Buried Treasure

Subject: Buried Treasure Mon 21 May 2007, 3:34 pm

OK, we have a question about buried treasure. Where do people search for it around Texas, what are the tales, and stuff like that. Any sunken treasure off the gulf coast and stories about pirates ?

Subject: Re: Buried Treasure Thu 24 May 2007, 7:53 pm

Mari ...

The quest for treasure was a preoccupation of my friends and me in our long-ago, childhood neighborhood. We drew imaginary maps in the black dirt, always marked with a prominent 'X.' Our sidewalks were marked with chalk arrows .... pathways leading to mystery. This story is continuing in your garden and fields today, as likely it ever shall, as a part of the human quest.

Was there ever a grail in Texas? Maybe not, but there were rumors of a golden city by which Cortez would have been brought to humility, and a mine which put visions in Jim Bowie's eyes.

Mari, I posted a topic here previously about the San Saba Mine(s), which Jim Bowie is said to have seen and which since has been lost. These mines and their treasures are almost always 'lost' .... have you noticed that? The San Saba mine is a subject mostly unknown by me, but I believe that a good base from which to proceed in learning about it is J. Frank Dobie's, 'Coronado's Children.'

I did read that the late William E. Syres may have gotten a literal 'whiff' down one of the shafts of the mine in the pages in his enchanting, 'Off the Beaten Trail.' This olfactory encounter took place some sixteen miles southwest of Llano. At that place, collapsed passageways, Spanish coins, and even skeletons are said to have been found .... the remnants of an Iberian quest for silver.

Syres' work is a kind of 'Apocrypha' of Texas history. But he wrote with a view of the Kerrville hills through which to fire his imagination, and few young could be bored by a place at his knee. So ...??

Mari, treasure is everywhere in Texas, with legends stacked upon legends to serve as a stratigraphy of the quest. We might as well begin making a list of a few of the sites at which the driven had dug and continue to dig.

Tell that little guy to keep his shovel in hand!

Love,

Holly

Subject: Re: Buried Treasure Thu 24 May 2007, 8:43 pm

Thank you Holly. Justin and our little pirate love all this stuff.

Subject: Re: Buried Treasure Fri 25 May 2007, 2:42 pm

Mari ...

There are so many Texas treasure stories with so many twists and turns that your young fellah has a bobby to last him a lifetime! The 'big' legends, of course, are associated with well-known locales .... such as Padre Island and Palo Duro Canyon. Jim Bowie's Lost Mine (down in the San Saba country) evidently holds the most sought-after hoard (or mine, or both ... as the case may be).

Here is a some insight from one of those non-dreary, older Texas-History textbooks that I mentioned before. It's titled, 'Texas Roundup,' by Benthal and Bridges (Noble and Noble, 1965). The story is "Jim Bowie's Lost Silver Mine," by Jim Koethe, and extends the view of Mike Callahan, who then was a deputy constable in Dallas.

Callahan say that he is "convinced that the San Saba area was used by the Spanish as a huge headquarters and smelting area for their far-reaching mining ventures in Texas .... He feels that the area was used as a storage place for Spanish silver bullion before it could be shipped back to Mexico.

"Deputy Callahan theorizes that the silver ore was shipped to San Saba from mining sites throughout Texas. During his years of prospecting in Texas, he has found many of these old Spanish mine sites in the state -- some of them, in fact, just on the outskirts of Dallas -- and he believes that ore from these mines was shipped to San Saba for refining.

"At one of these old sites, just south of Dallas in Dallas County, he found deep ruts made by car [cart?] wheels, old smelting areas and 'patios' covering acres and acres of land and the old abandoned mine shafts."
(page 37)

Are veins of silver lying beneath and/or exposed around the Dallas area? Is there evidence of early mining operations in North Texas? This sounds incredible to me, but Mary, I just don't know. We'll leave that critical, ephemeral determination to the geologists, the archaeologists (the historians?), the cartographers, and the dreamers (such as you have pirat

).

Now, a couple of little sites for little guys to wrap their noodles around:

In his bound memories, 'Texas Pioneer Days,' (1965) H. Bryant Prather says that an individual called 'Old Indian John' "operated for two years near the former homestead of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Brazelton, in quest of treasure hidden by his relatives when forced to flee Parker County." (Chapter Cool

My guess is that 'Indian John' may have been of the Kiowa tribe, who recently had vacated the northern Parker-County vicinity about which Mr. Prather was writing. Did he find what he was searching for? That we are not told.

Abbi Hertz wrote in the 'Fort Worth Star Telegram' several years ago ("Urban Legends: Arlington Lore Leaves Lasting Impressions," 2002?) of Arlington's Crystal Canyon as the potential site of a cache of gold. According to Ms. Hertz:

"In the mid-1800s, a train shipment of Mexican gold was stolen from the Santa Fe Railroad by Jacob Snively and his 'Band of Invincibles.' The haul was all that 20 mules could carry.

"Before federal troops caught the gang, the Invincibles supposedly his the gold in Crystal Canyon, later a part of Holley Hale's farm. The story says that the gold might never have been retrieved, Jeremiah Claxton told Carter in 1996. Claxton was a farm hand on the Hale farm in 1926.

"Over the years many have dug holes throughout the canyon, hoping to find the gold. During Claxton's time as a farm hand he said he collected many pick axes from people looking for gold.

"Sometimes noises can still be heard in the Canyon, off of Brown Boulevard just east of Collins Street. Although lights and noise can be heard, very rarely are people found in the canyon."

Basketball

Holly

Subject: Coronado and His Quest for Gold Sat 26 May 2007, 1:00 pm

Since this is the place for speculation ....

In his introduction to his classic book, 'Coronado's Children,' eminent Texas folklorist, J. Frank Dobie, writes:

"Instead of cities with gates of gold and houses of sapphire-studded doors that flashed in the sun, Coronado found among the Zunis of what is now Arizona walls of mud and naked burrows in barren cliffs. The Seven Cities of Cibola were a dream. But 'mas alla' -- on beyond -- so an Indian known as the Turk said, was the Gran Quivera. It was a place 'where ordinary dishes were made of wrought plate and jugs and bowls were of gold.' Coronado rode on -- 'mas alla.' He rode a thousand miles across unknown mountains and parched plains -- and he found Gran Quivera to be a handful of naked savages squatting under wind-whisked thatches or skulking at the heels of drifting buffaloes." (pp. vi and vii)

Is it possible that Coronado was being led by a folk memory rather than by a dream, and that this memory was tied to the towns of the Mound Builders which had flourished much further to the east?

Thanks for any ideas,

Holly

Guest

As far as ship wrecks and pirate treasure go - Jean Lafitte is supposed to ahve buried some on Galveston Island prior to his eviction by teh US Navy c.1821. Myself - i don't believe he did 9or if he did that he left it there).

There was an actual major wreck involving several (five, i think) Spanish treasure ships off Padre Island in the latter part of the 16th Century, and a good many coins and other items form it have been recovered over the years. May have been some others.

I'd take a look at the Handbook of Texas On-line for that.

Also - this month's Texas Monthly has an article on great beaches in Texas and a couple of the articles discuss the Spanish ship wreck from the 1500s.

Subject: Re: Buried Treasure Mon 28 May 2007, 5:03 pm

Thanks for the info on the pirate and treasure. We'll get the magazine.
Mari

Subject: Sea Beans and Sea Shells Thu 31 May 2007, 2:30 am

Mari ...

I was thinking about a kind of treasure which also is kind of historic and kinda not: sea beans! Have you heard of them? Take a look at this website:

http://www.seabean.com/

I first learned of them in the anthology of the science articles from "Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine," entitled, 'Young Naturalist.' There's a great little chapter on sea beans there; can forward.

Also, have you ever wondered how old the seashells that wash up on our shores are? Now we're talkin' natural history, I guess. Still, I would like to know! Question

Holly

Subject: Re: Buried Treasure Mon 04 Jun 2007, 12:07 pm

Those are cool ! There's some treasure we might be able to find too cheers

I didn't know that seeds could float so far away from where they grew.

We're unpacked and getting back into our routine. Love the blue look !

Mari

Subject: Re: Buried Treasure Mon 04 Jun 2007, 1:50 pm

Mari ...

We haven't had the chance to look for any sea beans yet.

Several years ago, we did travel down to Port O'Connor on the Gulf Coast. It was my first time being in the region in many years; didn't expect much from that little community nor the whole coastal area .... with its gray water and brushy terrain ... but I fell in love with the place! It was like a little Renner, Texas, on the sea Smile

We did collect many seashells, and stepped around MANY HUGE jellyfish which were stranded on the beach pale

Glad you're getting settled back in Laughing

We are 'true blue' around here, now, I guess .... or turquoise ... or something. I can't figure out how to change the category heading colors, and have come to the conclusion that they are immutable. Neutral

Rest up!

Holly

Subject: Re: Buried Treasure Tue 12 Jun 2007, 11:03 pm

I have real bad memories from Padre Island days Holly. Ha ha ha drunken

Subject: Re: Buried Treasure Wed 13 Jun 2007, 11:24 pm

Sweetheart ... I never did the 'condo' thing but am thankful that you are here to remember and to cast those days aside like sand over your shoulder I love you

Love to you and yours ...

Holly
_________________
The woman of the frontier made the best of her situation, for she had developed a respect for the land that gave her freedom as well as the courage to live in it.
~~~ from the perspective of Anne Seagraves

Subject: Shoal Creek Treasure Sat 30 Jun 2007, 5:04 pm

I'd forgotten about the treasure that supposedly was hidden in the vicinity of Austin's Pease Park .... and its association with and early 'Rolling Stone' publication and even with O. Henry. Curran Douglass' 'Austin Overview' provides a nice overview of the hunts for treasures along the banks of Shoal Creek -- and the legends of how the cashe of gold came to be buried there. Here, also, are some links to web-pages bearing pieces of the story:

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v043/n2/contrib_DIVL3116.html

http://www.io.com/~xeke/mysterie.htm

http://www.txinfo.com/brykerwoods/Parks/ShoalCreek.html
_________________
The woman of the frontier made the best of her situation, for she had developed a respect for the land that gave her freedom as well as the courage to live in it.
~~~ from the perspective of Anne Seagraves

Subject: Re: Buried Treasure Wed 11 Jul 2007, 11:03 am

Holly I'm trying to find the aritcle on mirrors you told me about. Help ! confused

Subject: Re: Buried Treasure Thu 12 Jul 2007, 5:36 pm

Mari, it is in the 'Big Bend' section under 'Los Avisadores.'
_________________
The woman of the frontier made the best of her situation, for she had developed a respect for the land that gave her freedom as well as the courage to live in it.
~~~ from the perspective of Anne Seagraves