Weaver's Needle and the Lost Dutchman Mine Legend Mystery Cache

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Hidden : 3/21/2014
Difficulty:
3 out of 5
Terrain:
3.5 out of 5

Size: Size: regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:



For those of you unfamiliar with the Legend of the Lost Dutchman Mine, we decided to recreate the legend here in these woods. We have hiked about every trail in the Superstition Mountains and find them fascinating and full of adventures. As a young precocious child, my father drove us past the Superstition Mountains one evening as the sun was setting and told us about the legend of the Lost Dutchman Mine. It has always fascinated me so I thought I would share it with you:

The Superstition Mountain range, which is a roughed, mountainous region full of mystery and legend, lies just east of Phoenix, Arizona. According to legend and historical records, within the Superstitions lies a gold mine like no other that has ever been seen. It is known as the Lost Dutchman Mine and has been the quest of many an adventurer over the years and also a place of doom to luckless others. What strange energy lingers here? Numerous people have either vanished without a trace or have had their remains discovered in the desert. Most recently the remains of a man from Denver, Colorado were discovered in 2012 after he sought out locating the gold mine in 2009. The Apache Indians say it is the Thunder God the protects this mine.

The first man to discover gold at the mine was Don Miguel Peralta, a prominent family member from Sonora, Mexico. He described the mountain's most outstanding landmark resembling a sombrero. To others it has been referred to as the Finger of God. Early explorer Pauline Weaver etched his name in the rock with a knife and subsequent prospectors discovered the etching and dubbed the landmark Weaver's Needle. Peralta returned to Mexico and gathered men and material to work the mine. Soon he was shipping millions of pesos in pure gold back to Sonora.



The Apaches grew angry over the Spanish presence on the mountain in 1848. Peralta got word of their impending attack so he pulled the men from the mine, packed up his burros and wagons and elaborately concealed the entrance to the mine to wipe out any trace that they had ever worked there. The following day the Apaches attacked and massacred the men. The pack mules scattered and spilled the gold from their saddle bags as they ran away. The area was later dubbed Gold Field because it was scoured by men seeking the rotted leather packs still brimming with raw gold.

Jacob Waltz emigrated to the U.S. from Germany and relocated to Arizona in the 1860s pursuing mining and prospecting. The word Dutchman came about because Americans back then referred to those settlers as being related to the Pennsylvania Dutch. He heard stories from the local Indians about the vast deposits of gold in the nearby Superstition Mountains. Legend tells that he located the lost mine and its valuable gold. By 1891 Waltz became sick and befriended an old Mexican widow named Julia Elena Thomas, who owned a small bakery in Phoenix. He promised to take her to this secret mine in the spring, but she never saw it because he died on October 25, 1891 with a sack of rich gold discovered beneath his deathbed. Before he died he told her that the gold mine can be located by gazing at Weaver's Needle. The sun will cast a shadow from Weaver's Needle onto the entrance to the gold mine. Immediately following his death, large hoards of people scoured the mountains in search of the mysterious gold mine, but no one ever found it. There is no way to estimate how many people have died in pursuit of the Lost Dutchman Mine. The Peralta massacre death numbers vary between 100-400 men, in addition to the number of others who died or disappeared in the following years to as recently as the Colorado man's death in 2012.

Jacob Waltz


So are you up to the challenge to discover the gold buried here in central Kentucky? If so, locate the needle at GZ. Stare into the needle straight ahead and you will see a large tree downhill in the distance. Walk to this tree and go around to the back of the tree. Search the spot and hopefully you will locate the gold and earn that golden smiley here.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Erzrzore jung gur yrtraq fnlf - gur fha jvyy pnfg n funqbj sebz Jrnire'f Arrqyr bagb gur ohevrq tbyq

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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