Well I'll agree with you that gold is pretty hard to come by in Texas! As such, I follow trail signs (try) that lead to other trails or possibly cache sites. I have one site, described to me as an empty cache site, that certainly falls outside the realm of bored graffiti. BTW-there is a common Spanish symbol nearby. There are several theories as to the motives behind Spanish caches, one of the more interesting ones being that certain caches were placed for the new immigrants to have a start in the new world. Is it or is it not...can't say one way or the other from the lazy boy where I'm sitting right now. I will say that every time I read a story of indians attacking and fabulous loads of treasure being buried, my BS flag waves faster than beyonces butt wiggles! First, how much time did they have to bury it all, second, was anybody left to tell the tale?
And yet, the signs are out there. Some are indian, some are sho nuff graffiti from some old cowboy. Some are straight out of the books that depict the standard signs and symbols used by the Spanish. Who am I to know whether some Spaniard, hopped up on peyote buttons and feeling horsey, didnt just decide to play a trick on all those coming after him by carving the place up? Who am I to say that an actual cache sign, located in Texas where there just isn't much gold is bogus? We can only follow what we see, research what is available and draw conclusions based on what we find.
I look at it this way: I'm tired of what ifs and probably nots and couldn't be's when I can visit museums and read actual accounts of treasures found, many from areas I hunt. They were there once, more might be there, but I will never know without researching whatever I can and trying to track down whatever else I can in the field. It doesn't hurt that I love my field time, pain, bleeding, risk...anything less wont do! Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Venture as smartly and cautiously as possible-but venture nonetheless.