Top 3 Lost Gold Mines of Wild West Legend

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The Wild West in America is a vast area and has plenty of the elusive treasures lost to legend. The land has been the subject of many a treasure hunter looking to find the lost treasures buried beneath the lands in the fertile lands to the great West. Over the centuries, there have been many legends about lost treasures hidden in the Wild West with the most profitable being considered to be the lost mines of the Wild West. Here is a look at the top 3 lost gold mines of Wild West legend that have enticed explorers and seekers of lost treasures for centuries but have never been found.

The Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine

The Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine is at the very top of the list of top 3 lost gold mines of Wild West legend. According to the legend, it is a very rich gold mine which resides somewhere hidden within the southwestern parts of the country. Its location is not exactly known but it is rumored to be somewhere within either the Superstition Mountains which is near the Apache Junction on the eastern side of Phoenix, Arizona.

In many versions of the story, Weaver’s Needle is a prominent landmark for locating the lost mine.

This mine takes on its name after a German immigrant who went by the name of Jacob Waltz. It is the most famous of the top 3 lost gold mines of Wild West legend. It has enticed countless people to go out in the search for the treasures it holds with some even having died in their quest.

The Lost Cement Mine

Next on the list of top 3 lost gold mines of Wild West legend is the Lost Cement Mine. According to the legend, the Lost Cement Mine was found by a couple of men who got separated from their group when they were crossing the Sierra. Near the headwaters of the Owen River, the two men found what was some hard igneous rock that had a lot of gold within it. One of these two men kept the rock that he had found from that place.

The man was dying of tuberculosis a few years down the road and he paid the doctor who was treating him by giving him the rock and telling him the rough location of where they had found the rock.

The Lost Dutch Oven Mine

One of the most famous ones of the top 3 lost gold mines of Wild West legend, the Lost Dutch Oven Mine was situated somewhere in the state of California. There are a lot of versions of the story that led to the legend of the Lost Dutch Oven Mine but the most commonly acknowledged legend is that of Tom Schofield.

Tom Schofield

In 1894, he was a railroad worker that went off on his own during the job to do a bit of prospecting for gold mines. His search led him to the Clipper Mountains in the northwestern part of Essex where he found an old abandoned house from which he continued onward. The trail led him to end up at a split boulder through which he found an old Spanish camp and through his search of the camp he found an old Dutch Oven or rather, he tripped over the Dutch Oven which fell over releasing a lot of gold nuggets.

He took back as much as he could back with him but when he came back around to get more, he could not even find the path he was on let alone the gold mine.

Peter Varlet

Peter Varlet’s the cowboy critic you love to hate, until he’s right. Born during a thunderstorm in 1972 in Bismarck, North Dakota, he grew up watching his WWII vet dad battle to save their farm from corporate claws. Now, Peter’s the unapologetic voice of Western culture, with a historian’s grip on America’s past, acknowledging both its heroes and hypocrites. His truth to power articles are a no-holds-barred zone for rodeo reviews, cowboy movie takedowns, and ranching tricks that work. He’ll tell you why your country singer’s a fraud and how to fix a fence with only baling wire and spite. Peter despises corporate factory farms taking over and cherishes the DIY grit of real Americans. Politically correct? Nope. Trustworthy? Damn straight. He’s saving the West, one brutal truth at a time.