The Board House Clue to the Lost Dutchman Gold

Well here we are again right here Mysteries  of Superstition Mountains and today we're   going to talk about same thing again that  people really like to hear about and that's   the clues of how to find gold in fact we  even dedicated one whole series episode to it   called the Dutchman's clues made easy and  what we found when we were researching that   was with all those clues that Jacob Waltz was  supposed to have dropped in Julia Thomas's ear. They matched up to places that were both on the  West side of the mountain and the East side of the   mountain we also found that there were people who  would advocate that absolutely those clues went   to the west and there were an equal number of  people that believe they went to the east side.   Well the key to the whole thing of what we were  talking about was not to get you to where the   gold was but to explain where these clues  could be where those locations actually are   now me personally uh I've never truly been  convinced that Jacob Waltz said those clues to   Julia Thomas at all not on his deathbed  at any rate. but what we do know   and we know for sure that Jacob Waltz  did tell Julia Thomas the clue about   the board house and ironically this is one of  the clues that we hear so little about and yet   it's probably the most important clue that  Jacob Waltz left before he died with anybody.   yeah and the only reason that we really know about  the board house clue so much is that in the Clay   Worst episodes the gold under the Dutchman's bed  and the last days of the Dutchman he brings all   that out now the board house with the old Cavaness  place Matt Caravaness was the first rancher   to actually settle in the superstition mountain  area. There's an affidavit that's available   that explains the custody of that goal and he also  explains the clue now the question always pops up   is this board house the same as the the  the stone house or the the cow barn or   the quarter circle you ranch some people call it  the Caveness ranch other call it the kavanaugh   ranch and it gets really confusing in fact it's  been confusing for about as long as I can remember   and the next question has to pop up for Larry,  Larry how does this whole mess come about   anyway there are there are some books that  claim that Cavaness built the board house   there are other books that claim that kavanaugh  built a board house some books say that cabinets   had a goat ranch up at Wickenburg others  say kavanaugh had a goat ranch at Wickenburg   so the thing of it is both these people were  named Matt and they're one in the same person so   anybody that's reading this kind of stuff about  Cavaness and kavanaugh just don't get confused by   that it it's it's not the author's fault that  put them in there that just that historical   mispronunciation of names on in on by people  well I really want to start with Matt Cavaness is   when he got to Phoenix today we're dealing with  67 to 66 pages of his diary or memoirs whichever   you want to call it. Cavaness was involved  a lot of stuff but mostly he was always   freighting stuff you know he had a a partnership  and a saloon he had a partner that worked in   blacksmithing he'd done some butchering he always  had some cattle on hand because he was butchering   um any but mostly he was hauling freight from the  farmers in the the Phoenix area to fort McDowell   and there was a place east of phoenix that  was called McDowell crossing where you crossed   the Salt river and uh that's where everybody  went across the river to get to fort McDowell   and um this was eventually called a Rowe  Station. so who was this rogue guy anyway.   well Rowe Frank Rowe had a couple of daughters and  as as Matt was making his trips to fort McDowell   evidently he was sparking Rowes daughters  because Frank Rowe and his wife became his   father and mother-in-law and so he married  i think it was 1871 he married Alice Rowe   and he continued his trips on  up into fort McDowell where   he would have certainly known of the existence  of the chief of the Pima Indians chief Azul   the Pimas were a militia unit along with the  Maricopas working with the with the army and   he certainly would have known of of each other at  that time with all the trips he made up in there   but along about 1874 the the the depredations  by the Apaches got a couple of guys caught out   there and and they they tortured them badly and  cut their bodies up and all this sort of stuff   and rose at about that time that you know  you can read these in the last bugle call   that's documented in military annals and rogue  got caught up in that the Apaches raided his   place burned down a couple of buildings and stole  all of his stock so essentially what we're saying   is that Frank Rowe actually had nothing left  he had nothing at all. well that's correct he didn't have any milk cows to milk and  he said even if he did he didn't have any   horses to haul it up to fort McDowell because the  army wasn't coming to his place to get the milk   and uh Matt was and his wife was leaving  living somewhere in the Phoenix area I don't   know if it was right in town but he when  they lost their ability to make a living   he invited them to come and live in his  house with with his daughter frank's daughter   so that was 1874 and in 1875 he got the hauling  freighting contract with Silver king mine   and uh his first trip to to Yuma was with 40  tons of ore and when he got to Yuma there was   a message waiting for him to proceed on to  San Diego that the steamer had gone under there's two ways to look at that you know back  in the old days sometimes when somebody died they   said he went under but that but it could have been  a financial type of thing too you know you say of   a business going under but he was talking about  one steamer going under so yes the steamers sank   and when he got close to um San Diego there was  another message waiting for him i think it was   a writer that came out and met him and says if  you have to kill the mules kill them but you get   to San Diego by a certain time because there's a  steamer coming to San Francisco and he got there   in time and they offloaded but the point would  be here if if his partner Mr Barney who was in   San Francisco was arranging loads for him to take  back he wasn't going back deadheaded but if the   steamer steamer sank then what he was supposed to  be taken back went down with the ship anyway that   ship at San Diego was heading for San Francisco  and there wouldn't have been anything on there   that he could take back so he came back empty and  and many substantial subsequent trips that he made   Mr Barney always had loads for him to take back  and many of these trips took him to Yuma well you   know taking things back for uh for his boss and um  there was one particular incident where they had   some 16 inch by 16 inch by 80 foot long beams that  had to be hauled up to the silver king from Yuma   and he couldn't find anybody to to make  that run and he finally he asked Matt if   he thought he could do it and he just yeah I  can take care of that so evidently he took the   ore boxes off of the wagons and loaded those  beams on like flatbeds and other freighters when   they saw what he did says well that was pretty  easy he says yeah now that you see how it's done   and a lot of people said that Cavaness  could could haul anything well he freighted   the 20 stamp mill from Yuma up to Pinal city  and of course once the what's the stamp mill   went into affected Pinal city uh he no  longer had to make these trips to Yuma   they were just making five mile trips from the  Silver king down to Pinal city and back what   does the diary say about this lumber there  weren't any lumber mills here in Arizona   there were stamp mills I guess but there weren't  any lumber mills were there according to his diary   there was at least one stamp mill that somewhere  up around Wickenburg but that was under a hauling   contract by somebody else and there wouldn't have  been any deadhead loads coming back if they were   using that under somebody else's contract so  that's why they were going to Yuma so they   had loads coming back but on one of these trips  he met chief Azul of the Pimas down at Florence   and Azul uh asked him just into conversation  about cattle and and Matt was looking for a place   for cattle and Azul told him  about a spring in a certain place   and he went home to his wife which he says  in the diary I had just moved my family into   and this was a stone house somewhere  near phoenix where they were living   and he told his wife that tomorrow I'm  going to go out and find the spring that   Azul was telling me about and she says well  I wouldn't put any stock in what an indian   said so she kind of had a negative attitude about  that business but um he came back and told her   that I found the spring right off the bat and  it's a wonderful place out there and she says   he said that his wife said well I'm very  happy that you found a place to put them cows well this isn't in the diary but this opens  up why some people believe a certain thing   the stone house they were living in was probably  you know every stone house that they put together   there's always some cracks and stuff and  every once in a while she found a rattlesnake   inside the house and the corral  was built right next to the house   now everybody think you know and the the the the  smell was was pretty terrible and that's why she   said I'm very glad that you found some place to  put these cattle and Matt says right here he says   it just seems like I could there's nothing I could  do to satisfy so maybe he's going to try and do   that by building our new house that's exactly what  what happened he he arranged for it through barney   to get a load of lumber sent on the steamer  down to Yuma and he brought that back up   and built her a board house he says um I've  got my ranch up and going and I build a fine   house and I'm, I'm about as happy as a man  could be. so now maybe maybe Alice is happy too   you know when I first got out here I visited  a place called the the lost Dutchman store   and that was on what is now gold rush road  that goes out to the quarter circle u ranch and the board house was like literally 100  yards away from that it wasn't that far away   and people have mistakenly said that oh the board  house that's out of the quarter circle you ranch   well that just wasn't so. first off the ranch  wasn't there it wasn't established by Tex Barkley   until 1907 and that was three quarters of a mile  away yeah that's true um you know they divorced   in 77 and met Matt put in his diary that he was  pretty depressed from that time on not very much   meant much to him but he made an arrangement with  uh with his wife that he she would get the ranch   and the cattle and that the cattle were to be  sold piece meal to take care of the children   and he also said that he was a happy man  up until 1880 well he was divorced in 77   so what happened in 1880 that that changed the  picture well that's when his wife sold the ranch   and and and he had to actually pay a woman a  hundred dollars a month to take care of two of   the children one of the children stayed with her  and and of course he was out making a living and   he was gone for weeks at a time doing this and  that and and by her selling off the ranch it   changed the whole concept what's you get for the  wretches or kicks engagements I thought it was 200   but but i don't know I heard that  from another source okay well anyway she remembered that in 81 she  remarried a guy named Purdue and I think this is what really disturbed Matt  more than anything but the new owners of the ranch   are the ones that built the stone house everybody  talks about over at quarter circle youth because   Tom Kollinborn was working for the Barkleys in  the late 50s running working cattle with them   while I was working for Pete Allen over in Queen  Valley running cattle for him and Barkeys told him   that the stone house that's over there where the  barn is at the Quarter Circle U was built in 1880   right after she sold it the new owners built  that stone house and everybody's confused that   stone house with the one in Phoenix where the  rattlesnakes and the stinky corral was. so it's   really fair to say at this point that like for  the next 20 years or so there was nothing really   going on out in that area except the cattle the  cattle business even the dutch hunters were there   wasn't that much of a deal going on with dutch  hunters out there at all at that time until 1931.   yeah 1931 is when the Adolf's Ruth story broke  and everybody was out there searching for his body   and um we've got a picture here that's  that's shown up of the board house   and there's four cars in that picture one of them  is really hard to see you'll only see the roof of   it down by the by the corral but this is in 1931  that picture was taken while they were doing   the search for Adolf Ruth and of course they found  these bodies but I want you to notice the road on   the right hand side of the board house and after  it gets past the board house it curves to the left   and and one of these cars on the viewer's side of  the board house is sitting on a little roadway and   you can see that in this map that we're putting  up that shows a straight line from the quarter   circle u ranch to that curve and this cut  off road there is where that car is setting   and that's where the board house was located and  right across the road from the curve is where that   that store is that you were talking about and this  is three quarters of a mile from the the quarter   circle u ranch which as you say nobody ever heard  of the quarter circle you ranch until 1907 when   the Barkleys took over so Tex Barkley's the one  that supplied the horses for this search you know   and after after this this was in life magazine  this was in the middle of the depression and   the stories of finding gold was on everybody's  mind you know and the dutch hunters were all   over the place and and after this was  over Tex Barkley made the statement that   he says he would this is his words now I'm damn  sick and tired of those dutch hunters coming out   here to the board house to start their search  for the last Dutchman gold mine so Tex Barkley   tore the board house down. so old Tex finally  got his wish apparently the board house clue disappeared about the same time that the  board house did right after tax tore it down   that's probably why people aren't all that aware  of what the board house clue was all about.   well that is exactly right because after the  Adolph Ruth affair so over 20 years later a raft   of books become out and they don't even mention  the board house because it wasn't there anymore   these these people had weren't writing  about it in their books because it was gone we're on location here on the very  road that the Cavaness board house   was located on this is the entrance to the  quarter circle u ranch was about a mile from   here but only a couple hundred yards north  on this road was the Cavaness board house   in 1931 when this picture was taken to the board  house during the search for Adolf Ruth's body the   Peralta road that we know today did not exist this  was the road that went to the quarter circle u.   so when the Dutchman talked about going out to the  board house and that if he was not able to travel   he'd have to stay at the board house with the  woman and the three children there's absolutely   no question but what the Dutchman's point of  departure to take Julia and Reiny to the mine   was the Cavaness ranch this is unquestionable. yes  the Cavaness board house just another Mystery of   the Superstition Mountains thank you for watching  this episode of Mysteries of the Superstition Mountains you

Channel: David Jones

Views: 7,659

Keywords: Dave Jones, Opal Images, David W Jones, Superstition Mountains, Lost Gold, Board House, Larry Hedrick, Hank Sheffer, Clay Worst, Clues, The Lost Dutchman Mine, Azul, Pima, Treasure, Arizona, History

Id: 5Ffs9FSBxJ4

Length: 21min 21sec (1281 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 13 2021