Denver man's search for Lost Dutchman mine likely ended in fall

[Ah Pook]

Interesting story.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_22...e-likely-ended

Denver man's search for Lost Dutchman mine likely ended in fall

Posted: 01/05/2013 12:01:00 AM MST
Updated: 01/05/2013 10:34:41 AM MST

By Kirk Mitchell
The Denver Post
Jesse Capen, inset, was consumed with finding the Lost Dutchman mine and read several books on the subject. He went missing while seeking the mine in 2009, and a skeleton recently found in the Superstition Mountains may be his. (Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post)


The Lost Dutchman State Park is in central Arizona. (Photo provided by James Downar)


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• Jan 17:
• Arizona desert searched for missing Denver man seeking gold mine

Finding a fabled gold mine had become the life's obsession of Jesse Capen, but his quest likely ended the same day he trudged into the Superstition Mountains of central Arizona.
"I believe he slipped and fell off a sheer cliff while hiking back to his camp at night," said Capen's mother, Cynthia Burnett, 64.
DNA testing may confirm as early as Monday that a skeleton recently found in the Superstitions about 60 miles east of Phoenix is the remains of 35-year-old Jesse Capen. Fearing since 2009 that their son was killed by gun-toting prospectors, Burnett said she and her ex-husband, David Capen, find some solace in the news.
For 10 years, Jesse Capen, a graveyard-shift bellhop at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel, had studied myriad theories about the location of the Lost Dutchman gold mine first discovered in the 1870s.
In late November 2009, Capen drove to Arizona and left enough supplies for a month at an Apache Junction hotel. He planned to return to the room every weekend to resupply. But he never did.
In the past three years, hundreds of volunteers have scoured the desert looking for Capen's remains.
A trail of evidence he left behind strongly suggests Capen died Dec. 4, 2009, before he even had a chance to unroll his sleeping bag on the first night of his trip.
Capen's parents became nervous after Christmas and New Year's Eve passed without hearing from their son as he had promised.
The next summer, David Capen said he began believing rumors about trigger-happy prospectors in the Superstitions after three Utah gold prospectors vanished. The bodies of Curtis Merworth, Malcolm Meeks and Ardean Charles were found six months later — they had gotten lost.
A discovery at the end of 2011 helped searchers focus on 4,892-foot Tortilla Mountain: Hikers found a note in a metal can atop the peak that said: "Jesse Capen was here. Dec. 4, 2009."
At the end of November 2012, a day pack containing Jesse's GPS equipment, his mother's camera and his identification was found at the bottom of a 180-foot cliff on the same mountain. Searchers spotted a boot in steeper terrain above the day pack.
"All of a sudden — out of the blue — they found him," David Capen said.
The Maricopa County Sheriff's Department sent a helicopter to the side of the cliff, and deputies rapelled down to a skeleton, which was retrieved in a wire basket.
The skeleton was large. Jesse had been 6 feet 4 inches tall. His parents recognized the teeth they had paid dentists to repair, but they couldn't find their son's dentist. The boots and clothing matched as well.
There was no sign that Jesse had been shot. Burnett said she
(Click on image to enlarge)


believes her son was caught too far from camp that first day to make it back by sunset. He was just too excited about the possibility of a quick discovery. She speculates that he slipped off a ledge and tumbled to his death.
"He was a half mile from camp as the crow flies," Burnett said.
If the bones are Jesse Capen's, his remains will be cremated and returned to Denver, where friends and family will have a memorial service, she said.
She has bought an urn made of tan marble that reminds her of the desert that had been the focus of her son's dreams for so many years.

[Pancho Villa]

Hiking at night in unfamiliar terrain in the mountains.

Dumb as dirt.

[Sawin]

Hiking at night in unfamiliar terrain in the mountains.

Dumb as dirt.

As sad as it is, I agree with you. I've hiked in the woods quite a few times at night, mostly when coming out from a deer stand, but have never once been without an adequate flashlight when doing so.... and why in the world would someone walk near a cliff in the dark?

[palepainter]

I lived there for 15 years, every year or so, a few people would end up missing trying to find the Lost Dutchman mine. Some were bitten by snakes in the process, and few died from hypothermia not realizing how cold the desert got after being lost.

[cofi]

what is the lost Dutchman mine????

[CrufflerSteve]

It is dumb to be out in the dark. He might have been caught out but he still should have had a powerful flashlight.

I have been out in mountains after dark since one of my hobbies is collecting fluorescent minerals. When I go to a site I prepare by scouting it by daylight and make sure I have two working flashlights on me if I drop one.

My scariest experience was at Opal Hill near Fruita. I hiked pretty far up a nasty loose rock side with a flash. Then I turned it off and let my eyes get used to the dark and then turned on my UV light. Millions of scorpions! Literally. Every square foot must have had 5 or 6. They were the type that blend into the rocks so they didn't show up in visible light but they glow green in UV. I walked down that hill very carefully. I did not want to fall down.

[trlcavscout]

I lived in Apache Junction for 5 years, and if i ever get divorced I am going back! MMMmmmmm the mining camp restaurant. But like said a lot of folks go missing in the superstitions, pretty rough area especially if your not familiar with it.

[Holger Danske]

+ 1 for the mining camp. My dad used to prospect by Weavers needle in the 60s. He had two flakes of gold in a jam jar. That was all he found. His stories about The feud between two prospectors Celeste Mary Jones and Ed Piper were always very interesting.

[baglock1]

His stories about The feud between two prospectors Celeste Mary Jones and Ed Piper were always very interesting.

Yes, they are. I grew up down in Yuma. When we were kids, we always talked about growing up (at least to the point where one of us had a driver's license) and going up to find the LDM.

what is the lost Dutchman mine????

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Du...%27s_Gold_Mine

[Ah Pook]

Being a night bellhop, I wasn't thinking he was a genius.

It's not hard to get in trouble fast, when you're inexperienced and alone. Interesting legend.