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Review of America Unearthed S03E02 "Guardians of Superstition Mountain"

11/15/2014

124 Comments

 
The Wild West holds very little interest for me. I don’t care much about noble cowboys sauntering into town on their ruddy steeds, about the whores with hearts of gold that kept frontier towns functioning, or about the glittering depths of mines. I had my fill of Westerns when I read Mark Twain’s Roughing It, and that hasn’t changed in two decades. So when it came time to try to figure out just what this episode of America Unearthed, S03E02 “Guardians of Superstition Mountain,” was going to be about, I realized that I have no background in the Old West and no knowledge of it. So I took a cue from show host Scott Wolter himself. In Akhenaten to the Founding Fathers (2013), our hero cites Wikipedia as a source 14 times in 162 notes, or 9% of all his notes. Therefore, since I had neither the time nor the inclination to pursue this in much detail I decided to follow suit and learn what I could about the Lost Dutchman’s Mine from Wikipedia. But, being unsatisfied with such a source, I then went on to check the sources and read a bit more, though the further reading in the original sources and in other books on the subject didn’t turn up much of interest except for a few corrections. 

Background

The Lost Dutchman’s Mine is a folk-tale, a legend told and retold so many times that fact and fiction have blended into an impossible confection. Whatever core of truth stood behind the story has long since eroded away. According to the most popular version of the story, a German (i.e., Deutsch, elided as Dutch) man named Jacob Waltz found the largest and richest gold mine in all of America near Arizona’s Superstition Mountains around 1870 but refused to tell anyone the location before his death in 1891. This might or might not have happened, but the grand tales extrapolated from a dying man’s last words have only grown more magnificent with the telling.

More than 8,000 people have tried to find the mine, and all share one thing in common: None has found it. To go in search of Waltz’s caves of gold is a fool’s errand, as productive as the fatal quests for the lost mines of the “Roman” city of the Amazon in Manuscript 512, or the fabled Seven Cities of Gold of Spanish legend. So what fool would go in search of this lost mine? Please, like we don’t already know the answer to that question.

The history behind the myth is convoluted, so much so that in 1977 nationally recognized folklorist Byrd Granger discovered 62 variants of the story of the Lost Dutchman Mine, which in turn are based on what seem to be four distinct stories of four different lost mines. The most famous, but apparently chronologically last of these was the supposed mine of Jacob Waltz. The variations are complex and confusing and tiresome to rehearse. In simplified form, and in chronological order, the underpinnings of the myth go something like this:

  • A man named Miguel Peralta operated a gold mine in Valencia, California, in the 1860s, and this once very rich mine is still visible in Valencia today. But when the mine ran out of gold, Peralta tried to make money by selling a fake Spanish Empire deed to southern Arizona and New Mexico. This fraud, in turn, fed into a later Arizona land fraud. In the 1930s, the story became folded in to the Lost Dutchman story in mangled form, with Peralta now alleged to be the victim of a fictitious massacre by Apaches who had discovered a gold mine. 
  • A doctor named Thorne worked in New Mexico in the 1860s. He had been kidnapped by the Navajo in 1854 and claimed that he had been shown a rich gold vein while in captivity. Three U.S. soldiers went looking for the vein but found nothing. Thorne became folded into the Lost Dutchman myth as the doctor treating the Apache chief after he killed Peralta, and thus the gold vein now becomes Peralta’s hidden gold mine. Sometimes the three soldiers are said to have found the gold mine themselves, but did not live to tell where it lies hidden.
  • The third part of the story is that of Jacob Waltz himself, who supposedly learned the mine’s location from a dying Peralta after the fictitious Apache massacre. Waltz mines gold but refuses to share the mine’s location except, perhaps, in whispered deathbed confession and a crude map. As it happens, Jacob Waltz was a real person, and a gold miner, who immigrated to America in 1848 and moved to Arizona in 1860. He died in 1891, with no evidence in his homestead that he had ever possessed any wealth. His grave is still visible in Phoenix.

The Lost Dutchman Mine is not a classic story; in fact, aside from a Lost Dutchman Mining & Milling Company operating in 1920 (at the Lost Dutchman Mine of Rowena, Colorado), the local legend left precious little impression on the wider world until 1931, when a treasure hunter named Adolph Ruth died looking for the supposed mine. This death became a newspaper sensation, and it turned the Lost Dutchman Mine into a sensation, and eventually a movie, Lust for Gold (1949), based on a 1945 book by John Griffith Climinson (writing as Barry Storm), itself made possible by Ruth’s death. The book made conspiratorial claims that Storm had been tracked by a sniper to prevent him from finding the lost mine. This was the tipping point that turned the story into a pop culture trope, and I am not embarrassed to report that the only reason I know of the Lost Dutchman Mine is because the Hanna Barbara cartoon characters Ruff and Reddy went in search of the mine in a 1960 serial, and I must have caught it in a rerun in the late 1980s or early 1990s, when the old shows were in heavy cable rotation.

By the 1950s, a set of stones engraved with strange symbols were being advertised as a map to the Lost Dutchman’s Mine. These stones, known as the Peralta Stones, after fictitious claims that the Peralta family once mined the Superstition Mountains, have been debunked as modern fakes because they show evidence of having been drilled with modern power tools, according to Charles Polzer of the Arizona State Museum. Like the Ica Stones, the Tucson Lead Artifacts, and other modern forgeries, they feature art style very much unlike other works of their supposed historical era but very much like the untalented hackwork of modern amateurs.

Just in case you’re keeping score, the Lost Dutchman craze was kicked off by Ruth’s death, and Ruth’s death was confirmed (by matching a found skull to medical records) by none other than Smithsonian anthropologist Aleš Hrdlička, whom another History Channel show accused of being part of a conspiracy to suppress the truth about Bible giants. Odd that he would create a mystery he could have suppressed, isn’t it?

The Episode

Segment 1
We open with a reenactment of Jacob Waltz’s 1891 death, in which the old man flashes back to his discovery of his fabled mine and his (mostly imaginary) career paying for luxuries with chunks of gold. Waltz whispers the mine’s location to a woman as he lies on a bed above a bag of gold. We then cut to the opening credits.

After the credits, we’re off to Apache Junction in the Superstition Mountains of Arizona, where Scott Wolter tells us that he is searching private property for what legend says is the “most storied” mine in American history. To begin his quest, we flash back “one week earlier” for Wolter to tell us about Waltz’s legend (though without explaining why a German man is labeled Dutch)—a story even Wolter concedes is embellished. Wolter meets with historian Thomas Kollenborn, who has been interested in the lost mine since 1944, and has studied the two homicides that had occurred among those searching for the treasure. Kollenborn also relates Native American tales of the thunder gods who guard the mountains. This part of the story is meant to give a supernatural explanation for why the mine has never been found.

Then we’re off to look at pictures of the Peralta Stones, which Wolter hopes to decipher and authenticate. En route Wolter briefly mentions Ruth’s death—but not its role in promoting the story to legend status—and we hear about some of the other people who have died in the Arizona desert due to various failures.

At the OK Corral in Apache Junction, Wolter meets with Ron Feldman, a treasure hunter who has spent 48 years failing to find the Lost Dutchman Mine. Feldman has what he says are the Peralta Stones, but Wolter expresses dismay as we go to break that the stones are replicas. No fooling. According to Wikipedia, the originals are held by the Arizona Museum of Natural History, which loaned them for long term exhibit to the Superstition Mountain Museum in 2009. (Later in the hour the Museum will contradict this.) But other sources, those repeating claims by Mark Clayton, (wrongly) claim that the stones were held by the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum in Phoenix until its closure in 2011, after which they were transferred to the Arizona Historical Society. No matter who has custody of them, they are on exhibit recently at the Superstition Mountains Museum, according to no less a source than the Museum itself. 

Segment 2
After the break, we have an on-screen recap followed by a replay of Wolter’s dismay at the replica rocks. Feldman tells Wolter that the rocks are “B.S.,” but Wolter says he’s like to look for some hidden truth in the rocks anyway. Wolter relates the legend of the Peralta prospectors, but he does not acknowledge that there is no historical evidence that the Peralta mine was in Arizona. (The legend moved it there because a Mexican governor of what is now New Mexico and Arizona shared the name Peralta.) Wolter wants to see the original stones, but Feldman tells him that no one knows where they are.

Wolter shows Feldman some small gold ore samples in a staged scene with poor acting as Feldman then tops Wolter by showing him a “real” gold sample, a much larger chunk of ore. Feldman tells Wolter that the chunk of ore was probably from the Lost Dutchman Mine because… well, of a tall tale. The filmmaking here is lacks a bit, and some of the over-the-shoulder shots have lips moving out of sync with the audio, when apparently different takes were melded together poorly. The long and short of it is that the chunk of ore is a geological match for a chunk of gold supposedly taken from beneath Waltz’s bed, and somehow this implies that there is a super-mind full of more gold that anyone can imagine.

As we go to commercial, and H2 promo plays. It glamorizes Ancient Aliens and America Unearthed. As the H2 logo spins and the music swells, disembodied voices from Ancient Aliens tell us there is “a hidden hand in history… it’s incredible.” That about sums up everything wrong with the H2 network in just 15 seconds.

Segment 3
When we return from the break, Wolter’s voiceover recaps what we’ve already heard, and we see a replay of the opening reenactment. In Queen Valley, Arizona, Wolter meets with his third elderly interviewee, Jim Sieglitz, who hopes Wolter can prove that the stones are authentic. Sieglitz believes that Waltz’s gold wasn’t in a mine at all. Instead, he thinks it’s a shipment of gold raided by the Apaches and hidden in a cave—this being one of the folklore variants of the story outline in the background section above. Sieglitz believes that by applying numerology of some sort to the Peralta Stones, we can read them as signifying trail markers on the way to the gold, and even Wolter wonders whether Sieglitz is simply “picking the numbers you want.” When were these trail markers put up? Who knows? This show won’t tell us.

Wolter expresses doubt that he’ll ever see the stones. Does he not have Google? The Superstition Mountains Museum says they have them on exhibit. It is almost like the show is purposely trying to create drama to mask the fact that this episode will fail to find the lost mine.

Segment 4
After the break, Feldman tells Wolter about a spot of land where he hopes Wolter will find the gold, and we get a brief lesson on iron pyrite, fool’s gold. Wolter is looking for quartz because he hopes that the quartz will lead him to the gold. We get a recap already of what we just heard two minutes earlier, which was recapping the recap of the recap from before the second to last break. As Wolter wanders through the desert, I have visions of his last desert adventure, searching for the Ark of the Covenant—not because they bear a similarity but because it recalled to my mind the Exodus. This endless recapping is only slightly less entertaining than spending forty years wandering the arid wastes. The Israelites, at least, had manna and giants to keep them company. As we hit another break Wolter sees a snake, which thoughtfully poses so the camera crew can get a close-up. What, no road runner or coyote?

Segment 5
After the next break, we pick up with the snake as Wolter bravely walks right on by the snake and begins chipping away at rocks. He keeps on walking through the desert examining rocks. Weirdly, there is no recap, which makes me wonder why segment 4 had multiple recaps. Did the producers need to jam in an extra commercial break, leaving things a bit out of sequence? Wolter is now off to Goldfield, Arizona, where the Mammoth Gold Mine (more formally, the Mammoth-St. Anthony Mine) was, according to Wolter, discovered in 1892, and Wolter speculates that the Mammoth mine was perhaps Waltz’s mine. However, the Mammoth mine claims were started in 1879, and the mine operated from 1881 to 1912. It therefore was in operation when Waltz claimed to be providing information about where the mine really was.

Feldman disagrees, but Wolter suggests that the gold from the Mammoth mine might be connected to an outcropping Waltz found on the other side of the same mountain, thus making them one and the same.

In a staged scene, Wolter claims to have gotten a text announcing that the “Peralta Stones have been located.” Good to know they have Google at Committee Films.

Segment 6
After the break we get a recap, and Wolter is off to the Superstition Mountain Museum where he implies lightly that the stones were “quietly” relocated in what I guess we are to conclude was a conspiracy. “Someone,” he said, texted him this information. This year he doesn’t even pretend that his Baker Street Irregulars are behind the fake texts the producers use to fabricate drama. The Museum tells Wolter that the Flagg Mineral Foundation previously controlled the stones before they came to the Museum, thus refuting both Wikipedia and Mark Clayton. Wolter then authenticates the stones by saying they “look old.” (Science!) We finish the hour with Wolter visiting Waltz’s Phoenix grave, where he finally acknowledges Waltz was German after spending the hour calling him Dutch. He never does explain why Waltz was called Dutch, and I am not sure he knows. Wolter briefly indicates that another anonymous “someone” emailed him a photo of a gold mine, so maybe the mine is real.

So, in the end, Wolter found nothing, didn’t even make a convincing argument for his own view that the Lost Dutchman’s Mine was the Mammoth Mine, and declined to make even a cursory stab at separating fact from fiction in probing the historicity of the Lost Dutchman legend. Instead, he concludes that “maybe one day I’ll find out” if the story is true. In short, this was another superficial, lazy hour that lacks a real historical understanding or perspective of the mysteries it claims to investigate.

124 Comments
SaraKate
11/15/2014 02:41:01 pm

Seriously, my favorite part of this show has become watching reruns while reading your reviews at the same time.

My ten year old daughter watches this with us and said the other day "I don't get it. Does he think we're stupid?"

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L. Barth
11/15/2014 11:14:31 pm

LOL I do the same thing. It is more entertaining than just watching the show.

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Libbie
12/2/2015 06:02:22 am

So sad that you are teaching your daughter to laugh at history. The man who wrote this article obviously knows nothing about the Superstition Mountains or the people in it. Or any of you commenting on this post. Seriously, he can't even figure out why they called a German man 'Dutch'?? He needs to use his own advice and use Google. While the show may not be as dramatic as before, if you know about actual history, you would know the answers to a lot of Jason's questions.

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Rev. Phil Gotsch
11/15/2014 02:44:23 pm

This episode was a lot of fun …

I lived a year in Phoenix during my internship, and got out into the Sonoran desert as often as possible … including a hike up Peralta Canyon … It was STUNNINGLY beautiful … and there were two young guys hiking up the canyon with us, very heavily laden, including sidearms and rifles … I assumed then and now that they were going prospecting ...

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Paul
11/15/2014 03:00:10 pm

@4 minutes it says 1 week earlier, look at sky, the sky is exactly the same @34minutes present time - liars and network who deceive the public. we are also to believe @45 minutes the stone he found was by chance, why would i believe that.

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Paul
11/15/2014 03:06:11 pm

or when the guy doing it for 48 years says he doesn't know where the real stones are, ya right.

FrankenNewYork
11/17/2014 04:04:34 am

I thought I saw, but don't have the fortitude to look for again, a close up of Wolter's boot passing behind a big piece of quartz. This was after Wolter says that the presence of three minerals could indicate the presence of quartz (previously noted as the most common crystal) as they are often found near each other.
Also the figure on the stones with the pointed hat swinging a giant cross could be a priest or a BANKER? Not a Halloween witch? Really?

666
11/16/2014 06:54:27 am

Are ya back reverend

Watch out for that Ganja

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Rev. Phil Gotsch
11/16/2014 09:07:26 am

"666" --

(You do realize that the highway they named after you ran through northern Arizona, yes … ???)

But … No …
When I hung out in Arizona in the early mid-70s, "ganja" was a big Federal offense … so I left it alone …

But I very much fell in love with Arizona ...

Matt Mc
11/15/2014 04:01:02 pm

Jason I am surprised that in the H2 promo you mentioned during the second break you did not mention one of the text that H2 used right after mentioning AA and AU was

"2 good to be true"

Looks like they are not hiding that fact that they know it is not true.

So far this season is horrible and I really doubt if it continues like this it will continue.

Also notice how they focused on the Masonic symbol in the graveyard at the end still more foreshadowing
of the grand conspiracy to come I guess

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Dan
11/15/2014 04:48:35 pm

I don't know what to say about this episode except that I miss the crazy ranting conspiracy nut Wolter rather than this half-hearted old legend chaser. I'm baffled about why H2 would neuter one of their most out-there fringe guys. I feel almost bad laughing at the show now.

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Only Me
11/15/2014 05:25:53 pm

So Scott pulled a Seinfeld; this was an episode about nothing. Maybe this was the warm-up for the upcoming episode about Montezuma's treasure.

I wait with bated breath for when Scott reveals to the world that Judaculla Rock is, indeed, a rock. And it's old. Because he'll look at it and just *know* it is. SCIENCE!

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666
11/16/2014 06:57:45 am

>>>So Scott pulled a Seinfeld

What's the difference between Scott Wolter and you?

LOL

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EP
11/16/2014 07:01:35 am

Sigh... I knew your claim to have been banned was too good to be true...

Seeker
11/15/2014 06:32:43 pm

I appreciate the distillation of the various Lost Dutchman mine legends, Jason. I always learn something from your blog, but in a word, this episode was incredibly BORING--I learned nothing new.

You're right about the recaps upon recaps. And seriously, what is with the long shots of a parking lot and the overbearing music? The first half hour could have been less than 10 in terms of what we learned. As for the show overall, 20 minutes, tops.

And as much as Wolter kept harping on "getting out there," the show was overwhelmingly just guys just sitting or standing around, talking. Aside: maybe this is why I enjoy Don Wildman so much as a host--if he's standing still, he's telling the audience something compelling--and if he's on an adventure, he's actively doing something to keep the viewer engaged.

So deep into the hour, Wolter finally starts to wander around the desert with a small pickaxe and looks at rocks. Whether intentional (by some saboteur on the inside) or unintentional, this was a sad yet hysterical metaphor for the entire series. And again, boring.

Although the show sorely needed drama, it was rather inexcusable to create false drama by making it sound like the Peralta stones were difficult to locate. When Wolter finally saw them and used his vast forensic geology skills to proclaim: "They don't look like obvious fakes" and "...probably are authentic" I literally burst out laughing.

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John Dunham
11/17/2014 01:42:39 am

I think the show would be much better if they paired Jason with Scott. We could have Jason give us the background on where the legend being examined comes from (very interesting) and have Scott wander around looking at rocks (we can see interesting places).

The Superstition Mountains are beautiful, they are where the Apaches held out against the US Army for years and they are full of legends like the Lost Dutchman Mine.

Honestly, this was probably the most interesting episode to date because other that the one long shot of a masonic symbol on an old grave, there was no ranting about biblical mythology.

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Truthseeker
11/24/2014 08:08:29 am

While it's possible some Apache may have been in the Superstition Mountains at one time or another, the Kwevkapaya (Yavapai) are the Native Americans who included the Superstitions in their territory and mostly used it for hunting/gathering. It most certainly was NOT an area where the Apache held out against the US Army - not in the least bit. You need to head further south to the Chiricahua Mountains and into Mexico to find their primary locations of resistance.

As far as the Lost Dutchman Mine goes, it takes far more digging, reading and talking to people than Mr. Wolter or Mr. Colavito have done to do the stories justice. While the evidence for the existence of Waltz's gold source is slim, there is some and most folks who have really dug into the legends can easily toss out most of the stories eventually whittling them down to 2 (the Holme's side and the Thomas/Petrasch side).

Personally I believe Waltz did have a source of gold ore, but whether it came from a rich mine or was from an ore "cache" remains to be seen. If he did have a mine, it likely was either cleaned out quietly years ago, or is buried under so much overburden that it would take significant digging to locate (which is illegal in the Superstitions).

That said, don't let anyone tell you there isn't gold in the Superstition Mountains. I know of one man who continues to recover gold and although it is not in tremendously rich quantities, it's there and geologically speaking it's very possible for a rich pocket of gold ore to exist out there somewhere

RLewis
11/16/2014 01:14:25 am

The most interesting part of this episode was seeing a phone that can receive text messages inside a gold mine.

It would seem to me that you would want to front-load the series with the best shows so you can quickly hook the audience. If these first two episodes are among the best I don't think we'll be seeing a season four. I least I can assure you I won't be watching it.

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Stephen link
11/17/2014 01:07:02 pm

I live in the Phoenix are and have spent many Saturdays hiking in the Superstition Mountains. I can tell you that in the Superstitions, there's not a cell signal, even if you aren't in a mine.

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dlefhcie
11/16/2014 01:30:06 am

Just started watching this episode. I haven't read the review or any of the comments, but I got to the part at the beginning where Wolter says he is going to find the Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine and I just want to predict that he will not do so. Whenever Wolter says he will find something, he never does and honestly never even makes a serious effort to do so during the course of his "investigation". For example, Ark of the Covenant, Grand Canyon cave, Burrows Cave, etc.

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dlefhcie
11/16/2014 02:59:21 am

Spoiler alert, I've finished watching the episode and Wolter didn't find anything, despite his assurance he would. And as usual, Wolter's version of an investigation is an unorganized waste of time. Taking tall tales as fact, looking at fakes and calling them old and real without any actual examination, never bothering to check the real background of the story and of course wandering around the countryside and/or digging up something to make sure everyone knows he is a "real life Indiana Jones". This all made for another boring episode with endless recaps and useless interviews. I love the hypocrisy of Wolter espousing how important it was to get out there and look for yourself, when all he does is spend about an hour wandering around at the end of the episode before deciding he'd had enough.

I honestly have no idea why I still watch this show other than I like Jason's posts and it would feel disingenuous to read them without watching the episode too.

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Brent
11/19/2014 06:15:17 am

There is one thing Scott Wolter always finds: "THE TRUTH"!
Lol.

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augie
11/16/2014 02:53:29 am

Scott did find the Peralta stones in a museum....this makes him a hero that America owes a debt of gratitude to. He solved this mystery. Who would have guessed they were in a museum all this time?

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Stephen link
11/17/2014 01:12:40 pm

Scott wasn't interested in finding anything and did a very poor job of even explaining the Lost Duchman's Mine legend. There are literally dozens if not hundreds of versions of the Lost Duchman's gold and Scott Wolter pretty much ignored 98% of the legends to try to simplify the legend and make it seem like he was going to show up and find the gold. It would have been far more interesting if he would have explored more of the different legends and actually gone out into the Superstition Mountains. For example, on the trail from Canyon Lake to the First Water trailhead is the foundation for a "very old" (Scott's scientific term) small building that is possibly a remains from the Peralta's in the area. That would have been interesting to have shown and Scott could have definitely worked it into some sort of conspiracy theory angle.

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Will
11/16/2014 04:00:10 am

"Wolter expresses doubt that he’ll ever see the stones. Does he not have Google? The Superstition Mountains Museum says they have them on exhibit. It is almost like the show is purposely trying to create drama to mask the fact that this episode will fail to find the lost mine."

There really must be nothing else content-wise for a topic if this sort of thing has to be rammed in to create drama.

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Clete
11/16/2014 05:18:07 am

You can't fool me. I know where the lost gold is. Aliens came to earth, enslaved the locals and mined it. Then left, leaving the Peralta stones as evidence just to fool us... and Scott Wolter.

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EP
11/16/2014 01:50:39 pm

They didn't leave. Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford got 'em :)

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tm
11/16/2014 06:13:08 am

No, no, no. The Apache gave the gold to the German Dutchman because they thought he was the reincarnation of their great white god Rough Hurech. Hurech, a dyslexic alchemist, brought the stone of destiny to America where he used it to turn the Tucson artifacts from gold to lead. Embarrassed, he buried them before dying. The Scottish connection is obvious: the "horse" on the Peralta stone is actually a Shetland pony.

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Shane Sullivan
11/16/2014 06:40:14 am

"Wolter expresses doubt that he’ll ever see the stones. Does he not have Google?"

The internet is for nerds, not manly men who played college ball! =P

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EP
11/16/2014 07:00:06 am

...Unless a manly man decides to write a history book. In that case, Internet originals are the only source manly enough! :D

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Harry
11/16/2014 07:36:46 am

What?! No Templar/Freemasonry references? I guess this season is a bid for respectability, or Wolter's pet obsession is getting too old even for Committee films.

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Jerky
11/16/2014 08:20:02 am

They did show a tombstone with a Freemason symbol on it in that grave yard at the end of the episode.

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Kal
11/16/2014 07:42:15 am

Why is it that when treasure hunters go out on a Jeraldo Rivera, they never actually find anything?

Also this episode seems like a rerun of more recent Medium, taking off the Price story, where a psychic mother finds a killer each week. One episode she finds a Dutchman mine killer.

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Ac
11/16/2014 08:22:42 am

I thought the end of this episode was really bizarre. He spends the whole show trying to find the peralta stones. When he does find them all he does is take a picture,says they look old then nothing more is said. He then mentions getting an email from someone with a picture of a mine which proves what exactly? Doesn't say anything more about that, or follow up on it so why even mention it? At the ending " maybe one day ill find out" seems like he lost all his enthusiasm and just dropped it cold. This seemed like an episode Wolter wasn't really that interested in, and was just going through the motions for the producer.

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Stephen link
11/17/2014 01:15:00 pm

Sounds just like an episode of "Finding Bigfoot." They go out in the woods, make a lot of noise, spook each other then claim that must be proof enough, then go home.

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Brent
11/19/2014 06:19:24 am

Yeah, he really did seem bored. More than he has been before, even.

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CHV
11/16/2014 08:47:20 am

The lone dramatic highlight of this episode was Scott almost stepping on a snake - or so the editor would like us to think.

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Only Me
11/16/2014 09:28:39 am

I'm glad the snake didn't bite him. It would have suffered a long, agonizing death.

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EP
11/16/2014 10:28:20 am

Scott Wolter does not wear a condom because there is not such thing as protection from Scott Wolter.

Gary R
11/16/2014 09:44:31 am

Has this self anointed, modern day Indiana Jones , ever found anything?

The show need to be renamed America Unearthed...but we didn't find anything.

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G Edwin
11/16/2014 10:21:09 am

Ruff and Ready cartoons are where I first learned about the Lost Dutchman mine too!

Who says cartoons aren't educational?

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Clint Knapp
11/16/2014 11:04:04 am

I knew it! Jason's a Templar! The new "Jason Colavito Blog" graphic is all the proof I need! Where are you hiding the Last Scion?!

Ahem. What I mean to say is: I dig it. Fits the page scheme better and that little UFO was looking a little dated. Any plan to darken the top bar a bit to match it and contrast the new white text further?

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EP
11/16/2014 11:09:47 am

I agree that it looks pretty cool. Does that mean that Jason will stop using registered trademark sign every time says "Hooked X"? :P

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Jason Colavito link
11/16/2014 11:53:32 am

Your wish is my command, though it's a work in progress.

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Clint Knapp
11/16/2014 01:55:53 pm

Hey, that works. I like the extra hint of depth. It brings a little more pop into the title bar and name without getting too distracting. Helps break up the relative "flatness" of the rest of the page, too.

SouthCoast
11/16/2014 02:46:55 pm

I learned about the mine back in the early 60s from an impeccable source: Walter Brennan's hit single, "Dutchman's Gold". Surprised AU didn't mention it! ;)

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Shane Sullivan
11/16/2014 05:49:57 pm

Actually, there was one other thing I was going to mention. The other day, you said that radio host Matt McNeil claimed to have never seen a book with more citations than Wolter's, and that that makes his assertions undeserving of criticism. Akhenaten to the Founding Fathers has 162 notes, as you just pointed out; Cthulhu in World Mythology has a 181.

By Matt McNeil's own logic, the assertion made in your facetious book is more likely to be correct than Wolter's Bloodline-Cookie-Jamboree.

...Actually, come to think of it, that's probably true.

Nevermind, carry on.

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EP
11/17/2014 03:12:46 am

The book I'm reading right now has 1784 notes. But something tells me Matt McNeil aren't likely to ever see it...

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Shane Sullivan
11/17/2014 06:39:43 am

Heck, even Fingerprints of the Gods has like 1300, which is why I call it the most thoroughly-researched piece of speculative fiction ever written. Most of them were references to Donnelly, Santillana and Hapgood, but still.

EP
11/17/2014 07:12:58 am

Check out Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire :)

Hoyt Clagwell
11/16/2014 06:11:22 pm

I always enjoy watching shows about places I've been to and know well. You would never know from the show that that museum is just down the road from the Mammoth mine and Goldfield which is now a fake ghost town tourist spot. Had he gone down the road a little further and stopped at the Bluebird Mine gift shop he could have talked to John Wilburn to get the real story. John is a real geologist who wrote a short booklet about the whole history of the Dutchman, his mine, and where it is. I won't spoil it, but it wouldn't make for a very exciting episode.
I especially liked the fake rattlesnake bit. No movement, no tongue, rattling tail obscured by foreground leaves...such drama!

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farmboy link
11/17/2014 12:32:51 am

even noone found out where the mine is, everyone knows reading, and looking takes time. and sime one should watch the area and look at the same time study the maps, stores, and where did he live, how long he was gone, and what did he buy with this gold. everyone if they have the money, they will buy it, and hide things. thrn maybe, the mine is out, never had much there, maybe, he blow it closed, walled it in. ECT

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Bwhite
11/17/2014 03:33:28 am

The show Myth Hunters on the American Heroes channel had an episode on the Dutchmans mine. Goes over the legend in more detail. So seeing that show had me prepared to watch AU but Mr. Wolter of course dropped the ball. I actually miss the first season. There was effort at least.

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Jerky
11/17/2014 05:27:52 am

I don't see what the big interest is in this "Lost Dutchman's mine". If it's for gold, these treasure hunters would have more profit with less costs going to closed down abandoned mines that can be found on detailed topographic maps, when I was in New Mexico, a few friends and my self went down into a few mines shown on a map and saw plenty of gold ore still waiting to be pulled out. So why wast time and money on looking for gold in a mine that might not even exist when there are known mines that could still produce enough gold for a 2 or 3 man team to get pretty rich?

If it's for some other reason, I'd say the Arizonian sun as fried there brains.

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PaulN. link
11/17/2014 08:39:22 am

The reason these mines are no longer in use is that are not capable of turning a profit. They were originally dug to chase a rich vein. As long as the vein held out, they would be turning a profit as the processing costs would be relatively cheap. Once the vein runs out they would pull up stakes and look else where.
The problem comes when the vein runs out of how rich is the ore. If the ore only returns a couple ounces per ton, then the mine is not worth the effort. However, if the number of ounces recovered is great enough then it is worthwhile to invest in the equipment and manpower for operating a larger mining operation.
Remember operating either a placer mine or a drift mine is cost effective. Many of the silver mines in Nevada have not been mined to their fullest capacity, but the cost of operation is such (including pumping the water out) that they cannot turn a decent profit.

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Jerky
11/18/2014 02:10:27 am

"The reason these mines are no longer in use is that are not capable of turning a profit"

That's true for large scale mining operations, how ever, a small team of 3 men can make profit off of a closed down mine. For example, if you higher a mine crew, pay for supplies, food for the miners, blasting equipment, earth moving equipment, and so on, thin yes, it's not worth it. But if you go in with just 2 others and use a small home made smelter, and pick axes and scrap out what the old timers left, can turn a nice profit split only 3 ways. I know a few guys that do this and they pull out 10,000$ in gold from each closed down mine. That's 10,000$ after taking out the amount for supplies such as food, water, medical supplies, metal detectors (for searching the tilings) , and other equipment as well as paying the property owner a 1/4th share in the profits, that leaves 10,000$ left. From that one mine they pulled out 18,333$ in gold.

As I said, It's crazy to spend time and money looking for a "Gold mine" that might not exist when you can put that money into mines that do have gold left in um, and have known locations.

As for my question, Why do people wast there time looking for this thing that no one can even prove exists?

PaulN. link
11/18/2014 08:33:11 am

What I was referring to in these older small operations is that at the time of operation they were pulling out enough gold to be profitable. remember at the time of operation (1860 - 1910) gold was selling for $20.00 to $25.00 per troy ounce. So once the easy gold was gone, you would move to a new area and try again.
These days, with gold selling at over $1500.00 an troy ounce, you can pull a small fortune out of some these smaller digs. You can find more in the tailings from a lot of the mines (both big and small). It just depends on how dedicated you are.
As for why the fuss over the 'Lost Dutchman', that's easy! Why work your ass off working somebody's old claim, when you can gain a fortune of easy gold (already mined and bagged) by finding a lost treasure mine.

Jerky
11/18/2014 09:23:18 am

Yes, but again, there is no real evidence that it even exists, so why wast time and money looking for something no one has even found? It's been what, over 80 years or so since folks first started looking for it? And has any one got any return on there investments? It just seems like a lot of wasted work and resources chasing after that free mother load. For all we know, he could have just been panning the gold or using a sluice box dry.

PaulN. link
11/19/2014 08:38:14 am

Tell that to the people working Oak Island.

Jerky
11/19/2014 09:02:22 am

I would if I could, but even if I did, I doubt they will care what I have to say.

debra driscoll
12/4/2015 11:07:56 am

There????? It's THEIR. Now who has the fried brain?

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Stephen link
11/17/2014 01:02:14 pm

I discovered America Unearthed and watched 4 episodes Saturday evening. My impressions...

1. Yes, I immediately noticed the conspiracy theory angle in all the stories and it seems odd that Scott Wolter finds the scientific community is always trying to deny access, etc. I got tired of hearing in 2 of the episodes how persecuted he is.

2. Being unfamiliar with these topics, causally watching the show he sounds believable. Sure his ideas are a bit "out there," but he's nowhere near the freaks on Ancient Aliens.

3. Someone needs to spend a few minutes and teach Scott Wolter about Occam's razor. Instead of going off on these incredible explanations, he needs to just consider the most obvious explanation. I kept wondering in each episode why he doesn't consider this explanation or why doesn't he ask these questions.

4. Rather than trying to find truth, he seems mainly interested in finding explanations that support his theories. He needs to have a "mainstream" expert on the show occasionally. But I guess that would destroy the purpose of the show.

5. How come every theory he has somehow involves Masonic Freemason rituals? My grandfather was a freemason and Scott Wolter has taught me that my grandfather was involved in all these conspiracies of American history. And I thought my grandfather was just a simple barber.

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tm
11/17/2014 03:01:03 pm

The results from Occam's razor depend on how you define the problem. If you want to use your skills to seek historical accuracy, Occam's razor will give you one set of answers. If you want to use your skills to seek attention, make money, and travel free to cool places, Occam's razor will give you a different set of answers. Being generous, I would call it more of a problem with cognitive dissonance than with Occam's razor.

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TJ
11/17/2014 03:11:17 pm

I find much comic relief reading everyone's comments. It's as though your lives revolve around each episode. Reading these posts remind me of when my child would come to tell me that her arm hurts when she moves it up and down. She looks at me with wide eyes knowing that I hold all the wisdom in the world. So I tell her to not move her arm up and down. Wow, it's magic. All the pain goes away.
This is how I see these posts. It's a TV show for entertainment and to give basic information about a subject. To make people to think, wonder and discuss a topic. Which is what we are doing now.
Here is a challenge. Write about the next show now and post it, then let us see what his producers put on TV. See what matches and doesn't. That would provoke good intelligent conversations versus insults and stating the obvious as original thought.
My guess, you won't.

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Only Me
11/17/2014 05:54:46 pm

You don't like the opinions expressed here, so you belittle the commenters, then issue a challenge to "provoke good intelligent conversations".

I'm actually surprised you didn't just play the old "bitter and jealous" card, like the rest of your peers.

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Seeker
11/17/2014 06:10:10 pm

I can only speak for myself, but I think you've touched on the problem: the show isn't entertaining and well-researched enough to warrant being on television. The show had great potential but fell short; ideally something better can replace it. Not everyone has given up on the hope of quality programming.

As for the blog, I find good information on it that I expected to find on the show. Also, marketing and production people behind these shows follow what's being said about their programs on social media (in addition to following the ratings, of course).

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EP
11/17/2014 06:15:11 pm

"marketing and production people behind these shows follow what's being said about their programs on social media"

If any of you are reading this, bring back the hot helipcopter pilot! The people demand it!

Brent
11/19/2014 06:39:49 am

All these reviews usually are is literally listing Scott Wolter's claims and then, in your words, "seeing what matches and what doesn't" against the facts. That's basically the whole thing. Have you even read these reviews?

Also your analogy doesn't make any sense, unless the analogy is commenters being like "this show is BS" and the author/others being like "yeah it's face because of X" and then we feel better? Is that your point? Because if that's your point, it sounds a lot like you're saying the show is obviously BS and the author/others debunk it easily...which is something you then challenge us to do?

Also, someone is NOT trying to make us "wonder" or provoke thought when they constantly act like they have "THE TRUTH" and others don't. Wolter makes specific claims, and he makes them with confidence. It's almost never in a "what if" or "maybe _____ happened."

If you want more intelligent thought and not insults, maybe don't have your post be one long insult? Lol.

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TJ
11/18/2014 03:08:16 am

This show may not be entertaining to some but to others it is. Who decides got the nation what should or should not be viewed as entertainment?
As for what my "peers" say, I don't know who this group is that is being referred to. You do realize that it was once believed that the earth was the center of the universe and flat? People are allowed to express their opinions and if that meant that they are allowed to have a media like television to do so, so be it. Yes it may be strange but even though some views expressed are not similar to mine does not give me the right to tear one down because of it.
My opinion is that Jason here is doing well by debunking the opinions of others. That's fantastic for him. I applaud his efforts. But yes I challenge him to expand and compete prior to the episode's release so instead of just seeing what one creates and then destroy that opinion, offer a different research at the same time and see where the stories differ. To me that would be compelling. I say again, what is wrong in challenging?

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TJ
11/18/2014 03:31:06 am

I apologize for the auto-correct on certain words that make my comments seem incoherent. The comment box will lock up and I have to repeatedly tap out to another block in order to re-enter and continue my comments.

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Only Me
11/18/2014 06:12:46 am

Your first sentence is a strawman.

Your peers, like you, are the ones who try to defend AU by saying, "It's entertainment/just a TV show." You apparently discount the conspiracy-laden tripe put forth by the host both on- and off-air. Why would the opener tell the viewer "The history we've been taught is wrong" if it's just entertainment? There are bold claims made on each episode, yet none of it has withstood the burden of proof test.

The belief the earth was flat has been proven to be a myth many times. I don't understand the relevance to this discussion.

You said you don't have the right to tear down an opinion dissimilar to your own, yet in your first comment, you compared the opinions already expressed to the naiveté of a child and considered them comic relief.

I'm not dismissing you, but your first comment was condescending and belittling. That's not a good way to introduce yourself if you're looking for reasoned discussion.

Brent
11/19/2014 06:53:12 am

Opinions are great, and there's nothing wrong with Scott Wolter's (incorrect) opinions alone. What I (and many of us) find so offensive is his method of reaching/supporting that opinion. He often skews evidence one way or the other, or dismisses it out of hand. In the first season, his methods were even worse, with many failures of doing obvious research and due diligence. Not only that, he obscures lots of other facts, or leaves obviously contradictory evidence out of the equation. That's dishonest, and his methods and claims are intellectually dishonest.

I may think one brand of car is just the best. And that's fine. But let's say I present this argument to you, and I cite the low recall numbers of the vehicles Brand A makes. Okay, that's fine. But if I didn't even check to see how many recalls Brand B has, then it's dishonest. Maybe Brand B has ZERO recalls. Presenting one and not the other, however, would be dishonest. Even if it was entertaining.

And that dishonest approach is what AU does. And lots of other shows do it too. I find it offensive and dishonest in all of those shows. So it's not just about different opinions, it's about dishonesty and hiding evidence, etc.

Reply
EP
11/19/2014 09:39:45 am

"there's nothing wrong with Scott Wolter's (incorrect) opinions alone"

You mean other than that they are incorrect? And that people who should know better are spreading them among those who don't? And that they have all kinds of worrismoe links (historical and conceptual) to racist ideologies? :)

Matt Mc
11/19/2014 09:54:24 am

I think everyone has a right to their own opinions whether they are correct or not. An opinion is not fact it is just what someone believes.

I also have learned that is okay to respect ones opinions and not agree with them at all.

TJ
11/18/2014 10:39:51 am

All, especially EP,
Any bets as to whether or not SW will discuss giants with double rows of teeth? Since episode 3 will discuss a story of an ancient giant and the history channel has a show called Search for the Lost Giants. Anyone?

Reply
Only Me
11/18/2014 12:39:12 pm

I don't think so. Scott would more likely try to find some tenuous Eurocentic connection a la Vikings, perhaps. Maybe a nod to the Mound Builders. The only religious arc he follows involves the Templars and the Holy Bloodline.

Reply
Clint Knapp
11/18/2014 03:21:06 pm

In fact, the one time he "investigated" an explicitly giant-related fringe claim (Rockwall episode), he went out of his way to agree with actual science for once and declared it a natural phenomenon.

EP
11/18/2014 02:57:48 pm

Jerky, if you don't mind, could you tell us about the farm breakin again? I think it's highly instructive. Like, what were they looking for? How did they know about the Masonic symbol? Any details would be great.

Reply
Jerky
11/19/2014 12:14:29 am

I would love to EP, of course that is only if Jason gives the okay.

Reply
Jerky
11/19/2014 05:31:37 am

I mean I'm not concerned to much about any legal issues, but there is always a very tiny chance it could get Jason in legal trouble, and I don't want that. So maybe I should email it to Jason and see if he thinks it should be posted? Maybe see if it should be reworked and edited so that it can be posted? Or where it needs to be posted if it's okay to post it?

Reply
EP
11/19/2014 07:59:43 am

As long as you don't make it sound like it's Wolter's or AU's fault (and don't name names of those idiots), I don't think you have anything to worry about.

If you just drop a version in the thread, it would be great.

If you care to write it up in more detail, I wouldn't be suprised if Jason would be interested to read it (just a guess - I'm not Jason's proxy, in spite of what some allege).

Jerky
11/19/2014 08:57:02 am

Note: I make no claim this is the fault of Scott or his show, The fault rests squarely with the individuals who preformed the act of vandalism. The names, numbers, and other information of that nature will be left out. My claim is only that the Trespassers claimed to have been inspired to look for hidden Freemason documents that they felt might provide proof for the claims on the show they watched being true. (Jason, feel free to edit or remove as you see fit, as my use of words is rather poor.)


Well, my county, like all other counties in the area, has a plot book on file at the county court house. You can buy a copy of the 1910 plat book from the local museum. This book lists all the land owners and the location of there homesteads, what crops they where farming, and what trees they had on there land as well as how big there homes where, and how many outbuildings, things like barns, tool sheds, work shops, detached bathrooms, ect, are on the property. Going to the local graveyard the Trespassers found the grave marker of a Freemason who died in 1929, taking his name from the gravestone and searching for it in the plot book pointed them right to the homestead of that Freemason, a homestead that sits on my families farm land. Of course you could also see the front of the building from the road and the Mason put a Masonic symbol carved into a large stone slab he cemented into the stone wall right above the doorway. you can see it from the old dirt road with your naked eye. So there is two ways I can think of as to how they found it but they confessed to the first method.


Some time after season 1 aired, I heading south down the dirt road to the gate leading into my farm, about half a mile down, on the east side of the road I come to a hole in my fence, the wire had been cut and a post bulled out with tire tracks leading east out into my wheat crops. My cattle where in the wheat field so I feared there was another hole in my fence. I get out of my truck with my WW II M-1 in hand and follow the tire tracks. The ran due east thin turned south until the had hit the inner fence that separates the wheat fields from the cattle pastures. There they had again cut the fence and pulled out a post to make another hole. It was at that point I could see them. They where digging out the ground around the foundations of the old homestead with shovels and pick axes. They had pulled up stones that formed the steps to the front door, And where just pulling out stones from the old fire place. Well, I called the Sheriff's department and told them what I had found going down on my land. With Deputies on the way, I just sat there in the edge of the wheat field watching them until the law arrived. The men where all arrested and taken back into town.

As to what they where looking for, well local legend says the man who built the place was a rich man from back east. But he never opened an account with any of the local banks, so the towns folk assumed he hid his wealth (the most popular version says "treasures") out on his homestead. So I can only assume they where looking for hidden secret Freemason documents that could reveal some secret knowledge about the Knights Templar bringing there treasures to America, and where they hid them. The trespassers only would tell us (the sheriff, his deputies and my self) at first that they where just metal detecting, but later one of them said they got the idea to search it after watching episodes of this show called "America Unearthed" (The episode they had talked about was the New Port tower episode) that had been uploaded to YouTube. After hearing that, I went and looked at them for my self, watched a few episodes, thin started to look up on Google who this Scott Wolter was, and that lead me to this blog.

Well, the trespassers payed for the damages and the sheriff ordered them to build a new fence and all the charges would be dropped, the judge agreed with the deal. However, an in attempt to prevent this from happening again, we removed the stone slab with the Freemason symbols from it. (It's housed safely in a barn within the county.) And we removed the dirt road, so you can't drive down it, instead you have to go east or west to one of the next 4 way intersections, one a mile to the east, the other a mile to the west, so the homestead can no longer be seen by car.

Now I have searched the homestead my self, never finding much more then bits of rusted farm equipment, a few silver dimes from the 1920's and some copper wheat pennies. So I can attest that there is not truth behind the legend. It was just one more claim based off the fact the man who homestead the property was a Freemason from back east.


To Jason,
Sorry for the long post that may seem off topic, but EP talked me into posting it thinking "it's highly instructive.". If you want to, you can copy and past it to the location you feel is the best place for it, or you can delete it, it's your blog so it's your call. Your

EP
11/19/2014 09:15:25 am

Thanks, Jerky!

Just one question: Were they locals?

Also, in my mind, you were carrying the M1 flamethrower! :D

Clint Knapp
11/19/2014 09:24:34 am

Thanks for sharing this, Jerky. It's definitely a story worth telling even if it didn't have the AU inspiration behind it. It's disgusting what people will do in the name of harebrained schemes; especially when it comes down to destroying someone's property and livelihood.

Jerky
11/19/2014 09:40:00 am

They where not locals, at lest not any I know or have seen around any of the 3 towns in this county, or living on a farm. Not sure where they where from but there tags where from out of state is all I will say.

EP
11/19/2014 09:45:34 am

That's interesting, actually. This means that they may have traveled far to screw around your local cemetery and your farm. I wonder if they'd "visited" anyone else's property along the way before getting caught... :)

Jerky
11/19/2014 10:02:30 am

It's all ways possible. But I never bothered to ask, and I doubt they would have been dumb enough to confess to other counts of trespassing.

This just goes to show you that people will buy into any thing and worse, agree with it so much that they get obsessed with it and are willing to do what ever it takes to get that proof, imagined or not, even if it means getting arrested or worse, shot.

Any ways I thank you for not criticizing my crappy spelling. English was never my strong suit in school.

EP
11/19/2014 10:08:38 am

"I doubt they would have been dumb enough to confess to other counts of trespassing."

Well, they *were* dumb enough to... well... do everything they did... :)

"I thank you for not criticizing my crappy spelling."

I criticize content. If it's a slow day, then maybe grammar :)

Rev. Phil Gotsch
11/18/2014 04:01:51 pm

Especially in spring time, the Sonoran Desert is GORGEOUS …

The hike up Peralta Canyon … was BEAUTIFUL ...

Reply
Rev. Phil Gotsch
11/19/2014 07:30:17 am

Well, again …
The Arizona desert is breathtaking … I encourage everyone to go spend some time there …

Reply
EP
11/19/2014 08:22:00 am

I have known the Arizona desert for 25+ years as both a personal friend and a professional colleague... I assure you that it is not a Nazi...

Reply
Matt Mc
11/19/2014 08:26:49 am

nor is it a racist, and all racist statements made by it are in fact not racist statements but rather just observations.

EP
11/19/2014 09:32:15 am

It was a Neo-Nazi lecture, I swear! Not a Neo-Nazi rally! :P

Sir Donny Brooke
11/19/2014 09:52:12 am

^^^^^and j@ckA$$ is a popular movie with its tag*team sequel^^^^^

Rev. Phil Gotsch
11/19/2014 09:47:00 am

An excellent way to get a quick safe experience is to go to South Mountain Park, which is just on the southern edge of Phoenix … and the Desert Botanical Garden is spectacular ...

Reply
TJ
11/19/2014 10:17:18 am

Well now, thank you for the support Che but I believe our fellow bloggers proved my original point.
-Brent: you made a great point about omitting data when comparing cars A to B as it relates to AU and Wolters. But if car B represents the mainstream science as narrated on his TV show, then all is required is to make arguments for car A. That is seen in politics, religion and media.

As for making my point. EP is proud to delete posts because they got off topic and it's in the terms to do do. Correct you are. You and Jason have every right to control the narrative. But my own bandwidth I believe is the advice given. Correct you are.

So why do you complain is Scott Wolters does the same for his website? Is it because your voice cannot be heard? Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

To my original point, you just don't care about a competing thought. If anyone is to accept your views as serious counter debate, then all of the character assignation should be toned down and stick strictly to the facts and keep in mind, it's a TV show.

When you had responses to posts removed, the entire context of the conversation has been changed and now the remarks are now out of context. Making light or snide remarks referencing Che's grandfather's Nazi escape and tossing around neo-nazi comments are just poor taste.

Jason, if this is what you condone, I wonder speech you disapprove of, aside of those whose words don't agrees with your own.

Reply
EP
11/19/2014 10:20:44 am

"EP is proud to delete posts because they got off topic and it's in the terms to do do. Correct you are. You and Jason have every right to control the narrative."

Ahahahahahahahaha!!!!

"character assignation"

I think you mean "character assassination"... Don't worry, it's not a cuss word, even though it has 'ass' in it (x2, in fact)... :)

"Making light or snide remarks referencing Che's grandfather's Nazi escape and tossing around neo-nazi comments are just poor taste."

It has nothing to do with Che, and everything to do with Wolter- and Rev-themed inside jokes. Lurk moar.

Reply
TJ
11/19/2014 10:41:27 am

EP,
Thank you for correcting the automated spell check. If that's what you choose to concentrate on then the other points must be spot on. Deflection is a good tool to use when you have nothing else. Laugh at the power of the delete button because that's all you have. You have been a good student of Saul Alinsky for you do seem to follow his principles pretty well. It's a shame that what you see as off topic was the topic to begin with. Only Jerky and Brent actually engaged in a discussion. Which was the only benificial information given. Thank you

EP
11/19/2014 10:42:27 am

How about my other points? Who's *really* the one deflecting? LOL

EP
11/19/2014 10:55:01 am

"me and Gunn let EP get a little of his own back B4 poor Gunn departed."

Suuuuuuuuure you did! LOL

Jerky
11/19/2014 10:34:59 am

Okay? what's your point?

Reply
silverfish
11/20/2014 06:09:24 pm

Jerky, thank you! I'm a daily reader of this blog but never contribute (for any number of boring reasons). But I am always engaged in the blog as I learn a ton from Jason's reviews and often from contributors such as yourself. I am a University professor and I learned a long time ago that proper spelling and grammar are essential skills - and need to be cultivated if missing- but are uncorrelated with intelligence or (probably more important) critical thinking. Thanks for sharing your very interesting and telling story!

Reply
Jerky
11/21/2014 01:26:29 am

Okay? That's good to know

Jerky
11/21/2014 02:04:26 am

silverfish, what class are you a professor of? If you don't mind me asking.

Rev. Phil Gotsch
11/19/2014 12:13:10 pm

"In the desert, you can remember your name, 'cuz there ain't no one for to give you no pain … "

Reply
James Reavis faked the Peralta Land Grant, not Michael Peralta
11/19/2014 12:21:10 pm

A man named Miguel Peralta operated a gold mine in Valencia, California, in the 1860s, and this once very rich mine is still visible in Valencia today. But when the mine ran out of gold, Peralta tried to make money by selling a fake Spanish Empire deed to southern Arizona and New Mexico. THIS FRAUD, IN TURN, FED INTO A LATER ARIZONA LAND FRAUD. In the 1930s, the story became folded in to the Lost Dutchman story in mangled form, with Peralta now alleged to be the victim of a fictitious massacre by Apaches who had discovered a gold mine." (Jason Colavito)

IT IS JAMES REAVIS, NOT MIGUEL PERALTA WHO STARTED THE BIG SWINDLE. REAVIS COURTS THE MAN'S DAUGHTER CAREFULLY AND THEN MARRIES HER! HE HOPES HE CAN BE VERY WEALTHY IN OLD AGE. HE INSTEAD IS IN PRISON.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Reavis

According to Willing, he had purchased the rights to a large Spanish land grant from Miguel Peralta for US$20,000 in gold dust, prospecting equipment, and saddle mules.

PROBLEM IS, DID WILLING TRULY HAVE THIS PAPER THAT HE PRESUMABLY SPENT $20,000 ON OR IS THIS MORE OF JAMES REAVIS's WORK? WHEN A CONFEDERATE, REAVIS FORGED SIGNATURES. WHAT HE DID AFTER WILLING's DEATH IS TAKE A DOCUMENT AND MODIFY IT. HIS M.O!

http://www.ajpl.org/aj/superstition/stories/baron%20of%20arizona.pdf

Reply
TJ
11/19/2014 01:41:22 pm

Che
What happened when the archeologist met a proctologist?

Nothing because they couldn't find their ass from a whole in the ground.

Reply
EP
11/19/2014 02:16:38 pm

Good one! Did you come up with it all by yourself?

Reply
tm
11/19/2014 02:33:20 pm

Better if he hadn't misspelled hole and geologist.

Jerky
11/20/2014 01:09:54 am

That's just sad....wost joke I have ever heard

EP
11/20/2014 10:56:12 am

You're still under the impression that anyone sees you as anything other than an annoyance, aren't you, . ?

EP
11/20/2014 02:05:16 pm

The comment above is in response to one that's been deleted. Not to tm or Jerky (or even TJ).

Rev. Phil Gotsch
11/19/2014 03:16:50 pm

"The desert is an ocean with its life underground and the perfect disguise above …"

Reply
EP
11/20/2014 03:00:05 am

Speaking of lives underground and perfect disguises... :P

Reply
Rev. Phil Gotsch
11/20/2014 11:24:09 am

"EP" (whoever you are) --

LOL … Good one … Back atcha ...

Only Me
11/20/2014 07:56:25 pm

Ever feel like you're one dumbass away from completely losing it?

I don't mean to unnecessarily complain, but I am really damn tired of seeing this blog wallpapered in spam by one certain individual, despite how often her comments are deleted, who just doesn't seem to get it.

I have some unsolicited advice to offer that individual: Go get your own blog, where you can post your gibberish until your keyboard quits. Leave this one alone if you can't abide by the rules; it is unacceptable that you're adding to Jason's burden by forcing him to constantly clean up after you.

Reply
Jerky
11/21/2014 01:30:21 am

Only Me, every day.

Did I miss something?

Reply
Only Me
11/21/2014 06:14:48 am

Just another wall of text containing subject matter unrelated to the article above.

I kind of regret losing my temper, but after having such eyesores removed by Jason at least twice, the person involved persisted in posting off-topic material again. Jason has since removed it, so the matter is settled.

Jerky
11/21/2014 06:51:34 am

For some reason I'm not receiving the normal emails when a new post has been made. So I was starting to think I was going nuts for a second.

EP
11/21/2014 02:17:09 am

"I don't mean to unnecessarily complain, but I am really damn tired of seeing this blog wallpapered in spam by one certain individual"

Hey, I resent that! ;)

Reply
Coridan
11/21/2014 06:03:06 pm

I first heard about it from an episode of Unsolved Mysteries (the original with Robert Stack), I had taken it as face value up until your post (not that I was ever planning an expedition)

Reply
Earl B link
11/23/2014 03:41:50 am

Maybe Davey Crockett stole the gold, created fake maps on rocks, and then hid in Alabama under the alias... David Crockett?

Reply
Hal Croves
4/23/2015 01:11:53 am

"In short, this was another superficial, lazy hour that lacks a real historical understanding or perspective of the mysteries it claims to investigate."

The Superficial Lazy Hour.
JC, you are brilliant.

Reply
Martal
10/26/2015 02:20:20 pm

Thanks for this excellent recap. Just watched the episode which started out being quite intriguing. But when the host announced that he would "do his best" to look for the the mine, I kinda assumed that he'd gather a team of volunteers and have a couple of drones equipped with cameras and ground-penetrating radar at his disposal that would do an exhaustive 'grid search' of the target area. But no, we just see him wandering aimlessly by himself through the desert dodging rattle snakes and picking up the odd rock -- EPIC fail! Especially since in the next scene he concludes that the 'lost mine' and the 'Mammoth Mine' were probably one and the same! What a colossal let-down and waste of everyone's time!!!

Reply



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      • Prehistoric Nuclear War
      • The China Syndrome
      • Atlantis, Mu, and the Maya
      • Easter Island Exposed
      • Who Built the Sphinx?
      • Who Built the Great Pyramid?
      • Archaeological Cover Up?
    • Collection: The Lovecraft Legacy >
      • Pauwels, Bergier, and Lovecraft
      • Lovecraft in Bergier
      • Lovecraft and Scientology
    • Collection: UFOs >
      • Alien Abduction at the Outer Limits
      • Aliens and Anal Probes
      • Ultra-Terrestrials and UFOs
      • Rebels, Queers, and Aliens
    • Scholomance: The Devil's School
    • Prehistory of Chupacabra
    • The Templars, the Holy Grail, & Henry Sinclair
    • Magicians of the Gods Review
    • The Curse of the Pharaohs
    • The Antediluvian Pyramid Myth
    • Whitewashing American Prehistory
    • James Dean's Cursed Porsche
  • The Library
    • Ancient Mysteries >
      • Ancient Texts >
        • Mesopotamian Texts >
          • Atrahasis Epic
          • Epic of Gilgamesh
          • Kutha Creation Legend
          • Babylonian Creation Myth
          • Descent of Ishtar
          • Berossus
          • Comparison of Antediluvian Histories
        • Egyptian Texts >
          • The Shipwrecked Sailor
          • Dream Stela of Thutmose IV
          • The Papyrus of Ani
          • Classical Accounts of the Pyramids
          • Inventory Stela
          • Manetho
          • Eratosthenes' King List
          • The Story of Setna
          • Leon of Pella
          • Diodorus on Egyptian History
          • On Isis and Osiris
          • Famine Stela
          • Old Egyptian Chronicle
          • The Book of Sothis
          • Horapollo
          • Al-Maqrizi's King List
        • Teshub and the Dragon
        • Hermetica >
          • The Three Hermeses
          • Kore Kosmou
          • Corpus Hermeticum
          • The Asclepius
          • The Emerald Tablet
          • Hermetic Fragments
          • Prologue to the Kyranides
          • The Secret of Creation
          • Ancient Alphabets Explained
          • Prologue to Ibn Umayl's Silvery Water
          • Book of the 24 Philosophers
          • Aurora of the Philosophers
        • Hesiod's Theogony
        • Periplus of Hanno
        • Ctesias' Indica
        • Sanchuniathon
        • Sima Qian
        • Syncellus's Enoch Fragments
        • The Book of Enoch
        • Slavonic Enoch
        • Sepher Yetzirah
        • Tacitus' Germania
        • De Dea Syria
        • Aelian's Various Histories
        • Julius Africanus' Chronography
        • Eusebius' Chronicle
        • Chinese Accounts of Rome
        • Ancient Chinese Automaton
        • The Orphic Argonautica
        • Fragments of Panodorus
        • Annianus on the Watchers
        • The Watchers and Antediluvian Wisdom
      • Medieval Texts >
        • Medieval Legends of Ancient Egypt >
          • Medieval Pyramid Lore
          • John Malalas on Ancient Egypt
          • Fragments of Abenephius
          • Akhbar al-zaman
          • Ibrahim ibn Wasif Shah
          • Murtada ibn al-‘Afif
          • Al-Maqrizi on the Pyramids
          • Al-Suyuti on the Pyramids
        • The Hunt for Noah's Ark
        • Isidore of Seville
        • Book of Liang: Fusang
        • Agobard on Magonia
        • Book of Thousands
        • Voyage of Saint Brendan
        • Power of Art and of Nature
        • Travels of Sir John Mandeville
        • Yazidi Revelation and Black Book
        • Al-Biruni on the Great Flood
        • Voyage of the Zeno Brothers
        • The Kensington Runestone (Hoax)
        • Islamic Discovery of America
        • The Aztec Creation Myth
      • Lost Civilizations >
        • Atlantis >
          • Plato's Atlantis Dialogues >
            • Timaeus
            • Critias
          • Fragments on Atlantis
          • Panchaea: The Other Atlantis
          • Eumalos on Atlantis (Hoax)
          • Gómara on Atlantis
          • Sardinia and Atlantis
          • Santorini and Atlantis
          • The Mound Builders and Atlantis
          • Donnelly's Atlantis
          • Atlantis in Morocco
          • Atlantis and the Sea Peoples
          • W. Scott-Elliot >
            • The Story of Atlantis
            • The Lost Lemuria
          • The Lost Atlantis
          • Atlantis in Africa
          • How I Found Atlantis (Hoax)
          • Termier on Atlantis
          • The Critias and Minoan Crete
          • Rebuttal to Termier
          • Further Responses to Termier
          • Flinders Petrie on Atlantis
        • Lost Cities >
          • Miscellaneous Lost Cities
          • The Seven Cities
          • The Lost City of Paititi
          • Manuscript 512
          • The Idolatrous City of Iximaya (Hoax)
          • The 1885 Moberly Lost City Hoax
          • The Elephants of Paredon (Hoax)
        • OOPARTs
        • Oronteus Finaeus Antarctica Map
        • Caucasians in Panama
        • Jefferson's Excavation
        • Fictitious Discoveries in America
        • Against Diffusionism
        • Tunnels Under Peru
        • The Parahyba Inscription (Hoax)
        • Mound Builders
        • Gunung Padang
        • Tales of Enchanted Islands
        • The 1907 Ancient World Map Hoax
        • The 1909 Grand Canyon Hoax
        • The Interglacial Period
        • Solving Oak Island
      • Religious Conspiracies >
        • Pantera, Father of Jesus?
        • Toledot Yeshu
        • Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay on Cathars
        • Testimony of Jean de Châlons
        • Rosslyn Chapel and the 'Prentice's Pillar
        • The Many Wives of Jesus
        • Templar Infiltration of Labor
        • Louis Martin & the Holy Bloodline
        • The Life of St. Issa (Hoax)
        • On the Person of Jesus Christ
      • Giants in the Earth >
        • Fossil Origins of Myths >
          • Fossil Teeth and Bones of Elephants
          • Fossil Elephants
          • Fossil Bones of Teutobochus
          • Fossil Mammoths and Giants
          • Giants' Bones Dug Out of the Earth
          • Fossils and the Supernatural
          • Fossils, Myth, and Pseudo-History
          • Man During the Stone Age
          • Fossil Bones and Giants
          • American Elephant Myths
          • The Mammoth and the Flood
          • Fossils and Myth
          • Fossil Origin of the Cyclops
          • Mastodon, Mammoth, and Man
        • Fragments on Giants
        • Manichaean Book of Giants
        • Geoffrey on British Giants
        • Alfonso X's Hermetic History of Giants
        • Boccaccio and the Fossil 'Giant'
        • Book of Howth
        • Purchas His Pilgrimage
        • Edmond Temple's 1827 Giant Investigation
        • The Giants of Sardinia
        • Giants and the Sons of God
        • The Magnetism of Evil
        • Tertiary Giants
        • Smithsonian Giant Reports
        • Early American Giants
        • The Giant of Coahuila
        • Jewish Encyclopedia on Giants
        • Index of Giants
        • Newspaper Accounts of Giants
        • Lanier's A Book of Giants
      • Science and History >
        • Halley on Noah's Comet
        • The Newport Tower
        • Iron: The Stone from Heaven
        • Ararat and the Ark
        • Pyramid Facts and Fancies
        • Argonauts before Homer
        • The Deluge
        • Crown Prince Rudolf on the Pyramids
        • Old Mythology in New Apparel
        • Blavatsky on Dinosaurs
        • Teddy Roosevelt on Bigfoot
        • Devil Worship in France
        • Maspero's Review of Akhbar al-zaman
        • The Holy Grail as Lucifer's Crown Jewel
        • The Mutinous Sea
        • The Rock Wall of Rockwall
        • Fabulous Zoology
        • The Origins of Talos
        • Mexican Mythology
        • Chinese Pyramids
        • Maqrizi's Names of the Pharaohs
      • Extreme History >
        • Roman Empire Hoax
        • American Antiquities
        • American Cataclysms
        • England, the Remnant of Judah
        • Historical Chronology of the Mexicans
        • Maspero on the Predynastic Sphinx
        • Vestiges of the Mayas
        • Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel
        • Origins of the Egyptian People
        • The Secret Doctrine >
          • Volume 1: Cosmogenesis
          • Volume 2: Anthropogenesis
        • Phoenicians in America
        • The Electric Ark
        • Traces of European Influence
        • Prince Henry Sinclair
        • Pyramid Prophecies
        • Templars of Ancient Mexico
        • Chronology and the "Riddle of the Sphinx"
        • The Faith of Ancient Egypt
        • Spirit of the Hour in Archaeology
        • Book of the Damned
        • Great Pyramid As Noah's Ark
        • Richard Shaver's Proofs
    • Alien Encounters >
      • US Government Ancient Astronaut Files >
        • Fortean Society and Columbus
        • Inquiry into Shaver and Palmer
        • The Skyfort Document
        • Whirling Wheels
        • Denver Ancient Astronaut Lecture
        • Soviet Search for Lemuria
        • Visitors from Outer Space
        • Unidentified Flying Objects (Abstract)
        • "Flying Saucers"? They're a Myth
        • UFO Hypothesis Survival Questions
        • Air Force Academy UFO Textbook
        • The Condon Report on Ancient Astronauts
        • Atlantis Discovery Telegrams
        • Ancient Astronaut Society Telegram
        • Noah's Ark Cables
        • The Von Daniken Letter
        • CIA Psychic Probe of Ancient Mars
        • Scott Wolter Lawsuit
        • UFOs in Ancient China
        • CIA Report on Noah's Ark
        • CIA Noah's Ark Memos
        • Congressional Ancient Aliens Testimony
        • Ancient Astronaut and Nibiru Email
        • Congressional Ancient Mars Hearing
        • House UFO Hearing
      • Ancient Extraterrestrials >
        • Premodern UFO Sightings
        • The Moon Hoax
        • Inhabitants of Other Planets
        • Blavatsky on Ancient Astronauts
        • The Stanzas of Dzyan (Hoax)
        • Aerolites and Religion
        • What Is Theosophy?
        • Plane of Ether
        • The Adepts from Venus
      • A Message from Mars
      • Saucer Mystery Solved?
      • Orville Wright on UFOs
      • Interdimensional Flying Saucers
      • Flying Saucers Are Real
      • Report on UFOs
    • The Supernatural >
      • The Devils of Loudun
      • Sublime and Beautiful
      • Voltaire on Vampires
      • Demonology and Witchcraft
      • Thaumaturgia
      • Bulgarian Vampires
      • Religion and Evolution
      • Transylvanian Superstitions
      • Defining a Zombie
      • Dread of the Supernatural
      • Vampires
      • Werewolves and Vampires and Ghouls
      • Science and Fairy Stories
      • The Cursed Car
    • Classic Fiction >
      • Lucian's True History
      • Some Words with a Mummy
      • The Coming Race
      • King Solomon's Mines
      • An Inhabitant of Carcosa
      • The Xipéhuz
      • Lot No. 249
      • The Novel of the Black Seal
      • The Island of Doctor Moreau
      • Pharaoh's Curse
      • Edison's Conquest of Mars
      • The Lost Continent
      • Count Magnus
      • The Mysterious Stranger
      • The Wendigo
      • Sredni Vashtar
      • The Lost World
      • The Red One
      • H. P. Lovecraft >
        • Dagon
        • The Call of Cthulhu
        • History of the Necronomicon
        • At the Mountains of Madness
        • Lovecraft's Library in 1932
      • The Skeptical Poltergeist
      • The Corpse on the Grating
      • The Second Satellite
      • Queen of the Black Coast
      • A Martian Odyssey
    • Classic Genre Movies
    • Miscellaneous Documents >
      • The Balloon-Hoax
      • A Problem in Greek Ethics
      • The Migration of Symbols
      • The Gospel of Intensity
      • De Profundis
      • The Life and Death of Crown Prince Rudolf
      • The Bathtub Hoax
      • Crown Prince Rudolf's Letters
      • Position of Viking Women
      • Employment of Homosexuals
      • James Dean's Love Letters
      • The Amazing James Dean Hoax!
    • Free Classic Pseudohistory eBooks
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