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Treasure tale keyed digging in East Texas Piney WoodsBy W. T. BockReprinted from Beaumont Enterprise, Saturday May 15, 1999.NEDERLANDTexas has always had its share of that breed of mankind, whom one author labeled "Coronados Children." A century ago, every shellbank bordering Sabine Lake or its tributaries had its own legend of Lafittes buried gold, but less well-known were the treasure tales of the piney woods.Most of those stories had their origins in days when Spanish mule trains brought gold and silver from Mexico to Natchitoches, La., to trade for bolts of cloth and hardware. The pack trains were often preyed upon by American bandits, hid out near Sabine River. One such tale (Galveston News, October 2, 1891) told of the excavations for a cotton wharf at Starks Landing, south of Newton, in 1867, where "...the diggers unearthed a deposit of 214 pounds of silver bars..." In 1897, W. S. Glenn of Palestine, Texas, discovered an aged letter in his grandmothers trunk, which read in part as follows:
Glenn remembered such a creek on his grandfathers farm, east of Neches River, where Glenn was born, and where stones of a mill pond, a part of an ancient water mill, still stood. And there are passages in H. S. Thralls and H. Yoakums histories of Texas that appear to corroborate some of Fletchers story. Since Fletchers letter appeared so authentic, Glenn succeeded in convincing others and in organizing a stock company to search for the gold, its officers including four railroad, express company, and bank executives of Palestine. They raised $5,000 to employ diggers to excavate the site. Glenns crew dug from May until October, 1898, at which time the company funds were exhausted, and officers of the stock company chose to abandon the search. It is believed that Glenns treasure-hunting enterprise was the largest ever conducted in Southeast Texas. Treasure tales, such as "McGaffeys gold" at Sabine Pass or "Yocums treasure" near Sour Lake, have always added a fascinating dimension to East Texas folklore. However, of the shovels that ever unearthed such a cache, only one such incident is known to have been published in a newspaper. W. T. Block of Nederland is a historian and author. His website is http://block.dynip.com/wtblockjr/ This database is very large (350 articles) and is intended as an area history source for students. |
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