Very well said.People should read this twice,think about it and read it again.
The mysterious death of Adolph Ruth
- Thread starter Matthew Roberts
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nobodie
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I had thought that Ruth still had maps on him or in his camp when he was found. If that is true, then there had to be more than just the maps. Why just take one?
deducer
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A great question. My response would be- who knows for sure? The same people who reported that Ruth had maps/letters, are the same people who engaged in obstruction of justice, tampering with a crime scene, etc. They removed at least one map from his body and went in search of treasure barely a day after finding the body.
It's like relying on a fox's account of what happened in the chicken coop.
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Walter Gassler told the truth in his manuscript.
Tex Barkley and Jeff Adams did indeed find Adolph Ruth's body on Peters Mesa, took a map from his remains, followed that map to a cave marked on that map, spent two days of extreme hardship doing it in the roughest country in the Superstitions, then moved Ruth's body down to where it was later discovered in Pinal County.
The date was July 13, 1931, Five months before Adolph Ruth's skull would be found, and Six months before his body with his personal effects would be found.
The question is how do we know they did this and when, and moreover WHY did they do it ?
The how and the when was never hard to determine. WHY they did it has never been explained and more importantly, who else knew and helped to keep the secret.
Here is an excerpt from a letter written by Jeff Adams in January of 1932 AFTER both Ruth's skull and remains had been found.
Adams is writing it as if the events just happened in January 1932. Jim Barks comments on Adams letter provide a follow up.
"After finding and assembling Ruth's bones we followed the direction given to reach the alleged Lost Dutchman mine. This trip took us two days of very hard labor and following these directions we came to the place pointed out in the instructions and found no evidence of any human being ever having been there at any time in the past. I never saw a rougher place in those mountains.”
Jim Bark writes in his notes; “After finding this note, the hunting party of five went into a huddle and then asked Barkley if he knew of such a cave. Tex replied that he knew of a cave up there. Whether it was the right one or not he could not say, so they gathered up the bones and belongings of Ruth and took them to camp. Each got an empty grain sack and returned to explore the cave, and incidentally to get a sack of gold ore or nuggets whichever it might be. Tex led them to a cave, and it certainly was a rough trip, but they found no mine.
Here is a Phoenix Gazette newspaper article for July 16, 1931 describing the exact same event that Jeff Adams wrote happened six months later in January 1932.
This article clearly describes the search in a new area, an area North of Ruth's camp and 2 days of hardship in rough terrain.
This is when Adams and Barkley found Ruth's body, July 1931. This is when they took Ruth's map and went looking for the mine. And this is when Adams and Barkley moved Ruth's body down into Pinal County.
July 16, 1931 Thursday Evening, Phoenix Gazette Page 1
DEFINITE TRACES of LOST PROSPECTOR FOUND UNEXPECTEDLY
The first definite clues leading to the solution of the mysterious disappearance of Adolph Ruth, 66-year-old former government employee who is believed to have become another sacrifice on the altar of the phantom mine of Superstition mountain, was reported to the Phoenix Gazette today from a searching party led by Jeff Adams Maricopa county deputy and W. A. “Tex” Barkley, Mesa cattleman.
The clues were discovered by the two veterans of Arizona’s wilderness after they had undergone 48 hours of hardships and came at a time when near complete exhaustion and suffering from thirst, they were unable to follow them up.
After spending last night at First Water ranch, owned by Barkley, on the northern edge of Superstition. Adams and Barkley early this morning returned to the rugged mountains where they found the first and only clues discovered in three weeks. They carried with them sufficient water and provisions to last 24 hours and were confident they would return with Ruth’s body.
The section of country in which they were working today is considered the most rugged and impassable of the entire range.
The work will be painstaking and hazardous as the region is nearly inaccessible. It is criss crossed by narrow and deep canyons combined with a profusion of jagged ridges and upheaved rock masses that block progress. According to the searching party the clues linked with Mr. Ruth are many miles north of his camp in West Boulder creek near Weavers Needle.
NEW SEARCH AREA
A story of two days of hardship were told by Adams and Barkley when they arrived back at First Water ranch.
After spending the first day of the search in the district already covered they set out from their camp in the mountains early yesterday to traverse the range. Water holes and springs were dried up in the northern half of Superstition and as Adams and Barkley worked through this section they became weakened from lack of water and the physical toil required to surmount the natural obstacles.
The biggest question of all is WHY did this happen, WHO else was involved? There is no doubt it had to go to the very top. But why ?
Matthew
Tex Barkley and Jeff Adams did indeed find Adolph Ruth's body on Peters Mesa, took a map from his remains, followed that map to a cave marked on that map, spent two days of extreme hardship doing it in the roughest country in the Superstitions, then moved Ruth's body down to where it was later discovered in Pinal County.
The date was July 13, 1931, Five months before Adolph Ruth's skull would be found, and Six months before his body with his personal effects would be found.
The question is how do we know they did this and when, and moreover WHY did they do it ?
The how and the when was never hard to determine. WHY they did it has never been explained and more importantly, who else knew and helped to keep the secret.
Here is an excerpt from a letter written by Jeff Adams in January of 1932 AFTER both Ruth's skull and remains had been found.
Adams is writing it as if the events just happened in January 1932. Jim Barks comments on Adams letter provide a follow up.
"After finding and assembling Ruth's bones we followed the direction given to reach the alleged Lost Dutchman mine. This trip took us two days of very hard labor and following these directions we came to the place pointed out in the instructions and found no evidence of any human being ever having been there at any time in the past. I never saw a rougher place in those mountains.”
Jim Bark writes in his notes; “After finding this note, the hunting party of five went into a huddle and then asked Barkley if he knew of such a cave. Tex replied that he knew of a cave up there. Whether it was the right one or not he could not say, so they gathered up the bones and belongings of Ruth and took them to camp. Each got an empty grain sack and returned to explore the cave, and incidentally to get a sack of gold ore or nuggets whichever it might be. Tex led them to a cave, and it certainly was a rough trip, but they found no mine.
Here is a Phoenix Gazette newspaper article for July 16, 1931 describing the exact same event that Jeff Adams wrote happened six months later in January 1932.
This article clearly describes the search in a new area, an area North of Ruth's camp and 2 days of hardship in rough terrain.
This is when Adams and Barkley found Ruth's body, July 1931. This is when they took Ruth's map and went looking for the mine. And this is when Adams and Barkley moved Ruth's body down into Pinal County.
July 16, 1931 Thursday Evening, Phoenix Gazette Page 1
DEFINITE TRACES of LOST PROSPECTOR FOUND UNEXPECTEDLY
The first definite clues leading to the solution of the mysterious disappearance of Adolph Ruth, 66-year-old former government employee who is believed to have become another sacrifice on the altar of the phantom mine of Superstition mountain, was reported to the Phoenix Gazette today from a searching party led by Jeff Adams Maricopa county deputy and W. A. “Tex” Barkley, Mesa cattleman.
The clues were discovered by the two veterans of Arizona’s wilderness after they had undergone 48 hours of hardships and came at a time when near complete exhaustion and suffering from thirst, they were unable to follow them up.
After spending last night at First Water ranch, owned by Barkley, on the northern edge of Superstition. Adams and Barkley early this morning returned to the rugged mountains where they found the first and only clues discovered in three weeks. They carried with them sufficient water and provisions to last 24 hours and were confident they would return with Ruth’s body.
The section of country in which they were working today is considered the most rugged and impassable of the entire range.
The work will be painstaking and hazardous as the region is nearly inaccessible. It is criss crossed by narrow and deep canyons combined with a profusion of jagged ridges and upheaved rock masses that block progress. According to the searching party the clues linked with Mr. Ruth are many miles north of his camp in West Boulder creek near Weavers Needle.
NEW SEARCH AREA
A story of two days of hardship were told by Adams and Barkley when they arrived back at First Water ranch.
After spending the first day of the search in the district already covered they set out from their camp in the mountains early yesterday to traverse the range. Water holes and springs were dried up in the northern half of Superstition and as Adams and Barkley worked through this section they became weakened from lack of water and the physical toil required to surmount the natural obstacles.
The biggest question of all is WHY did this happen, WHO else was involved? There is no doubt it had to go to the very top. But why ?
Matthew
Matthew Roberts
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Immediately following Jeff Adams and Tex Barkley's return from their 2 days of extreme suffering in the most remote place in the mountains, Jeff Adams who was in charge of the search, shut down all searching in the Superstitions because it was too hot, there was no water in the mountains and it too was dangerous for horses, dogs and men to be the Superstitions in the July heat. The date was July 18. There was no official searching done for Adolph Ruth until late October of 1931.
Ruth's skull was located in December 1931 and the rest of his remains discovered in January 1932. Both skull and remains were located in Pinal County, several miles south of where Adams and Barkley had been last searching for those 2 days in rough remote country. Jeff Adams timing for shutting down all searches for Adolph Ruth speaks volumes.
Matthew
Ruth's skull was located in December 1931 and the rest of his remains discovered in January 1932. Both skull and remains were located in Pinal County, several miles south of where Adams and Barkley had been last searching for those 2 days in rough remote country. Jeff Adams timing for shutting down all searches for Adolph Ruth speaks volumes.
Matthew
deducer
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You have done some outstanding work here, Matthew.
cactusjumper
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deducer,
Spend a few years going through Greg's collection and you can also do some "outstanding work".
Good luck,
Joe
Matthew Roberts
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If you believe the Adolph Ruth mystery is baffling and confusing, that Ruth was murdered for his map, or even if you believe Ruth simply died of natural causes, you need to read this.
In the early morning hours of July 12, 1931 a 64 year old man was found dead, laying in a dark and a remote section of Loomis Road in Claypool, Arizona 2 miles west of Globe.
The man had been run over by at least one car, there were no witnesses and the Gila County Sheriff surmised he had been walking along the road or was crossing the road when he was struck.
There was no explanation why the man would have been walking where he was, late at night, or why no one had stopped when they struck him. He was found laying out in the road by a truck driver coming into Globe at 3:00 AM.
The man had no address with him but did have a paper in his pocket with an address in east Mesa, a boarding house ran by a lady named Hayes. He had no known reason to be walking to Globe - Claypool. Although he was known to some in the area no one in the area was expecting him.
There were no obvious signs of foul play and his injuries were consistent with being struck by a vehicle. But the coroner noted while there was considerable blood on the deceased from his injuries, strangely there was no blood anywhere on the roadway where he was found. With the lack of any other information about the death, or any witness to come forward, the coroner ruled the death accidental.
The man’s name was Charles Knickerbocker and four months earlier in April of 1931 he had told several people in and around Mesa and Phoenix that he had learned the location of a rich mine in the Superstition Mountains and he believed it to be the Lost Dutchman Mine. At least one local newspaper ran a short piece on his claim.
Charles Knickerbocker was well known around the Superstition Mountains as a prospector and mine hunter. He was a personal friend of Collins R. Cal Morse and knew Tex Barkley and his family. Knickerbocker usually went in and out the Superstition Mountains through Barkley’s First Water Ranch.
Charles Knickerbocker was also acquainted with Adolph Ruth and Ruth’s son Erwin. In fact, in the wake of Adolph Ruth’s disappearance it was Charles Knickerbocker who Erwin Ruth turned to in an attempt to find his father. But Knickerbocker was killed suddenly before that search could take shape.
Just before his death Knickerbocker had become evasive, quiet and uncooperative. Knickerbocker and Adolph Ruth had been communicating with each other before Adolph had arrived in Mesa and the two had been together at the Morse Ranch several times before Adolph Ruth went into the Superstitions.
Erwin Ruth believed Charles Knickerbocker (and also Cal Morse) knew exactly where his father was going in the Superstitions. But Knickerbocker became strangely silent and tried to avoid questions. He refused to go into the Superstitions to look for the elder Ruth. It was almost as if Knickerbocker was afraid of something or someone(s). Then suddenly and without warning, Knickerbocker was dead.
The official date on Charles Knickerbocker’s death certificate reads July 12, 1931 the morning he was discovered on the road. But Gila County Sheriff’s investigators believe he most probably died sometime the evening of July 11 as he was found at 3:00 AM on the morning of the 12th.
Jeff Adams and Tex Barkley went into the Superstitions looking for Adolph Ruth on their two days of extreme hardship in rough country either on the evening of July 11 or the morning of July 12.
The death of Charles Knickerbocker, the timing of his death, just 2 days before Adolph Ruth’s body was found on Peters Mesa, and Knickerbocker’s association with Adolph Ruth raised a good many unanswered questions.
Knickerbocker had no known family and he was buried hastily near Globe before the Maricopa County Sheriff James MacFadden could secure the body for his own examination and investigation.
What did Charles Knickerbocker know about Adolph Ruth and the mine Ruth was looking for ? Were Ruth and Charles Knickerbocker working together with a map no one had seen before and some believed to be the key to the Lost Dutchman ? Why had Knickerbocker suddenly become afraid and why was he walking on a dark road, alone in the middle of the night ?
Those answers will never be known. Because not only did Adolph Ruth lose his life mysteriously over maps and directions to a rich mine lost in the Superstition Mountains, it appears a second man, Charles Knickerbocker may well have lost his for the very same reason.
Two strange and unexplained deaths within days of each other and both men linked to each other and involved in a search for the Lost Dutchman Mine. If someone were to write a thriller novel, a murder mystery they couldn’t do any better. But the sad reality is, every bit of it is true.
Matthew
In the early morning hours of July 12, 1931 a 64 year old man was found dead, laying in a dark and a remote section of Loomis Road in Claypool, Arizona 2 miles west of Globe.
The man had been run over by at least one car, there were no witnesses and the Gila County Sheriff surmised he had been walking along the road or was crossing the road when he was struck.
There was no explanation why the man would have been walking where he was, late at night, or why no one had stopped when they struck him. He was found laying out in the road by a truck driver coming into Globe at 3:00 AM.
The man had no address with him but did have a paper in his pocket with an address in east Mesa, a boarding house ran by a lady named Hayes. He had no known reason to be walking to Globe - Claypool. Although he was known to some in the area no one in the area was expecting him.
There were no obvious signs of foul play and his injuries were consistent with being struck by a vehicle. But the coroner noted while there was considerable blood on the deceased from his injuries, strangely there was no blood anywhere on the roadway where he was found. With the lack of any other information about the death, or any witness to come forward, the coroner ruled the death accidental.
The man’s name was Charles Knickerbocker and four months earlier in April of 1931 he had told several people in and around Mesa and Phoenix that he had learned the location of a rich mine in the Superstition Mountains and he believed it to be the Lost Dutchman Mine. At least one local newspaper ran a short piece on his claim.
Charles Knickerbocker was well known around the Superstition Mountains as a prospector and mine hunter. He was a personal friend of Collins R. Cal Morse and knew Tex Barkley and his family. Knickerbocker usually went in and out the Superstition Mountains through Barkley’s First Water Ranch.
Charles Knickerbocker was also acquainted with Adolph Ruth and Ruth’s son Erwin. In fact, in the wake of Adolph Ruth’s disappearance it was Charles Knickerbocker who Erwin Ruth turned to in an attempt to find his father. But Knickerbocker was killed suddenly before that search could take shape.
Just before his death Knickerbocker had become evasive, quiet and uncooperative. Knickerbocker and Adolph Ruth had been communicating with each other before Adolph had arrived in Mesa and the two had been together at the Morse Ranch several times before Adolph Ruth went into the Superstitions.
Erwin Ruth believed Charles Knickerbocker (and also Cal Morse) knew exactly where his father was going in the Superstitions. But Knickerbocker became strangely silent and tried to avoid questions. He refused to go into the Superstitions to look for the elder Ruth. It was almost as if Knickerbocker was afraid of something or someone(s). Then suddenly and without warning, Knickerbocker was dead.
The official date on Charles Knickerbocker’s death certificate reads July 12, 1931 the morning he was discovered on the road. But Gila County Sheriff’s investigators believe he most probably died sometime the evening of July 11 as he was found at 3:00 AM on the morning of the 12th.
Jeff Adams and Tex Barkley went into the Superstitions looking for Adolph Ruth on their two days of extreme hardship in rough country either on the evening of July 11 or the morning of July 12.
The death of Charles Knickerbocker, the timing of his death, just 2 days before Adolph Ruth’s body was found on Peters Mesa, and Knickerbocker’s association with Adolph Ruth raised a good many unanswered questions.
Knickerbocker had no known family and he was buried hastily near Globe before the Maricopa County Sheriff James MacFadden could secure the body for his own examination and investigation.
What did Charles Knickerbocker know about Adolph Ruth and the mine Ruth was looking for ? Were Ruth and Charles Knickerbocker working together with a map no one had seen before and some believed to be the key to the Lost Dutchman ? Why had Knickerbocker suddenly become afraid and why was he walking on a dark road, alone in the middle of the night ?
Those answers will never be known. Because not only did Adolph Ruth lose his life mysteriously over maps and directions to a rich mine lost in the Superstition Mountains, it appears a second man, Charles Knickerbocker may well have lost his for the very same reason.
Two strange and unexplained deaths within days of each other and both men linked to each other and involved in a search for the Lost Dutchman Mine. If someone were to write a thriller novel, a murder mystery they couldn’t do any better. But the sad reality is, every bit of it is true.
Matthew
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nobodie,
Sadly what you say is true. The Great Depression of the 1930's made for some desperate individuals in and around the Superstition Mountains who felt they had nothing to lose.
With no options for economic enhancement, a treasure map was as good to them as an inside tip on a Wall Street Stock.
Today we see a different breed of Lost Mine hunters. Some are down and out and some are looking for any opportunity to obtain a map or a piece of information they believe might lead them to riches.
People are still being shot at in the Superstitions for wandering too close to someone else's special area.
Outside the Superstitions time has changed, advanced and moved on. But in the interior, far off the well worn hiking trails, it's still 1931.
Matthew
matthew..what you say is true..people are still taking shots at people...people are being killed up there and you don't hear about most of them because the victims are loners with no friends or family...and its pretty much the same now as it was in 1931....if nobody raises a stink when you go missing in the superstitions..then the authorities don't put much effort into looking for you and the news media wont waste their time publicizing the story....on the other hand if you have family that calls the authorities and news media and puts pressure on..then they go looking for you...same with ruth..if he hadn't had any family his disappearance would have gone unnoticed
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IMO , the biggest wrong decision is to kill for a Spanish treasure map or to steal it . The map is completelly worthless if you don't know to " read " it , and to read it , is obligatory to have the instruction from the map maker . Of course , if you are skilled in Spanish treasure maps readings , then the things are most better , and you would solve about 80% of some maps ,or 0% if the map has not a known landmark to begin from .
The Gonzales map ( which has a line that connect WN with 4 Peaks ) is a very complicated map , more than Perfil or Locator map .Except the line with the known landmarks , the rest is complectly different image that you believe the map shows . IMO , the Gonzales map is not for the LDM but for another mine which is the same rich like the LDM . This mine is described in the Storm story about a Fort MC-Dowell soldier and a Mesa merchant named John Carrol .
But is not the Gonzales map that made me impression , but is how the soldier could decrypted this difficult map . The " X "s in the map are not for mines , but are numbers for degrees to find the mine from a specific point . The clues that gave the soldier to Carrol plus the clues from the map , and after a triangulation , the line that go back , corresponds exactly with the numbers from the map and go through the mine site .
And now the questions are :
- Was Erwin Ruth the person who took the map from the Gonzales in exchange for his life or the soldier ?( IMO , was the soldier )
- If was the soldier , why used Erwin someone else's story to cover the map provenance ?
- Why the soldier had the instructions and Erwin didn't ?
.
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Matthew Roberts
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markmar,
You make some excellent points. There are many who do not believe in Treasure maps and will tell you all are frauds and fakes.
But that is not necessarily true. While many are fake, there are some that have been around for many years that came from actual sources and do lead to given locations.
More than a handful of these such maps have been followed and the locations discovered. Mel Fisher and Chuck Kenworthy are just two examples of men who prevailed.
The great movie star John Wayne was a Lost Dutchman Mine hunter and invested in Chuck Kenworthys Heart Quest Expedition on Charleboise Mountain in the late 1970's and early 1980.
Wayne wanted to accompany Kenworthy into the Superstitions but his doctors strictly forbid him from making the trip. He was in cancer therapy at the time.
I have never been good at figuring treasure signs symbols and how they relate to maps and complex multi maps and directions. But others I know and have been associated with are very adept at this skill.
I think some of the best partnerships have been between a person who knew the mountains inside out and a person who was good with maps, diagrams and coded directions.
Your questions about Erwin Ruth are intriguing. If the soldier was the one who really had the map and knew specific information about that map, when Erwin Ruth gained possession of it all he had was possession but not the means to decipher the maps meaning.
Matthew
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Matthew
I believe was not Erwin who gained possession of that map , but his father . From the correspondence that had Erwin with Jones about the maps , Erwin showed little confused about what images described the maps that had his father .
IMO , the Gonzales map was gained by Adolph Ruth from a resident of Superstitions area who knew in what manner got the soldier that map from Gonzales .
I believe was not Erwin who gained possession of that map , but his father . From the correspondence that had Erwin with Jones about the maps , Erwin showed little confused about what images described the maps that had his father .
IMO , the Gonzales map was gained by Adolph Ruth from a resident of Superstitions area who knew in what manner got the soldier that map from Gonzales .
deducer
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An excerpt from the Gassler manuscript:
I think that this was the worst, as far as interfering with a crime scene. It wasn't quite a coverup for the sake of covering up. And from that point on, it was just a "poor sucker's been dead for a long time; wouldn't hurt to take a look at what he was looking for."
And why? Why was Ruth killed? I think that to answer this question, we have to think about how much Ruth was talking, or even boasting about the mine. He had boasted to Mrs. Barkley, the night he went into the mountains, showing her a manila envelope, saying I'll show you how easy it is to find that mine. I'll be gone one to two days.
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deducer,
Walter Gassler's account of what Tex Barkley told him is nothing less than chilling. Walter showed me the rock Tex said Adolph Ruth was sitting on when he was killed. From that rock if you looked to the southwest you saw this magnificent view of Weavers Needle (El Sombrero) as seen in so many drawings of that peak on several maps.
The grove of trees on the slope that Walter wrote of became his camp.
The grove was quite large, a tangle of tall Laurel trees and scrub oaks. So thick you could only get into it from above.
There hidden in that grove Walter kept his tent, blanket and other camping gear.
It was almost as if Walter was following in Ruth's footsteps. How sad that Walter would die almost at the same spot as Ruth did, 53 years earlier.
Adolph Ruth did indeed talk to much about his intentions and his map(s). Had he been more discrete and quite he might not have met his terrible end.
Matthew
Walter Gassler's account of what Tex Barkley told him is nothing less than chilling. Walter showed me the rock Tex said Adolph Ruth was sitting on when he was killed. From that rock if you looked to the southwest you saw this magnificent view of Weavers Needle (El Sombrero) as seen in so many drawings of that peak on several maps.
The grove of trees on the slope that Walter wrote of became his camp.
The grove was quite large, a tangle of tall Laurel trees and scrub oaks. So thick you could only get into it from above.
There hidden in that grove Walter kept his tent, blanket and other camping gear.
It was almost as if Walter was following in Ruth's footsteps. How sad that Walter would die almost at the same spot as Ruth did, 53 years earlier.
Adolph Ruth did indeed talk to much about his intentions and his map(s). Had he been more discrete and quite he might not have met his terrible end.
Matthew
matthew...would you mind sharing the location of the grove of trees walt camped in and the rock where he was shot?...
Matthew Roberts
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azdave35,
Here are three maps locating Walter Gassler's camp in the Laurel grove on the west side of Peters Mesa (Red Circle) and also the rock Walter showed me where Ruth met his end (Red X).
These two maps show enough canyons, peaks and place names to make it easy for someone to find the area on their own topographic map.
I'm not a Google earth satellite user but I believe if you zero in on the spot I marked as Walter's camp you can actually see that grove of Laurel trees. Several people I know went looking for Walter's camp but could never find it.
That's because they were looking for it out in the open. Unless you knew it was in that Laurel grove you would have an awfully hard time locating it.
The last map has a little something Walter gave me that he picked up on his searches on Peters Mesa. A piece of gold in grey-white quartz. In fact he gave me two pieces of gold from up there. The second piece Walter gave me was a magnificent specimen that I took with me to a meeting that had been arranged with Roland Gassler and Mike MaChesney. Roland did not show up for that meeting but Mike was there and he saw the gold and the map Walter gave me. I planned to give that piece of gold in quartz to Roland that day.
Matthew
Here are three maps locating Walter Gassler's camp in the Laurel grove on the west side of Peters Mesa (Red Circle) and also the rock Walter showed me where Ruth met his end (Red X).
These two maps show enough canyons, peaks and place names to make it easy for someone to find the area on their own topographic map.
I'm not a Google earth satellite user but I believe if you zero in on the spot I marked as Walter's camp you can actually see that grove of Laurel trees. Several people I know went looking for Walter's camp but could never find it.
That's because they were looking for it out in the open. Unless you knew it was in that Laurel grove you would have an awfully hard time locating it.
The last map has a little something Walter gave me that he picked up on his searches on Peters Mesa. A piece of gold in grey-white quartz. In fact he gave me two pieces of gold from up there. The second piece Walter gave me was a magnificent specimen that I took with me to a meeting that had been arranged with Roland Gassler and Mike MaChesney. Roland did not show up for that meeting but Mike was there and he saw the gold and the map Walter gave me. I planned to give that piece of gold in quartz to Roland that day.
Matthew
thanks matthew....i took a look on google earth and there is a big grove of green trees in the vicinity of the red circle ....strange roland blew you and mike off...did he ever give you a reason or just blow you off and no more communication?
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Hi Matthew:
Thought I would add the location of "Peter's Cave" to one of your topos, for those who might be interested in that place as well.
It's not too bad a hike to the cave, at least once you are past the bigger boulders at the entrance to Peter's canyon from Tortilla Creek.
There's a trail that goes up the left side where the boulders choke the narrow entrance to the canyon, tight to the canyon wall.
After that it's mostly flat, with stretches of sand, gravel, and lots of smooth rock to walk along. Deep potholes and "tanks", usually with water in the deeper ones.
Always wondered if panning the gravel from them might yield some gold.
For those who haven't done this hike before, figure on about 3-3 1/2 hours from Tortilla Flat to Peter's Cave, depending on how much else you look at on the way in.
***I've been up that way in April/October and late December, but wouldn't recommend going unless it's less than 90 F. Even then the midday sun would likely raise that by 15-20 degrees.
Regards:SH.
Thought I would add the location of "Peter's Cave" to one of your topos, for those who might be interested in that place as well.
It's not too bad a hike to the cave, at least once you are past the bigger boulders at the entrance to Peter's canyon from Tortilla Creek.
There's a trail that goes up the left side where the boulders choke the narrow entrance to the canyon, tight to the canyon wall.
After that it's mostly flat, with stretches of sand, gravel, and lots of smooth rock to walk along. Deep potholes and "tanks", usually with water in the deeper ones.
Always wondered if panning the gravel from them might yield some gold.
For those who haven't done this hike before, figure on about 3-3 1/2 hours from Tortilla Flat to Peter's Cave, depending on how much else you look at on the way in.
***I've been up that way in April/October and late December, but wouldn't recommend going unless it's less than 90 F. Even then the midday sun would likely raise that by 15-20 degrees.
Regards:SH.
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