there is a mountain range in the middle of the desert in Arizona that's called the Superstition Mountains and for decades adventurers have been going into these mountains to try to find a secret treasure but many of those adventurers have died trying to do this and many more have come running out of those mountains claiming that unseen predators are lurking all around stalking you as you move through these mountains and so today's story is going to be about one of those adventurers who goes into the Super itions and he comes face to face with something but
before we get into that story if you're a fan of the strange dark and mysterious delivered in story format then you've come to the right place because that's all we do and we upload once a week so if that's of interest to you the next time you're at the like button's house please replace their favorite cologne with tuna juice also please subscribe to our Channel and turn on all notifications so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads okay let's get into today's story [Music] late on the afternoon of June 14th 1931 a 59-year-old man
named Dr Adolf Ruth climbed off his donkey that he'd been riding on for hours through the Superstition Mountains in Arizona once he was off the animal the doctor shook his legs to work out the cramps and then he just took in the scenery all around him and as he did he smiled now to the average person what Dr Ruth was seeing in front of him would look very impressive there were all these Jagged Peaks on either side of him that jutted straight up into the sky that almost looked so steep they couldn't even be climbed
and this mountain range was cut through all over with all these twisting and turning Canyons that almost seemed like a maze also high up in these mountains were all these caves where people used to live but now they were abandoned in fact to today if you were to travel through the Superstition Mountains you could go days without seeing another person and that was true back in 1931 when Dr Ruth was there but Dr Ruth knew that where he was standing right now between two towering rock walls was not just a regular Desert Canyon this particular
stretch of desert was about to make Dr Ruth a very rich man he was going to be the very first person to actually find the lost Dutchman gold mine the same Lost Dutchman gold mine that had claimed the lives of hundreds of other treasure Seekers who had come into the Superstition Mountains and not come out again but Dr Ruth knew he had a special advantage that nobody else who had come out here looking had had he had a treasure map that was going to show him where this treasure was and he knew it was right
nearby and without even thinking he reached into his pack that was slung over his shoulder and he felt the edges of the treasure map which was folded up and tucked inside of of his notebook but as Dr Ruth was daydreaming about finding this treasure he heard someone grunt from behind him and suddenly Dr Ruth pulled his hand out of his pack and he whipped his head around and he looked at the two Cowboy guides who had brought him out here and Dr Ruth just said what in Dr Ruth's daily life he was a retired veterinarian
and a government employee who worked in Washington DC he was a small guy with glasses and he walked with a limp and he knew these two Cowboy Guides of his just thought he was some frail old man and this deeply offended Dr Ruth and so because the doctor totally resented these Cowboys he had told them that yes I need your help getting me to a particular spot in the desert but once I get there you guys are done you can leave I'll pay you and you can just go away I'll be fine on my own
and as it happened they had reached this particular spot and now Dr Ruth is looking at these guys like all right let's go get out of here you don't need to be here anymore but the Cowboys now that they were at this spot where they're supposed to go back home they kind of hesitated before they left because they looked at Dr Ruth and they did think he was kind of a frail old man and they knew all about how all these people had died going into this Canyon to look for this treasure and so the
cowboy who had kind of cleared his throat and made a noise to get Dr Ruth to turn around he chimed in and said you know doctor I don't know if this is a good idea for you to go in there on your own and Dr Ruth again is super offended and he just says to the Cowboy I'm fine just go I'm going to set up camp I'm good get out of here and then Dr Ruth pulled out his wallet he handed some money to the Cowboys the Cowboys took the money they looked at each other
and just kind of shrugged and then the Cowboys turned around and began Galloping away and as they did Dr Ruth was standing there feeling kind of proud of himself for getting rid of these guys but as they kind of faded into the distance Dr Ruth turned back around and he looked out at the landscape and suddenly now that he was actually all alone a lot lot of his bravery was now gone now he was feeling maybe a little apprehensive but Dr Ruth reminded himself that he knew what he was doing he was not a frail
old man despite the way he looked he could handle himself and he certainly knew this area well he had a map he'd be in and out he would get that treasure and then he'd be rich and famous and so with that in mind Dr Ruth grabbed his things off the ground he hopped back on his donkey and he began slowly marching his way deeper into the canyon a little while later as the sun was starting to set Dr Ruth decided it was time to stop and so he stopped his donkey he hopped off he found
a clearing by the side of the trail and he began setting up his campsite and then finally once the canvas tent was all set up and his campsite was good to go Dr Ruth started a small fire and then he rolled a small Boulder in front of the fire and he sat down on it and then he reached into his pack and he pulled out that notebook and from inside the notebook he pulled out the old fragile treasure map Dr Ruth's son had acquired this treasure map from a man in Mexico and this man in
Mexico meico apparently got it from a family that used to do mining in the Superstition Mountains and they had drawn out this map before apparently they were all massacred inside of the superstitions but somehow or another their map they had drawn about where they thought this treasure was had survived and so Dr Ruth's son had gotten this map and given it to Dr Ruth and so Dr Ruth held the map up and he stared at it for a second and as he did he couldn't help but be drawn to this huge rock formation way off
in the distance so not on the map but actually in real life basically far down the canyon there was just this massive rock formation and for a second Dr Ruth was looking at it thinking it kind of looked like a huge oversized gravestone and in a way it kind of freaked him out but he looked back at the map and he realized there actually was a drawing on this map that clearly represented this big rock formation and on the map it had an arrow pointing to this little drawing and it said this thing this big
rock formation was called we Weaver's needle and according to the map apparently the treasure was right near Weaver's needle and so Dr Ruth was like great tomorrow I'll head straight for Weaver's needle I'll find the treasure and I'll be rich and famous and on that note Dr Ruth folded the map up he tucked it back into his notebook put it back in his pack and then he took his beans and meat off the fire and he began to eat and as he did he whistled periodically to fill the silence that was filling the entire Canyon
back when I first started Mr Ballin so early 2020 I was doing all my work out of this room in the back of my house in Pennsylvania that was basically like a shed it definitely was not up to code whoever had owned the house before us had built this kind of ramshackle room off the back of the house and that became my studio and I remember since there was no heat in there at night I would have to turn on my space heater as hot as it would get and let the room heat up but
then I would have to turn off the space heater cuz it was so noisy I couldn't record record with it on and then rush through my recording before it got so cold that I was shivering in the recording and so really like there is a very humble beginning to the whole Mr Ballin thing but now I mean we have blossomed into a full-blown Studio Ballin Studios with nearly 40 full-time employees and I only say this because I want you to know that it's really only because of you that any of this has happened and so
I do not take that for granted I want you to know that as we grow I want to continue to bring you the best possible immersive storytelling I possibly can and that brings me to why I'm here today well we have been very lucky to secure a partnership with a masterful Storyteller named Rodney Barnes Rodney Barnes is an award-winning writer director producer Comic Book Creator and he's made all these genre defining horror stories about vampires and demons and the Occult and now Rodney Barnes and Ballin studios are partnering up to make a brand new show
hosted by the iconic Rodney Barnes the show is called run fool and the trailer has already been released so please right now go to wherever you get your podcasts and look up run and listen to the trailer and get ready for us to drop the first couple of episodes and those first two episodes of Runo will drop on Tuesday November 14th and then every Tuesday there on out you will get a brand new run fool episode thank you all so much and I can't wait for you to experience the masterful storytelling of the one and
only Rodney Barnes again his new show is called run [Music] for by the time Dr Ruth was done eating his food it was totally dark inside of this Canyon like completely pitch black and silent and as the doctor was kind of taking in this moment of absolute darkness and silence he was startled by a sudden sound coming from high up one of the canyon walls it sounded like Hooves marching on Stone and it kind of echoed through the whole Canyon and for a second Dr Ruth felt relieved even though he had been adamant especially to
the two Cowboy guides that he wanted to go into this Canyon by himself now that he was here by himself and it's so dark and quiet and kind of spooky he was glad to hear Hooves because it meant that must be a person riding a horse and so I'm not alone anymore but when Dr Ruth called out and said who's there there was no response and there were no more hoof sounds it just went totally quiet quiet again and then from all over the canyon all Dr Ruth heard was the yipping and Howling of coyotes
Everywhere by this point Dr Ruth couldn't help it he felt terrified and suddenly all he was thinking about were all the stories he had heard about unseen Predators lurking in the shadows stalking people who come into this Canyon and so Dr Ruth decided you know what I'm just going to bed and so he extinguished his fire he packed up his things and he went inside of his tent and he laid down inside of his bed roll and even though he knew he really wasn't actually safer in here all he had was you know canvas tent
material protecting him from the outside world but mentally being inside the tent he just felt safer and so Dr Ruth would lay in his tent in the total darkness kind of on edge for a while you know wide awake listening intently for more hoof beats or something out there but there were no more sounds the night remained silent and dark and eventually Dr Ruth fell asleep but in the middle of the night Dr Ruth suddenly woke up and it was totally dark and silent and he sat up and he looked out of his tent the
flap was open and at first he couldn't see anything it just seemed like Darkness out there but then he realized moving around very slightly pretty far away from his tent but not that far away were two eyes staring at him unblinking just staring directly into his tent and Dr Ruth me his heart started to race and he's realizing that an animal a person something is right there and so Dr Ruth he was about to yell out when suddenly the eyes blinked and vanished Dr Ruth fumbled for his gun and he drew it and he aimed
it out of the tent and he yelled I'll shoot if you come back I'll shoot but there was nothing Dr Ruth would stay awake for at least a couple more hours just anxiously staring out of his tent wondering if this thing this person whatever it was was nearby but he never saw the eyes again and there were no more sounds outside and So eventually Dr Ruth did lay back down inside of his bed roll and he went to sleep when he woke up in the morning Dr Ruth immediately went outside and began walking out in
the direction where he saw those eyes to see if he could find some tracks on the ground in his head he was hoping he would find a bunch of coyote tracks and that would explain you know what these eyes were even though in the back of his head he's thinking that didn't look like a coyote and so as Dr Ruth began walking in that direction he did begin to see loads of coyote tracks all over the place and so he's thinking there it is it was a coyote my brain's just playing tricks on me but
he got maybe 15 or 20 ft away from his tent and he noticed there was another set of tracks that were not coyote tracks they were human tracks or what appeared to be human tracks like Barefoot feet tracks except the size of them were really small like a child's foot now Dr Ruth was a really small guy and wore a men's siiz six so he had very small feet and for a second Dr Ruth thought oh you know maybe these are my footprints but he was like I wasn't over here and I wasn't walking around
be foot so whose tracks were these and then making it worse Dr Ruth noticed these little prince these little human looking Prince they walked all the way over to the side of his tent and they appeared to Circle his tent over and over again but then the prince didn't wander off and disappear it's almost like the prince just continued in a circle and then whatever this was making the prince just stopped where it was and vanished at this point Dr Ruth was terrified and he decided let's just go towards Weaver's needle let's find this treasure
and get out of here and so he rushed back to his tent he gathered up his things he hopped back on his donkey and he began heading towards Weaver's needle the thing that looked like a big gravestone after riding for a couple of hours Dr Ruth was close enough to this huge formation that he was actually inside of the shadow cast by this Weaver's needle and when Dr Ruth consulted his map he saw that where the treasure was supposedly located was actually with in the shadow of Weaver's needle and so he knew he was close
and so Dr Ruth continued following the map as best he could he turned this corner behind a rock formation and then right up ahead he saw this big wall of cacti that all had these ax heads lodged into their flesh like someone had taken an Axe and smacked the axe head in and then broken off the handle but like dozens of times and so Dr Ruth stopped and he's looking at these cacti and then he looked at the map and he realized on the map was actually a drawing that kind of resembled these cacti with
the ax heads in them and so he's thinking oh my goodness this map is accurate I found another landmark I must be near the treasure and so now all he had to do was kind of back up and Orient this cacti with the ax heads in it with Weaver's needle and its shadow and if you could just Orient it correctly he would know exactly where to go and after backing up and moving the map around a couple of times he finally had it totally oriented and he real realized there was a path straight up ahead
that would go right to the base of Weaver's needle and he thought that's it that's where I dig there's the treasure and so feeling excited Dr Ruth hopped off the donkey he grabbed his pickaxe and he began moving in the direction of where he was going to dig but before he got there he heard something behind him he turned to look but by the time he saw whatever was behind him it was already too late an explosion rang out and then everything went dark 10 days later those two Cowboy guys es who had brought Dr
Ruth into the Superstition Mountains they came back out to check on him to make sure he was okay and they found his campsite and it was abandoned and they searched the entire area all the way down to Weaver's needle and back and there was no trace of Dr Ruth over the next 45 days a much larger search party was launched in this area to try to find Dr Ruth but at the end of those 45 days there still was no sign of Dr Ruth and so the search was called off and it was assumed assumed
that Dr Ruth was dead 3 and 1/2 months after that big search ended so in December of 1931 another set of explorers were in the Superstition Mountains near Weaver's needle the big gravestone looking rock formation and they would discover a human skull on the ground it was Dr Ruth's skull and it had two gaping holes in the side of it a month after that another set of explorers who were in the Superstition Mountains would find the rest of Dr Ruth's skeleton located approx proximately one mile away from where his head had been found but while
the discovery of Dr Ruth's body did provide some closure for his family it actually only deepened the mystery of what the heck is going on in the Superstition Mountains because one despite the fact that Dr Ruth's skull had been found with two holes in it and the fact that his skull was found one mile away from the rest of the skeleton authorities who investigated his death quickly said Dr Ruth died of natural cause is and they Clos the case and the second weird thing that only deep in the mystery was when they were searching Dr
Ruth's campsite they would find his checkbook and inside of his checkbook there was all this writing that was clearly from Dr Ruth you know writing his checks and then towards the back of this book there was a relatively freshl looking message and the handwriting looked totally different than Dr Ruth's handwriting that just said Venni V vichi which in Latin means I came I saw I conquered now we don't know who wrote this message but the running theory is whoever very likely killed Dr Ruth wrote this note inside of his checkbook but we don't know why
they wrote this note now eventually people began to think that because of this note that was in his checkbook that that suggests that maybe Dr Ruth really was on the precipice of actually finally finding this treasure and maybe the stories were right about the Superstition Mountains that something lurks in the canyon protecting this treasure and when it saw Dr Ruth was about to take the treasure this thing killed Dr Ruth to stop him I.E they came saw and conquered Dr Ruth also adding to the strangeness of this entire story in 1945 so 13 years after
Dr Ruth's skeleton was discovered an adventurer named Barry storm published a book about his journey to try to figure out what actually happened to Dr Ruth and he would say in this book that when he went into the Superstition Mountains somebody started firing a gun at him from off in the distance and after taking cover and looking he couldn't see anybody and then when he began taking steps farther into the canyon to continue to explore the shots rang out again and so Barry storm ultimately fled the Superstition Mountains and he would tell people that whoever
was out there shooting at him it seemed like they were shooting warning shots at him like if you come any closer I'll kill you to this day no one has ever actually found any hidden treasure in the Superstition Mountains but about 9,000 people will go out there looking for the treasure every year during the late 1970s the inhabitants of Scotland's largest city was subjected to a series of terrifying encounters with the Hideous nocturnal entity whose incessant twitching and animalistic grunting put the fear of God into those who counted him this week we take a look
at the gning man of Glasgow time stor so that's going to do it if you enjoyed today's story be sure to check out our podcast called the Mr Ballin podcast where we have literally hundreds more stories just like this one that are available for you to listen to right now again it's called the Mr Ballin podcast and it's available exclusively on Amazon music