TheRandyMan
Hero Member
- Apr 3, 2010
- 576
- 16
- Detector(s) used
- Excalibur II, Minelab Etrac, Ace 250k, Discovery TF-900
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
I have not gotten into the KGC treasures much before. Seems like today is the day as I sort of was dragged into them while researching some Jessie James treasure. Found some postings on another web site from a few years back. The specificity was intriguing so I thought I would post a few of them here and see if anyone has any information connected to any of these.
Post 1.
Silver Bar Cave of the KGC
I had no idea you spent some quality time in and around old Wayton.
I spent over 2 weeks there with Hauk back in the late 70s.
Very interesting place indeed and quite a few James family members around those parts.
That is actually Betty Lous area and she could tell a tale or two about that area as her grandfather was the fellow that the old Indian sentinel took across the Buffalo and opened the KGC vault with the 80,000 silver bars in it. High as a mans head the bars are stacked in there, so it is said.
Actually one of the key towns that is hardly mentioned is Murray, which plays a larger part than Parthenon or Wayton.
In fact there is a triangle involved here also.
Triangle starts in Parthenon to Murray to Wayton. Get inside the triangle and find the clues.
Treasure cave is on the west side of the Buffalo.
Let me give you a couple of interesting bits of information.
Leave Parthenon going along the river road towards Murray down thru the hollow and the woods.
When you get to the cemetery by the Old White Church, look close at the name on the tombs and you will find several Vaughn names on some of the tombstones. Some of the stones have been moved and there is no bodies buried directly under them. Some of the Tombstone have been taken away to some locals homes and private graveyards. But there is an old twisted hoot owl tree right out in from of the graveyard just to the side of the church. If its still there it lays almost vertical to the ground and has several branches pointing out over the valley. I will try to get a picture of it posted.
There is a lot of KGC history associated with this area.
Starting up near the Diamond Cave there is a secret cave with a hugh carved stone chair sitting in a certain position and if you sit in it you are actually looking right out the opening and some say right at the Silver Treasure Cave over towards Shiloh Mountain.
Frank James aka Joe Vaughn who was living in Wayton actually hid in a small cave from the Federal agents who followed him for years. He took up the profession as a surveyor so as to pinpoint the location of the several large treasures and many of the small treasures in the area.
One good location that Frank searched is very close to the Wooden School house down in Murray near the river.
It was said that there was a chest of gold coins concealed in a spring right near the school. When we were there the spring had dried up and its exact location was obscure and the brush had grown up and it was difficult to navigate in the area. Hauk said that Frank could never locate the spring either and was more interested in the cave of silver bars which was indicated by certain signs and symbols that were up near Long Point.
We started out from the cemetery, actually some old gravestones in the family cemetery in Wayton and worked our way along the North or upper side of the road in the woods going down the hill towards Murray.
Just down the hill to the right side it a hugh rock probably as big as two houses and right next to the rock was a hugh hoot owl tree bent down parallel to the ground pointing to a water fall further up the hill. Under the water fall is a small dug out cave in solid rock big enough for a man to hide in with a horse. The last time I was there in the late 70s someone had dynamited the bottom of the falls and closed off the opening. If you follow the water down the hill before it crosses the road and up to the right you will find some hugh birch trees possibly over 6 or 7 feet in diameter with many carvings on them, but generally indicating that one has to go up to the top of the bluff at Long Point. The large rock at Long point used to have a 6 foot turkey track carved into it pointing out over the valley towards Cave Mountain and Shiloh Mountain. This is where the reputed Silver cave is supposed to be located.
Another way to possible locate it is to keep going along the road out of Parthenon past old Clyde Murray;s house and down thru the woods on a very serpentine road past the Church and the Cemetary and into the woods. If you keep a close watch we will see two very distinct and identical hoot owl trees side by side pointing down the hill toward the river. It is said that if you draw a line between these trees and dwon the hill across the river and up the other side you could locate the Silver Cave in this manner. There is supposed to be a hugh oblong square stone as big as several houses and the cave is supposed to be underneath this hugh rock outcropping.
If one can get a reading from those two trees and also a reading from the tree at the old Parthernon cemetery, one may get a fairly good idea in what direction one should be looking.
If the old spring at Murray has started flowing again, it would also be a good place to look but across the stream is a lot of James kin living in a small community and they all know the story and are very protective of that little area around there. We seen them sneaking around the woods and were told to be careful as there were a few stills up in the hills and it could be dangerous. I didnt believe that as it was a good ploy to keep us out of a certain area that we were very interested in and that Joe Vaughn spent a lot of time around with his survying equipment.
In fact if you climb up over the top of the blown water fall and go up stream a piece, you will find a Y in the steam and a small cave right in the Y that is stoned up with an opening and it was said that Frank pulled out a couple of leather bags of silver coins at one time and left the area to go to Maimi, Oklahoma near Devils Promenade to locate some old coffee urns full of coins down on the Spring River. This is where the Cherokee Nation connection comes in to Joe Vaughns life.
Theres a lot more but Ill stop here for now.
Find that cave with the stone Masonic ceremonial chair in it and you will be well on your way to a hugh silver treasue, near
80,000 silver bars I understand brought down the Buffalo and hidden under that hugh square rock outcropping.
Cosmo
Post 2.
Lost Confederate Silver Cave
I dont really recall much conversation with Hauk regarding the origin of the alleged silver hoard. I only know that in the early days the KGC and the pre war Confederate government was obsessed with keeping their national wealth in southern states mostly in secret depositories.
There was a tremendous amount of mining going on in the Leadville, Colorado area and in fact there was actually a very large southern contingent of miners around Leadville. The Confederate mining community was very select and secretive and from what I understand hard to penetrate.
Also the early day Phelps Dodge mining corporation was dominated by Southern business men and did a large amount of mining in the copper industry. Gold and Silver being a by product of copper mining.
I believe that most of the confederate gold and silver from Colorado was moved by boat down the Arkansas River to either Ft. Smith or Clarksville and was probably Clarkville as the Mining baron William Andrews Clark was reputed to be KGC and also controlled or owned Gold Field, Phelps Dodge and most of the copper mining operations in Butte, Montana area and along the Mexican boarder.
Hauk didnt seem to have any particular details about the silver hoard other than telling me it came into Jasper, Ark by wagon train and then was moved down the Buffalo SOMEWHERE. He was the one who knew about the signs and symbols around Wayton and the turkey track carved into the rock at Long Point, supposedly pointing to the hoard. He also knew about the Hugh hoot owl tree and the cave under the water fall and took me up on top of the water fall to the Y in the stream and showed me the rocked up cave at the Y in the stream where Frank supposedly found the bags of coins. When we went down into Murray the local James family members there referred to him as Jesse Lee and seemed to know him quite well, although they were suspicious of him and as we were about 8 total in two vehicles.
He also knew about Frank Jamess hideout under Long Point rock and all the cemeteries and hoot owl trees along the trail.
He told us that Frank James lived in the area for some time after the prison thing and that he was posing as a surveyor trying to locate the big one but was always being followed by federalies. He left the area soon after finding the bags and moved onto the Devil's Prominade area of Miami, Okla and searched for the several large jars of old silver coins lost in a flood down under the Prominade bridge where they were hidden in an old barn and flooded out into the river somewhere.
But up in the Murray and Wayton area he lived as Joe Vaughn and we met his grand daughter who was married to Claude Murray and lived outside of Partenon.
Their long dead now but Claude knew them hills like the back of his hand as he hunted there all of his life. Hauk, Jesse the 3rd and I went down to a local hospis care facility where Claudes wife was caring for Frank Jamess last living son. His name was Ebb Vaughn and he died several days after we met him in the hospis. He talked briefly about his father being the real Frank James and that had s sister who lived in Wayton, her married name was Sarah Snow and that him and her were the only ones left.
The information regarding the depository itself came from a friend of mine from those parts named Betty Lou whose grandfather was the guy that the Indian sentinel showed the depository too. She was told that they walked to the depository in about 4 hours crossing the Buffalo at Jasper and then going south along the river. The river was visible from the opening and when they went in the Indian handed him a perfectly square bar of silver which he needed two hands to hold and he noticed that they were all stamped, exactly the same size and had mint marks and purity numbers on them. They arrived at night and left again at night and he never got a good fix on the location as he was blindfolded for most of the journey and was told if he ever came back he would be killed.
Betty was also the one who located the cave with the stone chair in it, which I think was some kind of a Masonic ceremonial configuration as it had a stone alter of sorts and some other strange arrangements which she wasnt familiar with, it was up near Diamond Cave area.
This community was hillbilly to the max and the town of Dogpatch, Ark. sat right in the middle of it all.
One would not want to be a stranger in those parts, in those days anyway.
Cosmo
Post 3.
W.A. Clark
I thought according to Howk, William A. Clark was actually Jesse James? This would tie the silver to JJ and Frank but I don't believe that JJ was Clark, of course, I don't put much credence in anything Howk said.
I'd also wonder why Howk had all of this great info and could read the signs but never recovered anything. As much as he tried to make some recoveries I would think he would jump all over something like 80,000 silver bars that he had that much infomation about.
What kind of assay and mint marks where supposed to be on these bars?
Post 4.
Don;t know about all that, I do know that William Clark was a real person and did a lot of things for someone that little was actually known about other than what he told others and pretty much disappeared later on in life never to be seen again, leaving his legacy to his children.
bioguide.congress.gov/scr...ex=C000454
Also supposedly Marcus Daly was supposely Frank James another copper baron.
www.dalymansion.org/mrdaly.htm
Then there was J.Ross Clark, the Walker Bros, who may have included the famous Johnny Walker, The Confederate King of Nicuragua.
And then there was old George Hearst who really did build his own Castle. Maybe he was the King of California.
I remember being having dinner one night in the famous Funace Creek Inn dining room in Death Valley and looking a a full painting of no other than Frank James above the dining room fireplace with the name T.Coleman under it. Coleman was the founder and ruler of death valley and was responsible for the famous 20 mule team borax wagon trains out of death valley pulled with the finest Missouri Mules, specificallly bred for that particular job.
Well I know a lot about what Hauk said and much of it proved to be true in spite of anything you seem to beleive. But then again you are the biggest pessimist that I have ever come accross anyway. It;s always easy to say, I don;t beleive a word so prove it, instead of diving into something and trying to disprove something that one does not beleive.
I don;t know what kind of marks were on those bars, I don't know if anybody alive knows but in closing I would just like to say.
"WHAT MAKEs YOU THINK THAT HOWK NEVER RECOVERED ANYTHING. WHERE DID YOU GET THAT INFORMATION?
OR IS THAT JUST AN ASSUMPTION. Him and Dalton spent a lot of money in the early 20's and 30's and I understand that they dug up a lot of coffee money along the way, mostly Jesse James loot, of course many will say they were just a couple of rip offs and con men, but that can be expected by the type of individuals that slinked around following those two all the way to eternity and back, trying to get a clue.
I thing the 80,000 bars are still there, so if anyone in that area wants to ask around and see if there is any truth or even rumour still being whispered around those parts. It may be worth a couple of days investigation.
Much more but that's probably enough for now. Anyone heard of these?
Post 1.
Silver Bar Cave of the KGC
I had no idea you spent some quality time in and around old Wayton.
I spent over 2 weeks there with Hauk back in the late 70s.
Very interesting place indeed and quite a few James family members around those parts.
That is actually Betty Lous area and she could tell a tale or two about that area as her grandfather was the fellow that the old Indian sentinel took across the Buffalo and opened the KGC vault with the 80,000 silver bars in it. High as a mans head the bars are stacked in there, so it is said.
Actually one of the key towns that is hardly mentioned is Murray, which plays a larger part than Parthenon or Wayton.
In fact there is a triangle involved here also.
Triangle starts in Parthenon to Murray to Wayton. Get inside the triangle and find the clues.
Treasure cave is on the west side of the Buffalo.
Let me give you a couple of interesting bits of information.
Leave Parthenon going along the river road towards Murray down thru the hollow and the woods.
When you get to the cemetery by the Old White Church, look close at the name on the tombs and you will find several Vaughn names on some of the tombstones. Some of the stones have been moved and there is no bodies buried directly under them. Some of the Tombstone have been taken away to some locals homes and private graveyards. But there is an old twisted hoot owl tree right out in from of the graveyard just to the side of the church. If its still there it lays almost vertical to the ground and has several branches pointing out over the valley. I will try to get a picture of it posted.
There is a lot of KGC history associated with this area.
Starting up near the Diamond Cave there is a secret cave with a hugh carved stone chair sitting in a certain position and if you sit in it you are actually looking right out the opening and some say right at the Silver Treasure Cave over towards Shiloh Mountain.
Frank James aka Joe Vaughn who was living in Wayton actually hid in a small cave from the Federal agents who followed him for years. He took up the profession as a surveyor so as to pinpoint the location of the several large treasures and many of the small treasures in the area.
One good location that Frank searched is very close to the Wooden School house down in Murray near the river.
It was said that there was a chest of gold coins concealed in a spring right near the school. When we were there the spring had dried up and its exact location was obscure and the brush had grown up and it was difficult to navigate in the area. Hauk said that Frank could never locate the spring either and was more interested in the cave of silver bars which was indicated by certain signs and symbols that were up near Long Point.
We started out from the cemetery, actually some old gravestones in the family cemetery in Wayton and worked our way along the North or upper side of the road in the woods going down the hill towards Murray.
Just down the hill to the right side it a hugh rock probably as big as two houses and right next to the rock was a hugh hoot owl tree bent down parallel to the ground pointing to a water fall further up the hill. Under the water fall is a small dug out cave in solid rock big enough for a man to hide in with a horse. The last time I was there in the late 70s someone had dynamited the bottom of the falls and closed off the opening. If you follow the water down the hill before it crosses the road and up to the right you will find some hugh birch trees possibly over 6 or 7 feet in diameter with many carvings on them, but generally indicating that one has to go up to the top of the bluff at Long Point. The large rock at Long point used to have a 6 foot turkey track carved into it pointing out over the valley towards Cave Mountain and Shiloh Mountain. This is where the reputed Silver cave is supposed to be located.
Another way to possible locate it is to keep going along the road out of Parthenon past old Clyde Murray;s house and down thru the woods on a very serpentine road past the Church and the Cemetary and into the woods. If you keep a close watch we will see two very distinct and identical hoot owl trees side by side pointing down the hill toward the river. It is said that if you draw a line between these trees and dwon the hill across the river and up the other side you could locate the Silver Cave in this manner. There is supposed to be a hugh oblong square stone as big as several houses and the cave is supposed to be underneath this hugh rock outcropping.
If one can get a reading from those two trees and also a reading from the tree at the old Parthernon cemetery, one may get a fairly good idea in what direction one should be looking.
If the old spring at Murray has started flowing again, it would also be a good place to look but across the stream is a lot of James kin living in a small community and they all know the story and are very protective of that little area around there. We seen them sneaking around the woods and were told to be careful as there were a few stills up in the hills and it could be dangerous. I didnt believe that as it was a good ploy to keep us out of a certain area that we were very interested in and that Joe Vaughn spent a lot of time around with his survying equipment.
In fact if you climb up over the top of the blown water fall and go up stream a piece, you will find a Y in the steam and a small cave right in the Y that is stoned up with an opening and it was said that Frank pulled out a couple of leather bags of silver coins at one time and left the area to go to Maimi, Oklahoma near Devils Promenade to locate some old coffee urns full of coins down on the Spring River. This is where the Cherokee Nation connection comes in to Joe Vaughns life.
Theres a lot more but Ill stop here for now.
Find that cave with the stone Masonic ceremonial chair in it and you will be well on your way to a hugh silver treasue, near
80,000 silver bars I understand brought down the Buffalo and hidden under that hugh square rock outcropping.
Cosmo
Post 2.
Lost Confederate Silver Cave
I dont really recall much conversation with Hauk regarding the origin of the alleged silver hoard. I only know that in the early days the KGC and the pre war Confederate government was obsessed with keeping their national wealth in southern states mostly in secret depositories.
There was a tremendous amount of mining going on in the Leadville, Colorado area and in fact there was actually a very large southern contingent of miners around Leadville. The Confederate mining community was very select and secretive and from what I understand hard to penetrate.
Also the early day Phelps Dodge mining corporation was dominated by Southern business men and did a large amount of mining in the copper industry. Gold and Silver being a by product of copper mining.
I believe that most of the confederate gold and silver from Colorado was moved by boat down the Arkansas River to either Ft. Smith or Clarksville and was probably Clarkville as the Mining baron William Andrews Clark was reputed to be KGC and also controlled or owned Gold Field, Phelps Dodge and most of the copper mining operations in Butte, Montana area and along the Mexican boarder.
Hauk didnt seem to have any particular details about the silver hoard other than telling me it came into Jasper, Ark by wagon train and then was moved down the Buffalo SOMEWHERE. He was the one who knew about the signs and symbols around Wayton and the turkey track carved into the rock at Long Point, supposedly pointing to the hoard. He also knew about the Hugh hoot owl tree and the cave under the water fall and took me up on top of the water fall to the Y in the stream and showed me the rocked up cave at the Y in the stream where Frank supposedly found the bags of coins. When we went down into Murray the local James family members there referred to him as Jesse Lee and seemed to know him quite well, although they were suspicious of him and as we were about 8 total in two vehicles.
He also knew about Frank Jamess hideout under Long Point rock and all the cemeteries and hoot owl trees along the trail.
He told us that Frank James lived in the area for some time after the prison thing and that he was posing as a surveyor trying to locate the big one but was always being followed by federalies. He left the area soon after finding the bags and moved onto the Devil's Prominade area of Miami, Okla and searched for the several large jars of old silver coins lost in a flood down under the Prominade bridge where they were hidden in an old barn and flooded out into the river somewhere.
But up in the Murray and Wayton area he lived as Joe Vaughn and we met his grand daughter who was married to Claude Murray and lived outside of Partenon.
Their long dead now but Claude knew them hills like the back of his hand as he hunted there all of his life. Hauk, Jesse the 3rd and I went down to a local hospis care facility where Claudes wife was caring for Frank Jamess last living son. His name was Ebb Vaughn and he died several days after we met him in the hospis. He talked briefly about his father being the real Frank James and that had s sister who lived in Wayton, her married name was Sarah Snow and that him and her were the only ones left.
The information regarding the depository itself came from a friend of mine from those parts named Betty Lou whose grandfather was the guy that the Indian sentinel showed the depository too. She was told that they walked to the depository in about 4 hours crossing the Buffalo at Jasper and then going south along the river. The river was visible from the opening and when they went in the Indian handed him a perfectly square bar of silver which he needed two hands to hold and he noticed that they were all stamped, exactly the same size and had mint marks and purity numbers on them. They arrived at night and left again at night and he never got a good fix on the location as he was blindfolded for most of the journey and was told if he ever came back he would be killed.
Betty was also the one who located the cave with the stone chair in it, which I think was some kind of a Masonic ceremonial configuration as it had a stone alter of sorts and some other strange arrangements which she wasnt familiar with, it was up near Diamond Cave area.
This community was hillbilly to the max and the town of Dogpatch, Ark. sat right in the middle of it all.
One would not want to be a stranger in those parts, in those days anyway.
Cosmo
Post 3.
W.A. Clark
I thought according to Howk, William A. Clark was actually Jesse James? This would tie the silver to JJ and Frank but I don't believe that JJ was Clark, of course, I don't put much credence in anything Howk said.
I'd also wonder why Howk had all of this great info and could read the signs but never recovered anything. As much as he tried to make some recoveries I would think he would jump all over something like 80,000 silver bars that he had that much infomation about.
What kind of assay and mint marks where supposed to be on these bars?
Post 4.
Don;t know about all that, I do know that William Clark was a real person and did a lot of things for someone that little was actually known about other than what he told others and pretty much disappeared later on in life never to be seen again, leaving his legacy to his children.
bioguide.congress.gov/scr...ex=C000454
Also supposedly Marcus Daly was supposely Frank James another copper baron.
www.dalymansion.org/mrdaly.htm
Then there was J.Ross Clark, the Walker Bros, who may have included the famous Johnny Walker, The Confederate King of Nicuragua.
And then there was old George Hearst who really did build his own Castle. Maybe he was the King of California.
I remember being having dinner one night in the famous Funace Creek Inn dining room in Death Valley and looking a a full painting of no other than Frank James above the dining room fireplace with the name T.Coleman under it. Coleman was the founder and ruler of death valley and was responsible for the famous 20 mule team borax wagon trains out of death valley pulled with the finest Missouri Mules, specificallly bred for that particular job.
Well I know a lot about what Hauk said and much of it proved to be true in spite of anything you seem to beleive. But then again you are the biggest pessimist that I have ever come accross anyway. It;s always easy to say, I don;t beleive a word so prove it, instead of diving into something and trying to disprove something that one does not beleive.
I don;t know what kind of marks were on those bars, I don't know if anybody alive knows but in closing I would just like to say.
"WHAT MAKEs YOU THINK THAT HOWK NEVER RECOVERED ANYTHING. WHERE DID YOU GET THAT INFORMATION?
OR IS THAT JUST AN ASSUMPTION. Him and Dalton spent a lot of money in the early 20's and 30's and I understand that they dug up a lot of coffee money along the way, mostly Jesse James loot, of course many will say they were just a couple of rip offs and con men, but that can be expected by the type of individuals that slinked around following those two all the way to eternity and back, trying to get a clue.
I thing the 80,000 bars are still there, so if anyone in that area wants to ask around and see if there is any truth or even rumour still being whispered around those parts. It may be worth a couple of days investigation.
Much more but that's probably enough for now. Anyone heard of these?
