Jack Eddings (in orange shirt) of the East Valley Mounted Search and Rescue Posse sits astride his horse after spending hours looking for the three lost Utah hikers in the Superstition Mountains. (Pat Shannahan/AP photo)
It was the third time Merworth had gone to the Superstitions looking for treasure. Searchers rescued him from the terrain in May 2009, but the harrowing experience didn't deter him from what family members say had become an obsession.
Merworth, 48, was "gold crazy," his mother, Carol, said from her Salt Lake City home. "He was certain he was going to find this mine," she said.
The pursuit of the Dutchman's mine has been going on for more than a century in "some of the most rugged wilderness areas of the U.S. Forest Service," said George E. Johnston, president emeritus of the Superstition Mountain Museum in Apache Junction.
"It's hard to separate the legend and the lore from the lies and the BS and everything else about it," he said. "But there's enough to it to encourage people that have been interested in it to go after that gold. For almost 120 years now, they've been looking for it."
The story goes that during the mid-1800s, the Peralta family of Mexico operated several mining claims, including a fabulously rich gold mine in the Superstitions. An expedition returning gold ore to Mexico City was attacked by Apaches. Only one member of the Peralta expedition survived the attack. Decades later, he revealed the location of the richest of the family's mines to Jacob Waltz, who has come to be immortalized as the Dutchman.
The story is based on some nuggets of truth. Jacob Waltz was born in 1808 in Germany, and he came to the United States in 1846. He worked as a miner in North Carolina and Georgia and later in the Arizona Territory. In 1868, he homesteaded 160 acres near the Salt River in what is now the East Valley. Waltz died a pauper in 1891.
Legend has it that, on his deathbed, Waltz told his three caretakers about the mine he discovered in the Superstitions and where they could find it. The mine, he said, had enough gold to make millionaires out of 20 men. Beneath his bed was a wooden candle box with pieces of rich gold ore.
The trio spent the rest of their lives searching for the gold based on Waltz's clues. One of the caretakers, Julia Thomas, made a living off drawing and selling maps to the treasure, Johnston said.
The lure of the gold, the greed, he said, continues to draw treasure seekers from all over the world to the Superstitions. Weekly, he fields questions by phone and from visitors who want to know where they can find the bounty.
And then there are those who are drawn by a sense of adventure, said Phillip Reinhardt, an outdoorsman and member of the board of directors of the Superstition Mountain Historical Society.
"People that haven't been there can't even imagine what it's like when you get in there. It's a step back in time, and it carries a physical sensation - especially the first night where you have to roll out your bag." Reinhardt and others believe Merworth, Meeks, and Charles could not have survived for more than a few days in the mountains without provisions.
The Maricopa County Sheriff's office officially called off the search Monday after scaling it back Friday, taking horses and search dogs out of the terrain and reducing the number of volunteers on the ground.
Merworth's daughter, Roseanne, 27, said her father had been hunting for treasure since she was a child. "It's just a fantasy of his," she said. "When I was younger, he was always going up and looking for gold in the rivers. It was just something he liked to do." His fantasy had been focused on the Dutchman's treasure for the past three years, according to Carol Merworth. She said her son persuaded her roommate, Charles, 67, to go along. The third man, Meeks, 52, was one of Curtis' neighbors.
Merworth’s mother said the family warned Curtis, but he was confident he could find the treasure - recklessly so. He refused to take his cell phone, she said, the very item he used to call for help when he got lost more than a year ago. "You'd think he'd learn, but he didn't," she said. "My son doesn’t listen to nobody." Family members of the missing said they hope their loved ones will be found safe but those who know the Superstition wilderness say it's unlikely they're alive.
"What would be nice is to find them in some cool, wet cave, ripping open bags of gold dust and pouring it over themselves while they're waiting for somebody to come carry them out," Reinhardt said. "But the truth is they were amateurs, and they went into the mountains at the hottest time of the year with nowhere near enough water, and they died."
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IMHO it was and is an Apache Indian that was/is responsible for the missing/dead hikers who were searching for the Lost Dutchman Mine or a gold cache reported to be from there.
I belive that an Apache was doing the killing for many years as far back as Adolph Ruth.
Since he has passed on, or became incapacitated in some way, be it old age or whatever, a relative or friend, or whomever he passed the torch to, is now following his agenda. This new killer is taking over after a 28 year layoff of the first killer to do these dastardly deeds.