In June of 1931 Adolph Ruth, a retired veterinarian and confirmed treasure hunter, disappeared in the Superstition Mountains. He was 78 years old, the onset of summer was at hand with soaring temperatures, and he was partially crippled. His death in the mountains was classified as death from exposure. Such circumstances would hardly seem to merit as being mysterious.
Yet, Ruth's death has become one of the great mysteries of the Lost Dutchman Mine legend. Why? The answer lies in secret Mexican maps Ruth possessed, the two holes in his skull and his family's association with the Gonzales family of Mexico, relatives of the Peraltas. For it was the Peraltas who originally mined the gold of the Superstition Mountains. The story starts not with Adolph, however, but with his son Erwin, and Erwin's collision with Mexican politics.
The events which sealed Adolph Ruth's fate started during the Carranza revolution in Mexico. The newly elected president of 1910, Medero, had been assassinated. Venustiano Carranza rallied Medero supporters and the Carranza revolt was on. And they needed money, this was where Erwin came in.
Erwin Ruth had been a qualified veterinarian who had given up government service, apparently at the request of the government. The year was 1913, the location Parr, Texas where Erwin worked as a car salesman. Down the road is Brownsville, Texas, with Matamoros, Mexico just across the Rio Grand.
Erwin often entertained clients in Matamoros and soon came to the attention of the Carranzanistas. The Carranzanistas, who were supported by the U.S., wanted to sell cattle to the States to raise money. The States wanted to buy, but the cattle were infected with ticks. Before they could be sold in the States the ticks had to be eradicated. As a qualified American vet known to the Carranzanistas Erwin was approached about doing the eradication. He agreed and joined the Carranzanistas. During a series of adventures Erwin met an old friend, Senor Ganzales. Gonzales was under sentence of execution as an enemy of the revolution. Gonzales asked Erwin if he would rescue his family in Monterrey, Mexico. If he did he would be rewarded with maps to gold mines in what had been Mexico, but was now America.
Erwin worked and rode with the Caranzanistas, eradicated the ticks and rescued the Gonazales family whom he shepherded across the Rio Grand to Texas. With the maps in hand Erwin gave up the Mexican revolution and headed off to tell his father, Adolph Ruth. Adolph was a confirmed treasure hunter and soon the two of them were poring over the maps trying to figure them out. The maps first lead to an adventure in the California desert where Adolph struck out on his own and broke his hip. Surgery was required and a surgical plate implanted. From that day on Adolph walked with a limp and a cane.
After California Adolph and Erwin turned their attention to Arizona as one of the maps given Erwin by the Gonzaleses was to the mine of their cousins, the Peraltas. Adolph was getting older, he was now 70 and partially crippled. Becoming convinced that he had the secret to the Lost Dutchman Mine in hand in the mid-1920s Adolph took off for Arizona where he soon became well aquatinted with a tight knit group of serious Dutch Hunters, including Cal Morse and William "Tex" Barkley
Cal Morse's family is a pioneer Arizona family, who had made their money in mining. Cal's father had been one of the original discoverers of the mines at Goldfiled. The Goldfield mines were located on the western edge of the Superstitions, the purported location of the Lost Dutchman. The Morse family had searched the Superstitions for mineral, even filed claims in the Superstitions. Tex Barkley owned the Quarter Circle-U ranch on the southern edge of the Superstitions. His grazing range included most of the Western Superstition Range. Both men were confirmed Dutch Hunters. Now, along came Ruth with secret maps, maps direct from Mexico, Peralta Maps. Soon Ruth, Morse and Barkley are well acquainted. One can imagine them sitting around each wanting to know what the other knew, wanting not to lose access to the maps and Ruth knowing they were his ace in the hole. What Morse and Barkley did not know was that Ruth had not yet fully deciphered the maps. He could not share what he did not know.
A few years pass and it is 1931 and Adolph is headed back to Arizona maps in hand. On May 13th Ruth arrived in Phoenix, and made his was to the Morse Ranch in Mesa. This would be his base of operations where he spent time preparing and visiting. He also visited the Barkleys at the Quarter Circle U. Finally all was ready.
Ruth got to know just about everyone at both ranches. One day he told Lillian, Tex's wife, that he would show her the maps so she would know just how easy it was going to be to locate the mine. Then Ruth said that no he would wait and show her how easy it had been.
As Ruth waited he asked specific questions. Was there a sharp peak? Did it have permanent water close by? Ruth also spoke openly about his possession of secret maps. Whatever else Adolph Ruth was, for a seasoned treasure hunter he seems to have been quite naive to openly discuss his intentions and announce his possession of secret maps.
As for Tex Barkley he may have been more curious about Ruth than impressed. At his ranch at the base of the Superstitions Tex had seen cowboys, mine hunters, prospectors, and others come and go. Ruth must have seemed the least likely of the lot. A 5' 4"slender, 78 year old man of about 115 pounds walking with a limp and needing a cane, Tex probably thought Ruth would never survive the mountains, and, for whatever reason, he was right.
It was late May a crucial time of the year as the seasonal Dutch Hunters, and others (including fugitives) abandoned the mountains with the coming onslaught of summer.
The stage was set. By June the heat was on, and the danger from people in the mountains was mostly gone. On June 13th Adolph Ruth left the Morse ranch with two of Morse's employees, Jack Keenan, one of Morse's most trusted employees, and Leroy Purnell a ranch hand of Morse's. Both were known as cowboy- prospectors. They packed Ruth into the mountains on horseback to permanent water at Willow Springs in Boulder Canyon. There they helped Ruth set up camp. Ruth was last seen alive on June 18th by Glen Ward, a local prospector.
June 20th Keenan returned to Ruth's camp with more supplies, but there was no sign of Ruth. Nor did it look like the camp had recently been used. Keenan notified Cal Morse who reported it to sheriff McFadden of Maricopa County. Due to uncertainty concerning just what county had jurisdiction the Pinal County sheriff was also notified. In the end there would be three searches for Ruth, one by the Maricopa County sheriff, one by the Pinal County sheriff and one by Tex Barkley. All three searches came to naught, and by September all three were called off.
It was the height of the depression and the story of a fabulously wealthy lost mine coupled with a mysterious disappearance caught the public imagination. The papers ate it up. A large reward was offered. Within 30 days there had been over 50 articles about Ruth and the Lost Dutchman.
On December 19th, 1931, six months after Ruth's disappearance, The Arizona Republic announced in banner headlines:
Skull Believed that of Missing Prospector Found in Mountains.
After months of active searching the skull had been discovered by accident. In December of 1931 The Arizona Republic and the Archeological Commission of Phoenix sponsored an expedition to the ruins in Garden Valley. The archeologist was Odd Halseth, Brownie Holmes was the guide. Black and tan hounds had been brought along to hunt mountain lion. On the way out of the mountains one of them, Music, picked up a scent following it to the base of a palo verde tree. When others came to see what Music had found they saw a grisly sight, a human skull sitting upright in plain view. The area where the skull was found is on the flats just north of Bluff Springs Mountain, in what is called the Spanish Race Track.
Ruth's remains with the lower jaw and some of Ruth's effects were found about a month later by Tex Barkley on the other side of Needle Canyon on the upper slope of Black Top Mesa 3/4s of a mile up canyon from where the skull had been found. Ruth's skeleton was identified by the accompanying personal effects which included the directions to the mine and a topographic map with notations. The directions were written in ink in a small memorandum book; they read:
It lies in an imaginary circle whose diameter is not more than five miles and whose center is marked by the Weaver's Needle, a prominent and fantastic pinnacle of volcanic tufta that rises to a height of 2,500 feet among a confusion of lesser peaks and mountainous masses of basaltic rock . . . the first gorge on the south side, from the west end of the range [they] found a monumented trail which led them northward over a lofty ridge; thence downward past Sombrero Butte into a long canyon running north, and finally to a tributary canyon very deep and rocky, and densely wooded with a continuous thicket of scrub oak.
Then below this, also in ink, was: Veni, vidi, vici, and below this in pencil: 200 feet across from cave. Were these secret directions to the mine? And what did the reference to Caesar's famous message of: Veni, vidi, vici -- I came, I saw, I conquered mean? Or, the reference to the cave?
The skull had two holes in it, a small one on one temple and larger one on the other temple with a fracture. Halseth sent the skull to Science Services in Washington, D.C. with a request that Dr. Ales Hrdlicka at the Smithsonian Institution be consulted. Hrdlicka was one of America's leading physical anthropologists whose specialty was descriptive physical anthropology, and he had, on occasion, worked with the police. He was an M.D. and one of the world's leading physical anthropologists with forensic experience. He knew bones. He had studied their pathology, including bullet wounds. His report of January 1932 read in part:
"My examination positively determined that it is the skull of an aged white man. Holes in the skull, one over an inch in diameter on the left side and a much larger one on the right side, indicate a strong probability that the man was shot to death by a shotgun or a large caliber rifle and that the shot or bullet passed somewhat downwardly from the left. I have examined such wounds before and have examined skulls with bullet wound holes found on battlefields. I hold a degree as a Doctor of Medicine, have medico-legal instruction, and have been engaged in anthropological work for many years. At present I am Curator of Physical Anthropology for the National Museum [Smithsonian]." (Taken from: Kearney, "A Death in the Superstitions, The Fate of Adolph Ruth", The Journal of Arizona History.)
The official verdict on Adolph Ruth's death, however, was death from exposure and dehydration. Death from exposure and dehydration of an elderly man in rough, desert country didn't sound mysterious, or did it? Soon people started to ask questions.
While Ruth's camp was in Maraicopa County, his skull and remains were found in Pinal County. Yet, it was Maricopa county that issued the official death certificate. Why?
The death certificate listed the cause of death as "Unknown", not exposure or dehydration.
On the section of the death certificate that reads: "If death was due to external causes (violence) indicate:" the finding was also listed as "Unknown".
Dr. Hrdlicka seems to have been the only professional to examine the skull; he thought the holes were caused by gunshot. Ruth's revolver was found to be fully loaded, no empty cartridge case. Thus, no suicide.
Yet, with the official cause of death as "Unknown", and whether or not violence was involved also officially listed as "Unknown" and with the finding of Hrdlicka that the probable cause was a gunshot the official finding of the authorities was: "Death from exposure".
Further, while there was a topographic map found among Ruth's remains, the two Mexican maps were missing.
Even more strange to those who know the mountains was that Ruth remains were found over six miles from his camp. Six very rough miles. Six miles involving climbing and descending hundreds of feet. Those who knew the mountains simply believed there was no way the frail, partially crippled 78 year old Ruth could have physically made the journey.
Missing maps, Ruth's note with Veni, vidi, vici and "200 feet across from cave", two holes in the skull, the location of the remains, their distance from Ruth's camp, Hrdlicka's findings, the strange business about Maricopa County issuing the death certificate and official findings that did not fit with the coroner's certificate of death, these all launched Ruth and his death into one of the most famous mysteries associated with the Lost Dutchman Mine.
A mystery still much debated to this day.
Skull of Adolph Ruth. Mouse
over reveals the other side.
