There have been tales about Pygmy Indians, Apache warriors guarding the area, flying saucer stories, (by the way, UFO's are real, the Air Force doesn't exist) and every other imaginable tale about the "Killer Mountains". Stories still appear quite frequently from people who swear (another Legendary curse) that they have found the Lost Dutchman Mine. In addition, many others have been cheated out of their life's savings by unscrupulous con men. (Perhaps this is where the term "Golden Fleece" came from!)
Every fool years or so, someone "finds" the mine again. The Lost Dutchman mine is the most-found-lost mine, lost-again mine ever. If the Dutchman turned over in his grave every time someone found his mine, he'd be dizzy. In 1901, Charles Woolf discovered it. In 1914, Sylvester (Scotty) Portella did too. In 1920, a mining "operation" found it, but the only thing they picked were the pockets of the investors. In 1924, Lee Turner turned the Dutchman over again. In 1932, Thomas Wiggins caused a mining gold rush when he found some nuggets, but the ore panned out in a few days. In 1936, another man turned in his claim - it turned out to be stolen gold from a dentist' supply. Next came the Howlands, who actually found about 800 pounds of ore worth $40,000, and in 1949, Henry Bruderlin staked his claim and his reputation that he found it - he was a brazziere salesman! |
