Looking for hidden treasures in Texas. (original) (raw)

East Texas is resplendent with stories about hidden or buried treasures.

While many of them may be only legends passed down by generations of East Texans, a lot of the stories have some credence.

The stories in East Texas are usually the products of folk tales handed down from one generation to another.

And they are not restricted to just East Texas. Such tales can be found in any part of Texas and have become a part of local and regional histories.

Fortune-hunters have been searching for buried and hidden riches for as long as there has been a Texas. The Spanish often hauled silver and gold bars, coins, and jewelry long distances to reach their destination, but often without success and the occasional loss of life.

Some examples:

• A Mexican cache of silver and gold was reportedly buried in the vicinity of Old Pilgrim Church in Anderson County.
• A treasure was buried somewhere along Biloxi Creek in Angelina County
• Hendricks Lake, in Harrison County, supposedly contains six wagon loads of gold and silver seized by Pirate Jean Lafitte when he raided a Spanish ship. Lafitte�s wagons were sunken in the the lake when Spanish soldiers almost caught up with the treasure bearers.
• Lafitte also reportedly buried near treasure at Shacklefoot on the Texas side of the Sabine River, near the old community of Patroon.
• The loot from a bank robbery at Bowie in Montague County was buried by bandits south of the Red River.
• A cannon full of silver and gold was plunged into the Neches River north of Woodville by Spanish soldiers and is still being sought near the old ghost town of Fort Teran.
  These and other stories will go into a new book that we�re writing, and we could use the help of you and other readers of this column.
  If you know of a treasure story in East Texas, please send us an e-mail at bobb@consolidated.net, write us at PO Box 1647, Lufkin, Texas, 75901, or call us at 936-634-7444 at our offices in Lufkin.
  Bob Bowman's East Texas
  August 8, 2010 Column
  A weekly column syndicated in 70 East Texas newspapers
  Copyright Bob Bowman

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