Another Dutch Hunter Crosses Over

[cactusjumper]

I started this topic on another forum, but it has fallen on hard times. Seems like there should be a topic where we can pay tribute to our fallen comrades. I will, regretfully, write the first post.

On Wednesday morning, moments after I arrived, my dad took his last breath. He nodded his head and smiled when I came in. Although he couldn't speak, the nod and smile spoke volumes to me. It seemed that he was just waiting for me to be there.

Dad was as Italian as they come. He sang, played the guitar and mandolin and had a way with the ladies. His friends never had to worry about him turning away from them. His enemies could count on his Italian temper when they crossed him.

My first trip into the Superstitions was because he wanted me to be with them on their first expedition. Chuck agreed, and I can assure you I was a very proud thirteen-year old. We made many trips together over the years.

It was a blessing that he passed, but in truth, I have missed him for over five years now. I have had a long time to get used to the idea of his death, but it was not enough.

Tony Ribaudo was a Dutch Hunter. Everyone who goes into the Superstition Mountains will be walking in his footsteps.

He is with me still.

Joe Ribaudo

 

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[jangles]

I'm really sorry for your loss, I'm half Italian and know what you mean when you describe your papa. My granpa on my dads side waited on his death bed for me to travel from Colorado to Mass years ago and within a couple of hours of my arrival he passed.
My condolences
John

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

HI CJ: I am not particularly a Religious person, this is partly because of years of research and experimenting in the so called Paranormal. What happens when someone or thing dies is not clear, but I can say with personal conviction that "something" continues to exist. For want of the proper word, I will borrow the phrase a "Soul". It is a conscious entity. In general we are unable to contact or communicate with each other, however that does not negate the existence of it.

We cannot communicate with the distant Galaxies either, but they exist. One day the theory of 'Souls" will be proven, but in the meantime we must have faith. There have been too many cases of spontaneous contact in an emergency to have any reasonable doubt.

Rest assured that he now knows the secret of the LDM and the Superstitions but it has no effective meaning for him since ha is under a different sort of values, however, in one way or another, he may just help you to solve the problem.

Tayopa has been a classic case for me. I feel that I am simply a tool. It is a weird feeling, but whenever I have been stopped, somehow, at that moment, the soloution appears whether it is financial or information. but only in reference to the immediate need, never an excess. nor to the future. You explain it me if you can.

Tropical Tramp

 

[the blindbowman]

to live and not dream past this reality is to never truely live at all ...what makes a man a man . its a simple answer . it comes from within his own being ...the will to under stand what his sense collect and his will to hunt for the answer to anything that he dose not under stand ..

we all set the levels of our work and play and chose what path to take ... if you are walking in the Mts and look down and see a foot print in the sand you may think of him because thats what he has shared with you , as a feather i beleave i have lived a million moons yet the one i leave now is for now , how is just a question and it has just a answer yet the will of the being to find the answers and question is hiden within us all ...


soon i will be takeing photos and it will be hard work and the day will be hot and i will not to rest and set my camera down on the rock beside me and reacxh down and pick up a handfull of sand and than i will remember what you said here and what i type now and i will hold sand tight as i can and call out his name 3 times in to wind and let the sands fall free in the wind .....
.

it is a never ending path the sand apone the wind ....

remember and let what you learn from him live on in you !

 

[cactusjumper]

My thanks to each of you for your kind words. It means a lot to know that there are thoughts and prayers being offered for my dad, my family and myself.

Take care,

Joe

 

[the blindbowman]

we only get one dad , and few ever know him as his son's do .. we look beyond what other see and know of him . we who he is within .....my dad is like your sleeping the long sleep , a dutch hunt also . never getting the chance to get to the mts . he had paning black sands from calf. and had been rock hounding for well over 25 years ,my grand father worked st joe's mine 3 miles down most of his life ....

you dont give up ,its your time . dont waste it .. think about what your doing and why and know he watches over your sholder....

 

[gollum]

My condolences Joe.

Every one that passes over is a great loss, but maybe he will reach down and tap you on the shoulder one day, and whisper in your ear, "PSSSSSSST! It's just over the hill, thataway."

Best,

Mike

 

[the blindbowman]

Cj do you beleave ?

dont question what i tell you, do it and see for your self . take a white cloth put in the cloth something that was your fathers ,and tie the cloth with a peice of string that you have found that someone else has thrown away ...you must find the string , a peice of string lost or thrown away by someone unknown to you ! a rock a peice of hair . anything small that he has touched in the past . get a small pocket size picture of him . put these things in the white cloth . now here is the hard part , get a little sand from the Mts of the area you want to look over , put a small amont in the cloth as well .. dont worry about any falling out . than put something of your own that you carried with you for many years and know as your own .

as you find and collect these items put them in the cloth safe in your pocket each time you add them ... when you get to the spot you want his help lay the cloth apone the ground and open it and let it smell the winds , his spirit well come ...

if you do it right and belave , you well have made a shamen spell hide or bag , and he well make his presence know to you ...

if you reach down very slowly and standing at the point you frist note he is near , reach down and pick a small pinch of sand from under your foot and at it to the cloth , than you can take the spell bag anywhere you want and call his spirit when you open it ...

note if you do not beleave you will be wasteing your time . if you beleave and your sense know you are being truthfull to the winds , he will come , when is up to his spirit and you may try many times before he or you beleave togather , but when that happens you and his spirit well share the space around the spell bag as it is open and when you close it the space will vanish back into the beyond ...

what i am telling you is past down from father to son many many life times . if you beleave you well under stand what i am shareing with you here in this ink ...who knows if you laern the art of this . you can throw the cloth away and cast a breath into your hand and wipe the sand smoth and cast the bones of time past & yet to be seen ... no path is with out its steps ...or its stepping stone . use these things with in the cloth as your stones to make the path you beleave can be there and it will be there ... i do not know if you can cast the bones only he who holds the bones before he cast them .will know ... . do you remember the old crazy shaman / witch doctors of the history .. were not all history .....we just dont talk about it often anymore ...know this gift dose not come without a price , ask your self before you do this or beleave if you are willing to pay the price or toll ... under stand your being is between deminsions or shares the two realities when this happens, you will age acordingly , yes that is what i mean , you can age years in mintues , so pick your space wisely and time the event knowing you have a way to stop it if need be ....

you will be stepping over to a path that is not yours . be respectfull or you will pay far more than you are willing to pay ......under stand you and he well share a space between you both a link a conection . some can watch with their eyes open most start with the closeing of the eyes . if you taste and master the casting of the bones far ahead of you is a place where seers and shadow walkers go , where ageing is a normal part of the game of sorrows ....

i see childern playing , i give a toy to one . will he play or will he use the toy to learn more about what is around him and what is within ......

some times i stand , some times i walk , some times i run and play , some times i dance . some times i dont remember . some times i do .....crazy me crazy u

 

[the blindbowman]

to find one who can beleave is hard to do , yet to find many ( a ring ) is more than a few . the chiffs of old would share the cost ...makeing them stronger and the ageing becomes the oppesite .

CJ you have a new toy, what you do with it is up to you ...will you show others and get them to play or will you keep it and use it for your self .....how much will it cost you ?

 

[cactusjumper]

My Dad was buried last Monday. It rained, the wind was blowing and it was cold. The Priest forgot he was supposed to be there, so my Cousin Sam did the honors. All in all, it couldn't have been better.

Once again, my thanks for the condolances.

Joe Ribaudo

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

hi Far better from one of the family and from the heart, than from a canned speech. He probably received a kick out of it.

I'll probably be lucky if anyone other than my wife or blind bowman and my mule, says goodbye sniffff.

Tropical Tramp

 

[cactusjumper]

All,

Gene Reynolds called from his hospital bed this morning. He is in serious trouble with his heart and needs our thoughts and prayers. Gene is an old time Dutch Hunter and one of the good guys.

Thank you,

Joe Ribaudo

 

[djui5]

Joe,
He will be in my thoughts.

 

[cactusjumper]

B,

I thank you for Gene. Stopping to think about someone we don't know, shows the kind of heart that beats within.

I fear I would become a coyote or javelina hunter if they got one of our pups. I know it hits you very hard.

Best wishes,

Joe

 

[Old Dog]

Joe,

Prayers and thoughts going out for Gene.

Please keep us posted.

Thom

 

[Cubfan64]

Missed this post for some reason until today - I don't know you CJ, but I'm sorry to hear of your family's loss. It sounds like he had a good life.

 

[cactusjumper]

Cubfan,

Wow, thought that was all over, but your post showed me it still lies just beneath the surface.

My thanks,

Joe

 

[cactusjumper]

I just posted this message on the LDM Forum:

One of the reasons I started this topic, was so that some of the less well known Dutch Hunters could be remembered and their passing noted.

Greg Davis recently sent out an email advising a few people that Charles (Chuck) Crawford had passed away last month. No details were included in the message, other than the date he passed away.

I never met Chuck, but it seems to me that we are all brothers in the fraternity of the Superstitions. I have gleaned a little information about the man and will post it in the hopes that others, who may have known him, will add a little personal history.

From an old time Dutch Hunter:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Charles M. Crawford was an interesting person. I met him for the first time in 1975, in Bark's Canyon. Deleated.....and I were riding horseback in the area looking at the numerous mine tunnels and dumps in the area. Chuck had just staked out his claims in the area. Just before meeting me Chuck talked Channel 12 into doing a news doc on a stone he found. He claim the date was left there by the Coronado Expedition in 1541. Yes, Crawford and my trail crossed several time during the past thirty years. Chuck raised a lot of money off of his imagination over the years. He was really into fire assayer. Some of the small smelters he built kind of scared me, but they never blew up. He managed to melt his samples and pour off the slag. I believe Chuck was from Buffalo, New York. Chuck certainly had his problems with the local constabulary over the years. As you probably know he ran for Sheriff of Pinal County a couple of times. One time he got over 13,000 votes which shocked everyone. These are just a couple of stories. A lot of people spent more time with Chuck then I did and know more about his mining operation."

Sounds like Chuck was, pretty much, one of us.

Chuck believed he had found the LDM and staked a claim close to Bark's Canyon. That was in 1976. He was quoted in an article published in the Phoenix Gazette, in 1980 that the LDM was no longer lost.

My condolences to Chuck's family and friends.

Godspeed,

Joe Ribaudo

 

[the blindbowman]

some times being a shaman is not as fun as most believe it to be as i read the reaply before me i could hear the soft hit of the pick on the rocks and he dug in the early morning hours . he talk softly to him self ....and only stoped when the call of his family came to mind or the pain in his back needed to strighten up ....the splash of cool water on the head . and the hit of the pick would start again . like music to a miners .. souls .. you keep swing that pick chuck . i will come and seat with you now and then , i guess i dont hear the pain threw the music ....a few months ago my brother had a close call with lung cancer ,thank god it truned out not to be cancer . yesterday night he goes in for heart problems . today he signs him self out and refuse any more test ....


i shake my head and wonder why and just a few mintues ago i herd chucks pick music and knew just why .....

he wants so bad to go back and he knows it maybe his last chance ....i tell my self i cant take him out there if he is sick . yet i cant tell him no ...

all i can say is when you are out there and you hear think you herd a pick far off and away . you remember chuck and the other before him and maybe a few of us yet to give up the search ...


i say dont rest in peace swing that pick as long as you want or you can ...the music is truely beautful to those of us that can hear it .. brovo brovo chuck ! oncore oncore

 

[Tubecity]

My sympathies for your loss. The best part is what you two shared
& the times you had together. I feel you & him will never be far apart.