soldier mountain

[okiedowser]

Has anyone heard of a large treasure in the area of soldier mts??

 

[jeff of pa]

http://rebelcherokee.labdiva.com/lsttreas.html

 

[jeff of pa]

from that link

An early businessman of Hobart, that had been a scout for the trail herds that passed through on the Great Western Cattle Trail, then had settled in Hobart, found evidence of once thriving villages of the Mexicans and Indians in Devil's Canyon. Near a Mexican village were a number of springs and on the west side of Soldier Mountain there was a mysterious cave with several tons of ashes. The cave had been used by the Spaniards to smelter gold. They would build a big, hot fire and throw the gold ore into the fire. It would melt down into the ashes. After the ashes cooled they sifted the gold out.

The Indians told him that the Spanish and their burro pack train came from the mountains in the west. His theory was, the Spanish would mine the ore in Colorado until it became too cold, then loaded it onto burros and move to Devil's Canyon to smelt it. The canyon had shelter and protection, water and grass for the animals and plenty of wood for the fires. The Indians could smell and see when the Spanish were smelting, so when they got ready to move the gold, the Indians would attack, kill the Spanish and take the gold and bury it. One legend is a band of Kiowa discovered the Spaniards mining and smelting gold. The Kiowa killed all the Spaniards and took 50 burro loads of the gold. It was later hidden by the chiefs. The legend is no one was allowed to get near the gold unless they were a chief.

 

[okiedowser]

Thank's jeff

 

[rginn]

That's all Oklahoma, not Colorado. It's in Devils canyon, at the west end of the Wichitas. It's not really Soldier Mt., but there is a Soldier Springs east of the site. The Spanish allegedly had a road that ran near here along the north fork of the Red River. There was a large Wichita village there, and possibly some Spanish occupation. Lot of history there, too much to list. The soldiers fought some Comanches there in 1868 near Soldier Spring. Supposedly, some Kiowas took some gold from the Spanish and went east to Twin Mts. and buried it. Maybe. I been all over Twin Mts. but didn't find much, but it is an interesting area. Lots of rattlers, too. My great uncle worked the area around Devil's Canyon looking for something, back in the old days when you could pretty much go anywhere, but never found what he was looking for. If you can find transcripts of the Greer County case, there's a bonanza of historical info there about that area. And keep in mind, just because you find Spanish artifacts in SW Oklahoma doesn't mean the Spanish was there. Often overlooked, but the Kiowas and Comanches were all the time trading with and going down raiding in Mexico, where they confiscated property belonging to the Spanish. So the random Spanish bridle bit found in SW OK could very well have belonged to a Comanche warrior.

 

[okiedowser]

This is the place in colorado.

 

[rginn]

I don't have anything on it, okiedowser, but I'm assuming it's down by Colorado Springs? I'm up in Summit Co. and don't get down that way much. What have you heard? And thanks Jeff for bringing up Devil's Canyon in Oklahoma, always a good topic.