Steinheimers gold

[potsandpans]

Ive had a hard time finding any information about karl steinheimers gold, and I was wonderin if anyone had any information about it or links to anything useful.

Thanks

 

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[AnOldPro]

Greetings,

Steinhiemers gold was one of the treasures I did extensive research and searching for when I lived in Texas back in the 70's.

The site of the gold burial is near Stephanville, TX. The convoy was attacked by Indians and during the battle several of the mules being used to help transport the gold were killed along with four of Steinhiemers men.

Though they fought off that attack Steinhiemer decided it was too dangerous to take the gold further because of the dangers of Indians and the uncertain political situation in Texas at the time and dug a shaft about 6' square and fairly deep on a bluff above a swampy creek by a big oak tree. He then drove a big iron spike into the tree to mark the site and heaped up a bunch of stones over the filled-in shaft to make it look like a grave.

I was working for Garrett Metal Detectors at the time and a farmer who owned the property where the gold is buried contacted me for help in making a recovery. The big oak tree was standing but dead due to MANY lightning strikes it had suffered as a result of all that metal buried beneath it acting like a lightning rod. The iron spike had crumbled to rust but the hole in the tree with rusty iron flakes still in was visible. The pile of rocks over the shaft entrance had not been disturbed. We moved the rocks and began to dig. The outlines of the original shaft were CLEARLY visible as the soil used to fill the hole back in after burial of the gold was " marbled" and mixed in color and appearance showing it obviously had been disturbed at some point in the past.

We got down about 20' and suddenly could see that the entire shaft had shifted towards the creek by several feet in the past... a natural land slippage, apparently. Turned out that when the slippage occured the gold hoard moved with it and out over what was in effect a giant quicksand pit that ran underneath the nearby creek. We tried to probe the depth of the quicksand and find the gold but after probing 35 more feet and still not hitting anything solid were forced to conclude that the gold had slipped beyond reach of anything but a VERY extensive and EXPENSIVE recovery operation.

Steinhiemer, himself, is believed to have been attacked by Indians again in Bell County near what is now Belton, Texas and killed not long after he buried the gold.

I lost contact with the farmer in the years that followed so I do not know if he ever was able to make any further attempts to recover the gold that was surely on his property but put by nature or God beyond any but the most extreme recovery efforts.

I might mention that this is the first public revelation of this information I have ever made but since I have no plans to attempt any further recovery efforts I will pass it along. I hope you will find it contains the sort of information you were seeking.

DC

 

[texan connection]

There of mention of it in western treasure mag this month

 

[Gypsy Heart]

DC,
Would you have any pics of your operations on this or more you could share? Very fascinating info....thank you for sharing this much.

 

[Oklahunter]

Interesting!

Here's a little more:
http://www.ftrf.net/tales.pdf

 

[texan connection]

I actually knew a guy who searched that area south of temple by the leon, lampassas, little river Y, He"s dead now and dident find it.
I have now heard of 3 possible locations stephanville (posted by anoldpro) sangabriel (I forget the sight I got that info) and the link posted by oklahunter.
I do know this, Bryant station was around the temple location and was a ranger fort as well as a settlement established by Benjamin Bryant, he was a Texas revolution survivor and recieved his land as payment for the independence. So rangers would have had a close base to work out of if the fight took place south of temple.
Dallas area (and anywhere north of the brazos, This includes Bryant station) would have been very bad Indian territory at that time, If the rangers were that far north in 1839 (stephenville)They would have been days tracking the party, and would have needed a pretty big group to stay safe from the Indian threat. (also consider the rangers had a reputation of being some B.M.F.) Of course The ranger article could be wrong about him burying the gold there.
I would love to get whatever info you might have on the subject AnOldro.

 

[ChrisWhewell]

I actually knew a guy who searched that area south of temple by the leon, lampassas, little river Y, He"s dead now and dident find it.
I have now heard of 3 possible locations stephanville (posted by anoldpro) sangabriel (I forget the sight I got that info) and the link posted by oklahunter.
I do know this, Bryant station was around the temple location and was a ranger fort as well as a settlement established by Benjamin Bryant, he was a Texas revolution survivor and recieved his land as payment for the independence. So rangers would have had a close base to work out of if the fight took place south of temple.
Dallas area (and anywhere north of the brazos, This includes Bryant station) would have been very bad Indian territory at that time, If the rangers were that far north in 1839 (stephenville)They would have been days tracking the party, and would have needed a pretty big group to stay safe from the Indian threat. (also consider the rangers had a reputation of being some B.M.F.) Of course The ranger article could be wrong about him burying the gold there.
I would love to get whatever info you might have on the subject AnOldro.

Lots of different accounts of this tale, i'd like to see the original text of Steinheimer's letter, too bad its probably long gone and not published. I seriously doubt he made it up to Stephenville