The Historical Jacob Waltz
Blair cites ample evidence of the historical Jacob Waltz and suggests that there is additional evidence that supports the core elements of the story as related above – that Waltz did in fact claim to have discovered (or at least heard the story of) a rich gold vein or cache. But Blair suggests that this core story was distorted in subsequent retellings, comparing the many variants of the Lost Dutchman's story to the game of Chinese whispers, where the original account is distorted in multiple retellings of the tale.
There was indeed a Jacob Waltz who immigrated to the U.S. from Germany. The earliest documentation of him in the U.S. is an 1848 affidavit in which Waltz declared himself to be "about 38 years old". A man called Jacob Walz was born in September 1810 in Württemberg. Blair suggests that this Waltz could be the same Waltz who later came to be regarded as the legendary Dutchman, and that he changed the spelling of his surname to better match its pronunciation.
Waltz relocated to Arizona in the 1860s, and stayed in the state for most of the rest of his life. He pursued mining and prospecting, but seems to have had little luck with either. In 1870, Waltz had a homestead of about 160 acres (0.65 km2) near Phoenix where he operated a farm.
There was a catastrophic flooding in Phoenix in 1891, and Waltz's farm was one of many that was devastated. Afterwards, Waltz fell ill (he was rumored to have contracted pneumonia during the flooding). He died on October 25, 1891, after having been nursed by an acquaintance named Julia Thomas (she was usually described as a quadroon).
Blair suggests that there is little doubt that Waltz did in fact relate to Thomas the location of an alleged gold mine. As early as September 1, 1892, The Arizona Enterprise was reporting on the efforts of Thomas and several others to locate the lost mine whose location was told to her by Waltz. After this was unsuccessful, Thomas and her partners were reported to be selling maps to the mine for $7 each.
Read more about this topic: Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine
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