Re: 2010 DUTCH HUNTER'S RENDEZVOUS
To all,
I second the thanks to Joe and Carolyn for providing great food, and a place to sit for eating and conversing with former AZ Atty Gen Bob Corbin and Tom Kollenborn, teacher/author/journalist/lecturer, both legendary Dutch hunters for many years and Jack San Felice for an eye opener with his talk on JD Walker, an Arizona hero. Thanks also to Greg Davis, Board Member/Director of Library, Research Acquisitions and Archives of the Superstition Mountain Historical Society, for his invaluable input about Superstition Mountain lore and by virtue of his leadership in the ‘Dons of Arizona’, permission to hold the Renezvous at the Don’s Base Camp, Bob Schoose for his support and participation. Rick Gwynn showed us a ton of pictures taken throughout the Superstitions and is pretty convincing about locations he photographed.
Many thanks to the organizers Randy and Wayne and all the participants that made the Rendezvous another huge success. Randy made a supreme effort as he suffered an accident at work just two weeks prior and was sporting a walking boot. Wayne’s son Trevor turned out to be a real trooper and accompanied his dad on a rather tough hike Saturday. Welcome to the adventure Trevor.
Jerry ‘Javaone’ talks about how everyone was so friendly in his post (all of which I whole-heartedly agree, with some of his statements added here as well). Well let me tell you that he was the first to extend a hand when I arrived, and helped me set up my own campsite. I, too, had the opportunity to meet many folks that post on this website. I thought that since Roy ‘Oroblanco’ and his wife Beth ‘Mrs Oro’ Decker moved to South Dakota we would not be hearing from them in person, but there they were. It turns out that Beth has become friends with Jessie’s mom and showed us the topo map he used to plan his trip last November in search of the Lost Dutchman’s Mine, or his cached treasure. It was great to finally meet many fellow Dutch treasure seekers and to add faces to the list of names. I took several hundred pictures but not all Rendezvous participants are identified as yet.
Thank you wives, and I mean all of you, for attending as it has encouraged my own wife, Nancy to do so next year. Paul ‘Cubfan64’ brought his wife Connie for the first time. Hope to see her with him again next year. Tom Kollenborn was accompanied by his wife Sharon both days. And, speaking of wives, Greg Davis made available the remaining copies of the ‘2008- volume 26’ edition of the Superstition Mountain Journal which was dedicated to Bob Corbin’s wife Helen. Her book on “The Curse Of The Dutchman’s Gold” was the seed that got me interested in this legend in the fall of 2000. It was lying on the cart of books being returned to the shelves in a local library when I noticed it and started reading. I was bitten.
Tom also brought Bob Cooper, Commander of Superstition Search and Rescue and one of the members of his team Roger (Barrienza)?. Saturday, Roger brought us up to date on Jessie and the last three hikers who went missing in July. We were shown photos of computer screens (because he didn’t have use of a printer) that they used when they came in July. I have to give them credit in one respect, their plan was to go in at 2:00 a.m., not during the heat of the day as we were lead to believe by the media, and that one of them had marked their intended trail on an earlier visit in Feb.
I strongly advise those who missed this Rendezvous to plan on attending the next one in 2011.
I was sad to have missed meeting ‘Cptbil’ from Corpus Christi and the ‘blindbowman’ or ‘BB’ from upstate NY as I was looking forward to seeing them both in person. I’d like to hear either one or both of these two guys give a talk at the next Rendezvous. I’m sure they both could tell us some interesting stories.
Another tid-bit of information from Beth… if you buy recent copies of the area Topo maps from the forest service you may want to buy the accompanying overlays that show trails, mines, etc. Be sure to ask for them to pick and choose from.
Ken ‘dustcap’ Chichester
P.S. Sorry if I missed some of you in my post but I realized how long it was getting and decided to leave some room for others to post also.

Helen Corbin
1931 - 2008