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Every direction and water-flow claim in this chapter was checked against hydrological and geographic sources independent of the original 1978 article, and it is worth walking through that check directly rather than asking the reader to take it on faith. Salado Creek is formed by the convergence of North Salado Creek and South Salado Creek roughly five miles west of Florence in northwestern Williamson County, and from that point it flows northeast, not east or south, for roughly twenty-one to twenty-seven miles depending on the source consulted, through Williamson and Bell counties, to its mouth on the Lampasas River a few miles northeast of the town of Salado, where the Salado, Lampasas, and Leon all come together at a spot long known locally as Three Forks. The relative positions given earlier in this chapter, Belton to the north, Salado nine miles south of Belton, Prairie Dell thirteen miles south of Belton and a few miles south of Salado, and Jarrell further south still, are all confirmed by independent mapping sources and are internally consistent with one another.
One real discrepancy in the original article's own geography deserves to be flagged here, because it was missed in this chapter's first pass and a careful reader deserves the correction. The old informant's account, as relayed by Buck Pope and printed in the 1978 article, places the “mother mine” close to a spring on the South Fork of Salado Creek. A South Salado Creek does exist, confirmed by the Texas State Historical Association's own survey of the watershed, but it sits up near the creek's headwaters by Florence, Texas, more than a dozen miles west and upstream of Prairie Dell, not anywhere close to the “two and one-half miles west of Prairie Dell” location the article gives for the dig site itself. Either the informant's account used “south fork” loosely to describe a southern tributary or side drainage near the actual dig site rather than the officially named South Salado Creek far upstream, or the two locations described in the article do not actually refer to the same stretch of the creek. This chapter cannot resolve that discrepancy from the available sources and flags it as an open question for anyone researching the legend further rather than silently picking one location over the other.
The legend's claim that Indians deliberately diverted creek water into the treasure chamber to deter searchers is preserved here as part of the story as told, not verified as a fact about actual water engineering; no independent source confirms or denies that any such diversion was physically possible or was ever conducted.
Pablo Juarez's reported 103-year residence at the same creekside location, beginning at age five, is an extraordinary claim on its own terms and cannot be independently confirmed through any source located for this chapter; no birth record, census listing, or death record for a Pablo Juarez matching this description was found. The claim that Guerra passed a lie detector test is reported only secondhand, through acquaintances quoted by a newspaper reporter, with no named examiner or surviving results. A Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter who covered the story at the time, and whose own words are preserved in the 1978 article, put the appropriate level of skepticism on record directly: after noting that a treasure of the size described could hardly have been kept secret if it were real, he wrote plainly that repeated efforts to contact the principals in the story had failed, and that whether the story was true or false, he would leave that to the reader's judgment. This chapter adopts the same position.
Finally, a researcher active on the TreasureNet forum who grew up near Temple raised a specific, technical objection worth preserving here: based on personal knowledge of the local geology, he stated plainly that he did not believe the rock formations around Salado Creek were of a type that could naturally host a Spanish-era mine, as opposed to a cache or cave used only for storage. This chapter cannot independently confirm or refute that geological claim, but it is exactly the kind of specific, checkable objection that future research on this legend should take seriously.
The site is not open to the public, and this was already true when the original 1978 article was written. Its author reported visiting the area and finding the well-worn trail to the old dig site blocked by a heavy iron gate under lock and key, on land local people continued to believe held the treasure. Nothing found in more recent research suggests this has changed; the land remains private ranch property, and no source located for this chapter documents any additional organized excavation attempt since 1965.
Texas has no state agency equivalent to the U.S. Forest Service that manages access to this land, since it is entirely private, but the Bell County Historical Commission and the Bell County Museum in Belton are reasonable first points of contact for anyone conducting serious historical research on this legend, since they maintain archives, historical markers, and local knowledge going back decades. Given that the last organized attempt to dig here drew the direct attention of Texas securities regulators, anyone considering forming an investment group to fund a modern search should consult a Texas securities attorney before raising money from investors, not after.
Carson, Xanthus. "Bell County's Texas-Sized Treasure Still Up For Grabs!" Lost Treasure, March 1978, 35. Reprinted by Lost Treasure, Inc.
"Bell County, Texas." TreasureNet.com forum thread, originally posted June 9, 2005. https://www.treasurenet.com/threads/bell-county-texas.8417/.
"Spanish Gold in Salado, TX." TreasureNet.com forum thread, originally posted April 26, 2005. https://www.treasurenet.com/threads/spanish-gold-in-salado-tx.6685/.
"Texas Treasure Story...Possible Montezuma/Aztec Connections?" The Treasures of Utah forum. https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the...story-possible-montezuma-aztec-conn-t444.html.
Penfield, Thomas. Treasures of Texas. Denver: Sage Books, 1967. (Referenced secondhand via TreasureNet.com forum excerpt.)
Salado Creek Hydrology (Direction and Water-Flow Verification)
"Salado Creek (Williamson County)." Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/salado-creek-williamson-county.
"Rocky Creek and Salado Creek." Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. https://www.tceq.texas.gov/waterquality/tmdl/33-middlebrazos.html.
"Salado Ck at Salado, TX." USGS Water Data for the Nation, Station 08104300. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/USGS-08104300/.
"Overview." Lampasas River Watershed Protection Plan. https://lampasasriver.org/overview/.
"Lampasas and Lavaca Rivers." An Analysis of Texas Waterways, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. https://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/pwdpubs/pwd_rp_t3200_1047/18_c_tx_lampasas_lavaca.phtml.
"Salado Creek." Central Texas Stories and Legends. http://www.centraltexasstories.com/places/salado-creek.htm.
Salado, Prairie Dell, and Bell County
"Salado, Texas." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salado,_Texas.
"Prairie Dell, Texas." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prairie_Dell,_Texas.
Odintz, Mark. "Prairie Dell, TX." Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/prairie-dell-tx.
"Discover Salado: A Historic Village in Texas." Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/salado-tx.
Brune, Gunnar. "Salado Springs." Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/salado-springs.
"Salado Springs." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salado_Springs.
"Bell County, Texas." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_County,_Texas.
"History of the Bell County Historical Commission." Bell County, Texas. https://www.bellcountytx.com/about_us/county_historical_commission/history_of_bchc.php.
"Bell County, Texas, Landmarks & Vanished Communities." TXGenWeb Project. http://www.txgenweb.org/research/landmarks/bell.htm.
"Warwick Ranch Cemetery." Find a Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2279875.
"Salado Creek." onWater United States. https://www.onwaterapp.com/us/texas/water/salado-creek-w6.
"Salado Creek ~ Aquifer Science." Clearwater Underground Water Conservation District. https://cuwcd.org/aquifer-science/salado-creek/.
"Salado Creek, Texas." Find A Spring. https://findaspring.org/spring/locations/north-america/usa/salado-creek-texas/.
"Prairie Dell, Texas." Texas Escapes. https://www.texasescapes.com/CentralTexasTownsNorth/Prairie-Dell-Texas.htm.
The Stagecoach Inn Cave (A Separate Salado Legend)
"Cave Underneath Stagecoach Inn." Temple Daily Telegram archive, July 30, 2007. https://www.tdtnews.com/archive/article_951b1300-8d6d-5a5a-9d3e-41ebaf40484b.html.
The Lost San Saba / Lost Bowie Mine (a Different Legend, Different County)
"Los Almagres Mine." Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/los-almagres-mine.
"Bowie's Silver." The Alamo. https://www.thealamo.org/remember/james-bowie/bowies-silver.
"San Saba Treasure." Texas Lost Mines. https://texaslostmines.com/SanSaba.html.
"San Saba Legends." sansabalegends.wordpress.com. https://sansabalegends.wordpress.com/.
"The San Saba Treasure Legend – The Lost Gold Episode." Texas Lost Mines. https://www.texaslostmines.com/LostGold.html.
Lewis, David C. The San Saba Treasure: Legends of Silver Creek. Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2018.
"The San Saba Treasure: Legends of Silver Creek." UNT Digital Library. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1442710/.
"The Billion-Dollar Lost Silver Mine of the Hill Country." Texas Hill Country. https://texashillcountry.com/billion-dollar-lost-silver-mine-hill-country/.
"Texas Treasure Tales." Texas Co-op Power. https://texascooppower.com/texas-treasure-tales/.
Dobie, J. Frank. Coronado's Children: Tales of Lost Mines and Buried Treasures of the Southwest. Dallas: Southwest Press, 1930; repr. Austin: University of Texas Press.
"Coronado's Children." Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/coronadoschildre0000dobi_h4l7.
Other Texas Treasure Legends (Comparative Context)
"The Buried Treasure of Texas Hill Country." Legends of America. https://www.legendsofamerica.com/hill-country-treasure/.
"The Lost Treasure of Texas – 10 Stories." High Plains Prospectors. https://www.highplainsprospectors.c...hat-will-make-you-want-to-start-searching-now.
"X Marks the Spot." Texas Monthly. https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/x-marks-the-spot/.
"Search for an Estimated $340 Million in Buried Texas Treasure." KSAT, August 2, 2019. https://www.ksat.com/news/2019/08/0...ated-340-million-in-buried-treasure-in-texas/.
"The Hunt for the Lost Treasures of Texas." Texas Highways, September 23, 2024. https://texashighways.com/culture/the-hunt-for-the-lost-treasures-of-texas/.
"Old Spanish Treasure Cave." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Spanish_Treasure_Cave.
The Buttermilk Creek Complex (Real, Peer-Reviewed Archaeology Nearby)
Waters, Michael R., et al. "The Buttermilk Creek Complex and the Origins of Clovis at the Debra L. Friedkin Site, Texas." Science 331, no. 6024 (March 25, 2011): 1599–1603.
"Buttermilk Creek Complex." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buttermilk_Creek_complex.
"A Discovery at Buttermilk Creek Indicates Texas' First Inhabitants Arrived Earlier Than Once Thought." Texas Standard, November 27, 2018. https://texasstandard.org/stories/a...nhabitants-arrived-earlier-than-once-thought/.
Smith, J. B. "Oldest Known Human Habitation in the Americas Uncovered in Salado." Waco Tribune-Herald. https://wacotrib.com/news/oldest-kn...cle_19d48a28-f62d-51bc-897e-1a379d7ffbbc.html.
Legal and Regulatory Sources
"Texas State Securities Board." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_State_Securities_Board.
"Home Page." Texas State Securities Board. https://ssb.texas.gov/.
"Texas State Securities Board." Texapedia. https://texapedia.info/texas-state-securities-board/.
Texas Natural Resources Code, Antiquities Code of Texas, Chapter 191.
One real discrepancy in the original article's own geography deserves to be flagged here, because it was missed in this chapter's first pass and a careful reader deserves the correction. The old informant's account, as relayed by Buck Pope and printed in the 1978 article, places the “mother mine” close to a spring on the South Fork of Salado Creek. A South Salado Creek does exist, confirmed by the Texas State Historical Association's own survey of the watershed, but it sits up near the creek's headwaters by Florence, Texas, more than a dozen miles west and upstream of Prairie Dell, not anywhere close to the “two and one-half miles west of Prairie Dell” location the article gives for the dig site itself. Either the informant's account used “south fork” loosely to describe a southern tributary or side drainage near the actual dig site rather than the officially named South Salado Creek far upstream, or the two locations described in the article do not actually refer to the same stretch of the creek. This chapter cannot resolve that discrepancy from the available sources and flags it as an open question for anyone researching the legend further rather than silently picking one location over the other.
The legend's claim that Indians deliberately diverted creek water into the treasure chamber to deter searchers is preserved here as part of the story as told, not verified as a fact about actual water engineering; no independent source confirms or denies that any such diversion was physically possible or was ever conducted.
A Second, Separate Legend Nearby
Anyone researching buried gold around Salado needs to be careful not to merge two different stories that happen to share a town. Independent of the Salado Creek and Prairie Dell legend described above, the town of Salado has its own long-running local folklore about a cave beneath the historic Stagecoach Inn, tied to rumors that Sam Bass or the James brothers stashed loot there in the nineteenth century. A Temple Daily Telegram feature on the subject interviewed Wilbur Foster, a longtime maintenance director at the inn, and other longtime locals, and reported flatly that despite generations of stories, no one has ever actually found gold in that cave, and that the cave itself has partially filled in over the decades. This is a separate, smaller legend from the Guerra expedition's search corridor west of Prairie Dell, and this chapter treats the two as distinct rather than combining them.Evidence Notes
Several elements of this story cannot be verified and should be treated with real skepticism even by a reader who otherwise finds the legend compelling. The dollar value attached to the treasure varies wildly depending on who is quoted, ranging from $20 million to $200 million in the original article's opening lines, to one expert's estimate of a full billion dollars, another's estimate of $265 million, and Guerra's own reported figure of $36 million in a period newspaper account uncovered separately from the 1978 article. Estimates that vary by a factor of fifty depending on the source are not measurements; they are guesses dressed up as figures, and no specific dollar total in this chapter should be read as documented fact.Pablo Juarez's reported 103-year residence at the same creekside location, beginning at age five, is an extraordinary claim on its own terms and cannot be independently confirmed through any source located for this chapter; no birth record, census listing, or death record for a Pablo Juarez matching this description was found. The claim that Guerra passed a lie detector test is reported only secondhand, through acquaintances quoted by a newspaper reporter, with no named examiner or surviving results. A Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter who covered the story at the time, and whose own words are preserved in the 1978 article, put the appropriate level of skepticism on record directly: after noting that a treasure of the size described could hardly have been kept secret if it were real, he wrote plainly that repeated efforts to contact the principals in the story had failed, and that whether the story was true or false, he would leave that to the reader's judgment. This chapter adopts the same position.
Finally, a researcher active on the TreasureNet forum who grew up near Temple raised a specific, technical objection worth preserving here: based on personal knowledge of the local geology, he stated plainly that he did not believe the rock formations around Salado Creek were of a type that could naturally host a Spanish-era mine, as opposed to a cache or cave used only for storage. This chapter cannot independently confirm or refute that geological claim, but it is exactly the kind of specific, checkable objection that future research on this legend should take seriously.
Locating the Search Corridor
No source located for this chapter gives precise coordinates for Comanche Cave or the treasure chamber Guerra described, and inventing any would misrepresent the record. What can be stated with reasonable confidence, based on real, verifiable landmarks, is the general search corridor. Prairie Dell, Texas, sits at approximately 30.9756° N, 97.5138° W, on Interstate 35 thirteen miles south of Belton. The original 1933 search site is placed “about two and one-half miles west of Prairie Dell” along Salado Creek, and the documented location of the nearby Warwick Ranch cemetery, three miles west of Prairie Dell and south of Salado Creek near a gate on Kuykendall Branch Road, independently supports a search corridor in that same general direction. The town of Salado itself sits at approximately 30.9435° N, 97.5364° W. Together, these three points bound a corridor of only a few square miles along Salado Creek west of Interstate 35, all of it long-settled ranchland.The site is not open to the public, and this was already true when the original 1978 article was written. Its author reported visiting the area and finding the well-worn trail to the old dig site blocked by a heavy iron gate under lock and key, on land local people continued to believe held the treasure. Nothing found in more recent research suggests this has changed; the land remains private ranch property, and no source located for this chapter documents any additional organized excavation attempt since 1965.
Legal and Access Considerations
Every part of the search corridor described above sits on private ranchland in Bell County, and nothing in Texas law changes that basic fact regardless of how compelling the legend is. Written permission from the landowner is legally required before setting foot on any of this property, let alone searching or digging on it. The Texas Antiquities Code protects archaeological sites on state and other public land and can extend protection to significant sites even on private property in certain circumstances; given the confirmed, nationally significant archaeological finds already documented a short distance away at Buttermilk Creek, any search in this corridor should proceed with real caution about disturbing material that could have genuine scientific value, independent of whether any Spanish treasure is ever found.Texas has no state agency equivalent to the U.S. Forest Service that manages access to this land, since it is entirely private, but the Bell County Historical Commission and the Bell County Museum in Belton are reasonable first points of contact for anyone conducting serious historical research on this legend, since they maintain archives, historical markers, and local knowledge going back decades. Given that the last organized attempt to dig here drew the direct attention of Texas securities regulators, anyone considering forming an investment group to fund a modern search should consult a Texas securities attorney before raising money from investors, not after.
The People Behind the Story
T. J. Nelson organized the 1933 dig in Temple. Buck Pope, one of the 1933 treasure hunters, was among those who had nursed the injured Indian informant back to health and who recorded his account. Ted Mayborn covered the 1933 dig closely for the Temple Daily Telegram. Les Guerra, a Texas A&M graduate, claimed to have discovered the treasure chamber alone in 1957 and spent years afterward organizing a recovery effort. Pablo Juarez was the elderly local man whose account, relayed by Guerra, anchored the 1965 search; his own life story could not be independently verified. H. D. McCord and R. L. Wells, both Dallas businessmen, partnered with Guerra as Guerra Enterprises. Francis Ritchey served as field superintendent for International Explorers, financed by Virgil Baker and John Wilson of Dallas. Berneta Peeples of the Belton Journal and an unnamed United Press correspondent provided the most detailed contemporary press coverage of the 1965 dig. William King, Texas Securities Commissioner in 1965, oversaw the subpoenas that ended the excavation.What It Might Be Worth
No specific valuation given for this treasure should be read as documented fact. The figures attached to this legend across various tellings, twenty million dollars, two hundred million, two hundred sixty-five million, thirty-six million, or a billion dollars, do not represent independent appraisals of a confirmed inventory. They represent a range of guesses made by different people at different times, none of whom, on the available record, ever actually examined the treasure they were describing. If two thousand gold bars and six hundred silver bars in the quantities described in the 1978 article's opening paragraph were real, using this series' standard 2026 valuation convention of $5,000 per troy ounce for gold and $100 per troy ounce for silver, and assuming a conventional Spanish colonial bar weight in the range of fifty pounds each, the metal alone would plausibly be worth well over a billion dollars. That calculation is presented here only to illustrate the scale the legend claims, not as a credible estimate of what sits, if anything does, in the ground west of Prairie Dell.Author's Note
This chapter verifies and expands on “Bell County's Texas-Sized Treasure Still Up For Grabs!” by Xanthus Carson, published in Lost Treasure magazine, March 1978. The 1933 search and the 1965 Guerra expedition are corroborated by contemporary wire service and local newspaper coverage reproduced within that article and independently referenced in long-running treasure-research forum threads on TreasureNet.com. The claimed connection to the Lost Bowie Mine is not supported by the documented history of that legend, which centers on Menard, San Saba, and Llano counties, more than a hundred miles from Bell County; this chapter treats the Bell County story as a distinct, local legend. Several specific claims, including the informant's reported 103-year residence at the site, the reported polygraph test, and the precise identity and outcome of the 1965 securities case beyond the documented subpoenas, could not be independently verified and are flagged accordingly rather than presented as fact. No burial or cache coordinates are given because none exist in the verifiable record; the search corridor described is based on documented, real landmarks near Prairie Dell and Salado Creek. All search-corridor land is private property; written landowner permission is legally required before any visit. Consult the Bell County Historical Commission for further archival research, and a Texas securities attorney before organizing or funding any investment-based search effort. Status: Unresolved historical legend; 1965 excavation halted by state regulatory action; no recovery documented as of this writing.Bibliography
The Bell County Legend, 1933 and 1965Carson, Xanthus. "Bell County's Texas-Sized Treasure Still Up For Grabs!" Lost Treasure, March 1978, 35. Reprinted by Lost Treasure, Inc.
"Bell County, Texas." TreasureNet.com forum thread, originally posted June 9, 2005. https://www.treasurenet.com/threads/bell-county-texas.8417/.
"Spanish Gold in Salado, TX." TreasureNet.com forum thread, originally posted April 26, 2005. https://www.treasurenet.com/threads/spanish-gold-in-salado-tx.6685/.
"Texas Treasure Story...Possible Montezuma/Aztec Connections?" The Treasures of Utah forum. https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the...story-possible-montezuma-aztec-conn-t444.html.
Penfield, Thomas. Treasures of Texas. Denver: Sage Books, 1967. (Referenced secondhand via TreasureNet.com forum excerpt.)
Salado Creek Hydrology (Direction and Water-Flow Verification)
"Salado Creek (Williamson County)." Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/salado-creek-williamson-county.
"Rocky Creek and Salado Creek." Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. https://www.tceq.texas.gov/waterquality/tmdl/33-middlebrazos.html.
"Salado Ck at Salado, TX." USGS Water Data for the Nation, Station 08104300. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/USGS-08104300/.
"Overview." Lampasas River Watershed Protection Plan. https://lampasasriver.org/overview/.
"Lampasas and Lavaca Rivers." An Analysis of Texas Waterways, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. https://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/pwdpubs/pwd_rp_t3200_1047/18_c_tx_lampasas_lavaca.phtml.
"Salado Creek." Central Texas Stories and Legends. http://www.centraltexasstories.com/places/salado-creek.htm.
Salado, Prairie Dell, and Bell County
"Salado, Texas." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salado,_Texas.
"Prairie Dell, Texas." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prairie_Dell,_Texas.
Odintz, Mark. "Prairie Dell, TX." Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/prairie-dell-tx.
"Discover Salado: A Historic Village in Texas." Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/salado-tx.
Brune, Gunnar. "Salado Springs." Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/salado-springs.
"Salado Springs." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salado_Springs.
"Bell County, Texas." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_County,_Texas.
"History of the Bell County Historical Commission." Bell County, Texas. https://www.bellcountytx.com/about_us/county_historical_commission/history_of_bchc.php.
"Bell County, Texas, Landmarks & Vanished Communities." TXGenWeb Project. http://www.txgenweb.org/research/landmarks/bell.htm.
"Warwick Ranch Cemetery." Find a Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2279875.
"Salado Creek." onWater United States. https://www.onwaterapp.com/us/texas/water/salado-creek-w6.
"Salado Creek ~ Aquifer Science." Clearwater Underground Water Conservation District. https://cuwcd.org/aquifer-science/salado-creek/.
"Salado Creek, Texas." Find A Spring. https://findaspring.org/spring/locations/north-america/usa/salado-creek-texas/.
"Prairie Dell, Texas." Texas Escapes. https://www.texasescapes.com/CentralTexasTownsNorth/Prairie-Dell-Texas.htm.
The Stagecoach Inn Cave (A Separate Salado Legend)
"Cave Underneath Stagecoach Inn." Temple Daily Telegram archive, July 30, 2007. https://www.tdtnews.com/archive/article_951b1300-8d6d-5a5a-9d3e-41ebaf40484b.html.
The Lost San Saba / Lost Bowie Mine (a Different Legend, Different County)
"Los Almagres Mine." Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/los-almagres-mine.
"Bowie's Silver." The Alamo. https://www.thealamo.org/remember/james-bowie/bowies-silver.
"San Saba Treasure." Texas Lost Mines. https://texaslostmines.com/SanSaba.html.
"San Saba Legends." sansabalegends.wordpress.com. https://sansabalegends.wordpress.com/.
"The San Saba Treasure Legend – The Lost Gold Episode." Texas Lost Mines. https://www.texaslostmines.com/LostGold.html.
Lewis, David C. The San Saba Treasure: Legends of Silver Creek. Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2018.
"The San Saba Treasure: Legends of Silver Creek." UNT Digital Library. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1442710/.
"The Billion-Dollar Lost Silver Mine of the Hill Country." Texas Hill Country. https://texashillcountry.com/billion-dollar-lost-silver-mine-hill-country/.
"Texas Treasure Tales." Texas Co-op Power. https://texascooppower.com/texas-treasure-tales/.
Dobie, J. Frank. Coronado's Children: Tales of Lost Mines and Buried Treasures of the Southwest. Dallas: Southwest Press, 1930; repr. Austin: University of Texas Press.
"Coronado's Children." Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/coronadoschildre0000dobi_h4l7.
Other Texas Treasure Legends (Comparative Context)
"The Buried Treasure of Texas Hill Country." Legends of America. https://www.legendsofamerica.com/hill-country-treasure/.
"The Lost Treasure of Texas – 10 Stories." High Plains Prospectors. https://www.highplainsprospectors.c...hat-will-make-you-want-to-start-searching-now.
"X Marks the Spot." Texas Monthly. https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/x-marks-the-spot/.
"Search for an Estimated $340 Million in Buried Texas Treasure." KSAT, August 2, 2019. https://www.ksat.com/news/2019/08/0...ated-340-million-in-buried-treasure-in-texas/.
"The Hunt for the Lost Treasures of Texas." Texas Highways, September 23, 2024. https://texashighways.com/culture/the-hunt-for-the-lost-treasures-of-texas/.
"Old Spanish Treasure Cave." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Spanish_Treasure_Cave.
The Buttermilk Creek Complex (Real, Peer-Reviewed Archaeology Nearby)
Waters, Michael R., et al. "The Buttermilk Creek Complex and the Origins of Clovis at the Debra L. Friedkin Site, Texas." Science 331, no. 6024 (March 25, 2011): 1599–1603.
"Buttermilk Creek Complex." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buttermilk_Creek_complex.
"A Discovery at Buttermilk Creek Indicates Texas' First Inhabitants Arrived Earlier Than Once Thought." Texas Standard, November 27, 2018. https://texasstandard.org/stories/a...nhabitants-arrived-earlier-than-once-thought/.
Smith, J. B. "Oldest Known Human Habitation in the Americas Uncovered in Salado." Waco Tribune-Herald. https://wacotrib.com/news/oldest-kn...cle_19d48a28-f62d-51bc-897e-1a379d7ffbbc.html.
Legal and Regulatory Sources
"Texas State Securities Board." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_State_Securities_Board.
"Home Page." Texas State Securities Board. https://ssb.texas.gov/.
"Texas State Securities Board." Texapedia. https://texapedia.info/texas-state-securities-board/.
Texas Natural Resources Code, Antiquities Code of Texas, Chapter 191.
