Original subtitles

Narrator: Tonight on beyond oak island...

We're talking about the lost dutchman mine.

Isn't there a curse associated with it?

People have gone looking for this, but not come back.

Wayne tuttle: Jacob waltz was an immigrant. He located

what's known now as the lost dutchman mine.

Josh feldman: History, technology

and geology.

That's what gets you to where the dutchman mine

actually is located.

You really have put an x on the map.

My theory is it's right over here.

Are you kidding me, man?

Is that gold?

All the while we were growing up,

my brother and I were fascinated

with finding treasure.

Rick: Pirate treasure,

cursed treasure.

Civil war gold.

- -since then, our work on oak island

has shown us there's a world of mysteries...

-Whoa. -...Waiting to be explored.

Rick: So, we like to reach out to other treasure hunters.

X marks the spot, right there. Brilliant.

-Marty: We want to hear their stories... -That's right.

-...And share our insights. -"ill-gotten gains."

-rick: And who knows... -Gary: I got it.

...Maybe we can help them with their search.

Marty: Not only in america.

Wow. That is gold.

-Rick: But all over the worl. -Yeah!

Marty: Beyond oak island.

Marty: Curses often seem to go with treasure.

As rick has observed at times, maybe that's--

people who have failed, maybe they want to put a curse on it.

-Yeah. -So, you know what, it's cursed. I can't do it.

You know? Although it happens so often,

going clear back to king tut's tomb, and all these other tombs

-that it's-it's just an interesting phenomenon. -Yeah.

-Gentlemen. -Hey, matty blake. -Matty.

Hey, guys. Hey, mate.

-Thank you for coming. -Hey, mate.

Gary: How you doing, mate?

Good. What do we have going on today?

I think some really, really interesting stuff.

-All right. -Yeah, 'cause I just got back

from one of the most iconic treasure sites on the planet.

-Where? -Superstition mountains, mate.

I've always wanted to go there.

The-the lost dutchman mine, right? -Yep, you got it, mate.

Matty: That mystery is so unique

because you don't know what's real and what's not

-and what's fable. -Rick: It's hard to figure out.

And that's certainly why they call it the lost dutchman mine.

It's been lost to history. So I understand

why it's so confusing and contradictory.

I think there's a lot of work to do

to try to puzzle this out, and that's why

the mystery has endured for, what, almost a century now.

Gary, how'd you get involved, and who did you work with?

I got contacted by a guy called bob schoose.

And he's been out in apache junction, arizona.

And bob was adamant that he knew where the treasure was.

And when I got to apache junction,

I found there was other families

who had other opinions of where they thought

the lost dutchman mine is.

So are there multiple locations where the mine could be?

-Yeah. That's what it's all about. -Is that what you're suggesting?

It's kind of like a familiar story.

Matty: Kind of like oak island a little bit.

-Absolutely. -Yeah, that does sound like oak island.

A lot of parallels. I wonder if all treasure stories

-evolve into something resembling oak island. -Also like oak island,

isn't there a curse associated with it?

Yeah, there is.

Marty: Do we really know that people died?

I mean, at oak island, we know that six people died.

It's documented. Do we know people have died

looking for this, or is that just rumor?

No, it's well documented.

I mean, we're talking about the wild west.

But even in the modern era,

in terms of modern searches,

people have gone looking for this and not come back.

It's a wilderness out there. I mean, it's rough terrain.

You got rattlesnakes, intense heat,

-the mountains themselves. -Yeah, just getting lost.

And the local apache indians, they say

-the land is cursed. -And it begs the question,

as many of these stories do,

here's the gold; it could be right here.

Here's the potential danger.

What are you willing to risk?

-Yeah. Good way to put it. -Right?

Narrator: High above the arizona deser,

50 miles east of phoenix loom the superstition mountains.

According to legend, these massive granite peaks

conceal one of the richest gold mines ever found

and lost in america:

The lost dutchman mine.

For more than a century, prospectors have been

searching in vain for this vast hidden treasur.

Their journey into the superstitions

has often been fraught with danger, disaster and death.

For, according to legend,

the lost dutchman mine is cursed.

Bob schoose: In the superstition mountain,

there's been several unexplained deaths.

There was two beheadings that I know of.

Josh: It is true that many people have lost their lives

in the superstitions.

And in mysterious ways.

There's unsolved murders out there;

people that just didn't come back.

And that's happened over the past hundred and some years.

Ron feldman: A lot of people say that the mountain has a curse on it,

and it was probably developed from the fact that

there were so many people lot their lives looking for it.

So, you know, you go back there and you don't come out,

you're kind of cursed, aren't you?

Narrator: The story of the lost dutchman mine began

with the peraltas, a family of spanish prospectors

who were searching for gold back in the 1840s.

According to legend, they found some very rich deposits

in the superstition mountains.

Andrew patrick nelson: To many miners

looking for treasure in the american southwest,

particularly in modern-day arizona,

the apaches were a real threat.

The apaches, seeing that the peralta family

was getting ready to take all the gold

that they had secured so far,

decided to lay a trap for them.

And from what I understand, they killed everyone

except for one little boy who was hiding in a bush

not too far away.

They spared him,

and he is the one that was the eyewitness

that told the entire story.

Narrator: It is believed that after the massacre,

the apaches buried the peraltas' gold,

then covered up the mine in an effort to restore

the land to its natural state.

Teton ken eddy: Now, the apaches consider that mountain sacred.

And, of course, they put a curse on any anglo

who'd tread on their mountain.

Narrator: At the end of the mexican-american war,

20 years after the peralta family was ambushed

in the superstition mountains,

mexico ceded much of arizona to the united states.

Hundreds of prospectors immediately descended

upon the area, hoping to strike it rich.

One of those men was an immigrant turned citizen

named jacob waltz.

Tuttle: Jacob waltz was an immigrant to the united states

from wardenburg, germany.

Followed the gold trails into california.

And when he'd come into arizona, sometime between 1865, 1868,

we believe he located what's known now

as the lost dutchman mine.

Ron: The dutchman mine was

more than likely one of the peralta mines.

Jacob waltz probably went in there

and chipped out some very rih pockets of gold.

And the story about the dutchman mine grew and grew.

But it's a misnomer because when german immigrants

came to america, they were called deutch,

which is german... Deutchman.

So deutschman just got mistaken for dutchman.

Jesse feldman: During that era, you were supposed to tell

everybody else where your rich mine was.

Jacob waltz didn't do any of that.

He kept his mine a secret.

And they really did not like that.

And people had followed him through the 1870s

to try to find out where his mine was.

Schoose: If he thought he was being followed,

he just kept right on going into the mountains

and took 'em on a merry chase.

That's-that's common knowledge.

Narrator: To this day, no one knows whee

jacob waltz's mine was located

or how much gold he had collected.

But one thing is certain:

The treasure made him a very wealthy man.

He has no money, has nothing.

But within the next year or so, waltz builds an adobe house,

builds out buildings,

he has geese, he has ducks, he's farming.

He's doing quite well.

One of the oral histories we have is that waltz

actually had a locking door

and locking shutters on his windows,

which is unusual for that time.

Narrator: According to researchers,

jacob waltz had a good reason for closely guarding

the location of his mine,

as it was there that he claimed he had discovered

hundreds of pounds of rich gold ore.

The description we get from the mine from jacob waltz

is it's, um, popcorn kernels of gold

running through quartz locked in hematite.

He's saying it's worth hundreds of millions of dollars of gold.

Well, the price of gold at that point, what would that be now?

Billions? Trillions?

Probably more than anything he could have imagined.

Narrator: In the decades

following his incredible discovery,

jacob waltz remained an intensely private man.

Although he was known to have very few friends,

there were some notable exceptions.

He made friends with a woman named julia thomas.

She was one-eighth black.

Her mother had been a slave,

but she was raised in a household that speaks germa.

Ron: Julia thomas lived in phoeni,

close to where the dutchman was.

She ran a bakery.

Supposedly, she had a lot of money problems,

and jacob waltz helped her.

Narrator: In February of 1891,

when a flood washed away jacob waltz's home,

julia thomas returned his kindness.

She invited him to live with her and her roommate,

a german-speaking immigrant named rhinehart petrasch.

Tuttle: So, waltz has friends that all speak german,

and this is probably important, 'cause while we know

he probably spoke english, we don't know how comfortable

it would have been for him at the time.

Narrator: As with most of the circumstances

surrounding his life, those involving his death

remain shrouded in mystery.

- -in October of 1891,

as jacob waltz lay on his deathbed,

gasping for breath, most likely from pneumonia,

julia thomas ran for a doctor,

leaving the octogenarian prospector

in the company of an acquaintance

by the name of dick holmes.

When she returned, waltz was dead,

and dick holmes had vanished,

along with an item of extraordinary value.

Ron: When jacob waltz died,

he had 48 pounds of very rich gold ore

in a candle box under his bed.

Do the math. And that was back then.

Think what it's worth today.

Gold was $16 an ounce then.

It's $1,600 an ounce today.

Narrator: Did waltz give the box of gold ore to dick holmes

in the moments before his death,

or was it stolen?

And did waltz ever disclose, either to holmes

or julia thomas or their friend rhinehart petrasch,

the actual location of the lost dutchman mine?

These are among the questions

that have kept researchers and treasure hunters guessing

for more than a century.

Josh: What fascinates me most

about the lost dutchman mine is just

that there is gold ore

that came from jacob waltz.

And the question is where did it come from?

And nobody has been able to answer that yet.

Gary: I got to meet some of the guys who've been

a big part of the treasure hunt in recent years.

These people move from other places in america.

They go apache junction, and they do not leave.

-Looking for this mine? -Gary: Yeah.

Looking for the lost dutchman mine.

And, so, when I first went there,

I'm like, well, you know,

how do you sort through the big jumble?

You know, who's right?

And I had my own opinions, as well.

One of these dutch hunters took me into the foothills

of where he believes,

the lost dutchman mine is.

-What did you discover? -Gary: Well, I discovered

that when you send me out to the wild west

looking for gold, I don't come back empty-handed.

- Okay.

: One week prior to his meeting with matty blake

and the laginas in the oak island war room,

metal detection expert gary drayton was on a mission

to track down the location

of the legendary lost dutchman mine.

His first stop was to meet up

with legendary treasure huntr bob schoose,

who invited gary out

to share his extensive research on the mine,

research that has made bob

one of the world's leading experts.

Gary: All right, bob, where are we?

Schoose: You're at goldfield, arizona.

Gold was discovered here in the 1890s,

early 1890s.

Is this one of the reasons why jacob waltz

came to this area?

Jacob waltz came long before goldfield was here.

He was probably one of the first to find gold in the area

besides maybe the spaniards and the mexicans.

Narrator: Goldfield, arizona

sits beneath the western outreaches

of the superstition mountains,

where most dutchman hunters

believe the lost mine will be found.

Bob schoose has been searchig for more than 50 years.

It's a passion that dates bak to his childhood.

Watching all the western movies when I was a kid,

there was always spanish mines and spanish treasure.

As soon as I got my driver's license,

we headed for the desert

so we could go out and look for stuff.

Why did you choose this area?

With all of the studying I did about the lost dutchman mine,

this is the area that they found the gold in, and,

it chose me. Let's put it that way.

And I've got to ask the million-dollar question,

- mate. In your opinion...

-I knew you'd get around to this. -Where do you

think the lost dutchman mine is?

Well, my theory is it's right over here.

Wait a minute, you know where it is?

Yeah, that's my theory. There's about a hundred of 'em.

-Yeah. -I'm all eyes, mate.

You can see it from down here.

Right out there, just to the right

of that funny-shaped peak, that's the bulldog.

Narrator: For many treasure hunters,

the bulldog gold mine fit the description

of jacob waltz's lost dutchman mine.

One account even had waltz telling his friend julia thomas,

"look for the mine back from the northwest end

"of the superstition mountains

and look for a pointed peak."

unfortunately, in 2003,

the mine was deemed a safety hazard

and completely filled in.

Still, prospectors like bob schoose

remain tight-lipped about what treasures

the bulldog mine has yielded.

Did you find gold over there yourself?

- I wouldn't tell you if I did.

you are one wily, old treasure hunter, mate.

--so, when did you get the feeling

that that was the lost dutchman gold mine?

Well, after years of looking over there,

in them mountains over there, and not finding a trace,

you know, you just go along, go along,

and you learn more and more stuff

about the real facts of the matter.

So, do you think there's more gold in the area still?

Absolutely. There's got to be some other plumes

that came up associated with these veins.

But knowing where to look for 'em

is a whole different thing.

All right, bob, all this talk

has got me toes tingling, mate.

--any chance

of going out and looking for gold?

-Let's go look. -All right, mate. Let's go for it.

Narrator: With the bulldog gold mine officially off-limits,

bob takes gary to an open area

at the base of the mountains just outside of goldfield.

He is convinced that gold may still be found here

in the flatlands.

Well, this is the wash.

This is where all the floodwater comes through.

Whenever it floods, it brings the gold down

with the sand and gravels that get hung in the crevice.

We'll have to dig a few crevices,

see if you can find some color.

Gary: When I'm walking down to the wash

with bob schoose looking for gold,

I'm as happy as a pig in the proverbial.

I want that piece of superstition gold.

Schoose: This looks like a good one here.

It's going the right way.

Yeah, it's coming from a different direction.

Yeah, that-that water flows this way and creates the eddy

to collect the material in the crack.

So, there could be some gold in here, mate.

It's a possibility.

All right, mate, I'm ready to get stuck in.

This thing ain't gonna do you no good

unless that picks up flour gold.

-Flour gold? -Yeah, flour gold.

-So it's small. -Real fine.

-Like flakes. -If there's a whole bunch of it,

it could go off, but if it's, you know, normal,

it's gonna be scattered pretty good.

Yeah, 'cause I can't detect anything less

- than a grain of rice size. -Yeah.

-That won't do no good. -Okay.

Got to put the detector down.

So, what are we gonna do? Are we gonna

-dig this out? 'cause I brought my little trowel. -Yeah.

We'll clean that crack out as much as we can.

Get as much material as we can, and we'll check it.

Okay, then I'll start digging it out for you.

Keep expecting a gold nugget

to come out of one of these cracks.

Schoose: That'd be nice.

-I'm surprised that thing's going that deep. -Ooh.

I keep seeing shiny things.

-Yeah, you know what you're seeing there, don't you? -Yeah.

Fool's gold? Iron pyrite?

It's, "lyverite."

what, leave it right in the ground

- 'cause it's not what we're looking for? -yeah.

You got it.

Do you want me to dig some of these little rocks out,

- as well? -Yeah. You get in every little...

Let's wash

-that one off. -So, you actually wash the rocks,

-as well? -Yeah, the gold sticks to 'em.

This is way more promising of a crack

than I thought it was.

- It's going deep. -I mean, it is.

I can put me hand there.

Schoose: I'll tell you what,

we're liable to get some good color.

You think we've got enough stuff yet, bob?

Schoose: Yeah, we got enough for a good test.

Narrator: After bob and gary

spend several hours collecting material,

they return to the old western town of goldfield...

You want to split this up,

-and we'll each do half of that. -Yeah.

...Where bob gives gary a lesson

in panning for gold.

Schoose: All right, sink her down good

and shake and shake and shake, and that's the trick.

That settles the gold.

Sometimes that gold clings to the rock real good.

Yeah, see, you're wiggling, and I'm shaking.

Well, go this way.

Go side to side. That creates the best...

Way to drop her.

Then you kind of just wash a little of the top off like this.

Gary: Okay.

Are you kidding me, man?

-I-is that gold? -Yeah.

-That sure looks like a little speck. -Yeah!

My god. This is gold?

-It looks like it. -That is bloody fantastic.

-Check it out. -It looks good.

It looks good. Yeah,

I think you got a bit.

Bloody hell, mate.

That is superstition gold.

that is fantastic.

That is a bobby-dazzler.

This is a top pocket find, mate.

That's pretty lucky. Got to be first...

You know, beginner's luck.

Beginner's luck? You know how old I am, mate?

wow. This is bloody fantastic.

Matty: So, gary, this is incredible. It's fair to say

you found gold in the superstition mountains. I mean,

-that's incredible. -I can actually say it panned out.

--I guess you can.

So, is the bulldog mine... Is that the answer?

Is that the lost dutchman mine?

Is that the treasure? Is that what everybody's looking for?

I guess we'll never know for sure

because we're not allowed to go into the place

and search for gold anymore.

-So you couldn't go there. -Gary: No, I couldn't.

I could just go in the foothills.

Maybe it could be true,

but we're talking about a massive area

where there was a lot of gold, and, you know,

everybody's got their opinion, and they are adamant

they know where the lost dutchman mine is.

Right, so where do we go from here?

Gary: There is a small army

of gold hunters out there.

One of those treasure hunters has been at it the longest.

He's 90 years old

and still looking for the lost dutchman mine.

You hear that, rick? 90 years old,

and he hasn't quit yet.

Rick: I still got a long ways to go here.

Don't give up.

Hey, dan did it.

-I know. -Dan did it.

And just like dan blankenship,

this treasure hunter that I met,

called clay worst, was as sharp as a tack.

-And what he showed me

was incredible.

-Well... -Matty: Intrigued.

Narrator: In the past 130 years,

hundreds of prospectors have ventured

into the superstition mountains,

searching for the lost dutchman treasur,

but none have possessed the pedigree--

or direct connection to the "dutchman," jacob waltz--

as clay worst.

gary: Superstition mountains.

-Dang, what a view, clay! -Ha-ha!

-It is. -That is spectacular!

That brings it home.

-Is that not beautiful? -And I want to thank you, mate,

for inviting me into your house.

All I've ever heard about the superstition mountains,

and especially the jacob waltz story...

-Yep. -Is, there's only one person

you've got to talk to who...

Has got a link to jacob waltz.

You're the last one.

You're the last person that actually knows someone

that was at jacob waltz's...

At least I shook... I shook the hand of a man

that shook the dutchman's hand.

And 130 years after the event,

you can't get much closer than that.

Narrator: Clay worst has spent 65 years

hunting for the lost dutchman mine.

During 20 of those years,

he was accompanied by george "brownie" holmes,

the son of dick holmes,

the man who was reportedly present when jacob waltz die.

It was dick holmes whom many believe

ended up with the 48 pounds of gold ore

that waltz kept hidden under his bed.

And it's a portion of that gold ore

that, worst claims, was made into a keepsake

that has become a priceless part of his vast collection.

That is the so-called dutchman matchbox.

Now, the dutchman never had that matchbox.

That was made about a year after the dutchman died.

The insets are quartz ore.

Incredibly rich.

This is absolutely amazing.

So, I'm holding a piece of the dutchman's gold?

Clay: Well, he said he got it

from a mine in the superstition mountains.

Absolutely bloody incredible.

I've held a lot of treasures.

-Yeah. -But this--

just the history connected to it.

Is there any way of proving that it is

-the pitcher gold? -Well, there is--

there is an affidavit,

that's notarized.

It goes back to the holmes family,

explaining exactly how they got that gold.

So, what is this stating?

Well, it simply states

that the gold came from under the bed of jacob waltz

when he died in October of 1891.

Now, that doesn't prove that the gold's from the dutchman's mine.

But it definitely came from under his bed.

And he said that that gold came

from a mine that he had in the superstition mountains.

Narrator: The story of the lost dutchman mine

might have been lost to history

had it not been for the mysterious death

of another elderly prospector

some 40 years after jacob waltz's passing.

It was the death-- I presume the murder--

of adolph ruth in 1931,

which was nationally syndicated all over the united states.

That was what brought the story

of the lost dutchman mine out into the public.

Narrator: Adolph ruth was a 65-year-old veterinarian

who had sustained a lifelong leg injury

during a previous gold hunting expedition.

But when he acquired a treasure map of gold mines in arizona,

the prospect of untold riches

lured the frail animal doctor

into the superstition mountains.

Clay: We definitely know that adolph ruth

was searching for what he presumed

was the lost dutchman mine.

His skeletal remains were found miles away

from where he was camped,

over incredibly rough, brushy country.

He was taken there by someone.

Now, there were holes through both sides of his skull.

So I'm really convinced that he was shot to death.

I've got to ask you, mate.

Where do you think the lost dutchman mine is?

Well, that's--

the conversation's going someplace I can't go.

Because the search is still ongoing.

'cause I have brought a map with me.

And I was hoping that...

That I'd show you where the mine is.

not even an "x" on the map,

although that would be good.

No. I can't do that for this reason.

The general location is known to...

Actually, less than a handful of people.

And it is still jealously guarded.

I-I've got about seven man-years of my life

back of that mountain,

searching for the dutchman.

And those years are the most precious,

precious memories of my life.

And I would not take $10 million today in exchange

for my memories

of the years that I spent hunting the dutchman.

I'm dead serious.

If I could turn the clock back to 1947

and absolutely knew then that I would never find it...

I would do it all over again.

Narrator: If the gold ore found beneath jacob waltz's deathbd

came from the lost dutchman mine,

is there a way of determining where

in the superstition mountains the mine is located?

A family of prospectors believes they possess the documents

and the technology to answer that question

and finally solve

one of the world's most baffling treasure mysteries.

Ck: You know, it seems like there's a common theme

between this search

and oak island-- not just the curse.

When we first started with oak island,

-remember what we thought? -Yeah, science would solve all.

We thought science was gonna carry the day.

Well, it's interesting that you guys are talking about science

to solve a mystery.

'cause I met some treasure hunters in arizona

who were using science,

and they are adamant they know where the mine is.

Matty: Is this different than when

you were with bob schoose and where he thinks it is?

-Yeah. Totally different. -Okay.

Narrator: One week ago,

while searching for information about the legendary

lost dutchman mine,

gary drayton met with treasure hunters ron feldman

and his sons, jesse and josh,

at a horse stable they own

in the shadow of the superstition mountain.

He is eager to compare their theory

to those he has learned about

from rival enthusiasts bob schoose and clay worst.

It seems to me like there's a reoccurring theme.

Everybody connected to the lost dutchman mine, you know,

passionate guys like you guys,

they are confident

they know where the lost dutchman mine is.

-Jesse: Yep. -I think the history,

-technology and geology... -That's right.

...That's what gets you

to where the dutchman mine actually is located.

Narrator: For ron feldman,

finding the location of the lost dutchman mine

is the culmination of a lifetime devoted to treasure hunting.

It is a passion he has passed along to his entire family.

When I was a kid growing up in buffalo, new york,

I, for some reason, was captivated

by lost mine stories and buried treasures.

Matter of fact, I went up to northern california

and dredged rivers for gold.

My eye though was always on the lost dutchman,

because it was the most publicized.

It was the great granddaddy of all lost mines.

And ron feldman someday wanted to hunt that mine.

Finally did.

Came here in 1966.

Part of my legacy is the passion

for hunting for gold mine and the lost dutchman

that I have left for my boys.

My boys have absolutely been born into this.

Josh: My dad moved to arizona

to hunt the lost dutchman mie when he was a young man.

So I grew up around it.

Dad took us all over the superstition mountains

looking for that thing.

So, when we were kids,

it was just an adventure.

Go out with dad. Have a good time.

And then, as we got older,

we started getting more into the research and the history

and really understanding what was going on.

So, it became a passion of mine.

Narrator: After decades of searching

for the lost dutchman mine,

the feldmans believe

they may have finally discovered its hiding place

located some 20 miles from the bulldog mine,

on the eastern side of the superstition mountain.

So, you guys believe

that the silver chief mine is the lost dutchman mine?

-Yes, 100%. -Absolutely.

-Yup. -Yup, it has to be.

But we have believed that

for years-- in fact, decades--

because of the ted cox notes.

Narrator: Ted cox was one

of the most intriguing treasure hunters

to ever set foot in the superstitions.

Ron: Ted cox was born about 1920.

Grew up in these mining communities.

His father was said to have even known jacob waltz.

He spent his life in the superstition mountains

following all the information

and the geology and the history, and actually

professed that he found the lost dutchman mine.

Narrator: Ted cox's search brought him

in direct contact with many of the key players

in the dutchman saga.

Among them, rhinehart petrasch,

the man who was living in the same house

where jacob waltz lived and died.

Cox chronicled his adventures in hundreds

of handwritten pages that exist to this day.

Have you actually got those notes?

-We have those here. -I can show you.

I have all of ted cox's written material, all his notes.

They were turned over to me by his widow.

And these are all originals, right?

These are all original, handwritten.

His handwriting was very illegible almost.

It took me two years to decipher all this

and read through it and understand it.

Look at this here. "this report on the lost dutchman mine

and my attempt to own and mine it between 1957 and 1964."

ted cox knew where the lost dutchman mine was.

And he was on the eastern end of the superstition mountains.

Most of the legend and the lore

about the lost dutchman mine takes you

to the west end of the superstition mountains.

Where's the silver chief mine?

Ron: Silver chief is on the east end

of the superstition mountains, right up here.

Okay, so you really have put an "x" on the map?

An "x" on the map.

Jesse: Ted cox was the first person to say,

the silver chief mine is the lost dutchman mine.

And you can see how much he wrote

because he believed it so much.

You see, for the first 25 years

of my dutchman hunting career,

I became an expert on where the lost dutchman was not.

Because I was always on the west end where everybody else put it.

When I got into these notes and deciphered them,

ted cox opened my eyes.

And he put me right on the spot of the lost dutchman mine.

From deciphering these notes, we walked right to the place.

: Northwest of arizona's superstition mountains,

gary drayton meets with treasure hunter ron feldman

and his sons, jesse and josh.

The feldmans are convinced that history,

geology and technology may have helped them find

the actual location of the lost dutchman mine.

This is the science that our father has done recently.

This is new stuff to all of us, right?

But because of the history that we know,

you take that all together, and it confirms time and again

that the silver chief is the dutchman mine.

Narrator: The science revolves around comparing ore samples

the feldmans collected from a number of mines in the area

with a sample of lost dutchman gold.

What sample did you use for the lost dutchman mine gold?

It was the matchbox. It was a piece of jewelry

that supposedly came from the dutchman.

When he died, it was underneath his bed,

and it was made into jewelry.

-So, I think you have seen it? -Yup.

But I compared that with the silver chief ore.

Narrator: Treasure hunter clay worst

loaned ron the same matchbox

gary examined in clay's home.

It is now the centerpiece of ron's investigation.

That's really where the xrf machine comes in.

The only way to really compare the ores

is with this machine because it's non-destructive.

-Yeah. -We could've took the matchbox and destroyed it,

and then done the same test and figured out the elements

in each ore and done it that way.

But you'd have to crush it down and destroy it. Well...

-And you're not gonna destroy that. -No.

-You can't destroy dutchman ore. -No.

So, the xrf machine actually measures

each element by the amount of fluorescence

that is in every element on earth.

And it's like a fingerprint.

Xrf? What does that stand for, ron?

-X-ray fluorescence. -Okay.

Narrator: The xrf analyzer functions

by bombarding the ore samples with high-powered x-rays.

This excites the atomic particles,

causing the release of electromagnetic radiation.

Based upon how much radiation is released, one can determine

the elemental composition of each sample.

So I did ten different samples of different ores,

including the lost dutchman ore,

mammoth ore, black queen ore, many ores.

And in the chart, it shows the differences of all the ores.

And there was one conclusive proof.

For instance, the black queen.

Manganese, iron, copper, zinc.

There you go. I was on gold right there.

So that piece had gold in it.

Lead, rubidium and strontium.

Dang. So there is gold in that piece there?

There's-there's gold in this piece.

This is the chart that I did with ten different ores.

What is really rare in nature is to find mercury.

Mercury usually doesn't exist in most ores.

But if you read the chart, what was identified here,

the only ores that read mercury:

Lost dutchman, kochera's, silver chief.

-Everything else was zero. -Josh: All of the ores

that either came from the superstition mountains

or were purported to come from

the superstition mountains carried mercury.

And all the ores that didn't come from

the superstition mountains, even the goldfields right here,

which are not really in the superstitions--

they're at the foothills of the superstition mountains--

-did not have mercury. -Gary: Okay.

So what's that tell you?

The three that were purported or came

from the superstition mountains

had the same fingerprint of mercury in it.

And none of the other ores did.

Narrator: The feldmans' results

align with those of another, geological study--

one that was conducted

by the united states geological survey.

Ron: The usgs did a study--

I think it was 1976-- and what they did

is they wanted to measure mercury vapors, okay?

-So in the air? -From the air.

And they flew several places in arizona

to try and measure it.

The highest reading of mercury presence

was in the superstition mountains.

By three times the amount of any others.

Josh: If dutchman ore

came from the superstition mountains,

then it should have mercury in it.

The test that he did with the xrf proves

that ore in the matchbox has mercury in it.

And ore at the silver chief has mercury in it.

When you put all that together,

all those pieces of the puzzle start to fit together

and then paint the picture for you.

It's kind of ironic, you guys are gold hunters,

but the mercury has led you to the gold.

The mercury has an affinity for gold.

It combines with it.

Wow, so this xrf really helped you pinpoint the location.

-Yes. -Well, I'm going with you, mate.

If you say it's the silver chief mine,

I'm-I'm open with that.

-Jesse: You're a smart man. -Yep, get on board.

ron's gone old-school with all the historical records

and he's gone high tech with the xrf machine

and then he's got the ted cox documents

that really close the case for him.

A-and you can see the look in his son's eyes as well, he--

this family knows where the lost dutchman mine is.

Now the question is, is there any more gold there?

Yes, there is gold still in that mine.

So why aren't you mining it?

Well, if the mine was here

and available, we would be mining it.

It happens to be in wilderness.

Tightly controlled by the united states forest service.

There is no mining allowed.

I don't want to mine it from jail.

Yeah-- so can you get a permit?

No. No permits. There is no mining.

Mining was completely taken out of that wilderness in 1984.

-That is a damn shame. -Josh: You can go out there

in those mountains and you can legally prospect.

You can look for the presence of mineral,

you can look for the lost dutchman mine for that matter.

But if you find it, you can't legally mine it.

Narrator: There is another factor that compounds the problem.

The silver chief mine has completely caved in,

making it virtually impossible to enter.

We're talking about an old hole that has collapsed.

You'd have to dig the entire thing out,

completely reconstruct the entire mine.

And that takes a lot of money and a lot of equipment,

if it was legal.

Now I know why they say this lost dutchman mine is cursed.

You know, all this scientific information,

you know where it is and we can't go in there and get it.

- Notice how I said "we" there.

-are you a new partner, are you? -You got a big checkbook?

- I've got a big top pocket, though, mate.

gary: You guys are sitting on a gold mine.

matty: So, gary, you think the feldmans

have kind of solved this thing?

I think the feldmans' theory is highly credible.

-Marty: Based on what?

-Explain this to me. -Gary: Science, mate.

You were saying how science

is the key to solving these mysteries.

And that is exactly what the feldmans are using.

Rick: Yeah, I have a problem with the,

the basic "solution," and that is that,

was the base sample that they took, was it really

from the "lost dutchman"?

If not, then it's just matching a mine to a mine.

That's a really good point. That even the "proof,"

as it were, the scientific proof,

is kind of based on a legend.

It's based on word of mouth.

You know, it strikes me,

I'm listening to gary talk about

different families presenting their evidence

as to why they think it's there,

-it reminds me of oak island. -Rick: Absolutely.

As you say, there's three or four families that...

At least three of four families that believe they know

exactly where it is, and yet it can't be all three of them.

No.

What do you think-- I'll ask all of you guys--

what do you think it's gonna take to solve this one,

because there's a lot of moving parts?

It's gonna take a prayer to solve this one,

because the area of the silver chief mine

- is in a restricted area.

-rick: Of course. -No one can go looking for gold there.

The government owns that area. It's shut down.

Marty: So the only way would be to reopen it,

and it can't be done. At least, not now.

Gary: Not now.

Matty: This one,

particularly, really dealt in curses and rumors and stories.

So where do you guys stand on curses?

Well, in this particular case, the curse might be

-that this is, just became unsolvable, right? -Yeah.

And I mean, and maybe that's the origin of some of these curses.

Maybe that's the curse of human nature. I don't know.

-Right. -Just a thought.

Rick: I-I personally don't buy into a curse.

I-I would never stop doing something

simply because I was afraid of something.

-Right. -Especially an unknown.

I wouldn't. It wouldn't bother me.

I believe in curses. I feel cursed now because I want

-to go back to the superstition mountains. -Matty: Right.

It's just something draws you to there.

So, matty, you asked us about, you know,

our belief about curses.

So I'll turn the question back on you.

What do you believe?

Well, I mean, I'll be honest.

You guys know this about me a little bit, but I-I do believe

in unexplained metaphysical things

that-that can't be explained easily.

I do believe in curses. Now, whether...

Whether that's self-imposed, whether people take that energy

and kind of make it happen, you could explain it away that way,

but I do believe there are things that happen

that we can't explain.

Well, sometimes a curse can be a blessing.

And that blessing is always gonna be treasure.

Perfect. On that note, we have our own curse/blessing

waiting for us out here.

-Let's get back to work. -We sure do.

And a treasure to find.

Matty: Yes. Thanks, guys.

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