The Lure of Weavers Needle

this is Larry Hedrick for Mysteries of the  Superstition Mountains where we bring the past   into the present for our future viewers today  we have another great story by Jack San Felice   I was new to Arizona and I wanted to put  this aside I wanted to either say there   was something to this or there was nothing to it  there was there gold out there was there not gold   well I spent a lot of time hiking out  around weaver's needle and searching now I have five little  stories of my of my searching   of weaver's needle the area around weaver's needle   in fact how did I think this is how I got to to  Arizona it was because of weaver's needle actually   my wife and I in the 80s we hiked the Peralta  trail to Fremont saddle and got that great view   of the needle and I said to her and she decided  she wanted to move where it was warm some places   went she would have moved Arizona so I  said okay in 91 and 92 we're gonna hike   in august the Peralta trail and if we can survive  in august and make it in and out okay we could   live there she says that's a deal and so we did  it in 91 92 in august we hiked for all the trail   and we hiked it up we hiked it down there weren't  many people in august hiking there but in fact   one time there was nobody we were we were it so  we at the top and back make sure we had enough   water whatever whatever I knew where a water hole  was we could refill whatever and so we did it so   we decided to come out here and buy a house so we  come out and I move in the fall of 92 I come here   so in 93 when I thought I was had a job and  I didn't have that job it was a political   type of job as I learned so I didn't have it  so I'm now searching around weaver's needle   for Jesuit treasure and treasure signs and  lost gold the Dutchman's gold fairy tales   all the searching around it didn't find  one piece that looked like any mineral   uh that contained malachite chrysocol  or azurite and that's the foundations   of copper and if you've got copper is a good  chance they're going to be gold in Arizona   not there so on one hike we go up there and we  search around weaver's needle and we're looking   around and and down below just past the needle in  93 I found a place we found a place my partners   and I were hiking where the water came up out  of the ground and ran like a stream or river 200   yards and then went back under and disappeared I  said this is amazing at least we could get water   from there if piper's spring done we'd  have it that was an amazing phenomenon   next time next time I get the weaver's needle  we're searching around the base and we come across   a skeleton of a deer some deer horns and it's a  miniature deer I said wow this is really weird   I didn't know their miniature deer out here it had  antlers and it was only about as big as the dog   the skeleton so that was my first experience with  miniature deers I didn't know they were here so   while we're on our I'm on my way up a little bit  and my partners are down below me and they're   coming up there's a guy on the Dutchman's  trail above us he pull he whips out a handgun   and starts shooting at us it sound he must be  shooting i can hear the bullets whizzing over   and we shouted at him he didn't do anything so  some of us whipped out our handguns sent a few   missiles his direction next thing we know  the man in the blue jacket takes off running   and he takes out back toward fremont saddle  into wherever he disappeared now there were a   lot of people coming to fremont saddle that  day nobody ever saw a man in a blue jacket   my guess was he took the jacket off or he went  down Geronimo cave trail out of sight where   they could see him but now a few years later  I come across the man who tells me a story   of a guy that goes in went used to go into the  mountains and shoot at people who were hikers or climbing rocks rock climbers and they told me who  the guy was and I met this guy and he sure did fit   he sure could have fit the description  of the guy that was shooting us   at us don't know that's one of those  mysteries of the mountain. now the next story   is my last story about weaver's needle I'm hiking  with a doctor and his wife and a friend of mine   and they want to see the needle close  up so we go fremont saddle and then down   and then we go past the needle and I wanted  to show them where the water comes up and down   and sure enough it's still there the water not  as fast but it's still there coming up and out   so the one now they want to hike further to see  something else so I said okay but we gotta make   a decision here we've hiked it at Peralta but  we're now close to the halfway point if we hike   where you want to go and I'll be glad to  take you we've got to go out the other   way out of first water because we're going to be  out of water and it's going to be a long hike back   and we'll be hiking in the dark and the hike  down Peralta trail in the dark is not something   we want to do without flashlights even if we  had flashlights it's not a good thing to do   so they said sure but I said my friend said  yeah I know where i drove the water hole   I know where there's a spring we'll go there  we go where his spring is supposed to be   guess what he had guaranteed us guaranteed  and was worth nothing there was no water   I said no I know where there will be water and we  go because I'd hiked in from first water in this   place and we get there and guess what it's not  just a spring it's not just water it's a swimming   hole so my friend and i we decided we're going to  jump in and go swimming so we jumped we reduced   our to our skivvies and we jumped in the doctor  waited in his wife didn't come in at all but   we cooled off reloaded with water and we  hiked out the first water and I was able to   get some transportation to take us back 28 miles  that is all that way around back to Peralta where   our vehicles were lucky they didn't break  into them we got them and we made it home   I think about two in the morning that's  about 18 miles to go that way the way we went   it's a long long hike thank you for watching  this episode of Mysteries of the Superstition Mountains

Channel: Mysteries of the Superstition Mountains

Views: 11,182

Rating: 4.9390087 out of 5

Keywords: Charlie LeSueur, Superstition Mountains, The Lost Dutchman Mine, Superstition Mountain Museum, Opal Images, Arizona, History, Gold, Treasure, Weavers needle, Jack San Felice, Gun Shots, hiking

Id: vTGFaDjHVlM

Length: 8min 41sec (521 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 18 2021