The story of the "Lost Dutchman's Mine" in the Superstition Mountains of Arizona is one of the most controversial prospector myths of the late nineteenth century. The hardest part of studying the lost mine is separating fact from fiction; ironically, tales have been so entwined over the past hundred years it is almost impossible to distinguish the truth from the legend that follows.
             It is told a prospector named Jacob Waltz had a rich gold mine deep in the mountains east of Apache Junction. The story tells of a German prospector who made periodic trips into the Superstition Mountains and returned to Phoenix with small quantities of bonanza gold ore. This old prospector braved the dangers of the marauding Apaches prior to the 1886 surrender of Geronimo at Skeleton Canyon. Many enthusiasts of the lost mines believed that Waltz had found a Peralta storehouse or cache since the gold was purer than other mined gold. Others speculated the Apaches hid the gold after they massacred a group of Mexican miners. Therefore, many early prospectors believed Waltz's Peralta cache and mine were the same.
             To study the story of the mine we must start with the facts about Jacob Waltz, the alleged owner of the mine. Waltz was born near Oberschwandorf, Wuttenburg, Germany around 1810. He immigrated to America around 1845, arriving first in New York City. Waltz then traveled to the established goldfield of Meadow Creek, NC. Searching for a vein of gold to mine, it is believed he traveled to Dohney, GA and then to Natchez, Mississippi where he became a citizen of the United States on Nov. 12, 1848. Waltz soon made plans to travel west to the goldfields of California.
             After arriving in CA around 1850, Waltz became a naturalized citizen of the U.S. on July 19, 1861, in the Los Angeles Courthouse. Waltz departed California in 1863 with the Peeples-Weaver Party and headed for the Bradshaw Mountains of the Arizona Territory...