah and so this is that and the tide the Timbers that's up across the top of the the dig are native to this area when I was there in 58 there were no trees in front of the cave and now there are six inch diameter trunks of these trees had grown up you can't see the caves from here for love nor money and those were so rotten those same kind of trees were so rotten they were laid long before Hart families well now you've talked to some people who are experts on the Superstition Mountains well and you've talked to some of we won't mention names yeah but we've you've talked to some of them they had no idea about this nobody knows that mine is there but but us three we have talked about it and we looked I went down in that prospect that mine and it doesn't look like anyone would have thought there was gold down there but you were talking about caches of gold and this could have been a perfect place to hide caches the best hiding place in the world you're taking your life in your own hands go there and I recommend that nobody tries [Music] welcome to a very very special edition of mysteries of the Superstition Mountain up and find what could possibly be one of the spanish prospects of the Peralta's and it's it took a long time getting up there but we're going to show you everything that we did up there and it was amazing and here we go [Music] [Music] [Music] all right Larry [Music] this is incredible this is amazing that there's a ladder there and this is incredible so hard Mullins believed that this was one of the original Peralta ma Peralta mines at least a Spanish mining you know we're on the east side here yeah and one of the big theories is everyone's looking in the wrong place some people believe that the Lost Dutchman mine is in the on the east side so I'm telling you right now this is not the lost you mean on the west side well on the west they believe it's on the west side and some wealth and then people believe it's on the east side here but this is not the Lost Dutchman mine and worse on the way the way up here we saw all the symbols are on the maps we saw the three Red Hills we saw everything that applies to lost much and I can see why heart believes this is a Peralta day we got pictures of the panorama there from the Routh map the three Red Hills it is an amazing thing that lends a little bit of credence to it being on the east side and not the West it's been 60 years for you six year been here I'm impressed but we made it and it was well worth the trip tickets what three and a half four and a half hours to get here and I'll tell you what I don't recommend anybody come up here and spend four and a half hours to get to this spot you can watch what we're doing and you'll know as much as we do yeah so there you go this is not something that you should come and try to look for but it's Hart Mullins mine and he believed will you tell the story tell us a little bit about if you recall in our previous episodes I had told you that my dad retired out here and Mason I was working for Pete Allen at Queen Valley and Pete must introduce my dad took heart because I'd never met him and they all pulled in the yard one day and so since I was there I went along and we went to Elephant Butte and buzzards roost to some claims they had and then Hart brought us up here and it wasn't nearest brushes it is now obviously nobody's been up here nobody make a trail yeah but Hart told us the entire legend right here in this spot about the Lost Dutchman first time I'd ever heard it 1958 first time my dad had never heard it and then he brought us here and he claimed that he believed this was up one of the Peralta mines and he was working it he left that's a redwood ladder looks it hasn't aged much at all but he this cutout wasn't here at the time and he died in 1960 so he's been a couple of years work on do you think that's his ladder I think that's his letter and I see how difficult it was to get in here and nobody's been here for ages yes so it possibly would be his ladder and it's guarded from any from rain and anything like that but you know this goes down what would you say about 30 feet Oh at least yeah yeah and they've got some of the original wood here that it looks like was used at least I'm guessing now it's some of the this is the trees that's in the local area here like this tree here mm-hmm Wow so what we may be at now we're not saying it's positive but what is believed to be one of the Spanish mines one of the parole two mines appear on the east end yes on the east end and some people have the theories that this is where it was all happening so there's all sorts of different theories well of course that handmade patinaed will borrow and was as much proof that it was Mexican as anything that was a handmade thing except for the wheel what should cast and that was around here that was just over the cliff but it's obviously not there anymore my dad took it home ok oh ok ok but they they didn't take it out of here once they were through they just dumped it over the cliff and I found it out the bottom of the cliff well if you didn't tell us that this was here we'd have never found it oh I don't think so I don't think like you said I don't think anybody's been up here forever though I'm confused myself as we come up here because we didn't come the way we did it was much rougher than then back then I mean it creates incredible how rough it was and this is also bear country that a couple of times that I've been here 58 and 68 there was a senator from Iowa and a friend that I'd met through the work that I did I used to fly all over the North American continent making repairs on photographic equipment and stuff and I met them and I told them the Lost Dutchman legend at their house and they actually come all the way down here just to come to this point so 1968 was the last time I was here well whether it's the Lost Dutchman mine or a Spanish - still historic oh absolutely yeah it looks like there's a drift going yeah there I'm not going down there no no no no you'd have to be pretty brave to try that ladder now but I don't have any legs left all about you not not after the trip up here but we wanted to come up here and show all of you this and we'd like to thank Larry for bringing us up here anything else you want to say about this montage coming back that's all I got to say [Laughter] Larry we had to wait a week until we we recuperated to get back out here to do a close but here we are bayous beaut I have to tell you this is the hardest hike we've been to so far hopefully we're not going to have another hike like this at least not this year until we mend but there was no trail there was growth everywhere that we had to either cut down or or knock down we didn't have a machete which that was our fault but it was a grueling grueling four hours to get to this mine and please do not attempt it now we're giving you a lot of information as to where it is all you have to do is just drive down and see where it where it is and you can match it up here bye-bye beaut but I'm encouraging people not not to do it not to do it this is not just your everyday hike through first water or needle Canyon or anything like this this is really bad and do not go alone and make sure you have lots and lots of water and and something to eat because it's gonna take you some time if you do and I know some of you will but I'm telling you please on my advice don't try it this is one of the things that we like to show to you as what's out here it's all part of the mysteries of the Superstition Mountains [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: David Jones

Views: 212,370

Rating: 4.5545111 out of 5

Keywords: Dave Jones, Opal Images, David W Jones, Larry Hedrick, Charlie LeSueur, Superstition Mountains, Museum, Lost, Gold, Mine, Spanish, Peralta, found, The Dutchman, Hiking, claim, Prospect, Hart Mullins, Homestead, Queen Valley, Arizona, How to, History, Apache Trail, Apache Junction

Id: 74iR6ZQo9wo

Length: 14min 59sec (899 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 15 2018