Superstition Mountain Museum

We also made an expedition to the Superstition Mountain Museum, which I had never been to before.  It's little and has an interesting range of items.  It also has a sense of humor about itself, which is very nice.  And all of the collection items jive with their institutional mission statement (or at least what I imagine the mission statement to be...) unlike some places which hoard and hoard every single thing.  A whole cabinet full of wood planars, for example.

Liang took this photo, and it's pretty much the best summary of the Superstition Mountain Museum that I can imagine.  Leaning, action, and some laughs.

On the grounds of the Superstition Mountain Museum are several old-timey buildings, two of which are from Apacheland - where cowboy movies starring luminaries such as Elvis were made.  Sadly the chapel, complete with Elvis, was having its carpets cleaned, so nothing interesting there.

The best was the old timey jail.  All of us were incarcerated at one point.

Bonnie and Clyde.

Old-timey photograph studio!  The photographer was out, so no old-timey photos.

Some sort of giant ore-crushing mining equipment.

The Superstition Mountains have (or so the story goes) a lost gold mine, which is called, "the Lost Dutchman Mine."  In the later 1800s, a German immigrant (the 'dutch' man) by the name of Jacob Waltz apparently found some source of very pure gold in the Superstitions.  He'd wander into Phoenix with these gold bits ever now and then, and leave some cryptic statements as to the location of the mine.  Shortly after he died in 1891 people started to wander the mountains, occasionally shooting each other, in the quest to find this mine.  Outlaw gold prospector turf wars as late as the 1970s - ridiculous!

People still go out there prospecting, using copies of the weird nonsensical maps in the Superstition Mountain Museum as 'guides' to the mine.

The Timmy is fond of pointing at random places on the mountain and saying with absolute certainty, "There it is.  The Lost Dutchman.  Right there."

Mum and Liang look toward the mountains.