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| The grave of Jacob Waltz, in Phoenix |
The Weekend Sermonette is simply this, “All is not gold that glitters…but iron pyrite doesn’t spend.”
For the past few days, I’ve been allowing my beard to grow and have been tramping around the Arizona landscape in search of the Lost Dutchman’s Mine. Of course, Jacob Waltz, the German miner whose name became part and parcel of the legend, is dead – allegedly found near Wickenberg with two saddlebags filled with gold nuggets.
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| gold in quartz |
I found an interesting place high in the mountains and while it may not be the Lost Dutchman’s Mine, who knows? Maybe it is.
Will the White Wolf Mining Company take off and enjoy the same fame as that of the Dutchman’s did? I strongly doubt it. I did find a spread that made the top three in the LL search for the right location of a compound.
You can rest assured that if I strike it rich, I won’t come stumbling into Wickenburg shouting, “EUREKA!” Then drop dead at somebody’s doorstep the way that Jacob Waltz did — but not before he drew a map.
Arizona’s rich history includes a lot of famous dead men, who like the Dutchman, were buried in ‘boot hill’. Tom McLaury, gunned down by Wyatt Earp and his posse in Tombstone, AZ is but one additional example of somebody who thought that they could buck the system (he fought the law and the law won).
I know that you’re saying to yourself, “LL shouldn’t be tramping out there in the hot sun. The Arizona heat that is boiling his brain may soon be bleaching his bones.”
How can I dispute that logic?
However, where the Dutchman had a burrow and the outlaw, Tom McLaury had a horse, I have a Ford Raptor with a strong A/C with me for this journey of discovery.
Where the Dutchman slept in a canvas tent and McLaury crashed in a whorehouse in Tombstone, I’m staying at a resort in Scottsdale, headquarters for the expedition.
If Tom McLaury had my Kimber .45 would he have defeated Doc Holiday and the Earp brothers at the OK Corral? We will never know the answer to that question but one thing is sure, he would have grabbed their attention.
All that glitters, except for pasties…
Your staying in a red light resort in Scottsdale, makes sense.
Jealous of the Raptor but my old Ford will have to run for another ten years before I do anything about it.
Oh, sure – a resort. Still, be careful. Cars (even raptors) can break down. Make sure someone knows where you are going and when you're expected back
How come we're not doing lunch? Too much Arizona sun fried your brains to allow me the chance to treat you?
Personally, I think Waltz's gold mine was in the Bradshaw mountains to the north of us. The Superstitions are a source of copper and silver, but very little gold.
I'm quite sure Doc and the Earp brothers wouldn't shoot a man with a gun that pretty. At least, not before having a few whiskeys and drooling over it first.
In other words, you're doing it in 'style'… 🙂
On a more serious note, where/how is WoFat? I miss his comments.
Haha. Good luck!
I'm looking forward to that compound.
He was in the hospital for nearly a month, gravely ill. And he's out now, on the mend, pert as a rutting buck.
The Raptor does its job. I hope to drive it for a long time.
A cantine, an M-4, a compass and shoe leather.
I'll sink my fangs into you for lunch next time I'm in town.
That's my thought as well. There would have been no gunfight that day. I'm guessing that the Earps would have bushwhacked him and taken his fancy .45.
In my humble way.
I need all I can get, Linda.
You already have one and so does Old NFO. I'm just trying to play catch-up.
Thanks for the update on the rutting buck. I was getting worried about him.
They cut his heart open only to find that there wasn't one. I think that the doctor panicked. Which is why I've told WoFat and other friends to leave the surgery to me and my trusty, rusty camp knife.
Only those with heart do the one liners justice. He is a master.
Keep your rusty tool out of harms way.
Welcome to our neck of the woods, or Sonoran Desert I should say. We are honored to have such a distinguished Bloggist in these parts. Keep in touch so we know you haven't been lured into oblivion by the siren melody of The Waltz Waltz (Jacob that is).
I lived in the area as a young man and never fell out of love with it.
Those tombstones dated 1881 look to be fake. They look in real good condition, whereas the stone tombstones in my local cemetery dated 1880 are barely legible.
It's on painted wood, designed to appear the same as the originals (appearing in contemporary photos).
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