The disappearance of Adolph Ruth in the Superstition Mountains as reported by the Arizona Republic on June 26, 1931.
Adolph Ruth was a 66-year-old veterinarian and amateur treasure hunter from Washington, D.C., who became a central figure in the legend of the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine due to his mysterious disappearance and death in Arizona’s Superstition Mountains in 1931. Born in 1866, Ruth developed a passion for treasure hunting, inspired by tales of lost mines in the American West. His interest intensified after his son, Erwin Ruth, a veterinarian working in Mexico during the Mexican Revolution, acquired maps in 1912 from Pedro Gonzalez, who claimed descent from the Peralta family, allegedly linked to the fabled mine. These maps purportedly led to abandoned Spanish mines, one of which Ruth believed was the Lost Dutchman’s Mine.
Superstition Range Is Believed To Have Claimed New Victim
FROM 3,000 miles across the nation, the famous legend of the Lost Dutchman mine lured a 70 year old prospector into the Superstition mountains, 35 miles east of Phoenix 13 day ago – and yesterday it was feared, he had perished.
Ranchers and homesteaders in the vicinity of the mountains appealed to officers at Florence for aid yesterday after several days of intensive but unsuccessful search for A. Ruth, 70 years old, former government employee from Washington D. C.
A posse of deputies, cowboys and prospectors searched the deep canyons of the east range of Superstition mountains yesterday without success. Little hope was held last night that Ruth will be found alive.
Forty years of planning and saving were bound up in Ruth’s trip westward to seek the Lost Dutchman mine. He brought with him a variety of maps of the mountains and supposed locations of mines and declared while outfitting for his trip into the mountains that he had studied every document pertaining to the elusive mine.
Twelve days ago Ruth hired a man to drive him back into the mountains, where he pitched camp, according to C. R. Morse, Apache Junction service station proprietor, who came to Phoenix yesterday to notify sheriff’s officers of Ruth’s disappearance.
The driver, whose name Morse did not know, returned to Ruth’s camp several days ago to replenish the prospector’s supplies. Ruth was not there, nor did he return by nightfall. Search began for him the next day.
Scarcity of water in the precipitous mountains would be Ruth’s greatest handicap, searchers declared.
Ruth’s wife wired to Morse yesterday an offer of $100 reward to anyone rescuing Ruth or bringing his body out of the mountains. Ruth had been receiving his mail through Morse. Ruth is not the first prospector to disappear in the mountains in search of the famous legendary Lost Dutchman. Many have trekked into the desert and mountainous region of the purported rich mine, never to re-appear.
A soldier, it is said, first discovered the fabulously rich mine a half century ago. He appeared in valley towns at intervals laden with gold ore, but efforts to follow him back into the mountains and discover his mine always were unsuccessful. Later the soldier disappeared and with him went the secret of the locations of the mine, which prospectors later christened Lost Dutchman.