Hey everyone, Dave here bringing you another
installment of Interdimensional Swap. This week
we have an episode from a show called Itty Bitty
Horror, which besides being super fun to say
over and over again real fast, which I've been
doing all day, it's also super fun to listen
to. Basically what it is, it's a paranormal,
strange... high strangeness all podcast but also
a horror podcast with a bit of a queer twist
to it that's that's uh the description they used
and i will say it is fairly accurate um it's
really good essentially uh each episode what
you're gonna get is a strange story something
spooky something horror related um but it's not
just that they also have uh you know guests on
like ghost tour guides they got authors writers
just people like in the paranormal and horror
spaces uh it's really good this week's episode
that i'm going to bring you is about the lost
dutchman's gold mine which i didn't know what
it was or it was even a thing until now but uh
i highly recommend checking it out uh and if
again if you like what you hear you know the
drill go show them some love give them a follow
uh five star rating and reviewed never hurt anybody
so yeah with that out of the way enjoy You know,
Tim, I'm actually glad we decided to go outdoors
and experience this stuff firsthand. It makes
the podcast feel more authentic. Ugh, Luis, we
could have learned about ghosts literally anywhere
else. A tropical island, a haunted five -star
resort, a sexy dead bartender who only appears
when you order a drink with a tiny umbrella.
Instead, we are out here and it's 104 degrees.
Sweating like a priest watching heated rivalry.
First of all, that's very specific. Second, you
say you want it to be more outdoorsy for your
New Year's resolutions. I'm supporting your growth,
Tim. I didn't mean this outdoorsy. I meant clamping.
Okay, okay, wait. The sun's going down. It's
cooler now. Let's just camp here. Here? You want
to go back to the car and find somewhere less
isolated? We're in the literal middle of nowhere.
What if a coyote gets us? You dragged me into
the desert, and now you're scared of desert animals.
Pick a struggle. We're camping here. Fine. Tim.
Tim, wake up. Oh, what? Wait, why are you like
this? I was dreaming I rode back into town with
saddlebags full of gold. People respected me.
I heard something. Something wrong, like an inhuman
noise. Almost like a possessed donkey. A possessed
donkey. Sure. Yeah, okay, that's a thing that
happens. It's a coyote, Luis. Oh. Okay, I heard
that. What if it's the ghost of a dead prospector?
What if he thinks we're after his gold? He opens
the tent, hacks our heads off with a pickaxe,
my head rolls into the desert, your body tries
to run. Stop. And then he drags our corpses into
the Superstition Mountains to feed us to baby
demons. You have to stop reading those Reddit
ghost stories before bed. Uh, hello? Is someone
out there? Great. No signal. Fantastic. Tim,
there's bad medicine in them rocks. What does
that even mean, Louise? Hello? Who's there? This
isn't funny. We'll kill you if this is a joke.
Who bear? Whoa there. Are you guys okay? Are
you a ghost? Why are you wearing khaki shorts?
Why do you have that name tag, Tiffany? What
are you talking about? I'm as real as the pee
on your pants. Tim, you're pissing your pants,
love. Oh, sorry. Got a little too excited. Man,
what are you doing out here in the middle of
the desert this late at night? The desert? Sir,
you're standing inside a Kmart. This is the hiking
section. Wait. Luis, did we hallucinate an entire
camping trip? I told you we shouldn't have eaten
those tamales from behind the dumpster. Anyway.
Excuse me. Sir? Sir? We'll take this tent. So,
it was all a dream. Your pants are still covered
in piss, Timmy boy. Yeah, it makes me feel like
I'm out in the wilderness. I hate us so much
right now. Clean up on aisle five. These two
pigs made a mess, and we need the extra strength
bleach and Zamboni. Clean up on aisle five. This
is the Tim and Luis banter part. You got to keep
it moving. Tim, did you change your pants before
starting this episode now? I did. Yeah, I switched
into a new pair. Yeah, well, I'm glad that you
did that because... Even though we're like two,
three thousand miles away, I can still smell
the piss. I know, I'm pissing my pants, love.
Welcome to the Itty Bitty Horror Podcast with
Luis and Tim. In this podcast, we discuss everything
from horror movies to the scariest tales out
there with a touch of prospector humor. Oh, just
a little smidgen of it. Yeah, just a little bit.
Tim, Happy New Year. Listeners, Happy New Year's
to you. Happy New Year, everyone. Our little
itty bitties. Hope you had a good, restful, nice
holiday. Yes, we definitely wish that you had
an amazing time. That makes no sense. Anyway,
how was your New Year celebration, Tim? What
did you do? Anything fun? Well, the holidays
were so crazy. I think I told you at the time
that honestly, when we got home and we flew back
because we had been sick right before Christmas,
it was a whole thing, you know. And so, yeah,
by the time we flew back where I live, we just
decided, you know what? New Year's is going to
be like a night where we just watch, you know,
some movies. We drink a little Prosecco. We watch
the giant ball drop in Times Square from our
TV and then, you know, just call it a night.
So where did you celebrate New Year's Eve? Literally
at home. I feel like. When you were there, you
were like, three, two, one. Your husband turned
to you and said, should old acquaintance be forgot?
Who knows the rest of that song? Does anyone?
I spent it with my family in Texas. And it was
fun. It was nice to see everybody. It had been
like a little bit over a year since I last saw
them. So it was nice to visit them back in Texas.
And, you know, we popped some fireworks, got
drunk, 12 grapes in one minute. Wait, I'm sorry.
Back it up real quick. What did you do with grapes?
You shoved them in your mouth. Wait. Who shoved
grapes into whose mouth exactly? And is this
a tradition that I've never heard of? Yeah, isn't
it? Listeners, please comment and let Tim know.
Inform him. Actually, I didn't even know about
this tradition, but apparently you're supposed
to eat 12 grapes. And I think you're supposed
to make 12 wishes or maybe one wish. I don't
know. Like one for each month? Yeah. And then
you're supposed to like shove them in your mouth
and like obviously don't swallow them like a
snake. But you're supposed to like chew them
and swallow them. But I don't know if you're
supposed to do that in under a minute or you're
supposed to do that, you know, over the course
of like two, three minutes. I don't know. I know.
It never ends. I know. Seriously. Well, I'm glad
that you had fun. Listeners, I hope you had fun
too for New Year's Eve. But let's talk about
today's episode. Can we do like a sharp left
turn and just go straight into the episode? Because
I think it's pretty exciting. Oh, I thought we
could talk more about our New Year's. Okay, well,
what are your resolutions? Well, I didn't make
too many, but I did make a few. So we're riding
a donkey and traveling. Just kidding. How freaking
dare you. Go ahead, Timmy. People want to learn.
What are your resolutions? No, I'm not telling
you now. You don't get the privilege. No, no,
no, no. We want to know for real. Well, I would
say my first and main resolution is always to
exercise more. It's always that little thing
that lingers over my head that I'm like, I got
to do that this year. So I'm doing that more.
I've been going to Planet Fitness. Yeah, yeah,
yeah. And yeah, that's kind of my main one. What
about you? What's funny because like, I always
say the same thing. I was like, I'm going to
work out more. I'm going to walk more and, you
know, start the weights and maybe get a trainer
and blah, blah, blah. But then I get my steps
in and then it's like January 2nd. I'm like eating
a fucking slice of pizza and beer down my throat.
And you know what I mean? It's like, yeah. Eating
tamales behind a dumpster that we found. Yeah,
exactly. So I'm like, I already fell off. So
I'm like, okay, well next year, 2027. I know.
But I was going to say, the funny thing is one
of my resolutions as well, going with the exercise
one is to get 10K steps. a day. And in my mind,
for some reason, I don't know why, and listeners,
maybe you've had this, I thought it would be
super easy. And then I have an Apple Watch, right?
So I've been looking at it and I've been walking
around everywhere. It is hard to get 10K steps
in. You don't live in downtown San Francisco
where you can just walk around and go every,
you know what I mean? Yes, exactly. And where
I live, I find that it's actually strange to
be walking around all the time. I feel like my
neighbors are going to be like, why does that
guy keep just wandering around? around the area
why is that man walking straight into the woods
every night you already have your like your straight
path of where you're gonna be walking to anyway
you're like oh i know the path it's safe is there's
like no insects and bees and whatnot it's gonna
be safe for me but he was like that man is weird
he has like a weird ritual where he walks into
the woods at two yes and then comes out at 3
p .m or like i'm trying to get my 10k steps i'm
just trying to get my steps i know i feel like
no one's gonna believe me for some reason i feel
like i've hit an age where if If I'm just wandering
around trying to get steps in, people will be
like, who is that over there? What's he want?
They're like lowering their blinds. That's worthy
man over there. He looks suspicious. We're going
to report. Yeah, that's totally fair. I think
as you get older, you kind of want to like. obviously
stay fit take your vitamins and um you know do
the things you're supposed to be doing to take
care of yourself but um it's hard to do that
i agree like especially when you live like in
the suburbs or something exactly here i might
try to walk around i'm just gonna get stabbed
or run over so you know walk around my room people
look at my steps i was like oh luis you got like
five thousand steps today like what are you doing
every day it's like i literally go down the stairs
and smoke a cigarette and then come back up how
about that i'm getting my steps in Yeah, exactly.
I know. Up and down those stairs. Well, and outrunning
people trying to stab you, apparently. The last
resolution that I have, Tim, is I really want
to travel more, honestly. Oh, yes. That's a good
one. Yeah, because last year I didn't go anywhere,
really. Like, the whole year I did not travel
except for, you know, visiting family in Texas.
But, like, I did not do anything. And I kind
of feel like, oh, I want to get out more and
do more and whatnot. But I think that I want
to travel to Phoenix. for the Arizona Superstition
Mountains, excuse me. Whoa, the Superstition
Mountains in Arizona. Yeah, what do you know
about the Superstition Mountains or the Lost
Dutch Mine, which is today's topic? See what
we did, listeners? A little segue for you. I
mean, number one, of course, big city in Arizona.
It's hot, it's in the desert, and it's maybe
the greatest city in the United States. Well,
Tim, because you don't know shit. Excuse me.
That's where the Arizona Superstitious Mountains
are and the Lost Dutchman Mine. It's a cursed
pocket of gold hidden deep in Arizona Superstitious
Mountains where those who go looking for it tend
to vanish. die violently or come back changed
if they even come back at all oh no wait but
how come i've never heard of this it seems like
such a dangerous place to visit the lost dutchman
mine yeah you're not a very worldly person i
would say oh excuse me again even though you
traveled more than i have all over the world
but still i've been all over the world i know
a thing or two yeah you're basically the white
version of carmen san diego yes yes exactly Well,
how about this? You and I, let's go rent a donkey.
Okay. Yeah, let's just get on it and travel.
You had me a donkey. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we'll
travel from our respective cities and meet in
the middle. And we'll be traveling maybe outside
of Phoenix into the legend of the Lost Dutchman
Mine. Oh, no. What are your thoughts so far,
Tim? Are you ready? Are you ready to go to Phoenix?
Or not Phoenix, but like outside of Phoenix and
maybe get beheaded by, you know, demons and ghosts?
Yes. Oh, okay. Well, there you go. Also, listeners,
if you want extra content. feel free to check
out our Substack. You can just type out Itty
Bitty Horror Podcast on it. Now, what we're going
to be doing there, releasing on Substack without,
you know, releasing it for this episode, is we're
going to be talking about the Magallon Monster,
which is Phoenix's answer to Bigfoot. You can
find the link to our Substack in the show notes,
or again, just go to Substack, download the app,
and type out Itty Bitty Horror Podcast. And a
reminder, again, it's free. Wow, yeah, Phoenix
heard Bigfoot. We need our own Bigfoot. And then
they got one, baby. They got one and they're
like, you're going to fucking go out there and
run in the woods. We don't have woods. We have
desert. Go out there. Tim, I already asked you,
but are you ready to explore the Lost Tales of
the Lost Dutchman Mind? Yes. The Lost Dutchman
Mind. The most catchy title. I'm ready. Yeah,
it's like a tongue twister right there. It kind
of is. East of Phoenix, Arizona, there's a mountain
range locals don't hike casually. They don't
joke about it. They don't stay after dark. They
call it the Superstition Mountains. And for more
than a century, people have gone into these mountains
chasing gold and never came back. Tonight, we're
talking about one of the most infamous treasure
legends in American history, a mine that may
or may not exist, a fortune that no one has ever
successfully claimed, and a trail of bodies that
keeps growing. This is the story of the Lost
Dutchman Mine. Long before prospectors, before
maps, before rumors of gold, the Superstition
Mountains already had a reputation. To the Apache,
this land was sacred, not metaphorically, literally.
They believed the mountains were home to their
thunder god, a powerful and violent spirit capable
of punishing anyone who disrespected the land.
The Apache had a name for this place, the Devil's
Playground. They warned outsiders not to enter.
They said the mountain kills people. In 1540,
Spanish conquistadores, led by Francisco Vázquez
de Coronado, ignored those warnings. They were
searching for the seven golden cities of Cebola.
Instead, they found something else. Men vanished.
Others were found dead. Some were mutilated.
Some were missing their heads. The Spanish fled.
They renamed the place Monte Superstition. The
legend had teeth now. By the late 1600s and early
1700s, rumors of gold refused to die. Jesuit
priest Eusebio Francisco Quino explored the region
and confirmed what many feared and hoped. There
was gold in the superstitions. And that discovery
lit a fuse. In 1748, the land was granted to
Don Miguel Peralta, a wealthy Mexican cattle
baron. The Peralta family worked the mines carefully,
quietly, always aware of Apache hostility. But
in the winter of 1847, greed overpowered caution.
The Peraltas returned in force. They never made
it out. Apache warriors attacked. Horses scattered.
Gold spilled across the desert floor. Prospectors
would later claim to find dead pack animals still
wearing saddlebags filled with gold. And then
in 1864, the Peraltas tried again. 400 men entered
the mountains. Only one came back. The rest died
on what is now called Massacre Ground. After
that, the mine vanished. Or hid. If I could just
interrupt real quick, I find it funny that some
of these things in Phoenix are very literal,
aren't they? I mean, superstition mountains,
massacre ground. I mean, it's also like, like
it's not, none of it's a metaphor. It's pretty
like obvious. Well, how about the devil's playground?
Do you think the devil's literally right there?
Okay, well, no, I don't think the devil's on
like a seesaw. Well, he is there. He's like playing
volleyball with God. With God. Yeah, whoever
wins gets the rights to Luis and Tim's souls.
Oh, no, God, come on, give it your all. In 1870,
a man named Dr. Abraham Thorne was blindfolded.
Apache leaders led him deep into the Superstitions
Mountains after he earned their trust by treating
their sick. For 20 miles, he saw nothing. When
the blindfold came off, he stood in a canyon
beneath a strange rock formation. at his feet
a pile of gold ore. He was allowed to take only
what he could carry. He sold it for the modern
equivalent of a small fortune. And then, he tried
to go back. Legend says he found the mine again.
Legend also says he never left the mountains
alive. My god! But also, when he was selling
all that gold, do you think someone had to bite
a giant chunk? What are you talking about? You
know how they used to, when they had to detect
whether or not it was actual gold or fool's gold,
they would bite into a little piece of gold.
Do you think they had to do that with the giant
amount? Oh, you mean because he was constantly
coming back with a lot of gold and they're like,
this guy, he has a lot of gold here and we kind
of don't trust this. Yeah, exactly. I'm just
saying, I feel like maybe they had a giant pile
of gold with like some real teeth marks in it,
you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, if they leave
teeth marks, that would imply that it's not gold
because it's like an easily markable. No, no,
no. Luis, you don't remember your class clearly
from when you grew up. Gold is what bends. That's
how they can tell that you can actually bite
into it. Oh, that explains why. You know what?
I'm going to keep my resolution. You really should.
In the 1860s, a German immigrant. Yes. Sorry,
nothing. In the 1870s, a German immigrant named
Jacob Waltz started paying for supplies in Phoenix
with astonishingly pure gold. He never said where
he came from. He never filed a claim. When people
followed him, he lost them in the canyons. Waltz
was secretive, contradictory, paranoid. Some
say he learned the mine's location from an Apache
woman named Kenty. Others say the Apache punished
her brutally for betraying sacred knowledge.
Either way, Waltz kept returning with gold. Until
1891. A flood destroyed his homestead. He fell
ill. And on his deathbed, he whispered clues
to a woman named Julia Thomas. She searched.
She failed. Jacob Waltz died. and the mine became
known as the Lost Dutchman. By the end of the
19th century, the Lost Dutchman mine was no longer
just a legend. It was an obsession. And soon,
it would start killing people. Oh my god, Luis,
Luis! I'm obsessed now! and we should start looking
for gold okay what are your thoughts of this
the history of the mine the lost dutchman mind
do you think that this is something like if you
and i were both alive in the 1800s you know when
people were prospecting yeah old and whatnot
and somebody sure sure let's say you and i let's
say you actually just me let's just say you are
running a general store you know in the middle
of a western A little town somewhere outside
of Phoenix. Yeah, I guess. Yeah, yeah. You're
running one of those stores and you're like,
geez, I don't think we're going to make rent
this month, ma and pa. Sales of licorice aren't
what they used to be. They aren't what they used
to be. And then I come in and I'm Jacob Waltz,
right? Oh, okay. You're the German guy? Yeah,
yeah, yeah. I'm the German guy. And I say like,
hi, mister. I am German. That box of licorice
you have there? Uh -huh. Can I buy that with
this big saddle of gold? Whoa. I'd be like, Mr.
German guy. Why do you have such a fucked up
accent? Why do you have such a messed up accent?
I'm like, yes or no. Can I buy that licorice
over there with this bag of gold? Oh my gosh.
You sound like Ilya. Except for the laddie part.
I'm like Russian. I am Russian. Yes. Okay. You?
Okay. Yes. And my name is Hollinder. What would
you do, though, if I showed up with a big bag
of gold because I wanted to buy a bag of licorice?
And then you're like, hi, mister, where did you
get that gold? And I'm like, oh, it's from the
Lost Dutchman. Would you ask me for, like, a
drawing of the map to find that location? Or
what would you do? Well, I mean, obviously, assuming
I'm, you know, like this young person living
in this, you know, I'm staying at this general
store. I think I'd be very, yeah, I'd be surprised.
Then I'd be like, oh, my gosh, sir. Like, you
got to show me where that gold is. Where did
you find it? Yeah. And then I'd grab my. and
so like this is where it is i'm like no damn
it the resolution didn't help sorry tim i tried
failed again started 2027 again uh yeah it's
a really interesting story like obviously the
history of how you know people would go there
people would come back with gold and how they
would take other folks and like we're gonna blindfold
you because like the indigenous people didn't
want you to know where it was although although
they did let that one person know if you recall
they were like he seems cool okay and they take
him and they give him gold but he supposedly
found it i don't know i feel like Well, we're
going to get into the main story right now, but
I feel like all these people got what they deserved.
Well, you could be right. I mean, they're asking
for trouble. You're right. It's greed in the
end. But you can't tell me that you wouldn't
try to get it if you lived back then. You can't
tell me that. If somebody came back and they
had a bag of heads, you're like, oh, all these
people right here, they try to search for gold.
Here's the result. And they throw a bunch of
heads towards me. I would not go there and be
like, well, my turn now. Well, no, not in those.
You think any of them thought they were going
to die? They obviously didn't. They didn't know
probably about how many people died. Well, you
know what? Let's inform our listeners about the
various stories of people who did not survive.
How about that? Yeah. By the time the legend
of the Lost Dutchman Mine had settled into the
bones of Arizona, the Superstition Mountains
were no longer just a place. They were a warning.
People stopped asking if the mine was real. They
start asking what it wanted in return. The mountain
does not kill everyone who enters it. That's
part of the cruelty. Some people come back. Some
people bring gold. And some never come back at
all. So it sounds like it's just a normal bunch
of mountains then. Some people make it, some
people don't. What if, like, when you get there,
there's a ghost in the Superstition Mountains,
right? The Superstition Mountains? Okay. And
you're like, I'm here for gold, sir. And the
ghost is like, well, to determine what your fate
is. And they have like a little wheel and they
spin it. And then depending on where it lands,
that's essentially your fate. And, you know,
it falls on like, nope, you're going to get beheaded.
And the people are like, oh God, okay, fine.
Oh, fine. Fine. They just chopped her head off.
Who's next here for gold? I would love it if
it was a little bit of a wheel of fortune situation.
In the summer of 1880, two recently discharged
soldiers wandered into the mining town of Pinal
looking for work. They were broke, sunburned,
and desperate enough to do something foolish.
They carried a small sack of gold ore. Not flakes,
not dust, ore so rich it stunned the mine manager
who examined it. The soldiers told him they'd
picked it up while crossing the Superstition
Mountains. They mentioned seeing an old mine
near Weaver's Needle. Nothing more. They didn't
seem worried. They seemed confident. Too confident.
The manager outfitted them with supplies and
entered a partnership. They left together, heading
back into the mountains. Two weeks passed. Then,
a search party found them. Naked, shot through
the head. No gold. No explanation. A year later,
a part -time bartender named Joe Deering listened
to the soldier's story one too many times. He
went looking. When he came back, he was different.
Deering told people he'd found something. An
old mine. A place so rough, so unnatural, that
he struggled to describe it. The most god -awful
rough place you can imagine, he said. A ghostly
place. He didn't go back right away. He tried
to save money first. He took shifts underground
at the Silver King Mine. One week later, the
mine collapsed. Joe Deering died without ever
telling anyone where he had been. Elisha Marcus
Rivas didn't go looking for the mine, but the
mountain came to him. Rivas was known as the
madman of the superstitions, a hermit, a scholar,
a man who lived alone in the high valley, growing
vegetables, reading books, and occasionally sprinting
naked through the canyons firing a pistol into
the sky. Even the Apache left him alone. In the
spring of 1896, Rivas didn't come down from the
mountain. When someone finally went to check
on him, they found his body on a trail near Rogers
Canyon. His head was severed, placed several
feet away. Later that same year, two Easterners
went searching for the lost Dutchman mine. They
were never seen again. Around 1910, two men named
Silverlock and Malm began tearing into the northern
edge of the mountain. Dozens of shafts, endless
tunnels, nothing but scraps of old Mexican gold.
Then, Malm showed up in Mesa, claiming Silverlock
had tried to kill him. Silverlock was declared
insane. Malm was sent to the poor farm. Both
were dead within two years. That same year, high
up on Superstition Mountain, a woman's skeleton
was found in a cave. Beside her, several gold
nuggets. No one ever explained how they got there.
pig -headed men have always thought the same
way right they're always going to attack women
and those less most vulnerable but like you find
a woman skeleton there like no one ever explained
how they got there yeah she was probably kidnapped
or maybe she was an indigenous woman attacked
by these gold digging losers losers yeah exactly
but luis i mean the the evidence is stacking
up that there's a ton of gold in these mountains
however can i say something too what would happen
if you and me were in these mountains let's say
we're you know we're in phoenix we're in superstition
mountains and we go up into a cave and let's
say somehow we you know not the curse doesn't
affect us like nothing bad happens and then we
find gold would gold be worth the same i feel
like if we turned it in they'd be like oh yeah
there's like i don't know four thousand bucks
worth and then like we wouldn't be rich we would
just have like some gold no four thousand dollars
in what in the 1800s whatever um how much was
4k in 18 i don't know 50 yeah that would be worth
uh 166 000 Well, that's not enough for us to
live on. I mean, we'd have to split that between
us. So we're down to like whatever that is. And
then, you know, that's like, yeah, I mean, that's
like a year's, you know, maybe a year's worth
of salary for both of us. In the 1800s? No, everything
was dirt cheap. We could make, it was a small
fortune. Oh, well, no, I think you're wrong.
Oh, well, listeners, let us know. Would $166
,000 in the 1800s change your life? Let us know
in the comments, because Tim says that he's not,
but then again, he is a little bougie bitch.
Yeah, I need at least a million. Yeah, yeah,
exactly. By the 1920s, something strange was
happening. People weren't just dying, they were
being driven away. In 1927, a man hiking with
his sons heard rocks tumbling from above. Boulders,
too large to move naturally, crashed down the
cliff face. One boy's leg was crushed. The next
year, two deer hunters fled the mountain where
the same thing happened again. Rolling stones.
No one above them. Then came Adolph Ruth. Now,
I'm assuming this was before another famous Adolph
because I feel like people stopped being named
Adolph after, like, let's say the 1940s. But
anyway. A veterinarian from Washington, D .C.
A man with metal pins in his leg. A man chasing
a map he believed would finally prove the mine
was real. Ruth entered the Superstitions in June
of 1931. He never came out. Months later, a skull
was found near the Red Hills. Two holes punctured
the bone. The rest of his body was discovered
weeks after that, scattered in a canyon miles
away. His map was still at his campsite. Authorities
said it was exposure. Animals. An accident. His
family never believed that. Neither did the headlines.
After Ruth, the deaths came faster. A man fell
from a cliff. Another was found shot with gold
still in his pack. A picnic turned into a heart
attack moments after a gold -rich stone was found.
In 1947, James Cravey was flown by helicopter
into La Barge Canyon. When he didn't hike out,
searchers found his camp. Months later... His
headless skeleton was discovered, wrapped in
a blanket. The coroner found no foul play. I
know he had his, you know, head removed from
his. Well, yeah. Forcefully. But, you know, they
didn't find any foul play. But the fact that
they cared enough to wrap him in a blanket, I
think that's really sweet. That's kind of nice
of whatever did that. Yeah. You want that? Oh,
sure. Yeah. If I'm already dead, wrap me in a
blankie. No, they're doing it. Anyway, wrap your
body in a blanket and then be like, here's to
you, bitch. And they swing the axe across your
body as he flies through the superstitious mountains.
Well, what I want to know is why are they chopping
my head off and saying, here's to you, bitch.
It's some weird Casablanca toast. Here's looking
at you, kid. Here's to you, bitch. Whack. As
my head rolls down the hill, I'd be like, ah,
it seems like the problems of two people don't
amount to a hill of beans in this here world.
In the 1950s, bodies appeared with bullet wounds
that were ruled accidental. Skeletons with missing
skulls. Campsites abandoned mid -meal. One had
a blood -stained blanket. A Geiger counter. Letters
with names torn out. No body and no answers.
By the 1980s, even lifelong prospectors were
falling. Wow, there were prospectors in the 1980s?
If you are still a prospector in the 80s, like,
get a real job! Get a real job, go work on Wall
Street, that'll never end. Yeah, it's also, yeah,
it's like, y 'all are still, you know what, fuck
you, I'm glad you failed. Louise! Well, I mean,
they shouldn't be, like, looking for gold that's
not even theirs. who's who's to say it's not
theirs at this point it belongs to the earth
oh oh i didn't think about it that way what are
the planet earth like that's their like little
herpes source source gold gold is there like
little like herpy uh flares or not flares what
do you call it like warts yeah and then they're
just like oh let's let's we're let's just grab
all those and then yeah you know what curses
everyone yeah and earth is just like what the
hell like right taking my warts from me. Why
do you want those? Why do you want those, you
creep? That's why they're fucking, you know,
going through hell. Oh, you're right. What a
good point. Okay, so gold is the Earth's STDs,
and people, you need to stay away from it. Stay
away from gold, folks. Give it to me. Give it
to Louise. Give me herpes, and by that I mean
gold. Anyways. By the 1980s, even lifelong prospectors
were falling. Walt Gassler spent decades searching
for the lost Dutchman mine. When he was found
dead in 1984, gold ore was still in his pack.
Ore identical to what Jacob Waltz carried. So
what is this place? A cursed mountain? A string
of coincidences? Or a legend built from human
obsession and desert cruelty? Scientists say
the Superstition Mountains shouldn't contain
gold at all. And yet, people keep finding it.
They just don't keep it because the mountain
always takes something back. And maybe that's
the real treasure it's been guarding all along.
The gold? The mountain is like, I'm going to
give you this bag of gold. Yes, you can have
it. Sure, you can have it. Yeah, but I need something
in return. And the prospector's like, whatever
you say, mountain god, what do you need? And
then he just takes the mountain, whips out an
arm made out of rocks. Oh, no. It's a mountain.
Yeah, right. It's made of rock, sure. And it
just swings towards him and cuts their head off.
He's like, I need your head. Oh, no. The mountain
swallows the heads and is like, I like swallowing
head. Oh. was that whole story just so you could
make that little joke what are your thoughts
on all these people who went to the superstition
mountains to find the lost dutchman mine right
and then some of them coming back telling tales
of what happened and other people's like nope
we just found their bodies and their severed
heads right by their by their laps and well i
have a couple of questions about it okay number
one why do people keep going back this seems
pretty dumb gold herpes why else well okay but
seriously like if everyone is dying then it's
like why go back i feel like some people have
to make it out okay for you to even think it's
like worth it well some people did come back
but like they had like little you know pieces
of nuggets of gold or whatnot but i i you're
right that's why when you said earlier that not
everybody knew what was happening. They didn't
know, like, people were dying or whatnot. And
I was like, we're going to search for gold. It's
not going to happen to me. I guess it kind of
makes sense, right? Because you're thinking,
like, it's not going to happen to me. Like, it
happened to them because they did something stupid.
But then you're going to go and search for these,
you know, for gold or whatever. And then you
go there and you're like, ah, shit. I guess it's
my turn. And then whack, your head flies off
your shoulders. That's a whack. Okay, you answered
my first question. Okay. My second question is
this. Why do they say that scientists say that
there's no gold there? I mean, if everyone is
finding gold, that's just not true, scientists.
I don't know why they say what they're saying
in terms of like, oh, there's no gold there.
There's no gold. Just probably because they're
planning their own trip there. Exactly. Everyone
wants the gold here. Ladies and gentlemen. who
are listening to the show, if you've made it
this far, and God bless you if you have, can
I just say, I think we all need to form an expedition
and we need to find this gold. Luis, are you
with me? I'm with you. We will get on a little
wagon with a horse and a donkey in our burrow.
Wow, a horse and a donkey. Yeah, both. And then
we'll get on it and we'll be like, take us there,
runny. Runny. Take us there, Eeyore. And the
horse's name is running. Yeah. Take us there.
And then they take us there. And then we can
find the gold. Us, the Itty Bitty Horror Crew.
Yes. You, me, Charlie, our graphic art designer.
Right. Our producer, Ted. Our producer, Ted.
Our editor, Shoshana. Shoshana. We appreciate
all the work you do, Shoshana. Just shout out
to you. Shout out to you. She's probably going
to cut this out. And then we'll all get on a
donkey. one donkey all of us all all of us all
pile on to eeyore okay and then we can find ourselves
and we can prove to the world that the lost dutchman
mind exists but we're not going to tell it where
it is because we want to keep the gold for ourselves
right we're not sharing it with anyone but it
will fund this podcast for years to come you
can rest assured Yeah, yeah. But my question
is, are we going to go on that donkey? I mean,
it's going to be all of us on this donkey. Is
there going to be a giant saddle? Yeah. Okay.
We're not all just doing bareback. You know what?
I said I will keep my resolution. I already failed,
but I'm not going there. Okay. Yes, we will be
on one big saddle. Okay, good, good. Because
that would be such an uncomfortable ride otherwise.
Yeah, yeah. Always practice safe riding. Yes.
Anyway, Tim, I have a hypothetical for you. Oh,
okay. I thought I just gave a hypothetical. Why
don't we give you a better one? Oh, okay. Well,
a steep promise, but okay. Imagine it's the 1800s.
You and I are following a hand -drawn map into
the Superstition Mountains where we actually
find what has to be the lost Dutchman mine, right?
Okay. Yeah, and right as we're about to step
inside, the spirit of an Apache warrior appears
and asks for the password. You confidently yell,
Gold, sir! You think I'm the biggest rube, don't
you? And then he immediately pulls out a machete
and slices my head off. What do you do? I'd be
like, oh, sir, why did you slice his head off
and not me? Whack? He just slices yours like...
He just hadn't gotten to me yet, you mean. No,
like, obviously he kills me to prove a point
to you. Okay, but then only to have the point
be completely lost on me because my head is being
lopped off. Well, because you questioned him.
Like, what about me? Anyway, that doesn't sound
like a real answer. Ah, boy. I never give you
what you want, do I? No, I wanted, like, a real
answer. what that my real answer is why did you
cut off his head that makes sense to ask that
you would ask that very casually and calmly like
sir why did you cut off my friend's head okay
all right what do you want me to be like oh oh
god i'd be like barfing and crying and sputtering
i mean you know a more realistic response Okay.
Well, there you go then. If something dramatic
happened, like let's say I'm walking down the
street and I'm walking with a friend and they
get punched in the face and they're lying on
the ground, I'm going to turn to the hitter and
be like, why did you punch my friend, sir? I'd
be like, you can run. Run away and leave you
behind. You can run? Yes. You wouldn't even try
to revive them? No. I'm not that kind of friend.
I'm a bad person. We learned a little something
today. Yeah. Well, Timmy, we've come to the end
of the episode. What are your overall thoughts
on today's show? Well, I think it was an okay
show. It was awful. Is that what you're saying?
No, it was a good episode. It was five stars.
And part of the reason it was five stars. quite
honestly, is because we learned about several
creepy things located in Phoenix, a city which
I did not realize had any creepy things worth
discussing. And it turns out it does. So there
you go. And for our Phoenix listeners, you're
welcome. Phoenix listeners are like, what kind
of fucking backhanded compliment was that? like
you know what just shut him up right now well
phoenix frankly you probably don't realize what
your reputation is around the country but i'm
here to tell you that this is a good thing we've
done a good thing for your tourism board okay
do a favor phoenix did you a solid and we love
you arizona and phoenix but you know sometimes
you got to get your shit together yeah you do
come on so everybody else not including arizona
If you enjoyed today's episode, then feel free
to leave a five -star review wherever you listen
to your favorite podcasts. If you'd like for
us to cover a specific story or topic, then email
us at ittybittyhorror at gmail .com. You can
also follow us on all social media under Itty
Bitty Horror. Also, as mentioned at the top of
the episode, we will also be discussing the Magayan
Monster, a Bigfoot -like creature from the Arizona
desert. So, Phoenix, we love you, Arizona. The
story will be available exclusively on Substack,
so if you want more Luis and Tim takes on this
big -footed freak, then subscribe to us there.
That was a little judgmental. I was talking about
you. Oh. You can either subscribe to us online
or download the Substack app. If you're online,
just go to substack .com, go to the search bar,
and type out Itty Bitty Horror Podcast, and you'll
find the exclusive audio there. The link to our
Substack will also be posted in the show notes,
so make sure to subscribe. Again, it's free.
It's free. Come on. You know you want it. Free
things. More of us. And this big footed free.
This big footed. Anyway, Tim, what are we discussing
next week? Well, we will be getting back on our
donkey. Yeah. And traveling about 100 miles southeast
to Tucson, Arizona. All right. We're making the
rounds in Arizona, everyone. Yeah, where we will
learn in Tucson about more of the legendary stories
that exist there, specifically about the skinwalkers
of Native American folklore and other tales.
So keep an eye out for that episode. Well, listeners,
thanks once again. And remember, even the smallest
chills, boys and girls, they can linger. Yeah,
long after the stories end. Right. Okay. All
right. Stop this shit. Stop this bullshit. What
are we doing? What are we doing with our lives?