The "bars" of silver below are 75-80% silver and are "smelted" cache bars found ?????. These are the type of bars made in the 1600 - 1700's to be shipped over seas to the King of Spain. In case you have never seen a "Spanish" bar these are two types. The square one is about 3" square and the rectangle one is about 2" X 3". Smelted silver and gold "bars" that were bootlegged around the Spanish government would look totally different. If I can find some to take pictures of I will get them on the site.
LOST SMELTER IN AN OLD BARN BELOW SAN ANTONIO
Back in the middle 1970’s I was told a story about an old 1700’s to possibly very early 1800’s home stead in a small town a little south south west of San Antonio that because of liability if someone reading this goes out to this house, which I understand is still standing or at least is known by the locals in the area it is in, and looks for what I am going to write about and gets in trouble for trespassing I do not want to be held liable. But, if you do and find anything let me know J
The story involves a girl about 14 to 15 in the early 1900’s. At the time I was told the story the girl in the story was a woman was in her mid eighties. Her family had owned land in Mexico and Texas (USA) and Poncho Villa, whom she had been around as a small girl, ran her family out of Mexico to the Texas side of the border and took her families land for Mexico. Her family was Irish and even with Villa running her family off of their lands in Mexico she thought Villa was a good person. She was about 5 years old at that time I believe. In the years of her childhood her mother had passed away and she had ended up at the time of this story with her aunt and uncle living in this old home stead which was built in the time when San Antonio was still mostly under Spanish holdings and most of the trade was coming through the San Antonio area from the Spanish holdings in the new lands. The old home stead had on the property the house, out sheds like smoke house, chicken coops, out house and old barn with a loft and with a dug well by the barn that had not been used for water since drying up they thought with a new deeper dug well in a different area of the place that their water came from. This young girl because of what had happened in her life then growing up in the time and area. She grew up a little hard to get along with rebellious and was seemingly always in trouble with her family and aunt and uncle. She was a lot of the time confined to her room which was up stairs on the back of the house next to the barn.
Some nights after moving into that room she would hear very faint sounds like chains rattling around coming from outside her window which scared her because of her family telling her that the devil was going to come get her for the things she was doing and also of some haunting stories which as kids we have all heard and she would hide in her room until the sounds would go away. The sounds were not every night and sometimes not for weeks then they would be there again. One night she was in her room feeling mad and mean about something that had gone on in the family that had gotten her in trouble. The sounds started again and she was just in the mood to find out if it was the devil or a spook out there trying to scare her and she told herself enough is enough and decided to crawl out her window and go out to the area of the barn that the sounds where coming from to confront whatever was there and have it out with the “thing”. Once she was outside in the area of the barn she stopped moving and waited for the sounds again and in a while she heard the sounds coming from the area in the barn around where the old well was on the outside. The well was about 15 or so feet away from the barn and she thought it odd that she could hear the faint sounds coming from that area but the sounds were not distinct enough for her to pin point where they were coming from and before she could find the area of the sounds they stopped and did not start back up again that night. She went out to the barn the next day and looked everywhere and could not find chains or anything that would have made those sounds. She went outside of the barn around the well and even looked down in the well and all she saw was trash that had been thrown down into the well over time. She did move some trash in the barn around so that the next time she heard the sounds she would have nothing in her way to get to whatever was making the noise. Some nights later the sounds started again. This time she was out her window and in the barn as fast as she could but moving as quietly as she could to. The sounds seemed to be coming from an area of the barn that had a wood floor that was inside of the barn from the well. She could not see well in the darkness but at least she knew what area the sounds were coming from and as she walked away the sounds quit. The next day she went to the area in the barn and cleaned everything she could from that area of the wall and found what looked to be a trap door because there was an area of boards that were cut to form about a two foot by two foot square and had a hole to lift the door with. She found something to help her prey the wood up and sure enough it came up and she could see that there was a hole in the ground there but she could not see how far down it went or where it went. She could see that there was an old ladder going down in the hole and she went to get a candle to see what she could. There was a strong odor coming out of the hole that smelled like animals but she was too excited to stop then and down she went into the hole. As it turned out the hole was only about 10 foot deep and then opened into a little room that was about 15 by 15 foot and there was nasty “stuff” from animals that had found their way into the room through a small tunnel from the old well to high up on the side of the room. There she could see some chains that was hanging by the shaft that she had come down and she figured that the animals was playing on them when she heard them and that whomever used the room used the chains to let something down from up top. She could see old logs and black stuff laying everywhere in the room and then she saw what looked like small bricks stacked up and laying against the far wall. She walked over to the stacked bricks and moved a couple of them around with her foot and found that they were heavy so she picked one up and wiped it off and found that it was crudely formed metal and when she brought her candle over closer found that it was a silver bar. Who ever lived on that old farm whether the house they lived in was there or there was another one that the one there replaced later on had a smelter in the secret room under the barn and the smoke would go up the “dry” well and the sounds she heard was from the animals that found their way down in to the room.
She knew that she could never get any of the bars out of there and use them to leave that area and her family so she never told anyone of what she had found. The sound of the chains rattling after that allowed her sleep better after a bad day because she knew what caused the sounds and the treasure they guarded she was keeping from her tormentors.
I do not doubt the things that she told me. But, let’s put this story into reality of that time, or as much as you can at this time, and come up with what she might really have found in the secret room. In the San Antonio area was where several major trails/roads of the time came through from Mexico City where the Spanish government was. The area that is Texas now was part of an area that was called New Spain and San Antonio was the city that seated the Spanish Government officials for that area and all trade and Spanish owned mining wealth came through the government officials in San Antonio. Where valuables such as mined and smelted minerals are you will find people trying to steal from and cheat the government which is where this small smelter would come into play because persons bringing the raw smelted materials could pilfer, steal, some of the materials and make more money. When we think of a smelter we think about raw mineral bearing materials that are put in a furnace and heated to above 2000 degrees which will melt the minerals out of the raw material and then poured into bricks of gold or silver. In a small room like the one described the temperature would have killed everyone in there so there could not have had a full size smelter in there. But, just like today, there could have been a small operation that the people could have been using a small bellows type of smelter/furnace to melt down the silver and make their own coins of the time. Spanish currency of the time was silver and there were crude silver bars still in the room. Silver was being mined from several places in the Texas area without the Spanish government knowing about it and most of it was sold in Louisiana to the French or Dutch to be smelted at the coin press there so the miners did not have to pay or give the silver or gold to the Spanish government who would have claimed it whether the Spanish officials in the area would have turned it in or not to the Officials in Mexico City. I believe that this is what the small room underground would have been used for and the pile of silver bars were bars that for whatever reason did not get used which makes sense to me.
I have driven by that house several times in past years and only ask one time if that house was old and was told it was very old. I did not see a barn and the place was not kept up and it could have fallen in and covered the shaft. Or, someone could have torn it down and found just what the lady told me was there. Once again as I do in all of the stories on this site I do not give the location, but, the house is there or at least was a couple of years ago.
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Back in the middle 1970’s I was told a story about an old 1700’s to possibly very early 1800’s home stead in a small town a little south south west of San Antonio that because of liability if someone reading this goes out to this house, which I understand is still standing or at least is known by the locals in the area it is in, and looks for what I am going to write about and gets in trouble for trespassing I do not want to be held liable. But, if you do and find anything let me know J
The story involves a girl about 14 to 15 in the early 1900’s. At the time I was told the story the girl in the story was a woman was in her mid eighties. Her family had owned land in Mexico and Texas (USA) and Poncho Villa, whom she had been around as a small girl, ran her family out of Mexico to the Texas side of the border and took her families land for Mexico. Her family was Irish and even with Villa running her family off of their lands in Mexico she thought Villa was a good person. She was about 5 years old at that time I believe. In the years of her childhood her mother had passed away and she had ended up at the time of this story with her aunt and uncle living in this old home stead which was built in the time when San Antonio was still mostly under Spanish holdings and most of the trade was coming through the San Antonio area from the Spanish holdings in the new lands. The old home stead had on the property the house, out sheds like smoke house, chicken coops, out house and old barn with a loft and with a dug well by the barn that had not been used for water since drying up they thought with a new deeper dug well in a different area of the place that their water came from. This young girl because of what had happened in her life then growing up in the time and area. She grew up a little hard to get along with rebellious and was seemingly always in trouble with her family and aunt and uncle. She was a lot of the time confined to her room which was up stairs on the back of the house next to the barn.
Some nights after moving into that room she would hear very faint sounds like chains rattling around coming from outside her window which scared her because of her family telling her that the devil was going to come get her for the things she was doing and also of some haunting stories which as kids we have all heard and she would hide in her room until the sounds would go away. The sounds were not every night and sometimes not for weeks then they would be there again. One night she was in her room feeling mad and mean about something that had gone on in the family that had gotten her in trouble. The sounds started again and she was just in the mood to find out if it was the devil or a spook out there trying to scare her and she told herself enough is enough and decided to crawl out her window and go out to the area of the barn that the sounds where coming from to confront whatever was there and have it out with the “thing”. Once she was outside in the area of the barn she stopped moving and waited for the sounds again and in a while she heard the sounds coming from the area in the barn around where the old well was on the outside. The well was about 15 or so feet away from the barn and she thought it odd that she could hear the faint sounds coming from that area but the sounds were not distinct enough for her to pin point where they were coming from and before she could find the area of the sounds they stopped and did not start back up again that night. She went out to the barn the next day and looked everywhere and could not find chains or anything that would have made those sounds. She went outside of the barn around the well and even looked down in the well and all she saw was trash that had been thrown down into the well over time. She did move some trash in the barn around so that the next time she heard the sounds she would have nothing in her way to get to whatever was making the noise. Some nights later the sounds started again. This time she was out her window and in the barn as fast as she could but moving as quietly as she could to. The sounds seemed to be coming from an area of the barn that had a wood floor that was inside of the barn from the well. She could not see well in the darkness but at least she knew what area the sounds were coming from and as she walked away the sounds quit. The next day she went to the area in the barn and cleaned everything she could from that area of the wall and found what looked to be a trap door because there was an area of boards that were cut to form about a two foot by two foot square and had a hole to lift the door with. She found something to help her prey the wood up and sure enough it came up and she could see that there was a hole in the ground there but she could not see how far down it went or where it went. She could see that there was an old ladder going down in the hole and she went to get a candle to see what she could. There was a strong odor coming out of the hole that smelled like animals but she was too excited to stop then and down she went into the hole. As it turned out the hole was only about 10 foot deep and then opened into a little room that was about 15 by 15 foot and there was nasty “stuff” from animals that had found their way into the room through a small tunnel from the old well to high up on the side of the room. There she could see some chains that was hanging by the shaft that she had come down and she figured that the animals was playing on them when she heard them and that whomever used the room used the chains to let something down from up top. She could see old logs and black stuff laying everywhere in the room and then she saw what looked like small bricks stacked up and laying against the far wall. She walked over to the stacked bricks and moved a couple of them around with her foot and found that they were heavy so she picked one up and wiped it off and found that it was crudely formed metal and when she brought her candle over closer found that it was a silver bar. Who ever lived on that old farm whether the house they lived in was there or there was another one that the one there replaced later on had a smelter in the secret room under the barn and the smoke would go up the “dry” well and the sounds she heard was from the animals that found their way down in to the room.
She knew that she could never get any of the bars out of there and use them to leave that area and her family so she never told anyone of what she had found. The sound of the chains rattling after that allowed her sleep better after a bad day because she knew what caused the sounds and the treasure they guarded she was keeping from her tormentors.
I do not doubt the things that she told me. But, let’s put this story into reality of that time, or as much as you can at this time, and come up with what she might really have found in the secret room. In the San Antonio area was where several major trails/roads of the time came through from Mexico City where the Spanish government was. The area that is Texas now was part of an area that was called New Spain and San Antonio was the city that seated the Spanish Government officials for that area and all trade and Spanish owned mining wealth came through the government officials in San Antonio. Where valuables such as mined and smelted minerals are you will find people trying to steal from and cheat the government which is where this small smelter would come into play because persons bringing the raw smelted materials could pilfer, steal, some of the materials and make more money. When we think of a smelter we think about raw mineral bearing materials that are put in a furnace and heated to above 2000 degrees which will melt the minerals out of the raw material and then poured into bricks of gold or silver. In a small room like the one described the temperature would have killed everyone in there so there could not have had a full size smelter in there. But, just like today, there could have been a small operation that the people could have been using a small bellows type of smelter/furnace to melt down the silver and make their own coins of the time. Spanish currency of the time was silver and there were crude silver bars still in the room. Silver was being mined from several places in the Texas area without the Spanish government knowing about it and most of it was sold in Louisiana to the French or Dutch to be smelted at the coin press there so the miners did not have to pay or give the silver or gold to the Spanish government who would have claimed it whether the Spanish officials in the area would have turned it in or not to the Officials in Mexico City. I believe that this is what the small room underground would have been used for and the pile of silver bars were bars that for whatever reason did not get used which makes sense to me.
I have driven by that house several times in past years and only ask one time if that house was old and was told it was very old. I did not see a barn and the place was not kept up and it could have fallen in and covered the shaft. Or, someone could have torn it down and found just what the lady told me was there. Once again as I do in all of the stories on this site I do not give the location, but, the house is there or at least was a couple of years ago.
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Most of the Lost Mines and buried Treasure tales come from written or oral legends that have been passed back and forth for years. Nothing wrong with that. New technology and understanding of what the old timers actually saw that they interpreted with the ideas of that time, science of the time, myths of the time, superstitions of the time, what they called something then that we do not call the same thing now, and believe it or not, downright lies about and exaggerated the truth of a story to make it sound bigger and better than it was, can always be given another twist by any of us. So, are there any unknown stories to write about? Of course there are. I have always loved to listen to the old stories that the old timers of my youth used to sit around and talk about. Having been born and raised up in the fifties to the middle sixties without TV and in the country around the peoples that were some of the second generation of the pioneers of Central, East and South Texas I heard many stories that fascinated me even to this day. Some of the stories that I heard and books I have read about the old days that now are no longer in print or to be found I still remember and I look for those stories and books everywhere I go and look for the answers, if any can be found, that I can put into truth. This web site is mostly devoted to hopefully opening people up to sending me something they have heard that they might want someone to help them see if it was possible or anything they would like to share. If you are one of those persons please use the comment email below every section of this web site to email me. All emails are confidential like are most of the locations of the stories I write about.
A story that I have heard about but have never seen other than in other states which leads me to believe the stories are true is about in East Texas in the areas that have the higher hills and deep ravines during the Civil War there were tunnels dug and natural caves in the sides of ravine banks, tunnels are horizontal dug holes in the earth like mines, used so that people could escape and or hide their valuables in. These caves or tunnels would have been dug in the areas that has hard sedimentary soil that could be dug into and would not easily cave in and in heavy vegetation areas that had vines and trees that were growing low and hung over the ravine to hide them. I have seen caves like this in Mississippi and Arkansas around some of the battle grounds. The caves are surely gone. But, the tunnels very well could be there and some where there are stories about lost treasure in them.
Creeks, rivers, deep ravines and gullies always have to have crossings. Before ferry's started getting people and possessions across water crossings the water crossings had to be where the soil would hold up a wagon or multiple wagons and traffic from horses. If you look at the old maps of trails and roads you will see that they are not straight like roads are now. The reason is because they went a general direction, only they went from low water shallow grade natural crossings to the next low water crossing. The North American ancients did the same and most of the old trails and roads followed them. This makes the old roads seem to zig zag. In the days of wagons and horses and even stage lines the travelers whether people relocating to the west or hauling materials east of west or I guess north or south had so long to get to where they were going. If they were relocating they had all of their worldly possessions with them which would be mementoes’, furniture, stores of food, water, tools to build shelter and tools to grow foods for them to eat. They would also have any money, which at that time would have been gold and or silver, and valuables with them they had from selling everything they could when they pulled up and moved. Most of the people would leave the east in the spring and would work at getting to the area of the west they were going by the end of the summer in time to build shelter and plant a fall garden for food. That was the plan and sometimes it did not work. They could only make 5 – 12 miles a day if everything on the trail was good. Summer storms, heavy snow run off and heavier than normal rains along the way would make crossing the streams, creeks and rivers very hard and dangerous. Many groups of wagon trains and travelers crossing by themselves had to stop and camp hoping that the water would go down so they could get on their way and everyday staying in place was dangerous from being attacked, robbed and or killed and was preventing them from getting to their destination in time to get ready for winter. These lower crossing areas were also areas that had some marsh lands around them and getting across the marsh was almost as bad as getting across the water crossing. Many of the travelers out of desperation had to lighten their loads to get across the wet areas and they had to leave their valuables and mementoes’’. They would bury these items by a recognizable location that they hoped to come back to once they got settled and would lighten their loads enough to get across and never got to come back to get their possessions. These are treasures that are still there. I can remember as a kid finding some oddities in some dreading piles left by the dreading of the creek by the farm I grew up on. There had been an old stage coach road that crossed right there, which did not mean anything to me at the time, and what I found had to have been something buried in an event just like the one I just described. I don’t know what happened to the trinket I found and I know there was other “stuff” there also but I do not remember what it was. One day on the farm we own now there was a man come up to my dad and ask if he could metal detect and dig around an area of our farm that was an old creek crossing and my dad ask him what for. The man would not tell him specifically and my dad told him that he did not want anybody out there. My dad ask a few of the old timers in town and they did not know either other than that crossing was a major crossing way back. Long story short, the man finally came up and told dad that he had information that there was a story of a couple of barrels of valuables that was supposed to be buried by a certain odd looking big oak tree which ended up on our land and he would like to dig for the barrels and he would give daddy 25% of the find. Well, daddy said no he did not want anyone tearing up his ground unless the man could prove his story which the man could not. Years later when I started getting into metal detecting I detected around that area and found that the area was a place where old barb wire fencing went to rest and the metal detector would not shut up. Later with a better detector and then a deep detector I could discriminate out certain metals and get down a couple of feet and there did seem to be something down there. But, daddy would not let me take the dozer and dig the ground there and if anything is down there it is still there. I have heard stories like mine from people metal detecting these crossings. I also have pictures that a lady showed myself and a couple of others of an ancient looking clay head from what we could find out off the internet came from the Inca’s. The head was found about 6 – 8 foot down in a pit where they were getting road material out of in the area of a major historical crossing. Old crossings are a great place to find treasure. Every area has a least one old crossing in the area. Once again be ware of looking on private property without permission and there are laws on doing the same on State lands at road crossings.
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A story that I have heard about but have never seen other than in other states which leads me to believe the stories are true is about in East Texas in the areas that have the higher hills and deep ravines during the Civil War there were tunnels dug and natural caves in the sides of ravine banks, tunnels are horizontal dug holes in the earth like mines, used so that people could escape and or hide their valuables in. These caves or tunnels would have been dug in the areas that has hard sedimentary soil that could be dug into and would not easily cave in and in heavy vegetation areas that had vines and trees that were growing low and hung over the ravine to hide them. I have seen caves like this in Mississippi and Arkansas around some of the battle grounds. The caves are surely gone. But, the tunnels very well could be there and some where there are stories about lost treasure in them.
Creeks, rivers, deep ravines and gullies always have to have crossings. Before ferry's started getting people and possessions across water crossings the water crossings had to be where the soil would hold up a wagon or multiple wagons and traffic from horses. If you look at the old maps of trails and roads you will see that they are not straight like roads are now. The reason is because they went a general direction, only they went from low water shallow grade natural crossings to the next low water crossing. The North American ancients did the same and most of the old trails and roads followed them. This makes the old roads seem to zig zag. In the days of wagons and horses and even stage lines the travelers whether people relocating to the west or hauling materials east of west or I guess north or south had so long to get to where they were going. If they were relocating they had all of their worldly possessions with them which would be mementoes’, furniture, stores of food, water, tools to build shelter and tools to grow foods for them to eat. They would also have any money, which at that time would have been gold and or silver, and valuables with them they had from selling everything they could when they pulled up and moved. Most of the people would leave the east in the spring and would work at getting to the area of the west they were going by the end of the summer in time to build shelter and plant a fall garden for food. That was the plan and sometimes it did not work. They could only make 5 – 12 miles a day if everything on the trail was good. Summer storms, heavy snow run off and heavier than normal rains along the way would make crossing the streams, creeks and rivers very hard and dangerous. Many groups of wagon trains and travelers crossing by themselves had to stop and camp hoping that the water would go down so they could get on their way and everyday staying in place was dangerous from being attacked, robbed and or killed and was preventing them from getting to their destination in time to get ready for winter. These lower crossing areas were also areas that had some marsh lands around them and getting across the marsh was almost as bad as getting across the water crossing. Many of the travelers out of desperation had to lighten their loads to get across the wet areas and they had to leave their valuables and mementoes’’. They would bury these items by a recognizable location that they hoped to come back to once they got settled and would lighten their loads enough to get across and never got to come back to get their possessions. These are treasures that are still there. I can remember as a kid finding some oddities in some dreading piles left by the dreading of the creek by the farm I grew up on. There had been an old stage coach road that crossed right there, which did not mean anything to me at the time, and what I found had to have been something buried in an event just like the one I just described. I don’t know what happened to the trinket I found and I know there was other “stuff” there also but I do not remember what it was. One day on the farm we own now there was a man come up to my dad and ask if he could metal detect and dig around an area of our farm that was an old creek crossing and my dad ask him what for. The man would not tell him specifically and my dad told him that he did not want anybody out there. My dad ask a few of the old timers in town and they did not know either other than that crossing was a major crossing way back. Long story short, the man finally came up and told dad that he had information that there was a story of a couple of barrels of valuables that was supposed to be buried by a certain odd looking big oak tree which ended up on our land and he would like to dig for the barrels and he would give daddy 25% of the find. Well, daddy said no he did not want anyone tearing up his ground unless the man could prove his story which the man could not. Years later when I started getting into metal detecting I detected around that area and found that the area was a place where old barb wire fencing went to rest and the metal detector would not shut up. Later with a better detector and then a deep detector I could discriminate out certain metals and get down a couple of feet and there did seem to be something down there. But, daddy would not let me take the dozer and dig the ground there and if anything is down there it is still there. I have heard stories like mine from people metal detecting these crossings. I also have pictures that a lady showed myself and a couple of others of an ancient looking clay head from what we could find out off the internet came from the Inca’s. The head was found about 6 – 8 foot down in a pit where they were getting road material out of in the area of a major historical crossing. Old crossings are a great place to find treasure. Every area has a least one old crossing in the area. Once again be ware of looking on private property without permission and there are laws on doing the same on State lands at road crossings.
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SHIP WRECKS ALONG THE GULF COAST COULD BE “RISING”
At the time of this writing Texas is going through history making and catastrophic flooding and stream, river run off. People have lost their lives and property so I do not write this without knowing that what I am writing about has a terrible bad side and I pray that the families that have lost loved ones and property find peace over their loss.
The flooding that is occurring now both removes and deposits dirt. Almost always in this type of event do you read somewhere where an old building or ship is exposed by a flood uncovering them. This is probably happening right now up and down the Texas coast. Now that does not mean that there is going to be treasure associated with these. But, the treasure would be in finding the uncovered relics of the past. My son Ray that writes and owns the Lone Star Ghost Towns web site in the Legends section of Prospecting Texas called me and was telling me how many stories of lost towns and ships confirmed by history as being there and unconfirmed but told about in local legend, exists.
Wrecked ships where the survivors salvaged as much off of the ship they could and made camp which did not mean and usually was not right on the beach until rescued have left behind artifacts both in the camps and the items off of the wrecked ship that washed up on shore for a while are still there to be found.
Pioneers and travelers that had to make camp for a winter until they could keep going left items sometimes to lighten their loads to gain time that washed down the river to the mouth of it at the Gulf or ocean and the items could be closer to the surface after these floods and or storms for someone to find either by metal detectors or visually seeing the objects. Old forts, towns, cattle shipping stations, water side cities that were washed away have left many collectables to be found.
Pirate treasures and old Spanish ship wrecks are the most looked for after a storm. Many tails and legends, true or not, are available to tell a treasure hunter where to look after a storm. I personally have a map that shows all of the known ship wrecks from the Spanish time till Pirate times and many books, some self published with little known or local told stories of the same that are great to read and dream of going out and finding.
Something that people have a hard time wrapping their mind around is that along the coast back in the old days the shore of the Gulf of Mexico was in some places one quarter mile out from where it is now and there were town’s, forts and other places out there including amusement parks. When man changed the natural flow of the major rivers the beaches were not replenished and washed away. Storms bring up what is left off the bottom to shore is always a possibility. You never know what you will find.
Ships are anything else out there after a storm could “rise” up out of the Gulf or for that matters along any stream. All it takes to find them is YOU getting out and looking.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
At the time of this writing Texas is going through history making and catastrophic flooding and stream, river run off. People have lost their lives and property so I do not write this without knowing that what I am writing about has a terrible bad side and I pray that the families that have lost loved ones and property find peace over their loss.
The flooding that is occurring now both removes and deposits dirt. Almost always in this type of event do you read somewhere where an old building or ship is exposed by a flood uncovering them. This is probably happening right now up and down the Texas coast. Now that does not mean that there is going to be treasure associated with these. But, the treasure would be in finding the uncovered relics of the past. My son Ray that writes and owns the Lone Star Ghost Towns web site in the Legends section of Prospecting Texas called me and was telling me how many stories of lost towns and ships confirmed by history as being there and unconfirmed but told about in local legend, exists.
Wrecked ships where the survivors salvaged as much off of the ship they could and made camp which did not mean and usually was not right on the beach until rescued have left behind artifacts both in the camps and the items off of the wrecked ship that washed up on shore for a while are still there to be found.
Pioneers and travelers that had to make camp for a winter until they could keep going left items sometimes to lighten their loads to gain time that washed down the river to the mouth of it at the Gulf or ocean and the items could be closer to the surface after these floods and or storms for someone to find either by metal detectors or visually seeing the objects. Old forts, towns, cattle shipping stations, water side cities that were washed away have left many collectables to be found.
Pirate treasures and old Spanish ship wrecks are the most looked for after a storm. Many tails and legends, true or not, are available to tell a treasure hunter where to look after a storm. I personally have a map that shows all of the known ship wrecks from the Spanish time till Pirate times and many books, some self published with little known or local told stories of the same that are great to read and dream of going out and finding.
Something that people have a hard time wrapping their mind around is that along the coast back in the old days the shore of the Gulf of Mexico was in some places one quarter mile out from where it is now and there were town’s, forts and other places out there including amusement parks. When man changed the natural flow of the major rivers the beaches were not replenished and washed away. Storms bring up what is left off the bottom to shore is always a possibility. You never know what you will find.
Ships are anything else out there after a storm could “rise” up out of the Gulf or for that matters along any stream. All it takes to find them is YOU getting out and looking.
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$4,000,000 IN GOLD BARS IN HARRIS COUNTY
In the Humble area of north Harris County is a legend about 150 Mexican gold bars totaling in today’s prices for gold about $4,000,000.00 being buried by a large cypress tree in an area called Dead Man’s Lake.
In the area of north East Harris County a good bit of it is swampy because of the San Jacinto river drainage area and the numerous creeks and gullies in the area along with low areas that hold water all the time. This area was traveled as a short and secretive way to New Orleans in the early 1800’s where there was a gold smelter and stamp mill that most of the gold mined and smelted down by the Mexican miners was taken to so that the Mexican miners did not have to give any if not all to the Spanish government officials. Even though Indian troubles were on the way out there was still enough roving bands to cause trouble at any time. In this case there was a convoy of Mexicans who were taking 10 loads of gold bars along the trail east when they became aware of an eminent ambush from a party of Indians. The legend has it that the Mexicans buried the gold bars at the base of a huge cypress tree in the swamp in the area now called Dead Man’s Lake. The Indians attacked the Mexican’s and only a few of them escaped and tried to make it back to their homes in the West. Only one of them made it back and knowing that he was dying drew a crude map to the treasure and gave it to the doctor that was treating him. The lone Mexican miner died of his illness caused by the attack and escape and the doctor gave the map to his family and his descendents looked for the gold for a long time and during that time the word got out of the treasure and many people have searched for the treasure to this date and none of it has been found.
There are many stories of treasure written that are close to this one. Is this one real or not only finding the treasure would show that it is real? In the area that this story refers to there were old trails used by the old timers. I know because I was raised in that area and I can remember seeing and hearing about them. The Mexican miners using some of these trails to get their ore or crude gold bars or even silver bars to the smelter and stamp mill in New Orleans is known because as the story tells they were mining in areas that the Spanish still claimed and to not give it to the Spanish government would get them in prison and or dead. So, they would not take their shipments on the main route to Louisiana through Nacogdoches because the Spanish and their associates would know about the transfer of Spanish wealth without Spain getting any. The story tells about 150 bars which at that time could have looked like anything but “bars”. The miners then used any type of material they could to pour the molten minerals in and they did not carry “bar” making molds because they were mining on Spanish land without permission and they carried only what they needed to dig with when they were out of the mining area. Most of the solid gold and or silver from the smelting pours weighted about 20 pounds and most old wagons would or could carry about 300 pounds each. This would follow the story about 150 bars and the 10 wagons. The $4,000,00.00 comes from today’s prices of gold.
So, is it there? Maybe you can find out with modern tools and knowledge. Just remember if you go out to find this treasure. It could be on private, State, County or other off limit properties now. DO NOT TRESSPASS OR ANY OTHER ILLEGAL ACTIVITY TO GET TO THIS OR ANY OTHER TREASURE. Try to talk to the owners and see if you can gain access and have fun from there.
Good Luck!!
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In the Humble area of north Harris County is a legend about 150 Mexican gold bars totaling in today’s prices for gold about $4,000,000.00 being buried by a large cypress tree in an area called Dead Man’s Lake.
In the area of north East Harris County a good bit of it is swampy because of the San Jacinto river drainage area and the numerous creeks and gullies in the area along with low areas that hold water all the time. This area was traveled as a short and secretive way to New Orleans in the early 1800’s where there was a gold smelter and stamp mill that most of the gold mined and smelted down by the Mexican miners was taken to so that the Mexican miners did not have to give any if not all to the Spanish government officials. Even though Indian troubles were on the way out there was still enough roving bands to cause trouble at any time. In this case there was a convoy of Mexicans who were taking 10 loads of gold bars along the trail east when they became aware of an eminent ambush from a party of Indians. The legend has it that the Mexicans buried the gold bars at the base of a huge cypress tree in the swamp in the area now called Dead Man’s Lake. The Indians attacked the Mexican’s and only a few of them escaped and tried to make it back to their homes in the West. Only one of them made it back and knowing that he was dying drew a crude map to the treasure and gave it to the doctor that was treating him. The lone Mexican miner died of his illness caused by the attack and escape and the doctor gave the map to his family and his descendents looked for the gold for a long time and during that time the word got out of the treasure and many people have searched for the treasure to this date and none of it has been found.
There are many stories of treasure written that are close to this one. Is this one real or not only finding the treasure would show that it is real? In the area that this story refers to there were old trails used by the old timers. I know because I was raised in that area and I can remember seeing and hearing about them. The Mexican miners using some of these trails to get their ore or crude gold bars or even silver bars to the smelter and stamp mill in New Orleans is known because as the story tells they were mining in areas that the Spanish still claimed and to not give it to the Spanish government would get them in prison and or dead. So, they would not take their shipments on the main route to Louisiana through Nacogdoches because the Spanish and their associates would know about the transfer of Spanish wealth without Spain getting any. The story tells about 150 bars which at that time could have looked like anything but “bars”. The miners then used any type of material they could to pour the molten minerals in and they did not carry “bar” making molds because they were mining on Spanish land without permission and they carried only what they needed to dig with when they were out of the mining area. Most of the solid gold and or silver from the smelting pours weighted about 20 pounds and most old wagons would or could carry about 300 pounds each. This would follow the story about 150 bars and the 10 wagons. The $4,000,00.00 comes from today’s prices of gold.
So, is it there? Maybe you can find out with modern tools and knowledge. Just remember if you go out to find this treasure. It could be on private, State, County or other off limit properties now. DO NOT TRESSPASS OR ANY OTHER ILLEGAL ACTIVITY TO GET TO THIS OR ANY OTHER TREASURE. Try to talk to the owners and see if you can gain access and have fun from there.
Good Luck!!
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Five Confederate soldiers are going as fast as they can down an old nearly unrecognizable trail that has a more hard wood than pine trees and a lot of brush that was hindering their travel trying to get to a location that has other Confederates waiting on them in the cedar breaks along a river to the west to transfer the load of $20,000.00 in gold coins hidden in their saddle bags to be taken to a place that the money can be stored until the area is safe from the Union soldiers that are overtaking the east part of Texas. This is at the end of the civil war and the south is being picked apart a little at a time. The five soldiers come to an oxbow lake on the little road and have to stop for water for their horses and themselves and then be on their way for 6 more hours of riding. They have come from the area of San Augustine for the last 8 hours and both horses and men are running out of strength and time. As they are trying to get some water down and not get sick from drinking too fast and not letting their horses drink too much they hear sounds from hoofs of other horses coming in their direction or close to it. Being from the east Texas area they instinctively know the sounds to be those of the ponies of Indians that were helping the union with hopes of being left to themselves if the blue coats beat the gray coats. The ponies were coming from the west toward them and the Confederate soldiers knew it would not be long before they would be spotted. The gold weighted them down considerably and they needed to make time to save themselves. They decided to hurry and bury their gold and in short time had a shallow hole dug 5 steps from an old post oak tree on the opposite side of the road from the oxbow lakes outer bow. They covered the hole and threw leaves and over it and a small amount of brush and mounted up and rode back to the camp where they came from only to find out after all that riding that they rode back into a trap as the union soldiers had already overtaken the camp and they became prisoners for the rest of the war. After the war the buried money was forgot about until one of the five soldiers told his son about the buried gold and all he could remember about where they were when they buried it. Did the son find it? There is a group of trails in that area of Texas in the records. The rest is up to you.
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To get started answering the question of where is the gold treasure. A treasure hunter will have to answer several questions: Where were the camps of the confederates in the east Texas area around San Augustine? How far can a rider and horse go in 8 hours on an old road at a gallop? They would have known not to go through any towns on their way. So, what old road would have taken them to where they were going? What is an "ox-bow" lake and where were they most likely to be located in Texas. What direction was the bow in the lake to give reference to where the treasure is buried? Where would there be a cedar break by a river with in 6 hours more travel? Where in Texas do you get into the areas that have more hardwoods than pines? How much did $20,000.00 worth of gold coins weigh back then? How deep would that much weight have sank in this long of time added to the depth they buried it at that time? Last but not least. HOW MUCH IS IT WORTH NOW? I will let you think about these questions and where you would/will have to go and or look up the information to help you to find your answers.
I hope you took time to try to locate an area that would most likely be the area that the soldiers were at the time of their retreat. If you did try to locate the area most likely where they were. You found that you would have had to figure the distance they traveled by horse at a gallop from the area of where the lower end of Toledo Bend lake is and what old road they would have had to travel to their destination. This would take looking into old books and maps of the time and possibly talking to some old timers of the area. These books and maps would also tell you what old towns there would have been along the way for them to by-pass. The cedar breaks along a river would have been by a historical crossing area of "the" river along the road and with in the distance they had to travel. The crossing would need to be found to make sure of the right road giving direction and time to the right oxbow lake and the right direction of the bow in the lake to know what side the gold was on. The part about the different trees also gives area to look for. The depth of the gold would let you know what type of metal detector to use to get down to the depth that the gold is now. All of this information gathering would take some time and thought so you do not let anyone know what you were looking for and to find this treasure might would take you a year or more to find what you are needing to find the GOLD.
Hope you enjoyed this exercise in what it takes to track down the leads of going in search of a legend of a treasure and learned how to look for treasure. This story and the clues in it are pretty easy because they are of the middle 1860's and there is quite a bit of info that is easy for a treasure hunter to get info to fill in the blanks. Most are not this easy. Oh by the way. You are probably are asking yourself. Where IS the place at that has the gold? The clues are in the story. Good hunting!!
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I hope you took time to try to locate an area that would most likely be the area that the soldiers were at the time of their retreat. If you did try to locate the area most likely where they were. You found that you would have had to figure the distance they traveled by horse at a gallop from the area of where the lower end of Toledo Bend lake is and what old road they would have had to travel to their destination. This would take looking into old books and maps of the time and possibly talking to some old timers of the area. These books and maps would also tell you what old towns there would have been along the way for them to by-pass. The cedar breaks along a river would have been by a historical crossing area of "the" river along the road and with in the distance they had to travel. The crossing would need to be found to make sure of the right road giving direction and time to the right oxbow lake and the right direction of the bow in the lake to know what side the gold was on. The part about the different trees also gives area to look for. The depth of the gold would let you know what type of metal detector to use to get down to the depth that the gold is now. All of this information gathering would take some time and thought so you do not let anyone know what you were looking for and to find this treasure might would take you a year or more to find what you are needing to find the GOLD.
Hope you enjoyed this exercise in what it takes to track down the leads of going in search of a legend of a treasure and learned how to look for treasure. This story and the clues in it are pretty easy because they are of the middle 1860's and there is quite a bit of info that is easy for a treasure hunter to get info to fill in the blanks. Most are not this easy. Oh by the way. You are probably are asking yourself. Where IS the place at that has the gold? The clues are in the story. Good hunting!!
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To the caller of the unknown phone number that was asking about any information I could give him on little known treasure stories of the Big Bend in a specific area and how to go about possibly finding the one he knew about but did not want to give me his return info. Here is my answer the way you wanted me to get it to you and I hope it helps you. If this helps you “a lot” maybe you could share a little with me.
There are many written and still some verbal passed down lost treasure tales and stories in the Big Bend area. The Big Bend area covers most of the Trans-Pecos area of Texas from the Pecos River to El Paso along the Rio Grande on both sides of the river to the New Mexico border and some beyond. Which one your story falls into I don’t know but here is what I am going by to give you some insight on what you will need to know and do to find the hidden treasure on the property you say the legend says it is on. Good luck and I will keep the information as general as I can without giving away your basic area. And, maybe others reading this will gain some information of how to go about finding their own treasure.
The story you told to me is not much different than a lot of the lost treasure stories in mountainous desert areas where ancient Native American peoples made their routes that multiple peoples in a group could traverse with all their possessions the easiest way they could. Along these routes would be available water and food along with some type of shelter if possible and resources that they could make their weapons to kill food and protect themselves from enemies if needed. Spanish exploration and supplies reinforcement persons and later peoples following them and then the European settlers that came after them followed the same routes, roads and paths. Each groups of peoples transported their possessions, goods and riches on these trails, paths and roads. The mountainous regions limit movement to certain passes, canyons, washes and paths that the peoples would take. Treasure stories are a lot of the time associated with these trails or roads because they had “easy” travel and had water and food along the way. These trails and paths also was a prime area to be bush wacked if they were carrying valuables that others wanted. This fact along with the fact that these treasures could have been stashed anywhere from the late 1400’s to the early 1900’s, is why we have so many hidden treasure associated along tails, roads and paths.
Your story is about someone happening into a cave that he saw coins in it but was bit by a rattler before he could see if the coins were silver or gold and then he forgot how to get back to the cave. The cave was one cave in a line of three to four caves along the face of a long horizon and high rock ledge and the story teller told the story later after several trips to find the cave which he could not find when he went back to get the treasure of coins. All of this was/is supposed to be in a certain area of about 15 square miles.
Gold and silver bars or coins can give a treasure hunter the time frame of when the treasure was “lost”. Bars if refined and stamped give the dates and sometimes the places and owners of the bars. Unrefined bars of crude form tell the bars were smelted and did not make it to a refiner and stamp mill and also looking at the minerals in the bars can tell one which geographic location they may have come from. Coins tell the same as refined bars. So, if your treasure is coins they would have gotten there by thieves that stole it and put there for safe keeping until they got back but didn’t or there was some type of eminent tragedy that made whomever was transporting the coinage hide it or for some reason the carrier of the coinage had to lighten their load to save themselves and hid it and no one ever came back to it. In the mid to late 1700’s and after the native peoples would steal money either coinage or bars to buy guns and or to discourage travel through their lands and hide the loot.
If there was a time frame associated with the treasure tail you could look into the common trait of the people at that time as to where would be a more common place that they would have hidden the now treasure.
In old stories a cave can be a deeper irregular crack in the side of a cliff. A cave can be an actual hole anomaly in the side of a cliff or incline or flat area that had a soluble material that water dissolved to make a cave and a cave can be a washed out area on an incline that has a deeper basin associated with it that the loot could be put in the basin and then covered up but maintain the wash out.
Finding a vertical area that has the right type of material that would crack in horizontal or vertical planes down a line that would allow it to have multiple “caves” would need to be found. There would be some type of flat area that the people that put the treasure there could support themselves to get the treasure up to a vertical area and this could be a ledge along the areas of the cave or a flat area below the cave that a make shift ladder could be made to get them up to the cave. Or, even an assessable area above the cave to let someone down and then lower the treasure for the person in the hole to get.
Your story said that the finder and story teller was snake bit before he could get to the coins. Snakes can only climb certain slopes etc. so that can tell you what type of vertical area afore mentioned to look for. Or, there could be limbs or debris that the snakes could get up and hide the cave. Also if the cave was full of snakes that would mean normally that the cave was indeed a hollow area in a vertical area.
So, I would surmise that if your area of search had an old road, path or trail that the old timers used I would start there and find and area that you would suspect would be a good vantage point to watch for the group you were wanting to ambush approaching and have a good get a way, not on the same road, that you could make a get away without being seen for a ways. This would be a deep wash area that went a different way than the road. Deep means that if the loot was heavy and you needed to make time which meant keeping your load light meaning that you would have to stash some of it. You would have found a ledge or cave that was hidden and high enough to easily get the excess loot up and into or on and have bigger tree limbs to climb to the stash place or bigger broken down limbs to throw up and climb and then throw them back down to make it look like they never moved. That is the type of ladder they would use. Not a ladder like most of us would think of today.
The deep wash today would not look like it did back then. In some cases the wash could be filled in along with the cave(s), or, it could be deeper. You would have to really observe all of the washes in the area and test to see which of these changes could have occurred and if the area they are in fits your idea of where the escape route would have been. All of this takes time. Several years of periodic looking are not uncommon. Even if you have plenty of time looking will take some time. Unless you get lucky.
What if the cave is covered? And has been covered for a long time. How would you be able to tell? Number one there is a time line with the story because of the story teller. Second you could run down floods since then in the area that would tell you about when the cave could have been covered. This fact can also help you with finding out what material would have moved with this/these floods. And, if the washes filled or washed out. Walking down the washes you suspect and being very observant of every little detail is your best bet. Science would kick in once again in observing which rocks and structures would allow for making caves. Bends in the wash. Rises and falls in the wash. Areas of known heavy brush or trees that would have made water move quicker or slower causing erosion. Native Americans living in the area that they could have helped carve out a place or shelter out of a small cave. Any of these mentioned and more would be what you would be looking for.
Symbols made into the rocks or even old trees along the washes can give you valuable information. I have found many of these. They are very hard to see and you have to be up on what a symbol is and what is natural occurrence and scrapes. Finding out when coins were first made and transported in the area will give you a time frame of the peoples and their individualized type of symbols for you to look for from that time.
Animal holes and tracks whether actual tracks or slither marks can tell you if there is a potential place that a cave could be hiding behind debris and rocks and dirt is another sign to look for when trying to uncover a hidden treasure place. Many treasures and even modern minerals found today comes and came from observing animal, rodent, reptile hole material and ant mounds.
So, I hope this helps you find the BIG LOAD of LOOT. I hope this helps others that have written me about lost treasure tails find theirs. What I have written in this letter is only a small amount of knowledge on treasure hunting. And, is only on finding treasure in certain instances and types of locations.
I also hope this opens your mind to picking a treasure tail and hunting for it. The fun is in the hunt of finding the treasure. Not so much in the treasure. Which leads me to the last part that I will write about.
What if you find the treasure? What are you going to do with it? Who are you going to tell? Answer to #1 – be happy! Answer #2 – be very secretive and – careful. Answer to #3 - very, very, very, few if anyone. In some cases if not most don’t touch it. Don’t take a picture of it. Erase all tracks and tell tale marks you made. Write nothing down. Live like you always did. Take a while to figure all three of the questions out. Then let your conscious and intelligence be your guide.
Earl
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To the caller of the unknown phone number that was asking about any information I could give him on little known treasure stories of the Big Bend in a specific area and how to go about possibly finding the one he knew about but did not want to give me his return info. Here is my answer the way you wanted me to get it to you and I hope it helps you. If this helps you “a lot” maybe you could share a little with me.
There are many written and still some verbal passed down lost treasure tales and stories in the Big Bend area. The Big Bend area covers most of the Trans-Pecos area of Texas from the Pecos River to El Paso along the Rio Grande on both sides of the river to the New Mexico border and some beyond. Which one your story falls into I don’t know but here is what I am going by to give you some insight on what you will need to know and do to find the hidden treasure on the property you say the legend says it is on. Good luck and I will keep the information as general as I can without giving away your basic area. And, maybe others reading this will gain some information of how to go about finding their own treasure.
The story you told to me is not much different than a lot of the lost treasure stories in mountainous desert areas where ancient Native American peoples made their routes that multiple peoples in a group could traverse with all their possessions the easiest way they could. Along these routes would be available water and food along with some type of shelter if possible and resources that they could make their weapons to kill food and protect themselves from enemies if needed. Spanish exploration and supplies reinforcement persons and later peoples following them and then the European settlers that came after them followed the same routes, roads and paths. Each groups of peoples transported their possessions, goods and riches on these trails, paths and roads. The mountainous regions limit movement to certain passes, canyons, washes and paths that the peoples would take. Treasure stories are a lot of the time associated with these trails or roads because they had “easy” travel and had water and food along the way. These trails and paths also was a prime area to be bush wacked if they were carrying valuables that others wanted. This fact along with the fact that these treasures could have been stashed anywhere from the late 1400’s to the early 1900’s, is why we have so many hidden treasure associated along tails, roads and paths.
Your story is about someone happening into a cave that he saw coins in it but was bit by a rattler before he could see if the coins were silver or gold and then he forgot how to get back to the cave. The cave was one cave in a line of three to four caves along the face of a long horizon and high rock ledge and the story teller told the story later after several trips to find the cave which he could not find when he went back to get the treasure of coins. All of this was/is supposed to be in a certain area of about 15 square miles.
Gold and silver bars or coins can give a treasure hunter the time frame of when the treasure was “lost”. Bars if refined and stamped give the dates and sometimes the places and owners of the bars. Unrefined bars of crude form tell the bars were smelted and did not make it to a refiner and stamp mill and also looking at the minerals in the bars can tell one which geographic location they may have come from. Coins tell the same as refined bars. So, if your treasure is coins they would have gotten there by thieves that stole it and put there for safe keeping until they got back but didn’t or there was some type of eminent tragedy that made whomever was transporting the coinage hide it or for some reason the carrier of the coinage had to lighten their load to save themselves and hid it and no one ever came back to it. In the mid to late 1700’s and after the native peoples would steal money either coinage or bars to buy guns and or to discourage travel through their lands and hide the loot.
If there was a time frame associated with the treasure tail you could look into the common trait of the people at that time as to where would be a more common place that they would have hidden the now treasure.
In old stories a cave can be a deeper irregular crack in the side of a cliff. A cave can be an actual hole anomaly in the side of a cliff or incline or flat area that had a soluble material that water dissolved to make a cave and a cave can be a washed out area on an incline that has a deeper basin associated with it that the loot could be put in the basin and then covered up but maintain the wash out.
Finding a vertical area that has the right type of material that would crack in horizontal or vertical planes down a line that would allow it to have multiple “caves” would need to be found. There would be some type of flat area that the people that put the treasure there could support themselves to get the treasure up to a vertical area and this could be a ledge along the areas of the cave or a flat area below the cave that a make shift ladder could be made to get them up to the cave. Or, even an assessable area above the cave to let someone down and then lower the treasure for the person in the hole to get.
Your story said that the finder and story teller was snake bit before he could get to the coins. Snakes can only climb certain slopes etc. so that can tell you what type of vertical area afore mentioned to look for. Or, there could be limbs or debris that the snakes could get up and hide the cave. Also if the cave was full of snakes that would mean normally that the cave was indeed a hollow area in a vertical area.
So, I would surmise that if your area of search had an old road, path or trail that the old timers used I would start there and find and area that you would suspect would be a good vantage point to watch for the group you were wanting to ambush approaching and have a good get a way, not on the same road, that you could make a get away without being seen for a ways. This would be a deep wash area that went a different way than the road. Deep means that if the loot was heavy and you needed to make time which meant keeping your load light meaning that you would have to stash some of it. You would have found a ledge or cave that was hidden and high enough to easily get the excess loot up and into or on and have bigger tree limbs to climb to the stash place or bigger broken down limbs to throw up and climb and then throw them back down to make it look like they never moved. That is the type of ladder they would use. Not a ladder like most of us would think of today.
The deep wash today would not look like it did back then. In some cases the wash could be filled in along with the cave(s), or, it could be deeper. You would have to really observe all of the washes in the area and test to see which of these changes could have occurred and if the area they are in fits your idea of where the escape route would have been. All of this takes time. Several years of periodic looking are not uncommon. Even if you have plenty of time looking will take some time. Unless you get lucky.
What if the cave is covered? And has been covered for a long time. How would you be able to tell? Number one there is a time line with the story because of the story teller. Second you could run down floods since then in the area that would tell you about when the cave could have been covered. This fact can also help you with finding out what material would have moved with this/these floods. And, if the washes filled or washed out. Walking down the washes you suspect and being very observant of every little detail is your best bet. Science would kick in once again in observing which rocks and structures would allow for making caves. Bends in the wash. Rises and falls in the wash. Areas of known heavy brush or trees that would have made water move quicker or slower causing erosion. Native Americans living in the area that they could have helped carve out a place or shelter out of a small cave. Any of these mentioned and more would be what you would be looking for.
Symbols made into the rocks or even old trees along the washes can give you valuable information. I have found many of these. They are very hard to see and you have to be up on what a symbol is and what is natural occurrence and scrapes. Finding out when coins were first made and transported in the area will give you a time frame of the peoples and their individualized type of symbols for you to look for from that time.
Animal holes and tracks whether actual tracks or slither marks can tell you if there is a potential place that a cave could be hiding behind debris and rocks and dirt is another sign to look for when trying to uncover a hidden treasure place. Many treasures and even modern minerals found today comes and came from observing animal, rodent, reptile hole material and ant mounds.
So, I hope this helps you find the BIG LOAD of LOOT. I hope this helps others that have written me about lost treasure tails find theirs. What I have written in this letter is only a small amount of knowledge on treasure hunting. And, is only on finding treasure in certain instances and types of locations.
I also hope this opens your mind to picking a treasure tail and hunting for it. The fun is in the hunt of finding the treasure. Not so much in the treasure. Which leads me to the last part that I will write about.
What if you find the treasure? What are you going to do with it? Who are you going to tell? Answer to #1 – be happy! Answer #2 – be very secretive and – careful. Answer to #3 - very, very, very, few if anyone. In some cases if not most don’t touch it. Don’t take a picture of it. Erase all tracks and tell tale marks you made. Write nothing down. Live like you always did. Take a while to figure all three of the questions out. Then let your conscious and intelligence be your guide.
Earl
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STORIES OF LOST TREASURE PER AREA OF TEXAS
BY: EARL THEISS
I was ask to put some stories about treasures in certain areas that if someone in that area wanted to they could investigate and possibly look for the treasure. So, here goes and I will add to each one as I find a story and I have time.
I will start with the San Antonio area and within a 50 mile radius.
The San Antonio area was probably the first established area of Texas that was a major hub for Spanish movement of people, goods and money to Spanish missions and towns like Nacogdoches and other settlements that the Spanish used to establish boundaries of Spain and then Settlers coming into the now Texas area congregated in that area also.
Using Native American trails or roads from now Mexico the San Antonio area was right on these Native converging trails which made it a natural settlement spot.
With all of the movement and mixture of Spanish, Native American, and European movement over the several centuries before, during and after Texas won its independence there are so many stories of buried treasure I don’t know if anyone really knows of even 1/10th of the actual treasure there is around the San Antonio area.
For this story I will be giving treasure stories for Bexar, Atascosa, Frio, Medina, Wilson, Guadalupe, Gonzales, Caldwell, Comal, Hays, Kendall and Kerr counties.
Are these going to be the only ones for these counties? Defiantly not! But, it will be a start.
PLEASE REMEMBER!!!! THE LAND THAT MOST OF THESE STORIES ARE ASSOCIATED WITH IS PRIVATE. DO NOT TRESPASS OR GO IN AND DESTROY ANYTHING!! THIS INCLUDES STATE AND FEDERAL PROPERTY. Have a good time trying to find the places and enjoy the outdoors, the history and the hunt. Don’t help give treasure hunters a bad rap and name or for that matter this web site. Please.
So, here we go.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
BEXAR COUNTY
Small kegs possibly filled with treasure which could be rich ore are located in the Leon Springs area close to the old Soldiers Camp.
$400,000 of loot from the Newton gang is buried north of San Antonio.
An area North West of Selma was an area that the Spanish had some establishment around and there was at least one chest containing several hundred Spanish gold coins in it lost. Could be more.
Confederate pay chest is rumored to have been buried several miles South of San Antonio near the Medina River and the lower Presidio road crossing.
A dying member of Poncho Villa’s army stated that a large cache of treasure was buried southwest of one of the first Spanish missions located in San Antonio.
Several hundred thousand dollars of early nineteen hundreds cash was buried by several train robbers of Illinois that brought the cash to the San Antonio area. The robbers were killed before they could tell the others where to loot was buried. (Note: you could run this down by finding the story and the players etc.)
Two bags containing $500.00 in silver coins was buried in 1917 in a basement that is now located at the South Alamo and South Streets in San Antonio where the World’s fair was and the money has not been found. (Please remember the bold letter sentences above).
A tunnel from the San Antonio River a little ways away from where the San Antonio expressway is. A cache of silver coins and bars was found at a depth of 14 foot by road crews but lost when they went to find out what to do and the embankment caved in and the exact location was covered by other excavation on the road before they got back.
Church treasures, hidden caches, artifacts, relics are hidden all around the pre-eighteen hundred area that is now San Antonio in tunnels. There were tunnels between the old buildings and missions that were used by the priest to save precious church treasures and artifacts etc and themselves in a number of places that were never recovered because of various reasons. Records of these can be found in libraries and county historical accounts and records and in the Texas General Land Office records among of records around.
Around Pecan St some gold coins were found which could be from a bigger cache.
Around mission Nuestra Senora de la Purisma Concepcion right before an Indian attack a great deal of church treasure was hidden near the sight and never recovered.
A large cache of silver bars was reported to have been seen but not recovered along the banks of Saledo creek at Ft. Sam Houston.
Relics from numerous battles of Spanish vs. Indians, Spanish vs. European settlers, Mexican vs. everyone including themselves can be found all around the San Antonio area.
15 miles southwest of San Antonio is buried a wooden box and crock jar filled with coins by the owner of a ranch.
There are records of the staging places of expeditions, cattle drives, battles, settlers, Indian sites and everything else that caches would have been buried and lost around the San Antonio area. Looking into specific history will open many other spots of interest for the treasure hunter to go out a look. These are just a few.
ATASCOSA COUNTY
Some of the stories from the San Antonio area carry over to Atascosa County.
A Spanish silver mine with some particialy processed ore in it was located in the area of Pleasanton.
Southeast of Pleasanton two saddlebags full of gold was hidden in a hollow tree.
Between the Atascosa River and La Parita creek in the area of Ft Biggy was supposedly a payroll or some of it buried and never found.
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FRIO COUNTY
Not much specifics in this area. Local legends of caches left by the Indians that lived in the area in caves and around the river. The Indians in the 1700’s and later found out that even though they did not need money to live off of the land they could buy guns and other living necessities with money and would steal gold and silver and coins to buy these items with and then would move on leaving the caches.
MEDINA COUNTY
Caches left and forgotten by the Mormon settler families near Mountain Valley have been found.
Small caches of treasure have been found around Devine at some of the old homesteads and shipping areas.
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WILSON COUNTY
Not a lot of treasure stories from this county to.
Settlers seeking protection in the early 1800’s camping out around Ft Camp Houston left caches around the area.
Relics from mission Las Cabras south of Floresville have been found.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
GUADALUPE COUNTY
Relics from Camp Clark, a Confederate post during the Civil War, can be found.
One of the major trails used to go from San Antonio to the east and northeast Texas areas goes through Guadalupe County that many caches have been found, reported, noted in history as lost where common camp grounds for travelers are located. These would be close to a running stream, spring and a place to gather food like a stand of trees that have nuts etc. and also, where creek and other stream crossings were. If you know how to distinguish or know of a crossing area along these trails you can bet there are treasures to be found.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
GONZALES COUNTY
The loot from an 1800’s train robbery is buried between Flatonia and Floresville.
In the area of Old Gonzales there is buried treasure but one would have to look into the source of this tale to find a more specific area to look.
Of course relics of the battle of Gonzales are yet to be discovered.
All kind of treasures should still be there to be discovered around the Duncan Ferry area.
Around the site of the old Indian fort in Gonzales should still have caches from the peoples that took shelter there.
CALDWELL COUNTY
This is another county that the old El Camino Real or San Antonio highway from the east Texas and Louisiana area of Spanish claim went through and you can find many items that would be treasure along this old road.
There are stories of found caches of silver and gold coinage and bars found in various places associated with the areas around the old San Antonio road around the crossings and stopping points.
Santa Anna’s soldiers were transporting a pay chest of gold coins and buried the chest somewhere in the area of Lockhart.
There are a number of old silver and some gold mines in the county. One of them has a cache of bars of silver in it put there by some Mexican miners that had smelted the ore into bars and were about to be attacked by Comanche’s. This is near Luling.
Around the Civil War, Indians made rounds robbing and looting settlers and everything and one they could around Lockhart. Irate settlers finally had enough and chased the Indians southwest of Lockhart with the Indians having all of the loot they had stolen in a wagon. As the settlers got closer to them the Indians dumped the wagons content in the Clear Fork of Plum Creek and nothing was every recovered.
There were a number of battles in the county that relics and artifacts can be found from each.
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COMAL COUNTY
The Comal river and San Marcos river areas had plenty of pecan trees and other nut bearing trees along with good spring water and Native American vegetables because of the good land. Travelers and expeditions stopped to fill up stores for their trips. Because of this many caches and other treasures have been found and or there waiting to be found in this county. There are not that many specific stories but local stories about treasures in the caves and crossings abound.
A cave on Mission Hill near New Braunfels hides a hidden cache.
Local stories tell of German settlers coming to the area to settle before the Indians settled down or were run out and attacked the settlers. The settlers buried many caches of their money and other valuables that was never recovered.
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HAYS COUNTY
Because of the rough mountain area that is Hays County there are few trails through the county that treasure stories would come from. But, there are a few.
5 chests of gold were dumped into a natural hole somewhere in the area of Dripping Springs by a band of Mexican outlaws by the old Spanish crossing of Onion Creek and were never recovered. There are several versions to this story about how and where the gold was covered and marked where it is. Some clues should still be there.
A cache of treasure was buried on a property in San Marcos belonging to an old man that died before telling anyone where it was. People have searched but never found it yet.
Along old Buda road there is an undetermined cache of treasure buried north of San Marcos.
Land opposite the cemetery in San Marcos supposedly has a cache of coins buried on it.
There are several old missions and Forts located in the San Marcos area. All could have anything buried around them and of course along the old San Antonio road.
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KERR COUNTY
This county that the Guadalupe River runs through has been a path north south east and west for Native as well as all other European travelers. The county is full of hiding places for treasure and other valuables. Because of the high hills and mountains peoples going through the county could and would encounter floods that would wash possessions down river and stream to be found by us treasure hunters and others. I know this to be true. There should be many stories of this and yet I cannot find that many.
There was a Spanish coin found in some fill dirt in Center Point in the 1950’s. If anyone can run down the pit that the dirt came from there is no telling what could be there. It could also be a settling area for flood dirt that could lead you up stream to a better cache.
Near the Bandera – Kerr county lines just south of Center Point a party of Spanish travelers was attacked by Indians and hid $40,000.00 of silver coins in leather bags around Bandera pass and the cache has never been recovered.
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This is all I have right now. I hope you like this. If you do please let me know on my FB page. If you really like this please go to the bottom of this page or any of the web site pages and donate via PayPal to help out on expenses. Or not.
STORIES OF LOST TREASURE PER AREA OF TEXAS
BY: EARL THEISS
I was ask to put some stories about treasures in certain areas that if someone in that area wanted to they could investigate and possibly look for the treasure. So, here goes and I will add to each one as I find a story and I have time.
I will start with the San Antonio area and within a 50 mile radius.
The San Antonio area was probably the first established area of Texas that was a major hub for Spanish movement of people, goods and money to Spanish missions and towns like Nacogdoches and other settlements that the Spanish used to establish boundaries of Spain and then Settlers coming into the now Texas area congregated in that area also.
Using Native American trails or roads from now Mexico the San Antonio area was right on these Native converging trails which made it a natural settlement spot.
With all of the movement and mixture of Spanish, Native American, and European movement over the several centuries before, during and after Texas won its independence there are so many stories of buried treasure I don’t know if anyone really knows of even 1/10th of the actual treasure there is around the San Antonio area.
For this story I will be giving treasure stories for Bexar, Atascosa, Frio, Medina, Wilson, Guadalupe, Gonzales, Caldwell, Comal, Hays, Kendall and Kerr counties.
Are these going to be the only ones for these counties? Defiantly not! But, it will be a start.
PLEASE REMEMBER!!!! THE LAND THAT MOST OF THESE STORIES ARE ASSOCIATED WITH IS PRIVATE. DO NOT TRESPASS OR GO IN AND DESTROY ANYTHING!! THIS INCLUDES STATE AND FEDERAL PROPERTY. Have a good time trying to find the places and enjoy the outdoors, the history and the hunt. Don’t help give treasure hunters a bad rap and name or for that matter this web site. Please.
So, here we go.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
BEXAR COUNTY
Small kegs possibly filled with treasure which could be rich ore are located in the Leon Springs area close to the old Soldiers Camp.
$400,000 of loot from the Newton gang is buried north of San Antonio.
An area North West of Selma was an area that the Spanish had some establishment around and there was at least one chest containing several hundred Spanish gold coins in it lost. Could be more.
Confederate pay chest is rumored to have been buried several miles South of San Antonio near the Medina River and the lower Presidio road crossing.
A dying member of Poncho Villa’s army stated that a large cache of treasure was buried southwest of one of the first Spanish missions located in San Antonio.
Several hundred thousand dollars of early nineteen hundreds cash was buried by several train robbers of Illinois that brought the cash to the San Antonio area. The robbers were killed before they could tell the others where to loot was buried. (Note: you could run this down by finding the story and the players etc.)
Two bags containing $500.00 in silver coins was buried in 1917 in a basement that is now located at the South Alamo and South Streets in San Antonio where the World’s fair was and the money has not been found. (Please remember the bold letter sentences above).
A tunnel from the San Antonio River a little ways away from where the San Antonio expressway is. A cache of silver coins and bars was found at a depth of 14 foot by road crews but lost when they went to find out what to do and the embankment caved in and the exact location was covered by other excavation on the road before they got back.
Church treasures, hidden caches, artifacts, relics are hidden all around the pre-eighteen hundred area that is now San Antonio in tunnels. There were tunnels between the old buildings and missions that were used by the priest to save precious church treasures and artifacts etc and themselves in a number of places that were never recovered because of various reasons. Records of these can be found in libraries and county historical accounts and records and in the Texas General Land Office records among of records around.
Around Pecan St some gold coins were found which could be from a bigger cache.
Around mission Nuestra Senora de la Purisma Concepcion right before an Indian attack a great deal of church treasure was hidden near the sight and never recovered.
A large cache of silver bars was reported to have been seen but not recovered along the banks of Saledo creek at Ft. Sam Houston.
Relics from numerous battles of Spanish vs. Indians, Spanish vs. European settlers, Mexican vs. everyone including themselves can be found all around the San Antonio area.
15 miles southwest of San Antonio is buried a wooden box and crock jar filled with coins by the owner of a ranch.
There are records of the staging places of expeditions, cattle drives, battles, settlers, Indian sites and everything else that caches would have been buried and lost around the San Antonio area. Looking into specific history will open many other spots of interest for the treasure hunter to go out a look. These are just a few.
ATASCOSA COUNTY
Some of the stories from the San Antonio area carry over to Atascosa County.
A Spanish silver mine with some particialy processed ore in it was located in the area of Pleasanton.
Southeast of Pleasanton two saddlebags full of gold was hidden in a hollow tree.
Between the Atascosa River and La Parita creek in the area of Ft Biggy was supposedly a payroll or some of it buried and never found.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
FRIO COUNTY
Not much specifics in this area. Local legends of caches left by the Indians that lived in the area in caves and around the river. The Indians in the 1700’s and later found out that even though they did not need money to live off of the land they could buy guns and other living necessities with money and would steal gold and silver and coins to buy these items with and then would move on leaving the caches.
MEDINA COUNTY
Caches left and forgotten by the Mormon settler families near Mountain Valley have been found.
Small caches of treasure have been found around Devine at some of the old homesteads and shipping areas.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
WILSON COUNTY
Not a lot of treasure stories from this county to.
Settlers seeking protection in the early 1800’s camping out around Ft Camp Houston left caches around the area.
Relics from mission Las Cabras south of Floresville have been found.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
GUADALUPE COUNTY
Relics from Camp Clark, a Confederate post during the Civil War, can be found.
One of the major trails used to go from San Antonio to the east and northeast Texas areas goes through Guadalupe County that many caches have been found, reported, noted in history as lost where common camp grounds for travelers are located. These would be close to a running stream, spring and a place to gather food like a stand of trees that have nuts etc. and also, where creek and other stream crossings were. If you know how to distinguish or know of a crossing area along these trails you can bet there are treasures to be found.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
GONZALES COUNTY
The loot from an 1800’s train robbery is buried between Flatonia and Floresville.
In the area of Old Gonzales there is buried treasure but one would have to look into the source of this tale to find a more specific area to look.
Of course relics of the battle of Gonzales are yet to be discovered.
All kind of treasures should still be there to be discovered around the Duncan Ferry area.
Around the site of the old Indian fort in Gonzales should still have caches from the peoples that took shelter there.
CALDWELL COUNTY
This is another county that the old El Camino Real or San Antonio highway from the east Texas and Louisiana area of Spanish claim went through and you can find many items that would be treasure along this old road.
There are stories of found caches of silver and gold coinage and bars found in various places associated with the areas around the old San Antonio road around the crossings and stopping points.
Santa Anna’s soldiers were transporting a pay chest of gold coins and buried the chest somewhere in the area of Lockhart.
There are a number of old silver and some gold mines in the county. One of them has a cache of bars of silver in it put there by some Mexican miners that had smelted the ore into bars and were about to be attacked by Comanche’s. This is near Luling.
Around the Civil War, Indians made rounds robbing and looting settlers and everything and one they could around Lockhart. Irate settlers finally had enough and chased the Indians southwest of Lockhart with the Indians having all of the loot they had stolen in a wagon. As the settlers got closer to them the Indians dumped the wagons content in the Clear Fork of Plum Creek and nothing was every recovered.
There were a number of battles in the county that relics and artifacts can be found from each.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
COMAL COUNTY
The Comal river and San Marcos river areas had plenty of pecan trees and other nut bearing trees along with good spring water and Native American vegetables because of the good land. Travelers and expeditions stopped to fill up stores for their trips. Because of this many caches and other treasures have been found and or there waiting to be found in this county. There are not that many specific stories but local stories about treasures in the caves and crossings abound.
A cave on Mission Hill near New Braunfels hides a hidden cache.
Local stories tell of German settlers coming to the area to settle before the Indians settled down or were run out and attacked the settlers. The settlers buried many caches of their money and other valuables that was never recovered.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
HAYS COUNTY
Because of the rough mountain area that is Hays County there are few trails through the county that treasure stories would come from. But, there are a few.
5 chests of gold were dumped into a natural hole somewhere in the area of Dripping Springs by a band of Mexican outlaws by the old Spanish crossing of Onion Creek and were never recovered. There are several versions to this story about how and where the gold was covered and marked where it is. Some clues should still be there.
A cache of treasure was buried on a property in San Marcos belonging to an old man that died before telling anyone where it was. People have searched but never found it yet.
Along old Buda road there is an undetermined cache of treasure buried north of San Marcos.
Land opposite the cemetery in San Marcos supposedly has a cache of coins buried on it.
There are several old missions and Forts located in the San Marcos area. All could have anything buried around them and of course along the old San Antonio road.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
KERR COUNTY
This county that the Guadalupe River runs through has been a path north south east and west for Native as well as all other European travelers. The county is full of hiding places for treasure and other valuables. Because of the high hills and mountains peoples going through the county could and would encounter floods that would wash possessions down river and stream to be found by us treasure hunters and others. I know this to be true. There should be many stories of this and yet I cannot find that many.
There was a Spanish coin found in some fill dirt in Center Point in the 1950’s. If anyone can run down the pit that the dirt came from there is no telling what could be there. It could also be a settling area for flood dirt that could lead you up stream to a better cache.
Near the Bandera – Kerr county lines just south of Center Point a party of Spanish travelers was attacked by Indians and hid $40,000.00 of silver coins in leather bags around Bandera pass and the cache has never been recovered.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
This is all I have right now. I hope you like this. If you do please let me know on my FB page. If you really like this please go to the bottom of this page or any of the web site pages and donate via PayPal to help out on expenses. Or not.
email comments to [email protected]
Your donation will help us keep this website up and running
