So who killed the Spanish treasure hunters that came to the land? That, in and of itself, is a separate legend. Supposedly, the Superstition Mountains have long been a sacred site for the nearby Apache tribe of Native Americans. (In truth, Apaches make up just one of the tribes found in the area, but these were typically all lumped in as “Apache” by white settlers who didn’t appreciate the differences in Native American tribes.)

According to Legends of America, the Native Americans in the area believed the Thunder God of their religion lived in the Superstition Mountains, and thus they were required to protect it with lethal force, killing any who might set foot on the mountain and disturb their deity. Not only that, but some legends claim there were a number of shrines in the mountains filled with gold meant to be an offering to the Thunder God. 

In some versions of this story, Waltz was actually plundering these shrines for his own gold. While a few versions have Waltz outright stealing the gold, in other versions, he either rescued or fell in love with an Apache woman who shared the secret of a gold vein her people had been mining for centuries, but as punishment for sharing the knowledge with an outsider, her tongue was cut out, ensuring she could never speak again.

After the conquistadors and priests are purported to have come and gone from the Superstition Mountains, legend tells of another group who arrived sometime in the earlier half of the 1800s. The exact year varies, but the story goes that a rich Mexican mining family named Peralta also came to the area in search of gold. They found what they were looking for and then some, according to Lost Dutchman State Park.

Supposedly, the Peraltas actually found a very rich gold vein and set up a mining operation. They came back from the mountains hauling a lot of gold and saying there was far more from whence it came. However, they eventually disappeared after a trip into the Superstitions. When the townspeople went to look for them, they found nearly all of the family slaughtered. Only one (sometimes two) could not be accounted for. The story sometimes claims there were arrows all around, and so thus it must have been the Apache protecting their sacred mountains.

The legend then states that, sometime later, the last Peralta survivor(s) were helped out of some kind of bind by Jacob Waltz, and in his debt, they gave him the only thing they had of value: a map to the Peralta family mine in the Superstition Mountains, according to Cowboys and Indians magazine. This, of course, is how the Dutchman is supposed to have really found his treasure.

So what do we really know about these legends, Waltz, and the Superstition Mountains? First, let’s talk about the geology of the mountains. We know today they’re not actually sedimentary rock, but volcanic, according to Lost Dutchman State Park. While this doesn’t mean it’s impossible there’s gold to mine up there, it makes it far less likely. Perhaps this is why many of the legends involve people bringing gold to the mountain and leaving it hidden there.

Still, this doesn’t dissuade treasure hunters. There’s even been a ban on mining in the Superstition Mountains since 1984 due to the number of people coming and getting killed in mining accidents searching for the Lost Dutchman’s gold.

It’s also worth noting the mountains aren’t known to have gotten their ironic name from any of the above legends. Researchers point to an old belief by local farmers that the nearby Pima Native American tribe were superstitious about the mountains. None of the tribes in the area ever considered the mountains to be sacred, and while the Apache tribe does have a thunder deity in their religious beliefs, they don’t claim he lives in the Superstitions. This seems to have been made up solely for the various legends, according to Tom Kollenborn Chronicles. It appears no one ever bothered to just ask the Native Americans in the area if the mountains were sacred.

And now we get to the real problem with these legends — there’s basically zero evidence any of them ever happened. The stories of conquistadors and Jesuits bearing gold are completely unverifiable without documentation or archaeological evidence. While Francisco Coronado did exist and did explore what is now the southwestern United States, there’s nothing indicating he ever visited the Superstitions. Also, as previously mentioned, no Native American tribes in the region seem to have any history of treating the mountains as anything other than regular mountains.

It seems likely there was no Dr. Thorne, but there was a doctor in New Mexico who told a similar tall tale, except he was kidnapped by the Navajo tribe in his story. It’s likely this legend just got re-adapted to the Superstitions to boost the legend of the Lost Dutchman’s mine. There are lots of similar tales of gold-hunting soldiers, too, from all over the southwest. Even if the stories of soldiers looking specifically for the Lost Dutchman mine are true, there’s no evidence they actually found anything at all and didn’t just move on empty-handed, no mysterious deaths required.

Finally, there really was a successful gold mining family named Peralta, but they were in California, not Arizona, according to Gold Rush Nuggets. There’s no evidence they ever came to Arizona at all.

Here’s the thing about the Julia Thomas map to the Lost Dutchman’s gold mine, which is still sold and used today: Jacob Waltz didn’t actually draw it. Thomas admitted she drew the map herself but claimed she based it on descriptions given by the Dutchman, according to Skeptoid.

The map is supposedly filled with clues, and there are many others purportedly given by Waltz at various points in his life according to legends, but it’s hard to prove he actually ever said any of those things. It’s very possible the clues are also unverifiable legends people have clung on to in hopes of finding riches.

It seems likeliest one of two things happened. Waltz did claim to have a treasure, but he really didn’t and was simply telling tall tales to make his life seem more interesting, then Julia Thomas believed him. Or, he never made any such claims at all and Thomas made up the whole story based on some gold ore she found in Waltz’s possessions. Either way, she went to the mountains for a while to search. It’s not even out of the question the expedition was a misdirect to make it seem like she and her cohorts were looking for something to bolster the legend. Then, she took the map that was either from Waltz’s imagination or her own and made a whole lot of money selling copies of it.