The Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine (also known by similar names) is, according to legend, a rich gold mine hidden in the southwestern United States. The location is generally believed to be in the Superstition Mountains, near Apache Junction, east of Phoenix, Arizona. There have been many stories about how to find the mine, and each year people search for the mine. Some have died on the search.
The mine is named after German immigrant Jakob Waltz (c. 1810–1891), who purportedly discovered it in the 19th century and kept its location a secret. "Dutchman" was a common American term for a German ("Dutch" being the English cognate to the German demonym "Deutsch", and not a reference to the Dutch people).
The Lost Dutchman is perhaps the most famous lost mine in American history. Arizona place-name expert Byrd Granger wrote, as of 1977, the Lost Dutchman's story had been printed or cited at least six times more often than two other fairly well-known tales, the story of Captain Kidd's lost treasure, and the story of the Lost Pegleg mine in California. People have been seeking the Lost Dutchman's mine since at least 1892, while according to one estimate, 9,000 people annually made some effort to locate the Lost Dutchman's mine. Former Arizona Attorney General Robert K. Corbin is among those who have looked for the mine.
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Other Lost Dutchman's mines
Robert Blair wrote, "[t]here have been at least four legendary Lost Dutchman's gold mines in the American West, including the famed Superstition mine of Jacob Waltz". One Lost Dutchman's mine is said to be in Colorado, another in California; two are said to be located in Arizona. Tales of these other Lost Dutchman's mines can be traced to at least the 1870s. The earliest Lost Dutchman's mine in Arizona was said to have been near Wickenburg, about 180 km (110 mi) north-west of the Superstition Mountains: a "Dutchman" was allegedly discovered dead in the desert near Wickenburg in the 1870s alongside saddlebags filled with gold. Blair suggested that "fragments of this legend have perhaps become attached to the mythical mine of Jacob Waltz".
Stories about the mine
Granger wrote that "fact and fiction blend in the tales", but that there are three main elements to the story:
"They are, first, tales of the lost Apache gold or Dr. Thorne's mine; second, tales about the Lost Dutchman's; and, third, stories of the soldiers' lost gold vein ... [t]he most complete version of the Lost Dutchman's story incorporates all three legends". Blair argued that there are kernels of truth at the heart of each of these three main stories, though the popular story is often badly garbled from the actual account. Other theories have materialized that speculate the mine is buried at the bottom of Apache or Roosevelt Lake.
In 1977, Granger identified 62 variants of the Lost Dutchman's story – some of the variations are minor, but others are substantial, casting the story in a very different light from the other versions.
