The Legend of the Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine
                                by Jim Gronek

     In  the early 1870's,  Jacob Waltz,  known as "The Dutchman,"  prospected
into  the Superstition Mountains from the mill town of Pinal,  Arizona.  After
losing his mules to marauding Apaches,  he discovered the camp of two  Mexican
miners. Poorly armed and equipped themselves, the Mexicans were impressed with
Waltz's  breech-loading  rifle  and his experience as a  miner.   Proposing  a
partnership, they showed Waltz a gold mine of fantastic wealth.

     Without  engaging in a discussion of Waltz's sense of morality  and  fair
play, suffice it to say, the arrangement was short lived. There were two quick
shots  from the Dutchman's rifle.   Waltz hastily buried the Mexicans near the
mine.

     Working from Pinal and Adamsville,  and later from Phoenix,  the Dutchman
made secret trips to his jealously guarded mine. Over the years, five more men
who  ventured  too close joined the Mexicans in  shallow  graves.  During  the
eighties,  two  soldiers  from  Picketpost  discovered  the  Dutchman's  mine.
Returning with supplies, they were followed by a gambler who had seen the gold
they brought into Pinal.  When the soldiers made an early camp the second day,
the  gambler  assumed they had reached the mine.   Impatient  with  greed,  he
killed them both.  He acted too soon.  They had not reached the mine.

     Joe  Deering,  a miner,  also discovered the mine,  but was killed in  an
accident  at  Silver King,  leaving only scant clues to its location.   A  man
named Pipps took gold from the mine while the Dutchman was gone. Pipps died in
an  accident at Round Valley,  again leaving only sketchy clues to the  mine's
location. The Dutchman covered his mine in the late eighties.

     In his later years,  the Dutchman confided much of the story to a Phoenix
woman,  Julia Thomas,  and to a neighbor lad,  Reinhart Petrasch.  These clues
sparked an eighty year search for the mine,  which has taken the lives of over
forty men.

     In recent years,  many have dismissed the Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine as  a
myth.   Did the Dutchman really have a mine?   One thing is certain.  Of those
who  personally  knew Jacob Waltz,  not one ever doubted that he had a  secret
mine.  Rienhart Petrasch and his family hunted the mine for decades.  Petrasch
finally  committed  suicide in Globe.   Two generations of the  Holmes  family
hunted the mine for sixty years.  If these men, who heard the Dutchman's story
from his own lips, and saw his gold with their own eyes, believed, how are we,
in another century, to say the Dutchman had no mine?

     In the old City Cemetery in Phoenix, Jacob Waltz, "The Dutchman," lies in
an  unmarked grave.  And,  no doubt,  somewhere in the rugged  and  forbidding
Superstition Mountains, just east of Apache Junction, Arizona, lies the answer
to the West's most fascinating secret.

     Today,  you can experience,  with your computer and modem, a little piece
of  the  thrill Jacob Waltz felt when he first saw The Gold Mine,  from  right
there at your computer in your home or office.

     The Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine ROS, in Phoenix, Arizona, is a subscription
database  system  providing  one of the most complete  collections  of  public
domain  software available.   Software available from the Gold Mine is  always
the  latest,   most  up-to-date  revision.   You  may  choose  from   Business
Applications,  Games,  Utilities,  Communications,  programming languages, and
much,  much  more.   The  Gold  Mine maintains over 27 MegaBytes of  the  most
current items on line at any time and is available 24 hours a day,  seven days
a week, at 300, 1200 or 2400 Baud.

     The  Gold  Mine's  Off-Line Catalog offers over 130  disks  of  software,
available by mail,  in addition to the items maintained  On-Line.  Subscribers
without modems, or those who dislike long distance charges, may still reap the
fruits of the Gold Mine through the mail.

     The  Gold  Mine  specializes  in dBASEII/III,  Turbo  Pascal  and  Kaypro
specific software,  plus extensive collections of  communications,  utilities,
games,   word  processing,   alternative  programming  language  interpreters,
compilers and assemblers,  and MS(PC)/DOS utilities, games, communications and
applications programs.

     You  are invited to join the list of subscribers to the Gold  Mine.   You
may  reach the Gold Mine at (602)247-2880 to review the current  selection  of
files  and  download  a  subscription application,  or,  you  may  request  an
application at:

          The Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine ROS
          Post Office Box 23937
          Phoenix, AZ  85063

     Subscription fees may be charged to your Visa or Mastercard.   If you are
disappointed, we offer a no questions asked Money Back Guarantee.