Legend of the Superstition Mountains (2015–…): Season 1, Episode 5 - Dead Man's Gold - full transcript
( screaming )
- A cursed mountain...
hiding $200 million in gold.
250 lives have been lost.
But now five treasure hunters...
will defy the curse... in search of...
America's deadliest treasure.
- What the hell's that?
Oh, yeah, look at that, man.
I don't know. I can't
see whether it's caved in.
It might be a prospect. - Yeah.
- Got to be very careful
in there, that thing
come down on your head.
- Hold it. Stop, stop, stop, stop.
Slowly back up, guys.
You guys clear? - Both: Yeah.
- We got a booby trap set up here.
This is a deliberate death trap.
And the question is, who set it and why?
- In the Western Superstitions,
Wayne Tuttle and his team
of Dutch hunters are
following a deadly trail
straight into the dark
heart of the mountains.
- This is the Gonzales map.
- Where a newly revealed pair of maps
dating back to the Peralta
and Gonzales families,
who once mined for
gold here, have uncovered
a series of clues that point to the lost
$200 million fortune.
- I got a mine up here, guys.
- You got what? - I got a vein.
- A crude vein of quartz, mining equipment.
- Dude, that's a candle
holder for an old mine.
- The mysterious mark of
the Apache Black Legion.
- I see a black handprint on the wall.
- They're trying to tell
us not to be around here.
- That could be a warning to turn back.
And this cave guarded
by a lethal booby trap.
Is there something hidden
here that's worth killing for?
- Wait. So, you're saying
there's a booby trap in there
that's been set off?
- This is a booby trap.
That was a covered pitfall.
Someone stepped
through there, hit that wire,
end of story right there.
- The booby trap found at the cave entrance
is designed to cause death by decapitation.
A thin wire firmly anchored
to opposing sides of the cave
is stretched tightly from wall to wall
about five feet off the ground.
As the visitor approaches,
soft ground covering a pit
gives way, causing
the victim to fall forward.
The thin wire, acting like a razor,
neatly slices the victim's
head from his body.
- Yeah, we want to
kind of be cautious here.
- It's set off?
- Well, definitely you can tell
it's been set off, but you don't know
if that's the only trap. - Uh-huh.
You're looking at the broken branches,
the wire's busted.
Someone's been back in
there and set that thing off.
I can tell by the disturbance
of the rocks and everything.
It's just to kind of set you up,
take you out, or hurt you bad.
- Wayne, if this was meant
to cut somebody's head off,
then where's the body?
- That's a good question.
I don't see any bones.
I don't see any sign
of anyone's here still.
Might have just buried them up in a bank
in the sandy wash here somewhere.
You need to always be
cautious coming in these areas,
looking for footprints and any other
type of disturbance.
- As twisted as it is, we
got led to a death trap.
It also make sense.
It means there must be
something big out there.
- When gold was discovered
in the Superstition Mountains,
it became a common practice
to protect mines with elaborate
booby traps to discourage or even kill
unwelcome visitors to the area.
Protective prospectors were known to let
venomous rattlesnakes
in mines to bite trespassers
or to line the entrance
of a mine with toxic
arsenic dust, fatal to
anyone who inhaled it.
Others used primitive engineering
to set trip wires or plant boards
with rusty nails to
impale would-be thieves.
No one knows how many
death traps still reside
within the Superstitions.
Present-day prospectors
must always be on guard
so gold fever doesn't lead to death.
- I just don't like this.
I don't know what else
they could've done here.
This thing could come down on us,
so I don't even know if we want
to even attempt to get in there.
- The Jesuits loved this
kind of stuff, these traps.
That's their mark.
- A lot of people like these kind of traps.
I don't necessarily think
this has anything to do
with the Jesuits.
But who knows?
- I know. It looks kind of old.
- Remember, there's even
those who believe Jacob Waltz
said he set his up that way.
I'd say this warrants we definitely
investigate the area.
- Jesuits came to Southwest
America from Spain
in the 1600s as part of a
drive to colonize the continent
and convert natives to Christianity.
Many believe the Jesuits discovered gold
in the Superstitions.
After mining a fortune
of the precious metal,
they came up with ingenious and deadly ways
to protect their rich claims.
- We need to document
this. Get photographs,
get the GPS coordinates, grab some samples.
See, it looks, be careful, though.
Watch your edges.
- Oh, it's got a smell in here, too.
- Oh, here's a good sample. Got it.
- Let me see one.
The cave isn't deep
enough to be a pit mine,
but we're going to get some
samples to test it anyways.
This could be a lead or
a very elaborate decoy.
The science will tell us whether
it's worth coming back here,
but I'm not risking setting
off another booby trap
until we know for sure.
Guys, let's grab up all the
gear and head back to camp.
- One of my good
friends is a great geologist.
He specializes in rocks,
minerals, structural geology,
so we're going to take the samples
and the pictures we took from that cave,
send them to him and see if this might be
the site of the Lost Dutchman.
That's crazy.
- I've never seen anything like that.
( screeching )
( chatting, indistinct )
- I'm the youngest out of the five of us.
But between avoiding
booby traps, dodging bullets...
( gunshot ) Oh...
And getting spied on
by helicopters all day...
See it? - That's an Apache.
- Yeah, that's military.
- It's really starting to wear on me.
What the hell is this, Magnuson?
Didn't leave a pile of rocks here.
- Deal, you sure those rocks weren't there?
- I'm 100 percent sure those
were not here when we left.
- Did you guys do that?
- That wasn't there before.
- I don't know.
- Oh, man.
- This is not good.
- This is not good.
This is the second time we've seen
a black hand on this trip.
And this time it was clearly meant for us.
This stuff really spooks me.
It's a sign telling us to get out of here.
Like I was telling the guys last night.
I heard some stories
about American Indians.
They got a name called the Black Legion.
They give you a sign of a
big black hand on something,
and supposedly that's a
warning to get the hell out of there,
wherever you're at.
- Somebody's been in
the freaking camp, right?
- Yeah, this is a warning.
We got to be really careful here.
- What does this mean? Is
somebody screwing with us?
The Apache warning us?
Is there somebody up on that ridge
with a rifle pointed at us?
That's my fear. I think Wayne's right.
We got to get the hell out of here.
- Nothing.
- I don't feel good about camping here.
- I'm with you.
- I don't feel good about
being anywhere out here.
- Gold makes people do crazy things,
so it's entirely possible that
someone's been tailing us
this entire time trying
to get us off our game,
hijack our leads or
get inside of our heads.
- I'm freaking scared. - I know.
- Well, you see this, pay attention.
- Probably the same people from last night.
- Whoever's doing this is
pushing the right buttons
because it definitely has
Woody and even Deal,
to an extent, freaked out.
- What do you want to do about this, Wayne?
- What we're going to
do, abandon camp, okay?
Okay. This place is no good to us now.
I know you guys are tired.
We need to get out of here, all right?
- Like, out right away? What kind of stuff
do you want to take? - We grab what we can.
Let's go. Now. - All right.
Till we have a better understanding
of what's happening to
us, it's best that we leave
the area immediately.
We'll rest up, regroup, and
then plan our next move.
( thunder )
- I'm heading out from Quarter Circle U.
Going to have a video chat
with my geology buddy, Brian.
Brian's a good friend and
a good contact of mine,
and I ended up sending him some photos
and some rock samples that
we had taken from that cave
so he could take a look at them and give me
his professional opinion.
Hey, man.
- Yo, how you doing? Good to hear from you.
- Yeah, doing well. Doing well.
- Interesting-looking rocks you have.
Had a chance to look over
them, go over them a little bit.
- So, based on the samples
and the pictures I sent you,
is there any evidence
that we should be looking
in that cave or that the Lost Dutchman's
potentially there? - The sample you sent me
from that cave and from
the pictures in that cave,
it does not appear to
be mineralized at all.
I really think you need to
move your search elsewhere.
- All right. Thanks so
much for your time, man.
I appreciate it.
- All right. Take care. - Bye.
Based on the results that Brian gave me,
now I can take this back to the team
and hopefully put this issue to rest.
Maybe the booby trap
was protecting something
a long time ago, but it's
not the Lost Dutchman.
- With the team back in town
and facing the prospect that
somebody's been following
them through the Superstitions,
Wayne has decided to seek advice
from some trusted advisors.
Along with Frank and Eric, Wayne will tap
the collective experience
of three of Arizona's
most veteran Dutch hunters,
a trio with more than 150
years combined experience
searching for the Dutchman.
- Hey, guys. Wayne.
- Hey, Jack. How's it going?
- How you doing? Come in.
- Jack's a noted author and
historian of the mountains.
George, of course, at the museum,
has a good overview and a
number of resources to pull off of.
And with Clay, it's 60
years or more of experience
in the mountains and that's
where I'm looking to draw
the most from because he
lived in those mountains enough
that he'll be able to tell
these guys, you know,
that's just not the way it is.
- We were hoping to show you
some pictures, actually, guys.
And see what you make of it,
see if you recognize anything.
Here's some of the... Pass these around.
What we really need to know
is if they have any connection
at all with the Dutchman or
even date back to his time period
in the 1870s.
The medicine wheel mean anything?
- Oh, bad-ass, dude. Look at that.
- This one looks to me like
it's pretty modern construction,
if you'll pardon the expression.
Something like the walls I built
around my house with the rocks
from the desert.
- Looks like it was built yesterday.
- Okay. - Because there is no dirt
blown in around any of these rocks.
These rocks are fresh rocks sitting there
with no dirt blown in around them.
So I think it's... I think
it's strictly modern.
- We're getting exactly the
kind of feedback I hoped for.
If George and Clay think the medicine wheel
is relatively new, then
I guess it's off the table.
- What about these black handprints?
- This is not in this, carved in the stone.
It's a pictograph. - Right.
- That handprint was
placed at our campsite.
It wasn't there before.
Somebody painted it there.
- And we also found it inside of a cave.
- What you got?
- I see a black handprint on the wall.
- There's a few more members of our team
that are taking this
stuff a lot more seriously
as paranormal, and it's starting to affect
what we're doing, you know.
If we lose one guy,
that really hurts us. - Well, when people
start talking about paranormal things,
it kind of leaves me on
the outside looking in.
- Absolutely. - Now, the Black Legion,
I didn't think much of it.
Now, that's a theory.
I don't know that's ever been proved.
- How many black hands have
you come on in your camp?
- The only ones I've seen were not black.
They were red.
- The only hands I've ever seen
are at other places. and I must say
they have always been red.
I think there's something
to do with that color
that they use for that.
This is a relatively easy one to get.
- George's insight about
the Native Americans,
it really makes a lot of sense.
The colors in the pigments
and paints they would've used
at the time would've been
found in the earth around them.
Like red, which is all around this desert.
There's no way that the black hand symbols
we've seen date back to the 1800s.
They're definitely all modern.
All of which means we can
hopefully put all those
Indian legends to bed
and tell Woody he can stop worrying
about the Black Legion.
The thing that concerns
me the most about all this
is we've been really, really discreet
about going back up in there.
And, you know, so somebody's obviously
trying to mess with us, but I don't know
how they know we're there,
and I can't wrap my head
around that one, you know.
- When you leave your tracks,
okay, if it's a good hunter,
and I started going with my dad
when I was five, and so I
learned the hunter's secrets.
People out in the desert a
lot, they can read your signs.
And whatever you're doing, if they think
you're onto something, they may follow you.
What is the greatest treasure
in the Superstition Mountains?
The Lost Dutchman Mine.
It attracts people like flies.
Therefore, if they see you out there
and think you're looking for something,
maybe you're in their area.
That eventually could lead to something
if you're not prepared.
- Hadn't had this problem until
we hit this one particular area.
And like you mentioned,
maybe we stumbled upon
somebody else's area, and
they want to chase us out.
I think something like that's going on.
I mean, does that sound logical to you?
- It sounds very logical.
- I suspected from the
start that somebody's
screwing with us.
The black hand doesn't
look genuine, wrong color.
The medicine wheel looks new.
Somebody placed it there to scare us.
- I want to thank all of you
for meeting with us here today.
You answered a lot of questions for us,
and you've given us a lot to think about.
On the one hand, I'm disappointed to find
a number of the things we came across
aren't relics from the past.
But on the other hand,
finding out they're modern,
means there's people out
there right now trying to actively
mislead people in the Superstitions.
That tells me that there's
definitely something out here
they're trying to keep hidden.
Clay, thank you so much.
- George. - Jack, always a pleasure.
- You're welcome.
- Thank you for your advice.
- George, thanks again.
- We'll see you later, Captain.
- Okay. - So now we have
two big questions to answer.
Where's the gold and who's protecting it?
- After meeting with Jack,
George, and Clay, - Coming up...
I gathered the boys up,
decided it's time to loosen up.
So I'm going to take them down to the bar.
And while we're there,
I'm going to fill them in
on what the Dutch-hunting
experts had to say.
- Thank you.
- Ooh, almost scratched. - Woody's up.
- Woody's stripes. - Finish it up, Woody.
- We went over and
talked with Jack San Felice
and Clay Worst, George Johnson. - Uh-huh.
- Asked them all about
that Black Legion stuff,
the black handprints. - Yeah.
- And one of the things,
Eric will back me up on this,
they said a true Apache would
only leave a red handprint.
Would never leave black handprints.
- What do you think? I mean...
- But all three of them
shot it down, man, without
even hesitating, so...
- Okay, so, Woody's theory
regarding Black Legion is shot.
It's done, right? Can we rule that out?
- They felt it was kind of a fairy tale.
Clay, he's had 60 years in the mountains,
said he didn't have anything from it.
- These are experts. You trust these guys.
They know what they're talking about.
- Not one of them really had
a story involving any of this,
seen any type of
activity, anything involving
as far as that storyline.
Now, there's seriously someone out there.
- Well, to be honest, I'm kind
of glad that's it not, you know,
has nothing to do with the Black Legion.
I'm pretty glad about that.
- Think about this. We
weren't getting bothered
like this when we first started.
You know, one way to look at it
is the closer we get to something good,
the more likely it is that crap
like this is going to happen.
- I think the problem is
we're too close to something
and somebody's trying to scare us off.
- It still pisses me off that
somebody would go to that level
to try to intimidate us.
I mean, where do we go from here?
Did you get any new
leads? Our leads have kind of
not panned out, you know.
- And that's kind of where
we're at now is I'm really
interested in the area,
but we didn't really come
up with anything too sharp.
- We need another lead.
We need another resource.
We're pounding the same doors.
We need a new name, something fresh.
- The medicine wheel and that black hand
sure in the hell wasn't left
by the Apache Black Legion.
But you know what?
Somebody wanted us to think
it was the Apache Black Legion.
So at this point, one thing we got to do
is find somebody that's
an expert on Indian lore.
Any of you guys know a Native American
that's familiar with the
history of superstitions
and the Dutchman lore that can help us?
- I know a Pima Indian that might help us.
He knows the Superstition
Mountains very well.
He knows a lot about Indian stuff.
I've talked to him a lot.
- That's a good idea.
- You know, he's not going
to tell us everything he knows,
but he can surely help us.
- Can you make that
call? Make it happen, okay?
- I will, bud.
- Good shot, Wayne.
- Yes!
- You'll never beat me in a thousand years,
and I want my 50 bucks back. - ( laughing )
- Ooh. - I told you.
( thunder )
- After discovering the Indian artifacts
don't date back to the
time of the Dutchman,
Wayne, Frank, and Woody are going to meet
with Leonard Dan, an expert
on Native American tribes
in the Superstition Mountains.
Native Americans have
inhabited what is now Arizona
for thousands of years.
The name Arizona is
actually an old Indian word
that means "little spring,"
a reference to a river
near the Mexican border.
Of the 21 indigenous tribal nations
inhabiting the area, two of the largest
are Apache and Navaho,
which were often rivals
as they clashed over food, land,
different lifestyles, and gold.
- Wayne, this is Leonard Dan.
- Nice to meet you.
- The best way to get
information from Leonard
is to fill him in on our
journey and tell him
what's been happening.
- So, what are you guys up to?
- Well, we're on the trail
of the Lost Dutchman Mine,
and obviously that connects
to some of the Peralta stories
of a number of different mines.
So let me kind of show
you the particular area
we were working in. Now, we were definitely
up in this area, the Fish Creek,
and we worked all across on this ridge here
is where we set camp.
- Now, what would you do,
Leonard, if somebody was following you?
Would you head back
and try to see who it was?
- Sit and wait and see
what's, you know, who's...
who shows up. - Yeah, we had a...
- We know somebody's
screwing with us. That's the fact.
- Our last night up there, we set up a camp
up on a cliff area overlooking the canyon.
We just settled in and
someone fired off a couple shots.
( gunshots ) - Oh, my...
- Somebody really trying
to scare us off, like I said.
We don't know who.
- That's how the Apaches
got blamed for a lot of things
that the settlers or the prospectors did.
So we got the blame
for a lot of things like that.
- Apaches got blamed for a lot
of stuff that the white man did.
- That's the, you know,
that's the age-old thing.
- So you think definitely, as far as a lot
of the mysterious deaths, the beheadings,
a lot of this people did to
try to set up the Apaches,
to put some blame somewhere else.
Not only to get themselves away from it,
but to make people fearful
to come into the area?
- Absolutely.
At the time, the law was
more on the settlers' side,
and the Indians, they got
blamed for a lot of killings
and murders and stuff, so...
They got away with it.
- My understanding of
what Leonard was telling us
was that the Apache got
blamed for a lot of things
over the years they had
nothing whatsoever to do with.
- So, Leonard, I want to
thank you so very much.
It was very nice meeting you.
- Sure, yeah. Call me anytime.
- Thank you for speaking with us.
- After talking to Leonard, I'm convinced
our problem is not the Apache following us.
Our problem is we have
somebody following us,
we don't know who it is.
- Ever since we found the heart stone.
Based on Frank's Peralta map,
there's just been something
that's been nagging at me.
So I called Deal over to the QCU
so I could have a chat with him.
See if Wayne left us all the photos.
See what we got.
- So you go the same
pictures I have right here.
- Yeah.
Yeah, between you and me,
I don't know if that's an X, man.
That looks more like a cross for me.
I mean, it depends on
what angle you look at it.
- Yeah. - But I think the angle that
it's facing, if somebody
had made that there,
I think the angle you'd normally look at,
it would be a cross, not an X.
I think we were kind of
approaching it from a weird angle.
- Well, I mean, there
is also the potential.
If you covered this with your finger,
that's a perfect X.
Now, is there a possibility that
whoever carved that, you know,
kind of set in... - Elongated it?
- Set and processed some actual weathering
that came down the
stone. That's a possibility.
- Say it's not an elongated fracture.
Say it actually is a cross. - Yeah.
- When that would've
been made 150 years ago,
what was the symbolism of the cross?
- What if that was the
Jesuits that put it there?
'Cause we know they were in this area.
- Mm-hmm.
- And they did a lot of mining,
and they used symbolism in the marked pass.
They were also known
to booby trap their mines.
And that's not even a possibility
I've heard Wayne talk about.
- The Jesuits loved this
kind of stuff, these traps.
That's their mark.
- A lot of people like these kind of traps.
I don't necessarily think
this has anything to do
with the Jesuits.
- When I started to put
the evidence together
that we've collected up to this point,
the Jesuit connection
really jumped out at me.
The fact of the matter is,
the Jesuits use symbols
of the cross to mark their way to mines.
They keep talking about
the Peraltas and this and that.
But if it is a cross, and
that cave was a decoy,
and it is manmade, we
got to at least look into
is it the Jesuits?
And if it is, what does that mean?
- So what do the Jesuits
have to do with gold mining
and leaving symbols in the mountains?
- So basically, the Jesuits
were a Catholic order of monks.
They come over here to the New World,
which Spain controls,
and they go out, initially,
starting to do missionary work.
In the process, they find out
that the area has a ton of gold in it.
So then they eventually get into mining.
And they even took slaves
to, like, work the mines
and stuff like that.
So, at some point, the
king of Spain finds out
that they're finding all
this gold and not giving him
his fair share, so he essentially
issues an order for
them to get out of Dodge.
Orders them all out of the New World.
In the process, all this gold they found,
a lot of it they just ended
up, like, burying in place.
So they hide it up in the mountains,
and they create these maps
and mark symbols everywhere
so that if this stuff gets
cleared up someday,
they can come back and retrieve it.
- So this cross could potentially mean
that they hid a cache
of gold bars or gold ore
within this area somewhere.
- I mean, if they made it, then
they put it there for a reason.
That takes a lot of work. - Yeah.
Oh, I think it warrants
further investigation.
- The fact that we found that
right where he said it would be,
and it looks like a cross
to me, we should dive into it
before we just, you know,
walk away so that we can
make sure it's not just a coincidence.
If that's a cross,
it's worth a little bit
more work to find out.
- All right.
- Wayne doesn't believe
the Jesuits could've been
this far north. You
know, and I respect that.
But Jack San Felice isn't
just a Dutch-hunting expert,
He's a well-known authority
on the history of the Jesuits,
especially in the southwest.
And that's why I contacted him.
I wanted to see if he thought
there was any evidence
the Jesuits could've
been farther north than
conventional wisdom suggests.
Hey, Jack, I want to thank
you again for taking the time
to meet with me.
- Hey, that's great.
- So, Jack, you know
what we're trying to do.
And the further we get into it,
the more it seems we're getting
pulled in a lot of different directions.
A lot of the guys, especially Wayne,
don't buy into any sort
of Jesuit connection.
So that's kind of what I'm
hoping to pick your brain
about a little bit.
- Once you understand what the role
of the Jesuits were in old Spain,
then you have a better understanding.
The Jesuits were, without a doubt, here.
If the military was here,
the Jesuits were here.
No doubt. The priests' job
was to look for gold and silver.
The Jesuits were supposed to
keep accurate records of mining.
- Right.
- When the Jesuits
were going to be expelled,
they knew about it in time.
They had informants
in the court of the king.
They boxed up all of their treasure
and the gold that they had to maintain
the power of the Church.
You go in these mountains
here and you'll see these crosses.
They're almost kind of like sign posts.
They left their marks.
What I'm going to show you
is this old Spanish cross up here.
- And when did you find this, the nineties?
- In the nineties.
Found it in the nineties.
Within sight of the cross right now.
You see it?
- Yeah, look at that. That's awesome, man.
- Yeah, it's an old Spanish
cross, probably Jesuit.
- Look at that.
Oh, that's amazing, Jack.
- Think it's probably
the only one like this
I've seen in the Superstitions,
this part of the Superstitions anyhow.
- So, what's that mean?
You think it's just marking
the entrance to the
canyon... - I think it's marking
the entrance to the canyon
and this is the way to go.
You stay to the right, okay?
If you look at this section right here,
it's pointing down canyon that direction.
That means there are other
things to see down there
and perhaps mines. - That's awesome.
Can we go check out the other ones?
- Let's go.
You see it? - Where's it at?
- Right there, you see it? - Holy moly.
- Right under the ledge.
Must be a dragon.
And the ancients, around 1400,
drew their elks like stick figures
and their horses like stick figures.
I love stick figures.
- That's crazy.
Wayne and Frank have
told us that treasure hunters
will often disguise
their directional markers
in already existing ancient petroglyphs.
- These could be original petroglyphs
or could be something added
next to some petroglyphs
so that they're not as noticeable.
- So maybe that's what's happening here.
- This is great, but there's one more thing
I want to show you down this way.
You'll be amazed. - Okay.
- Watch your step, Eric.
It's a little rough through here.
You're going to get a kick out of this one.
Take a look at this. - Holy crap, man.
Look at that.
- This is the ladder of life, man.
The ladder of life.
You see?
- Look at that.
You know what the
significance of the ladder is?
- Ancient Indians believed
that at the end of their life
they would climb the ladder
of life into the afterworld.
And the ones on the left,
though, they look newer,
and they could be an
indication that the early miners
that went through here
put in one, two, three,
four, five mines because those were...
It looked like they were inserted later
because then X means
this is the way that you go.
- Wow, Jack.
Coming out here today
with Jack, he showed me
three great petroglyphs.
Two of those three are probably European.
Definitely the cross,
and I've got an inkling
that the dragon is, too.
The ladder, I'm not quite
sure what to make of that.
He says it's Native American,
but with the potential mine symbols nearby,
I'm even more convinced
that there's something to this,
and we need to look into it deeper.
- Well, we know one thing. - What?
- We're going to need more water next time.
- Definitely that.
- Ah, here he comes.
What the hell is it with you?
You're always late for everything.
- Hold on. Okay, hold on.
You're going to love me in a second.
So I think we could've
been looking at this all wrong.
We know we've been being followed.
This whole time, we've thought
it had an Indian connection
because of the black hands and stuff.
I think it actually could
be a Jesuit connection.
I went and I talked to Jack San Felice
because I know he's the Jesuit expert.
So he took me out to this
place called Willow Canyon,
and he showed me a bunch of petroglyphs.
Meeting with Jack San Felice
was a real turning point for me.
After he showed me all the
petroglyphs in the canyon,
I decided to go ahead and
do some research on my own.
And what I found was
that every single petroglyph
he showed me could very
well be a Jesuit symbol.
I think this whole thing could
be a complete game-changer.
First, there's this one.
Some people could think it's a X.
Looks like a cross.
Definitely a Jesuit symbol.
Check this out.
- It's a ladder. - Wow.
- Jack said that's called
"The Ladder of Life."
The Indians did use it,
but that's a common symbol
across a bunch of religions,
including the Jesuits.
Okay, guys, then we got this one.
Dagger, we figured that was
some sort of directional thing,
maybe pointing to a mine or to a treasure.
My research told me that
was used by the Jesuits
in initiation ceremonies.
This petroglyph...
- Is that a dragon? - That's a dragon.
More than likely that's a Jesuit symbol
for, like, the devil, stuff like that.
- Okay.
- It's rumored that during
the Jesuit expulsion,
they hid clues to secret caches
of gold in the Superstitions
for their eventual return.
Some believe these clues are hidden inside
ancient Native American petroglyphs.
Eric's discovery of the cross and dragon,
two European symbols,
are signs they could be
on a trail to a rich Jesuit stash of gold.
- Everybody knows the
Jesuits were in this area,
mining and things like that.
So maybe if we start digging
into that a little bit more,
we'll find better leads rather than
pursuing the Indian angle.
- I think it's something we
need to seriously look at.
- Wayne, I know you're
not real big on this,
but you have to consider
that at least it's a possibility.
- You know, I get it. I've seen
these type of things before.
I still say we have
a Peralta-Gonzales connection to the area,
and now we're starting to
kind of pull away and say,
"Oh, there's something
completely different here."
And that's where I find
in Dutch hunting where people go wrong.
They start bringing everything
and the kitchen sink in.
They drop it in there,
and you're distracted.
- You got to open your mind up.
You got to open your mind
so when we're in a spot,
we look for other things
because who the hell knows
what we might find?
- And, Wayne, this doesn't
have to be an either/or thing.
You know, it can still have
the Peralta connection,
but what if the Peraltas
had a Jesuit connection?
So it's not like I'm right, you're wrong.
I'm just saying, maybe
we should look at this, man.
- So what you're talking about
is finding a hidden treasure
that's possibly bigger than the Dutchman.
If it's hidden Jesuit
treasure... - Absolutely.
Maybe, I mean, they refined
it when they got kicked out.
Everybody knows they
started burying their crap.
Maybe we can find the Lost Dutchman
and a bunch of Jesuit treasure.
There's stories out there
that the Jesuits buried treasure
all over these mountains.
So if this is true, what
we could be looking at
is way bigger than the Lost Dutchman.
Not just one mine, one
cache, it could be multiple.
250 people have been
killed out there or died.
But people don't die and
lose their head in an accident.
You know, it's not the
desert that's taking everybody.
So maybe we should look into that.
There's a lot of people
over the last 150 years
that have died looking
for the Lost Dutchman.
And it seems like the closer people get,
the more bad stuff starts to happen.
And so I think we need to look for a link
between all these deaths
and the Lost Dutchman.
Maybe there's a connection
there that can help us
figure out what's going on.
- If this is all centering on one location,
this could be really big.
- Maybe we can find some sort of connection
between all the mysterious
deaths that happen
in a specific location.
- Well, it worked when you
triangulated the heart stones,
so maybe you can do
something similar with this.
- Yeah, it's worth a shot.
It wouldn't take that long.
- Let's do it then. Let's get over there
and get it done, all right?
- All right. Fantastic.
- Following up on Eric's research,
the team will triangulate the
deaths and disappearances
in the Superstitions.
By pinpointing these locations on the map,
they hope to find a new lead.
- All right, guys, here's
what we're looking at.
Mysterious deaths. We
have the Peralta massacre.
That occurred in here.
There was the skeletal
remains of the kid here
found a number of years
ago. You guys got anymore
to throw in here? - Well, what about
the rotted skull that was
found in Fish Creek right before
it went into the lake?
- That was right about here.
- Wasn't there a guy who
got in a head-on collision
on his way to a mine?
- That was John Kocherick
along this route here.
And we had Skull Cave.
Everyone's familiar with that.
30, 40, 50 people massacred in there.
And that dude, you know,
that was up in here in this draw.
Eight miners were killed
up in the Four Peaks
wilderness area. - All in the same spot?
- No, there was the guy,
Randy Wright, remember,
quite a few years ago, right along here.
And then there was a
rowboat, and he was actually
right up here on the river.
- That's the Salt River?
- That was right up off the Salt River.
- Yeah. - Let's see if we can
find a pattern emanating from all this.
- You want me to move here?
Let me move. You sit here.
- Yeah, that'd be good, man.
- That way you can...
- We've combined on our
map all the deaths that occurred
in the Superstition Mountains.
So now what I need to
do is try to triangulate those
and see if there's a pattern,
see what it says and
hopefully where it might lead.
- Wow, guys, look at that.
- Take a look at this.
They're all kind of clustered
in this general area, but it seems like
the central node of it all is right around
the Black Cross Butte area.
- It is interesting, because
unlike the last time,
you were looking for a pattern,
which was a pattern
pointing in a specific target.
It seems the specific target's
the one place the lines aren't crossing.
More interesting than anything else, guys,
you got the high ground
here overlooking everything.
- Okay, we got our target.
Get everything packed up.
You want to fold these maps up, Frank?
- You got it. - Leave no trace.
- I really thought Eric
might be onto something
when he speculated that
the X on the heart stone
might actually be a cross.
When Eric turned that photo on its side,
what he really did was turn
this whole journey on its head.
Black Cross Butte, here we come.
- You can never be too
prepared for what you encounter
in these mountains.
I know how to handle a knife,
and I can use it if I have to.
- Sometimes you get a hunch,
and it leads to great results.
I can't say for sure that this
is where The Dutchman is,
but I'm really excited.
There's something big in
the Black Cross Butte area
that's left a lot of bodies on the ground.
Something worth dying for.
- Deal, hand me those
maps. I'll pack those up.
All right.
- Hey, guys. - Yeah.
- Make sure we got everything together.
Don't leave anything behind.
We're not coming back, okay?
We got our target, a new
lead. Be ready to go, all right?
- We are closer to finding
the Lost Dutchman Mine
than we've ever been before.
I know we're going into a very bad area.
We better be prepared.
- Eric's suggestion that
we triangulate the deaths
in the Superstitions has
led us to our new destination,
Black Cross Butte.
I've been searching for
the Lost Dutchman Mine
for over 40 years, and
this is one of the most
promising leads I've ever encountered.
Break out the glass.
Black Cross Butte.
You guys see anything out there?
Let me know what's up on that ridge there.
- You know, it looks like
there's a band running across
the top above the cliff
and below the ridgeline,
like a horizontal band.
You want to take a look?
- Yeah, that looks like
old Spanish mule trail.
( horse whinnies )
- You know, according
to the analysis I made
on those deaths, the center of that cluster
is actually on the back side of that butte.
- Well, I hate to tell you
this, Wayne, but I don't think
we're going to get there from here.
- Well, that's why we're
going to approach it
from the north side
from off the Salt River.
- Wayne, what do you
think's on the other side?
- That's something we're going to find out.
- Next time on "Legend of
the Superstition Mountains..."
- Guys, look up there.
- How the hell would we get up there?
- Oh! - You okay?
- Dude, dude, dude.
- That is a huge cave.
- Look at that.
- Oh, man. What the hell is this thing?
- A cursed mountain...
hiding $200 million in gold.
250 lives have been lost.
But now five treasure hunters...
will defy the curse... in search of...
America's deadliest treasure.
- What the hell's that?
Oh, yeah, look at that, man.
I don't know. I can't
see whether it's caved in.
It might be a prospect. - Yeah.
- Got to be very careful
in there, that thing
come down on your head.
- Hold it. Stop, stop, stop, stop.
Slowly back up, guys.
You guys clear? - Both: Yeah.
- We got a booby trap set up here.
This is a deliberate death trap.
And the question is, who set it and why?
- In the Western Superstitions,
Wayne Tuttle and his team
of Dutch hunters are
following a deadly trail
straight into the dark
heart of the mountains.
- This is the Gonzales map.
- Where a newly revealed pair of maps
dating back to the Peralta
and Gonzales families,
who once mined for
gold here, have uncovered
a series of clues that point to the lost
$200 million fortune.
- I got a mine up here, guys.
- You got what? - I got a vein.
- A crude vein of quartz, mining equipment.
- Dude, that's a candle
holder for an old mine.
- The mysterious mark of
the Apache Black Legion.
- I see a black handprint on the wall.
- They're trying to tell
us not to be around here.
- That could be a warning to turn back.
And this cave guarded
by a lethal booby trap.
Is there something hidden
here that's worth killing for?
- Wait. So, you're saying
there's a booby trap in there
that's been set off?
- This is a booby trap.
That was a covered pitfall.
Someone stepped
through there, hit that wire,
end of story right there.
- The booby trap found at the cave entrance
is designed to cause death by decapitation.
A thin wire firmly anchored
to opposing sides of the cave
is stretched tightly from wall to wall
about five feet off the ground.
As the visitor approaches,
soft ground covering a pit
gives way, causing
the victim to fall forward.
The thin wire, acting like a razor,
neatly slices the victim's
head from his body.
- Yeah, we want to
kind of be cautious here.
- It's set off?
- Well, definitely you can tell
it's been set off, but you don't know
if that's the only trap. - Uh-huh.
You're looking at the broken branches,
the wire's busted.
Someone's been back in
there and set that thing off.
I can tell by the disturbance
of the rocks and everything.
It's just to kind of set you up,
take you out, or hurt you bad.
- Wayne, if this was meant
to cut somebody's head off,
then where's the body?
- That's a good question.
I don't see any bones.
I don't see any sign
of anyone's here still.
Might have just buried them up in a bank
in the sandy wash here somewhere.
You need to always be
cautious coming in these areas,
looking for footprints and any other
type of disturbance.
- As twisted as it is, we
got led to a death trap.
It also make sense.
It means there must be
something big out there.
- When gold was discovered
in the Superstition Mountains,
it became a common practice
to protect mines with elaborate
booby traps to discourage or even kill
unwelcome visitors to the area.
Protective prospectors were known to let
venomous rattlesnakes
in mines to bite trespassers
or to line the entrance
of a mine with toxic
arsenic dust, fatal to
anyone who inhaled it.
Others used primitive engineering
to set trip wires or plant boards
with rusty nails to
impale would-be thieves.
No one knows how many
death traps still reside
within the Superstitions.
Present-day prospectors
must always be on guard
so gold fever doesn't lead to death.
- I just don't like this.
I don't know what else
they could've done here.
This thing could come down on us,
so I don't even know if we want
to even attempt to get in there.
- The Jesuits loved this
kind of stuff, these traps.
That's their mark.
- A lot of people like these kind of traps.
I don't necessarily think
this has anything to do
with the Jesuits.
But who knows?
- I know. It looks kind of old.
- Remember, there's even
those who believe Jacob Waltz
said he set his up that way.
I'd say this warrants we definitely
investigate the area.
- Jesuits came to Southwest
America from Spain
in the 1600s as part of a
drive to colonize the continent
and convert natives to Christianity.
Many believe the Jesuits discovered gold
in the Superstitions.
After mining a fortune
of the precious metal,
they came up with ingenious and deadly ways
to protect their rich claims.
- We need to document
this. Get photographs,
get the GPS coordinates, grab some samples.
See, it looks, be careful, though.
Watch your edges.
- Oh, it's got a smell in here, too.
- Oh, here's a good sample. Got it.
- Let me see one.
The cave isn't deep
enough to be a pit mine,
but we're going to get some
samples to test it anyways.
This could be a lead or
a very elaborate decoy.
The science will tell us whether
it's worth coming back here,
but I'm not risking setting
off another booby trap
until we know for sure.
Guys, let's grab up all the
gear and head back to camp.
- One of my good
friends is a great geologist.
He specializes in rocks,
minerals, structural geology,
so we're going to take the samples
and the pictures we took from that cave,
send them to him and see if this might be
the site of the Lost Dutchman.
That's crazy.
- I've never seen anything like that.
( screeching )
( chatting, indistinct )
- I'm the youngest out of the five of us.
But between avoiding
booby traps, dodging bullets...
( gunshot ) Oh...
And getting spied on
by helicopters all day...
See it? - That's an Apache.
- Yeah, that's military.
- It's really starting to wear on me.
What the hell is this, Magnuson?
Didn't leave a pile of rocks here.
- Deal, you sure those rocks weren't there?
- I'm 100 percent sure those
were not here when we left.
- Did you guys do that?
- That wasn't there before.
- I don't know.
- Oh, man.
- This is not good.
- This is not good.
This is the second time we've seen
a black hand on this trip.
And this time it was clearly meant for us.
This stuff really spooks me.
It's a sign telling us to get out of here.
Like I was telling the guys last night.
I heard some stories
about American Indians.
They got a name called the Black Legion.
They give you a sign of a
big black hand on something,
and supposedly that's a
warning to get the hell out of there,
wherever you're at.
- Somebody's been in
the freaking camp, right?
- Yeah, this is a warning.
We got to be really careful here.
- What does this mean? Is
somebody screwing with us?
The Apache warning us?
Is there somebody up on that ridge
with a rifle pointed at us?
That's my fear. I think Wayne's right.
We got to get the hell out of here.
- Nothing.
- I don't feel good about camping here.
- I'm with you.
- I don't feel good about
being anywhere out here.
- Gold makes people do crazy things,
so it's entirely possible that
someone's been tailing us
this entire time trying
to get us off our game,
hijack our leads or
get inside of our heads.
- I'm freaking scared. - I know.
- Well, you see this, pay attention.
- Probably the same people from last night.
- Whoever's doing this is
pushing the right buttons
because it definitely has
Woody and even Deal,
to an extent, freaked out.
- What do you want to do about this, Wayne?
- What we're going to
do, abandon camp, okay?
Okay. This place is no good to us now.
I know you guys are tired.
We need to get out of here, all right?
- Like, out right away? What kind of stuff
do you want to take? - We grab what we can.
Let's go. Now. - All right.
Till we have a better understanding
of what's happening to
us, it's best that we leave
the area immediately.
We'll rest up, regroup, and
then plan our next move.
( thunder )
- I'm heading out from Quarter Circle U.
Going to have a video chat
with my geology buddy, Brian.
Brian's a good friend and
a good contact of mine,
and I ended up sending him some photos
and some rock samples that
we had taken from that cave
so he could take a look at them and give me
his professional opinion.
Hey, man.
- Yo, how you doing? Good to hear from you.
- Yeah, doing well. Doing well.
- Interesting-looking rocks you have.
Had a chance to look over
them, go over them a little bit.
- So, based on the samples
and the pictures I sent you,
is there any evidence
that we should be looking
in that cave or that the Lost Dutchman's
potentially there? - The sample you sent me
from that cave and from
the pictures in that cave,
it does not appear to
be mineralized at all.
I really think you need to
move your search elsewhere.
- All right. Thanks so
much for your time, man.
I appreciate it.
- All right. Take care. - Bye.
Based on the results that Brian gave me,
now I can take this back to the team
and hopefully put this issue to rest.
Maybe the booby trap
was protecting something
a long time ago, but it's
not the Lost Dutchman.
- With the team back in town
and facing the prospect that
somebody's been following
them through the Superstitions,
Wayne has decided to seek advice
from some trusted advisors.
Along with Frank and Eric, Wayne will tap
the collective experience
of three of Arizona's
most veteran Dutch hunters,
a trio with more than 150
years combined experience
searching for the Dutchman.
- Hey, guys. Wayne.
- Hey, Jack. How's it going?
- How you doing? Come in.
- Jack's a noted author and
historian of the mountains.
George, of course, at the museum,
has a good overview and a
number of resources to pull off of.
And with Clay, it's 60
years or more of experience
in the mountains and that's
where I'm looking to draw
the most from because he
lived in those mountains enough
that he'll be able to tell
these guys, you know,
that's just not the way it is.
- We were hoping to show you
some pictures, actually, guys.
And see what you make of it,
see if you recognize anything.
Here's some of the... Pass these around.
What we really need to know
is if they have any connection
at all with the Dutchman or
even date back to his time period
in the 1870s.
The medicine wheel mean anything?
- Oh, bad-ass, dude. Look at that.
- This one looks to me like
it's pretty modern construction,
if you'll pardon the expression.
Something like the walls I built
around my house with the rocks
from the desert.
- Looks like it was built yesterday.
- Okay. - Because there is no dirt
blown in around any of these rocks.
These rocks are fresh rocks sitting there
with no dirt blown in around them.
So I think it's... I think
it's strictly modern.
- We're getting exactly the
kind of feedback I hoped for.
If George and Clay think the medicine wheel
is relatively new, then
I guess it's off the table.
- What about these black handprints?
- This is not in this, carved in the stone.
It's a pictograph. - Right.
- That handprint was
placed at our campsite.
It wasn't there before.
Somebody painted it there.
- And we also found it inside of a cave.
- What you got?
- I see a black handprint on the wall.
- There's a few more members of our team
that are taking this
stuff a lot more seriously
as paranormal, and it's starting to affect
what we're doing, you know.
If we lose one guy,
that really hurts us. - Well, when people
start talking about paranormal things,
it kind of leaves me on
the outside looking in.
- Absolutely. - Now, the Black Legion,
I didn't think much of it.
Now, that's a theory.
I don't know that's ever been proved.
- How many black hands have
you come on in your camp?
- The only ones I've seen were not black.
They were red.
- The only hands I've ever seen
are at other places. and I must say
they have always been red.
I think there's something
to do with that color
that they use for that.
This is a relatively easy one to get.
- George's insight about
the Native Americans,
it really makes a lot of sense.
The colors in the pigments
and paints they would've used
at the time would've been
found in the earth around them.
Like red, which is all around this desert.
There's no way that the black hand symbols
we've seen date back to the 1800s.
They're definitely all modern.
All of which means we can
hopefully put all those
Indian legends to bed
and tell Woody he can stop worrying
about the Black Legion.
The thing that concerns
me the most about all this
is we've been really, really discreet
about going back up in there.
And, you know, so somebody's obviously
trying to mess with us, but I don't know
how they know we're there,
and I can't wrap my head
around that one, you know.
- When you leave your tracks,
okay, if it's a good hunter,
and I started going with my dad
when I was five, and so I
learned the hunter's secrets.
People out in the desert a
lot, they can read your signs.
And whatever you're doing, if they think
you're onto something, they may follow you.
What is the greatest treasure
in the Superstition Mountains?
The Lost Dutchman Mine.
It attracts people like flies.
Therefore, if they see you out there
and think you're looking for something,
maybe you're in their area.
That eventually could lead to something
if you're not prepared.
- Hadn't had this problem until
we hit this one particular area.
And like you mentioned,
maybe we stumbled upon
somebody else's area, and
they want to chase us out.
I think something like that's going on.
I mean, does that sound logical to you?
- It sounds very logical.
- I suspected from the
start that somebody's
screwing with us.
The black hand doesn't
look genuine, wrong color.
The medicine wheel looks new.
Somebody placed it there to scare us.
- I want to thank all of you
for meeting with us here today.
You answered a lot of questions for us,
and you've given us a lot to think about.
On the one hand, I'm disappointed to find
a number of the things we came across
aren't relics from the past.
But on the other hand,
finding out they're modern,
means there's people out
there right now trying to actively
mislead people in the Superstitions.
That tells me that there's
definitely something out here
they're trying to keep hidden.
Clay, thank you so much.
- George. - Jack, always a pleasure.
- You're welcome.
- Thank you for your advice.
- George, thanks again.
- We'll see you later, Captain.
- Okay. - So now we have
two big questions to answer.
Where's the gold and who's protecting it?
- After meeting with Jack,
George, and Clay, - Coming up...
I gathered the boys up,
decided it's time to loosen up.
So I'm going to take them down to the bar.
And while we're there,
I'm going to fill them in
on what the Dutch-hunting
experts had to say.
- Thank you.
- Ooh, almost scratched. - Woody's up.
- Woody's stripes. - Finish it up, Woody.
- We went over and
talked with Jack San Felice
and Clay Worst, George Johnson. - Uh-huh.
- Asked them all about
that Black Legion stuff,
the black handprints. - Yeah.
- And one of the things,
Eric will back me up on this,
they said a true Apache would
only leave a red handprint.
Would never leave black handprints.
- What do you think? I mean...
- But all three of them
shot it down, man, without
even hesitating, so...
- Okay, so, Woody's theory
regarding Black Legion is shot.
It's done, right? Can we rule that out?
- They felt it was kind of a fairy tale.
Clay, he's had 60 years in the mountains,
said he didn't have anything from it.
- These are experts. You trust these guys.
They know what they're talking about.
- Not one of them really had
a story involving any of this,
seen any type of
activity, anything involving
as far as that storyline.
Now, there's seriously someone out there.
- Well, to be honest, I'm kind
of glad that's it not, you know,
has nothing to do with the Black Legion.
I'm pretty glad about that.
- Think about this. We
weren't getting bothered
like this when we first started.
You know, one way to look at it
is the closer we get to something good,
the more likely it is that crap
like this is going to happen.
- I think the problem is
we're too close to something
and somebody's trying to scare us off.
- It still pisses me off that
somebody would go to that level
to try to intimidate us.
I mean, where do we go from here?
Did you get any new
leads? Our leads have kind of
not panned out, you know.
- And that's kind of where
we're at now is I'm really
interested in the area,
but we didn't really come
up with anything too sharp.
- We need another lead.
We need another resource.
We're pounding the same doors.
We need a new name, something fresh.
- The medicine wheel and that black hand
sure in the hell wasn't left
by the Apache Black Legion.
But you know what?
Somebody wanted us to think
it was the Apache Black Legion.
So at this point, one thing we got to do
is find somebody that's
an expert on Indian lore.
Any of you guys know a Native American
that's familiar with the
history of superstitions
and the Dutchman lore that can help us?
- I know a Pima Indian that might help us.
He knows the Superstition
Mountains very well.
He knows a lot about Indian stuff.
I've talked to him a lot.
- That's a good idea.
- You know, he's not going
to tell us everything he knows,
but he can surely help us.
- Can you make that
call? Make it happen, okay?
- I will, bud.
- Good shot, Wayne.
- Yes!
- You'll never beat me in a thousand years,
and I want my 50 bucks back. - ( laughing )
- Ooh. - I told you.
( thunder )
- After discovering the Indian artifacts
don't date back to the
time of the Dutchman,
Wayne, Frank, and Woody are going to meet
with Leonard Dan, an expert
on Native American tribes
in the Superstition Mountains.
Native Americans have
inhabited what is now Arizona
for thousands of years.
The name Arizona is
actually an old Indian word
that means "little spring,"
a reference to a river
near the Mexican border.
Of the 21 indigenous tribal nations
inhabiting the area, two of the largest
are Apache and Navaho,
which were often rivals
as they clashed over food, land,
different lifestyles, and gold.
- Wayne, this is Leonard Dan.
- Nice to meet you.
- The best way to get
information from Leonard
is to fill him in on our
journey and tell him
what's been happening.
- So, what are you guys up to?
- Well, we're on the trail
of the Lost Dutchman Mine,
and obviously that connects
to some of the Peralta stories
of a number of different mines.
So let me kind of show
you the particular area
we were working in. Now, we were definitely
up in this area, the Fish Creek,
and we worked all across on this ridge here
is where we set camp.
- Now, what would you do,
Leonard, if somebody was following you?
Would you head back
and try to see who it was?
- Sit and wait and see
what's, you know, who's...
who shows up. - Yeah, we had a...
- We know somebody's
screwing with us. That's the fact.
- Our last night up there, we set up a camp
up on a cliff area overlooking the canyon.
We just settled in and
someone fired off a couple shots.
( gunshots ) - Oh, my...
- Somebody really trying
to scare us off, like I said.
We don't know who.
- That's how the Apaches
got blamed for a lot of things
that the settlers or the prospectors did.
So we got the blame
for a lot of things like that.
- Apaches got blamed for a lot
of stuff that the white man did.
- That's the, you know,
that's the age-old thing.
- So you think definitely, as far as a lot
of the mysterious deaths, the beheadings,
a lot of this people did to
try to set up the Apaches,
to put some blame somewhere else.
Not only to get themselves away from it,
but to make people fearful
to come into the area?
- Absolutely.
At the time, the law was
more on the settlers' side,
and the Indians, they got
blamed for a lot of killings
and murders and stuff, so...
They got away with it.
- My understanding of
what Leonard was telling us
was that the Apache got
blamed for a lot of things
over the years they had
nothing whatsoever to do with.
- So, Leonard, I want to
thank you so very much.
It was very nice meeting you.
- Sure, yeah. Call me anytime.
- Thank you for speaking with us.
- After talking to Leonard, I'm convinced
our problem is not the Apache following us.
Our problem is we have
somebody following us,
we don't know who it is.
- Ever since we found the heart stone.
Based on Frank's Peralta map,
there's just been something
that's been nagging at me.
So I called Deal over to the QCU
so I could have a chat with him.
See if Wayne left us all the photos.
See what we got.
- So you go the same
pictures I have right here.
- Yeah.
Yeah, between you and me,
I don't know if that's an X, man.
That looks more like a cross for me.
I mean, it depends on
what angle you look at it.
- Yeah. - But I think the angle that
it's facing, if somebody
had made that there,
I think the angle you'd normally look at,
it would be a cross, not an X.
I think we were kind of
approaching it from a weird angle.
- Well, I mean, there
is also the potential.
If you covered this with your finger,
that's a perfect X.
Now, is there a possibility that
whoever carved that, you know,
kind of set in... - Elongated it?
- Set and processed some actual weathering
that came down the
stone. That's a possibility.
- Say it's not an elongated fracture.
Say it actually is a cross. - Yeah.
- When that would've
been made 150 years ago,
what was the symbolism of the cross?
- What if that was the
Jesuits that put it there?
'Cause we know they were in this area.
- Mm-hmm.
- And they did a lot of mining,
and they used symbolism in the marked pass.
They were also known
to booby trap their mines.
And that's not even a possibility
I've heard Wayne talk about.
- The Jesuits loved this
kind of stuff, these traps.
That's their mark.
- A lot of people like these kind of traps.
I don't necessarily think
this has anything to do
with the Jesuits.
- When I started to put
the evidence together
that we've collected up to this point,
the Jesuit connection
really jumped out at me.
The fact of the matter is,
the Jesuits use symbols
of the cross to mark their way to mines.
They keep talking about
the Peraltas and this and that.
But if it is a cross, and
that cave was a decoy,
and it is manmade, we
got to at least look into
is it the Jesuits?
And if it is, what does that mean?
- So what do the Jesuits
have to do with gold mining
and leaving symbols in the mountains?
- So basically, the Jesuits
were a Catholic order of monks.
They come over here to the New World,
which Spain controls,
and they go out, initially,
starting to do missionary work.
In the process, they find out
that the area has a ton of gold in it.
So then they eventually get into mining.
And they even took slaves
to, like, work the mines
and stuff like that.
So, at some point, the
king of Spain finds out
that they're finding all
this gold and not giving him
his fair share, so he essentially
issues an order for
them to get out of Dodge.
Orders them all out of the New World.
In the process, all this gold they found,
a lot of it they just ended
up, like, burying in place.
So they hide it up in the mountains,
and they create these maps
and mark symbols everywhere
so that if this stuff gets
cleared up someday,
they can come back and retrieve it.
- So this cross could potentially mean
that they hid a cache
of gold bars or gold ore
within this area somewhere.
- I mean, if they made it, then
they put it there for a reason.
That takes a lot of work. - Yeah.
Oh, I think it warrants
further investigation.
- The fact that we found that
right where he said it would be,
and it looks like a cross
to me, we should dive into it
before we just, you know,
walk away so that we can
make sure it's not just a coincidence.
If that's a cross,
it's worth a little bit
more work to find out.
- All right.
- Wayne doesn't believe
the Jesuits could've been
this far north. You
know, and I respect that.
But Jack San Felice isn't
just a Dutch-hunting expert,
He's a well-known authority
on the history of the Jesuits,
especially in the southwest.
And that's why I contacted him.
I wanted to see if he thought
there was any evidence
the Jesuits could've
been farther north than
conventional wisdom suggests.
Hey, Jack, I want to thank
you again for taking the time
to meet with me.
- Hey, that's great.
- So, Jack, you know
what we're trying to do.
And the further we get into it,
the more it seems we're getting
pulled in a lot of different directions.
A lot of the guys, especially Wayne,
don't buy into any sort
of Jesuit connection.
So that's kind of what I'm
hoping to pick your brain
about a little bit.
- Once you understand what the role
of the Jesuits were in old Spain,
then you have a better understanding.
The Jesuits were, without a doubt, here.
If the military was here,
the Jesuits were here.
No doubt. The priests' job
was to look for gold and silver.
The Jesuits were supposed to
keep accurate records of mining.
- Right.
- When the Jesuits
were going to be expelled,
they knew about it in time.
They had informants
in the court of the king.
They boxed up all of their treasure
and the gold that they had to maintain
the power of the Church.
You go in these mountains
here and you'll see these crosses.
They're almost kind of like sign posts.
They left their marks.
What I'm going to show you
is this old Spanish cross up here.
- And when did you find this, the nineties?
- In the nineties.
Found it in the nineties.
Within sight of the cross right now.
You see it?
- Yeah, look at that. That's awesome, man.
- Yeah, it's an old Spanish
cross, probably Jesuit.
- Look at that.
Oh, that's amazing, Jack.
- Think it's probably
the only one like this
I've seen in the Superstitions,
this part of the Superstitions anyhow.
- So, what's that mean?
You think it's just marking
the entrance to the
canyon... - I think it's marking
the entrance to the canyon
and this is the way to go.
You stay to the right, okay?
If you look at this section right here,
it's pointing down canyon that direction.
That means there are other
things to see down there
and perhaps mines. - That's awesome.
Can we go check out the other ones?
- Let's go.
You see it? - Where's it at?
- Right there, you see it? - Holy moly.
- Right under the ledge.
Must be a dragon.
And the ancients, around 1400,
drew their elks like stick figures
and their horses like stick figures.
I love stick figures.
- That's crazy.
Wayne and Frank have
told us that treasure hunters
will often disguise
their directional markers
in already existing ancient petroglyphs.
- These could be original petroglyphs
or could be something added
next to some petroglyphs
so that they're not as noticeable.
- So maybe that's what's happening here.
- This is great, but there's one more thing
I want to show you down this way.
You'll be amazed. - Okay.
- Watch your step, Eric.
It's a little rough through here.
You're going to get a kick out of this one.
Take a look at this. - Holy crap, man.
Look at that.
- This is the ladder of life, man.
The ladder of life.
You see?
- Look at that.
You know what the
significance of the ladder is?
- Ancient Indians believed
that at the end of their life
they would climb the ladder
of life into the afterworld.
And the ones on the left,
though, they look newer,
and they could be an
indication that the early miners
that went through here
put in one, two, three,
four, five mines because those were...
It looked like they were inserted later
because then X means
this is the way that you go.
- Wow, Jack.
Coming out here today
with Jack, he showed me
three great petroglyphs.
Two of those three are probably European.
Definitely the cross,
and I've got an inkling
that the dragon is, too.
The ladder, I'm not quite
sure what to make of that.
He says it's Native American,
but with the potential mine symbols nearby,
I'm even more convinced
that there's something to this,
and we need to look into it deeper.
- Well, we know one thing. - What?
- We're going to need more water next time.
- Definitely that.
- Ah, here he comes.
What the hell is it with you?
You're always late for everything.
- Hold on. Okay, hold on.
You're going to love me in a second.
So I think we could've
been looking at this all wrong.
We know we've been being followed.
This whole time, we've thought
it had an Indian connection
because of the black hands and stuff.
I think it actually could
be a Jesuit connection.
I went and I talked to Jack San Felice
because I know he's the Jesuit expert.
So he took me out to this
place called Willow Canyon,
and he showed me a bunch of petroglyphs.
Meeting with Jack San Felice
was a real turning point for me.
After he showed me all the
petroglyphs in the canyon,
I decided to go ahead and
do some research on my own.
And what I found was
that every single petroglyph
he showed me could very
well be a Jesuit symbol.
I think this whole thing could
be a complete game-changer.
First, there's this one.
Some people could think it's a X.
Looks like a cross.
Definitely a Jesuit symbol.
Check this out.
- It's a ladder. - Wow.
- Jack said that's called
"The Ladder of Life."
The Indians did use it,
but that's a common symbol
across a bunch of religions,
including the Jesuits.
Okay, guys, then we got this one.
Dagger, we figured that was
some sort of directional thing,
maybe pointing to a mine or to a treasure.
My research told me that
was used by the Jesuits
in initiation ceremonies.
This petroglyph...
- Is that a dragon? - That's a dragon.
More than likely that's a Jesuit symbol
for, like, the devil, stuff like that.
- Okay.
- It's rumored that during
the Jesuit expulsion,
they hid clues to secret caches
of gold in the Superstitions
for their eventual return.
Some believe these clues are hidden inside
ancient Native American petroglyphs.
Eric's discovery of the cross and dragon,
two European symbols,
are signs they could be
on a trail to a rich Jesuit stash of gold.
- Everybody knows the
Jesuits were in this area,
mining and things like that.
So maybe if we start digging
into that a little bit more,
we'll find better leads rather than
pursuing the Indian angle.
- I think it's something we
need to seriously look at.
- Wayne, I know you're
not real big on this,
but you have to consider
that at least it's a possibility.
- You know, I get it. I've seen
these type of things before.
I still say we have
a Peralta-Gonzales connection to the area,
and now we're starting to
kind of pull away and say,
"Oh, there's something
completely different here."
And that's where I find
in Dutch hunting where people go wrong.
They start bringing everything
and the kitchen sink in.
They drop it in there,
and you're distracted.
- You got to open your mind up.
You got to open your mind
so when we're in a spot,
we look for other things
because who the hell knows
what we might find?
- And, Wayne, this doesn't
have to be an either/or thing.
You know, it can still have
the Peralta connection,
but what if the Peraltas
had a Jesuit connection?
So it's not like I'm right, you're wrong.
I'm just saying, maybe
we should look at this, man.
- So what you're talking about
is finding a hidden treasure
that's possibly bigger than the Dutchman.
If it's hidden Jesuit
treasure... - Absolutely.
Maybe, I mean, they refined
it when they got kicked out.
Everybody knows they
started burying their crap.
Maybe we can find the Lost Dutchman
and a bunch of Jesuit treasure.
There's stories out there
that the Jesuits buried treasure
all over these mountains.
So if this is true, what
we could be looking at
is way bigger than the Lost Dutchman.
Not just one mine, one
cache, it could be multiple.
250 people have been
killed out there or died.
But people don't die and
lose their head in an accident.
You know, it's not the
desert that's taking everybody.
So maybe we should look into that.
There's a lot of people
over the last 150 years
that have died looking
for the Lost Dutchman.
And it seems like the closer people get,
the more bad stuff starts to happen.
And so I think we need to look for a link
between all these deaths
and the Lost Dutchman.
Maybe there's a connection
there that can help us
figure out what's going on.
- If this is all centering on one location,
this could be really big.
- Maybe we can find some sort of connection
between all the mysterious
deaths that happen
in a specific location.
- Well, it worked when you
triangulated the heart stones,
so maybe you can do
something similar with this.
- Yeah, it's worth a shot.
It wouldn't take that long.
- Let's do it then. Let's get over there
and get it done, all right?
- All right. Fantastic.
- Following up on Eric's research,
the team will triangulate the
deaths and disappearances
in the Superstitions.
By pinpointing these locations on the map,
they hope to find a new lead.
- All right, guys, here's
what we're looking at.
Mysterious deaths. We
have the Peralta massacre.
That occurred in here.
There was the skeletal
remains of the kid here
found a number of years
ago. You guys got anymore
to throw in here? - Well, what about
the rotted skull that was
found in Fish Creek right before
it went into the lake?
- That was right about here.
- Wasn't there a guy who
got in a head-on collision
on his way to a mine?
- That was John Kocherick
along this route here.
And we had Skull Cave.
Everyone's familiar with that.
30, 40, 50 people massacred in there.
And that dude, you know,
that was up in here in this draw.
Eight miners were killed
up in the Four Peaks
wilderness area. - All in the same spot?
- No, there was the guy,
Randy Wright, remember,
quite a few years ago, right along here.
And then there was a
rowboat, and he was actually
right up here on the river.
- That's the Salt River?
- That was right up off the Salt River.
- Yeah. - Let's see if we can
find a pattern emanating from all this.
- You want me to move here?
Let me move. You sit here.
- Yeah, that'd be good, man.
- That way you can...
- We've combined on our
map all the deaths that occurred
in the Superstition Mountains.
So now what I need to
do is try to triangulate those
and see if there's a pattern,
see what it says and
hopefully where it might lead.
- Wow, guys, look at that.
- Take a look at this.
They're all kind of clustered
in this general area, but it seems like
the central node of it all is right around
the Black Cross Butte area.
- It is interesting, because
unlike the last time,
you were looking for a pattern,
which was a pattern
pointing in a specific target.
It seems the specific target's
the one place the lines aren't crossing.
More interesting than anything else, guys,
you got the high ground
here overlooking everything.
- Okay, we got our target.
Get everything packed up.
You want to fold these maps up, Frank?
- You got it. - Leave no trace.
- I really thought Eric
might be onto something
when he speculated that
the X on the heart stone
might actually be a cross.
When Eric turned that photo on its side,
what he really did was turn
this whole journey on its head.
Black Cross Butte, here we come.
- You can never be too
prepared for what you encounter
in these mountains.
I know how to handle a knife,
and I can use it if I have to.
- Sometimes you get a hunch,
and it leads to great results.
I can't say for sure that this
is where The Dutchman is,
but I'm really excited.
There's something big in
the Black Cross Butte area
that's left a lot of bodies on the ground.
Something worth dying for.
- Deal, hand me those
maps. I'll pack those up.
All right.
- Hey, guys. - Yeah.
- Make sure we got everything together.
Don't leave anything behind.
We're not coming back, okay?
We got our target, a new
lead. Be ready to go, all right?
- We are closer to finding
the Lost Dutchman Mine
than we've ever been before.
I know we're going into a very bad area.
We better be prepared.
- Eric's suggestion that
we triangulate the deaths
in the Superstitions has
led us to our new destination,
Black Cross Butte.
I've been searching for
the Lost Dutchman Mine
for over 40 years, and
this is one of the most
promising leads I've ever encountered.
Break out the glass.
Black Cross Butte.
You guys see anything out there?
Let me know what's up on that ridge there.
- You know, it looks like
there's a band running across
the top above the cliff
and below the ridgeline,
like a horizontal band.
You want to take a look?
- Yeah, that looks like
old Spanish mule trail.
( horse whinnies )
- You know, according
to the analysis I made
on those deaths, the center of that cluster
is actually on the back side of that butte.
- Well, I hate to tell you
this, Wayne, but I don't think
we're going to get there from here.
- Well, that's why we're
going to approach it
from the north side
from off the Salt River.
- Wayne, what do you
think's on the other side?
- That's something we're going to find out.
- Next time on "Legend of
the Superstition Mountains..."
- Guys, look up there.
- How the hell would we get up there?
- Oh! - You okay?
- Dude, dude, dude.
- That is a huge cave.
- Look at that.
- Oh, man. What the hell is this thing?