Every once in awhile, just east of the Valley, explorers still venture out into the Superstition Mountains with shovels in hand in pursuit of gold. They’re after the Lost Dutchman Mine, where, legend has it, German immigrant Jacob Waltz helped a wounded Apache soldier, and, as a reward, he was taken to an Apache gold mine that’s never been found again.
That’s just one of many tales of lost gold and hidden treasure in Arizona’s Wild West past.
So we’ve all heard of the Lost Dutchman but have you ever heard of Robert Jones?
Jones was a soldier at Fort Huachuca and in 1941, he and a friend went for a walk in a nearby canyon and he fell into a hole.
They were walking across a creek bed and he felt his foot give way and he plummeted about 30 feet down into what looked like a large, dark chamber. Well, his friend pulls him out but he decides he has to go back.
And when he goes back, he buys a $3 flashlight and an axe to take with him, and he finds a chamber filled with gold ingots and a chair that looks like a throne. And the story doesn’t end there.
Scott Craven with the Arizona Republic spent some time digging into this, and I spoke with him more about it.
