Yeah. The 17 Tons Story is just all made up. I guess that's why after the Grand Jury Trial regarding that story, that several sitting members of that very same Grand Jury moved to the four corners area to look for the treasure? I doubt it was ever abandoned. It was flown to a hand made runway just North of Farmington on a ranch there, looks like it started on 11 May 1933 and ended in February of 1937(see pic). The story states that after rounding up all their gold, the Mexicans hired out to fly the gold to the US. It took a few years to bring all the gold over the border. The Grand Jury Trial was in 1952. When the Grand Jury Investigators started nosing around (in about 1950-1951), the caretaker of the ranch dug up the gold one truckload at a time and moved it somewhere South. As of the mid 1990s, the potholes on the ranch could still be seen. The caretaker was interviewed in about 1986 just before he died.
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This is the man that flew the gold from Mexico to the ranch North of Farmington. His name was Red Mosher. Bill Elliott was always a Red Herring as far as I know.
Now, am I saying that all or most treasure stories are true? No way. But, if you look deep enough, you can usually tell if there is some truth behind the story.
Mike