History May Be Rewritten for Arizona Territory as U.S. Forest Service Issues First-Ever Treasure Trove Permit for an Archaeological Excavation within the Superstition Wilderness.

Previously Unpublished Privately-Held Documents Shed New Light on the Mystery of Jacob Waltz

 and the Legend of the Lost Dutchman Mine

"It was a dark and stormy night . . ."

As if written by a famous Hollywood screenwriter, The Legend of Jacob Waltz and the Lost Dutchman Mine begins in the pre-dawn hours of October 25, 1891.  In a tiny, cold, candle-lit shack, with rasping final breaths, an old man is "making his peace."  In those final moments he relates the location of a fabulous gold mine so rich, he whispers, "it would make millionaires of 20 men."
 
For the next 114 years, right into the present, his last words are retold, relived and rewritten countless times, destroying untold friendships, families and fortunes and taking the lives of over 100 individuals.
 
But on September 11, 2004, events are set in motion that shed a more detailed light on the mystery of Old
Man Waltz.  Events that may even bring his lost mine one historic step closer to discovery.
 
Panning fiction from fact . . .
 
Ron Feldman has searched for the Lost Dutchman Mine since he first moved to Apache Junction in 1965 and
started the O.K. Corral Stables in 1968.
 
"I spent the first 25 years learning where the Lost Dutchman wasn't!" he chuckles in a recent interview
from deep within the Superstition Wilderness.  "Then I had the fortune of befriending Ted Cox's family."
 
Cox, who joined Waltz in 1983, grew up in Globe during the Depression.  As a teenager, he used to frequent  Superstition ranches and homesteads, including Tex Barkley's ranch, in the early 1930s.  He knew of the Dutchman's legend.  And he knew the Superstitions better than the back of his hand. 

And there were two other things he knew . . . .
 

Is the Legend of the Lost Dutchman Mine about to be rewritten?
 

"Presently, accurate first hand information from the Dutchman's time is nearly impossible to come by," says Feldman.  "According to Cox, from before the Dutchman's time, and well into his time, the area was controlled by very powerful, ruthless men; those who had financial stakes in the Superstitions."  Since Cox was familiar with these men, and their actions, his first-hand accounts in his memoirs vary considerably in some cases to currently accepted historic writings.  "Remember, history is written by the victors, not the conquered," Feldman adds.
 
Feldman believes that many, if not most, of the Dutchman's directions to his mine were fabrications made up and perpetrated by these individuals. 
 
Why does he feel so strongly about this?  Eventually, over a period of several years, Rose Cox gave her husband's memoirs, detailed photos, research and notes over to Feldman, in hopes that he might vindicate her late husbands dreams.
 
At first, what Feldman discovered confounded him . . . then it began to astonish him.  According to Cox, his father had met Waltz on several occasions and was familiar with his comings and goings.  But perhaps the most startling revelation of all was . . . when Ted was about 12 years old, while spending the night at Barkley's Ranch, he overheard the plot to kill Adolph Ruth.  And his account varies quite a bit from the "popular" versions.
 
"About nine years ago I decided to pull my head out of my (bleep) and listen to what Cox was saying to me.
And I have spent those years chasing down every last one of his hunches, clues and tips from his years of
research," says Feldman.  "And he has led me on an odyssey, and I have seen more . . . ." Feldman's voice
trails off as he shakes his head and stares into the distance.
 
"And he has never lied to us," interjects Ron's son, Josh, as if Cox were still speaking to them
from beyond the grave, guiding their every step.
 
Like a story right out of the movies . . .

Ted's dad, Sam Cox, was a mining engineer before 1900.  Like most he traveled a lot to find work and did not settle in Globe until the 1920s.  Sam knew Rinehardt Petrasch, Herman Petrasch, Adolph Ruth, Tom Carr, Chief Cook, and many others.  They would meet in Globe regularly and talk about the many treasures that were left behind during the settling of the West, including the Bullion Storage Cave, otherwise known as Geronimo's Cave.  In the 1920s and 30s it was unsafe in the mountains to set up camp and dig.  If people thought you had something, your life was in danger.  In fact, while investigating a mine near the present day H.E.A.T. excavation, Ted Cox came under fire from an unknown source and fled for his life.

Sam Cox died in 1942, leaving his life long dream with his son. 

In 1958, now married in living in Southern California, Old Man Waltz called once again to Ted, and he  returned with a small crew and began digging in the Superstitions.  Even though the mountains were not as dangerous as they once where, well armed and jealous Dutch Hunters like Piper and Jones roamed the area, shooting at each other, and anyone who dared invade their territory.  But Cox wasn't worried.  His location was far from them. 
 
Relying on his past information, Cox and his "partners" began sinking a shaft in the same spot the present day H.E.A.T. excavation is taking place.  After many weeks of treacherous work, they found what hundreds had  previously called fantasy, and for what dozens of other had died.  And as if out of a scene in Bogart's Treasure of the Sierra Madre, the warm glow of gold turned to the cold flash of steel . . .
 
And the rest of the story, even at this moment, is still too controversial to be told.  In fact, the entire
truth may never be fully revealed. 
 
Incontrovertible Evidence . . .
 
Armed with Cox's years of research, and his own follow-up evidence, Ron Feldman applied for a treasure
trove permit in the Superstition Wilderness.
 
It took five years, but the U.S. Forrest Service finally granted Ron Feldman's team, H.E.A.T. (Historical Exploration And Treasures), the first treasure trove permit ever issued within the boundaries of the Superstition Wilderness.  It is for the archaeological excavation of an alleged Spanish mine originally believed to have been dug before 1848, far north of where Arizona historians believe "official" Spanish mining took place. 
 
H.E.A.T. has two goals:
 
1)  To archaeologically prove that the Spanish had mines in the Superstition Wilderness.
 
2)  According to Cox's information, the old mine had been worked out, then used to store bullion the
Spanish weren't able to carry out with them when they tried to return to Mexico, just before they were
attacked.   
 
In 1958, bullion was found in what is now called the "main drift."  There is also a left drift that Cox
never excavated, but believed it, too, contained bullion.
 
"Ground Penetrating Radar suggests that this left-hand drift does exist and that it has a large metallic body
contained in a void about 25 feet from where we now are," explains H.E.A.T. founding member, Mic
McPherson.  "However, reality will only be demonstrated by digging. Since we must use hand power
only, we expect to be at this for many more months."
 
"We are working under very strict Wilderness and archaeological guidelines set up by the Forest
Service," says Feldman, from the remote mine site. 
 
No power tools, generators or powered mechanical devices are allowed in the Wilderness area.
Everything has to be done by hand, which creates problems sometimes.  But as a team, H.E.A.T. members are born problem solvers.  They have gone this far and will not stop until the job is done.

As part of their deal with the Forrest Service, once the excavation is done, everything must be returned to
its natural state.  And H.E.A.T. must improve the spring, draining through nearly a half mile of one-inch pipe, down to a trough built many years ago for wild life and cattle.
 
Proving the mine is of Spanish origin also serves another purpose. 

"If we can prove to the archeologists that the mine we are reopening was originally dug by the Spanish," says McPherson, "we will have gone a long ways toward locating and proving the Dutchman Lode mine.  But that is another story entirely," McPherson concedes, with a twinkle in his eye.  Then he adds a little sprinkle of gold dust to his statement: "According to our sources, the Dutchman had a placer workings about (X miles) miles from his lode mine.  We believe the one we are now excavating is the source of his placer gold."
 
Now join Ron Feldman and his team of explorers as they follow in the footsteps of Spanish gold miners and

ol' Jacob Waltz himself as they excavate and explore the Lost Spanish Mine!