Old Bookaroo
Silver Member
- Dec 4, 2008
- 4,318
- 3,510
FAIRY TALE
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From Beaver City Okla-
Homa Territory
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FOUND SPANIARD'S GOLD
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Says a Correspondent to the St.
Louis Globe Democrat --
Tinge of Gold With Sil-
ver Lining.
Codsiderable [sic] excitement has been aroused in western Oklahoma, especially in Beaver county -- the "No Man's Land" of our histories -- regarding the workings of a party of men in that county in the search for lost treasure. Oklahoma was in the path of the pioneers, who went to California in 1849, and also of those who sought for Spanish treasure in both Old and New Mexico, and beneath its soil, according to legends handed down through generations, are hidden immense treasure stores. Oklahomans are becoming used to strangers appearing with blue prints and maps, also shovels and picks, and delving around the belief that they are the fortunate ones in solving the hiding places of wealth.
Undersheriff McKew of Beaver county returned the first of the week to Beaver city, the county seat, from a trip through the western part of the country, where he had been serving papers for the present term of court. While crossing the mesa between the Cimarron and Corrumpa rivers McKew came upon an excavation and, being curious to know the cause, drove toward it for the purpose of investigating. He came an aged Irishman, Michael Ryan, and from him secured the story of the Tres Piedras, the cause of Ryan's excavation.
According to an old Spanish-Mexican legend, handed down for generations among the Mexicans a vast quantity of gold was buried by a Spanish expedition, which among the Mexicans is known as the lost treasure of the Tres Piedras. The trail of this expedition was marked by huge stones irregularly placed as some distance apart, but forming a symbol resembling a gigantic letter V. Chiseled on the under face of the rock at the point of this V would be found the symbal [sic] "V" and the whole symbol marked the direction in which the next marks of the trail would be found. These symbols were from five to ten miles apart, located in many places eastward from Santa Fe and Los [sic] Vegas, New Mexico.
Several years ago priests of the Catholic church employed guides and followed the trail to within thirty miles of Clayton, New Mexico, where it was lost, and further search was then abandoned. Daniel Ryan is an old man. He has lived in the west all his life, and as a child played with Mexican children, learning their language, which he speaks fluently. All his life he has been familiar with the many Mexican legends, but like others, paid no particular attention to them, and probably would not now, had it not been for an incident a few years ago, which caused him to take up the trail of the Tre Piedra.
While traveling overland from eastern New Mexico Ryan's horses strayed from camp one night and he was compelled to search for them on foot. After searching several hours he sat down upon a stone to rest and observed that the rocks in that vicinity formed an indistinct letter V. This fact aroused his curiosity and began an investigation finding on the bottom of the stone at the point of the V the symbol "V" deeply chiseled thereon. As this was a point beyond that abandoned by the priests Ryan carefully marked the place, and a few months afterwards return and took up the lost trail. Several times during the next year or two he lost [the] trail again, and after giving up for a while would return with fresh supplies to renew his efforts.
Finally, near Garrett in Beaver county, Ryan came upon a mound near the old Santa Fe trail, where three large rocks made the symbol. On the under side of the these appeared the symbol indistinctly chiseled, and following the direction indicted with a quarter of a mile, he came upon another triangle, with the symbol pointing toward the direction from which he came.
He searched the land in that locality for days and finally came upon another symbol which, with the two former, formed a triangle with the points about one-quarter of a mile distant. The V on each rock pointed toward the center of this triangle, and believing that this indicated the termination of his search Ryan commenced digging in the center of the triangle where Undersheriff McKew found him. In the hole he excavated Ryan claims to have unearthed adobe bricks, certainly the handiwork of man. He, as well as others familiar with the Tres Piedras legend, believe that within the triangle lies buried the long-lost and many-time search[ed]-for treasure.
The Southwest World "Independent In All Things. A Strictly Guthrie Paper." [Guthrie, Okla.] 10 October 1903 (Vol. IV No. 33)
"Buried Treasure." The Beaver Herald (Beaver, Oklahoma) 10 September 1903 (Vol. 17, No. 12)
"Piedras" is Spanish for "stones."
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A new mining camp will be opened in New Mexico to receive the deported union miners from Cripple Creek. The Western Federation of Miners will work the claims on a cooperative basis and have entire jurisdiction over their development. The camp will be near Tres Piedras, twenty miles south of the Colorado line, on the Denver & Rio Grande. In that region there is a district ten miles square of virgin ore.
The Labor Signal "Official Journal Central Trades and Labor Assembly" [Oklahoma City, O.T.] 1 July 1904 (Volume 3. Number 38)
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Seek Gold in
No Man's Land
No Man's Land
A search for lost treasure has been renewed in the Panhandle country, extending northward into Oklahoma and west into New Mexico, as a revival of the Tres Piedras legend, which for several generations has been handed down from father to son in this portion of the west. Although the people of this locality are becoming accustomed to strangers appearing in their midst with blue prints, maps, etc., yet the presence of a party of men who are busily engaged in the search, has caused considerable excitement in the cow country.
The Nanhandle [sic] and No Man's land were in the path of the pioneers who went through to California in ?48 and also of those band of travelers, freebooters and soldiers of fortune, who fought for Spanish treasure in both Old and New Mexico.
Many of the searchers have believed that they were the fortunate ones at last in solving the hidden places of wealth. Old Spanish treasure is more sought for by these searchers, probably because the riches alleged to have been concealed by the men who plundered the Spanish are supposed to be of greater value.
During the past week an officer of Beaver county, while on the trail of cattle rustlers along the New Mexico border came upon a party of searchers busily engaged in digging and exploring all the country in that locality.
When he came up with them they were on the mesa between the Cimarron and Corrumpa rivers, and at one place he came upon an excavation of considerable size, evidently the work of the searching party. Upon investigation he was satisfied that it had been an unsuccessful search at that point[.]
Oklahoma State Register [Guthrie, Okla.] 26 September 1907 (SIXTEENTH YEAR No. 35)
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Good luck to all,
The Old Bookaroo
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