Case file · Folklore / legend
Jacob Waltz and the Lost Dutchman Mine
German immigrant Jacob Waltz died in Phoenix in October 1891, supposedly after revealing on his deathbed a rich gold mine in the Superstition Mountains near Weavers Needle; searchers have hunted it ever since.
1891 CE · 33.43, -111.37 · status: legend
The account
The Apache regard the Superstitions as sacred, home of the Thunder God and an entrance to the underworld. The mine legend absorbed earlier tales of the Peralta family and lost soldiers' gold.
The sceptical view
Geologists note the Superstitions are volcanic and unlikely to hold rich gold veins; Waltz's mine may have been a cache of stolen ore.