Buried Treasures of
the American Southwest:
Legends of Lost Mines, Hidden Payrolls, and Spanish
Gold
W. C. Jameson
Publisher: August House
224 pages
ISBN-10: 0874830826
paperback $14, e-book $10
If there's a lesson in this book, it's "Don't hide
things too well."
In 1649, bandits robbed missionaries and hid the loot. They
gave a description of the hiding place mentioning trees, rocks, etc. that
changed over the years before anyone could return. In southeast Arizona, a huge
cache of gold bars, nuggets, and a Spanish parchment was found in 1941. A cave-in
and flood buried the treasure before it could be excavated. According to
legend, millions if not billions of dollars of stolen or mined treasure lies
hidden in secret caches throughout the Southwest.
Native Americans had a different reason for hiding all signs
of gold or gold mining – they knew that gold made white people crazy for their
land. At least when Indians hid something, they did not want it to be found
again. Did they really leave ghosts to guard the gold? Some treasure hunters
have claimed to see strange lights and her mysterious sounds coming from
underground.
Neither poor directions nor ghosts stop those determined to find treasure. In
the early 1800s, a defrocked French priest headed a murderous bandit gang. He
apparently buried 500 gold bars near a spring in western Oklahoma. V-shaped
stones are supposed to point out directions. Some treasure hunters have tried
hot air balloons to search for the markers. No one has found the treasure yet…
but it is only a matter of time, according to the hopeful.
This book includes more than 35 treasure tales from Arizona,
New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. Simple maps at the beginning of each
section give a rough indication of where each treasure is supposed to be. Some
of these stories are also included in Jameson's other books, such as Legend and Lore of the Guadalupe Mountains.
Kris Bock writes novels of suspense and romance involving
outdoor adventures and Southwestern landscapes. The Mad Monk’s Treasure follows the hunt for a long-lost treasure in
the New Mexico desert. In The Dead Man’s Treasure, estranged
relatives compete to reach a buried treasure by following a series of complex
clues. In The Skeleton Canyon Treasure,
sparks fly when reader favorites Camie and Tiger help a mysterious man track
down his missing uncle.
The
Mad Monk's Treasure:
The
lost Victorio Peak treasure is the stuff of legends—a heretic Spanish priest’s
gold mine, made richer by the spoils of bandits and an Apache raider.
When
Erin, a quiet history professor, uncovers a clue that may pinpoint the lost
treasure cave, she prepares for adventure. But when a hit and run driver nearly
kills her, she realizes she’s not the only one after the treasure. And is Drew,
the handsome helicopter pilot who found her bleeding in a ditch, really a hero,
or one of the enemy?
Just
how far will Erin go to find the treasure and discover what she’s really made
of?
“The story has it all—action, romance, danger, intrigue,
lost treasure, not to mention a sizzling relationship....”
Excerpt:
Erin could hardly believe what she was seeing. Could this be
it? After all this time waiting, searching, had she finally, finally, found
what she was looking for?
She forced herself to sit back and take a deep breath. Don’t
make assumptions. Don’t rush into things. She wanted to leap up and scream her
excitement, but years of academic training held. Slow down, double-check
everything, and make sure you are right!
She leaned forward and ran her fingers over the grainy
photograph. With that one image, everything seemed to fall into place. This was
the clue. It had to be.
She fumbled in her desk drawer for a magnifying glass and
studied the symbols in the photo more closely. At a glance, they looked like
your standard Indian petroglyphs. You could find them throughout the Southwest,
tucked away in caves or scattered among boulder fields.
But this was different.
If she was right—and she had to be right—these symbols were
a map. A map that could lead her to one of the greatest caches of buried
treasure ever.
She reached for the phone. In a few seconds a voice said,
“Yeah.” Erin could hear the sound of some tool on metal in the background.
“Camie? I found it!”
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