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(On Saturday morning, while we were in Quartzsite, we
received a call that Juan’s oldest brother, Carlos, passed away from a heart
attack. I drove Juan to Phoenix, and he flew home to help plan the arrangements
for the funeral. I had
to return to Quartzsite as the trailer had a suspension breakdown, broken shackles,
bolts, and more. Fixed with the help of
rvers, I could move to Lost Dutchman. Juan
will be here on Thursday the 2nd, and we will continue our trip. Carlos was a good man who died at the young
age of 71).
Coming down the mountains was a welcome surprise. It started to warm up quite a lot and we could see our destination was just around the corner. Arizona State Parks are a pretty good deal. “Rustic” camping is $25 a night and that includes a pull-through spot, showers, water, and the dump station. Very friendly staff here as well. The boondocking in the Apache Junction/Phoenix area is nil.
Walmart were all adamant about
overnight parking. The Super Walmart in Apache
Junction was very rude. Before I could
finish the question, she started yelling, “No, no, no, under no circumstances will
you park in our lot”. This is a snowbird destination, so I guess
they want to keep us riff-raff out of the neighborhood.
There is a lot of beautiful scenery here in this area including howling coyotes every evening around 9 p.m. The howls get many campers worked up especially those with children and pets.
So, who was the lost Dutchman? Rich gold mines were developed in this area around
the 1840s by the Peralta family. Indians
attacked some of the families and the miners killing most of them. The mines were abandoned for more than 30
years. A German by the name of Jacob Waltz,
along with help from the Peralta descendants, located some of the mines and hid
much of it from the family.
Because the cache of gold was never found. He was then named the Lost Dutchman. He died without ever divulging the location
of the gold.
