This is a request for some follow-up, investigative work to be done regarding a site pin-pointed by Mr. Kesselring.
On the Summary Page (Part 5 of the five-part series), which is found here,
http://www.desertusa.com/lost-dutchman/ ... gold5.html
Mr. Kesselring writes:
"Jacob described how the mine was high above facing the west. He said that the Mexicans were mining a shaft not easily found in very rough country and that they were in the process of building a stone house at the site. We found a site that matches all this and more. The mouth of Deering Canyon is not far from Peters Trail on the Malapais just southwest of Pistol Canyon. As you descend you pass a cave, then you pass the house foundation. To reach the mine you must go back towards the house and return along the cliff wall, just as he wrote in his letter. This is a switchback. Following the switchback allows you to climb up to the wall of a sheer cliff along which there is a mine hidden by growth. As Jacob said, he would have had to show you the mine location and you would not find it easily. He had also said you could look down upon it but not get down to it; that you had to enter the canyon as described."
Mr. Kesselring provides coordinates for the above-mentioned site. Those coordinates are:
33°28'54.53" N, 111°22'0.46" W, or 33°28.909' N, 111°22.008' W
He also provides an image of the site, which appears to be a Google Earth image. I have outlined Mr. Kesselring's site with a red ellipse, seen below:
http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=13_anomaly.jpg
Mr. Kesselring does not indicate if this site was visited as part of his on-the-ground search, nor does he provide any additional, close-up photos of it, or of the stone house.
I took Mr. Kesselring's co-ordinates for the site and plotted its location on the Weaver's Needle topographic map, which I downloaded from the Superstition Search-and-Rescue website. The topo map is found here:
http://www.superstition-sar.org/downloa ... needle.pdf
The position I plotted for the site's location (black dot) is shown below:
http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=13_wide.jpg
http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=13_narrow.jpg
What I would like to see are on-the-ground photos of this site (excavation), as well as, some photos of the canyon wall and ledge directly opposite this site. Exterior and interior photos of the excavation should be obtained. If a stone house foundation is found, photos should be taken of it.
Whoever undertakes an exploratory trip to this site should be aware that it is in close proximity to Robert Simpson Jacob's activities in the Superstition Mountains. According to Tom Kollenborn, who was an eye-witness:
"His main camp was located in Squaw Box Canyon just off La Barge Canyon below Marsh Flats. He used this camp for many years between 1966- 1974. After 1974 he moved his camp to the top of Peter’s Mesa just above his camp in Squaw Box Canyon.
"I looked at some of the holes he had his men dig. The holes were randomly dug into rock that had no mineral value at all. Most of the rock in this area was volcanic ash or basalt. One of the most interesting things about this Peter’s Mesa Camp was the fact Jake built a trail from down in Squaw Box Canyon up the side of Peter’s Mesa to his upper camp site." (Tom Kollenborn Chronicles, "'Crazy' Jake's Camp", December 28, 2009)
Due to such terrain-modifying activities, I am not going to say here that Mr. Kesselring's site is an iron-clad candidate for the Lost Dutchman Mine. I would only say that the site is worthy of closer inspection, in an effort to determine the approximate time period when it was excavated.
Also, I'd like to point out that when someone reads P. C. Bicknell's words, "across the canyon 200 feet", in reference to Waltz's stone house shelter across from the mine, "200 feet" could have been line-of-sight distance, and not necessarily the best way to get from point A to point B. Refer to Mr. Kesselring's site that I plotted on the map and it can be seen that directly across the canyon to the opposite ledge is about 200 feet line-of-sight, but maintaining the same elevation while walking to the opposite side of the canyon would be more like 200 yards; the path of travel would resemble the shape of an rounded V.
I am hopeful that someone will be motivated to make the trip to the site, measure the dimensions of the excavation, bring back a comprehensive set of photographs, and write down some notes. The story will capture everyone's attention, I'm sure. And we don't need more Google Earth photos, or conjectures and hypotheses; all we need are facts and on-the-ground, photographic evidence.
Raymond
P. S. My embedded image links to ImageTitan apparently don't work here, which is why they are provided here as clickable links. I don't use PhotoBucket for free image hosting.