... have been a place of mystery and legends since only the Pima Indians lived in Arizona. There are uncountable ancient cliff dwellings and caves - many were once inhabitated - and the Superstitions became the stronghold of the Apaches in the 19th century.

In many of the stories an Apache curse protects the sacred burial ground and the treasures of the Indians, which include the Lost Dutchman Mine. The curse can be traced back to the early 16th century, when Spanish priests were building missions in what is now known as Arizona and New Mexico. The Indians helped them mine gold, some of which was sent back to the King of Spain. In the late 18th century, the Jesuits were ordered out of Mexico. Some people believe they hid away their records of mines, treasures and ore deposits.

During the 1840's the Mexican Peralta family developed some rich gold mines in the Superstitions. According to legend, in 1848 a large party was ambushed by Apaches. Only one or two Peralta family members escaped into Mexico. There is indeed evidence of skirmishes between the Spanish and the Apaches at the area that is known today as 'the Massacre Grounds', where remnants of mining equipment, old weapons, gear and a pack train have been discovered.

The legend says that the Peraltas buried their rich mines with rocks to hide their treasures. Numerous maps have surfaced, but the men who claimed to have found the Peralta mine were unable to return to it, because of all sort of troubles, calamities and disasters, all adding to the lore of the Curse of the Superstitions.

In the 1870's, Jacob Waltz aka 'the Dutchman' (but actually a German) would have located the mine with a little help from a Peralta descendant. Waltz and his partner Jacob Weiser hid some caches of gold in the vicinity of Weaver's Needle. Weiser was killed by the Apaches or by Waltz, who moved to Phoenix and died in 1891. He described the location of the mine to Julia Thomas, but neither she nor other treasure seekers were able to find the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine. A lot of them have met with foul play, death... or the Curse of the Superstition Mountains.

As a real Dutchman, I was fascinated about these stories of a lost treasure and a terrible curse. So, I would like to start here on the HubPages a True Treasure Hunt for the Lost Dutchman Mine.... No doubt, the legend of the Lost Dutchman is the most famous of all these stories about fabulous lost gold mines in Arizona and New Mexico. But where do we have to place the Lost Adams Diggings? (There is also a Dutchman in it!) Or the Lost Gold Mine of Juan Mondragón?

According to R.G. Babcock there is an explanation for all these tales about a curse and this lost gold of the Indians... Somewhere in the 19th century two men from the Midwest and an old Indian Chief were in an Arizona cave filled with treasure... A hundred years later R.G. Babcock received a letter, describing a first-hand account of the lost gold of the Aztec Empire:

The Lost Aztec Treasure

Treasure of the Cursed Superstition Mountains