|
glyphic marks that my visitor was looking for. The glyphic map meant nothing to me but my royal visitor could read it faster than you can read this book. The stone floor is on the brow of a hill facing the rising sun. When found, only a small portion was exposed, the other, was covered with from 1 to 2 feet of rubble that had drifted down from above. When I saw The stone floor in 1933, only 2 of the stones had been lifted out of place. The stone flags were cut with square Corners well fitted and leveled. A petroglyph cut on a stone found in the Bertrong Branch was a good representation of the water courses in the immediate neighborhood. A duplicate was found graven on the wall of a bluff a mile distant. Author's note:--Since the above article was written, the Black Stone Heart has disappeared from my collection of Indian relics. I had kept the larger specimens in a pile in the back yard, where it was viewed by several relic hunters to whom I related this strange story. CHAPTER XVII A TRAIL OF GOLD This is a story, a dream, a fancy; a product of the imaginings or men who dream of buried treasures, and lost mines. It is an outgrowth of old Spanish and Mexican legends. Its beginning is at the legendary mines on the upper Colorado River. It has a final at the famous Waco Spring. Whether it is authentic history doesn't matter. What does matter is that it has become a part of the folklore of the country reaching from Menard to Wasco, Men of every station in life, from wood choppers to professional men, believe the story and secretly hunt for lost mines, buried treasures, along the course followed by a line of figures known as the "Bowl and Spoon Carvings". This line of carvings is on a general course from Lampasas to Waco, with slight variations as to the -- 83 -- location of some of the carvings. My first attention to the legends connected with this trail was called by a businessman of Gatesville. I had, in an article written for the McGregor Mirror, in 1926, referred to the old Tonkawa Trail, which was later confused with the McCulloch Trail. This man said: "this is the Tonkawa Trail, but the McCulloch Trail has no connection with it. The latter trail crosses the Leon River near Eagle Springs. I have followed it from Eagle Springs to a ravine where it enters the Cowhouse Valley." In 1925 there was considerable excitement when Ike Pancake discovered what was thought to be an old abandoned Spanish mine. A young mining engineer came there and did a lot of exploring and geological work, producing� a showing of platinum. This man, Ole Anders, heard of the "Bowl and Spoon Carvings" and took up the trail to try to unravel the secrets they might hold. On the bluff over Cox Spring, he found a circle six inches in diameter, carved in the stone. From the center of the circle, ran a curved line, to two inches beyond the line of the circle. The line vaguely represented a spoon in a bowl. He found two more identical carvings on a bluff overlooking Green Briar Creek, and one on a bluff overlooking Coryell Creek Valley. These carvings were on a line approximating a line from Lampasas to Waco. Anders investigations revealed that a prominent businessman of Gatesville had offered a $500 reward for information leading to the discovery of this line of carvings. Legend says that he secured the information and that on a location overlooking Coryell Creek, he and his helpers dug up a fortune in gold bullion. Legend says there are eight of these carvings following a line as indicated from the west bluff overlooking the Cowhouse river to the bluff overlooking the east bank of Coryell Creek. The eighth carving was yet to be found when Anders took up the trail. He, being an engineer, got his bearings from the carving over Cox Spring and followed the line to the east bluff overlooking Coryell Creek Valley, there he located the eighth carving. Anders was not working for a reward, so for a time, kept the secret of his finds from all but a very close friend. In the spring of 1930, incessant rains overflowed the creeks and softened up the ground. Two men from -- 84 -- Oglesby were passing up the Coryell Creek road which skirts the east edge of the valley. One of them noticed a mound of fresh earth under a cedar brake a short distance off the road. Upon investigation, it was found the dirt had just been thrown from a pit 4 or 5 feet deep. The pit was just large enough for a man to work in. At the bottom was a vault that looked as if a small chest had been lifted from it. There were many tracks, partially obliterated by recent showers, about the pit. Another businessman appeared on the scene with the information of buried treasure, buried along the line of mysterious carvings. A line was struck toward Lampasas and followed to where it dipped into a deep gulch and entering the Cowhouse valley. Here stood a giant, gnarled, and muscular old liveoak, with a rent in one side. The old tree was partly dead. The treasure hunter immediately lost interest and left the party. It is told that he returned that night and removed from the rent in the side of the tree enough bullion to establish himself comfortably for the rest of his life. A treasure hunter of Coryell County told me: "There is no use looking further along this trail for buried treasure. There were two jack loads but it is not there now. I know what I am talking about." This man found a stone bearing the date 1804 on the bluff over Cox Spring. In the summer of 1932, I was chopping cedar posts to repair the field fence. I had sat down on a fallen post to shade a little. Suddenly out of the brush near me came the ponderous hulk of old man D. E. Van Winkle. I knew Van Winkle as a treasure hunter. He seated himself on a cedar post. "Simmons, give me a chew of tobacco. I don't chew much, but I like a little once in a while." We immediately fell to talking about buried treasure, for treasure hunting was what brought him to where 1 was chopping cedar. He told of a rock shelter on Peugh Branch that had some Spanish carvings on the bluff near it. No, I had not seen the carvings, altho I had searched every rock shelter on the Peugh Branch for Indian relics. I had searched all the rock shelters for miles around for Indian relics, but knew nothing of the Spanish carvings. Van Winkle said "They're there, all right. I want you to help me hunt 'em." Van Winkle owns a farm on Brown's Creek where the line of "Bowls and Spoon carvings" crosses that territory. So I broached that subject. -- 85 -- "I have seen three of them carvings", said the old man, "but, I have been unable to locate any other marks with them, and I claim to know as much about Spanish symbols as any man in the country. They are mysterious signs", he said further, "A man in Gatesville is the best interpreter of codes I know of, so I told him of a place where I found two carvings of the Bowl and Spoon. A large one, very clear and distinct, and another small one near it. This man says the large, clear carving represents a rich flourishing mine; the small one represents a small worked-out-mine." There are three persistent tales of lost mines in Coryell County. Mines the Spaniards exploited, and abandoned, long, long, ago. Van Winkle has seen a Mexican, with a chart, searching Brown's Creek territory, and he had a brief sight of the chart, "too brief to get much out of it." Other treasure hunters have turned to the Trail of Gold to find the fabulous wealth that is believed buried along the old line of carvings that men have sought, for so long. In 1931 a Mr. Leah of Houston, paid a substantial sum of money for a mineral lease on a bit of rugged mountain in the old Owl Creek hills. This property was worked and explored for a year or more, no visitors being allowed to inspect the workings. It is said these working were carried on to locate one of the mines thought to be located near this line of noted carvings. There is a tale to the effect that long tunnels are known to exist under some of these hills. According to a legend recorded by Frank Dobie (see "On the Open Range", pages 236-40) a party of refugee Spaniards from San Saba, driven from their mission and mines and seeking the waters of the great Tokonhono River at Huaco village, crossed this route in the long, long ago. When they left San Saba they had many mule loads of silver and gold bullion. They expected to find water at Lampasas Springs, but utter drought had left only a little muddy water there. Dead and starving buffalo littered the ground, but they filled their water skins and resumed their journey. On the way, the beasts and men almost perished of thirst. Every burden possible had to be removed from man and beast. The bullion was abandoned as conditions required. The starving men and beasts staggered on. Water was now more precious than gold, so this trail was sown with vast treasure that men might have water. -- 86 -- Led by the good padre of the mission, a band of starving men and mules reached the Huaco village. They rushed down to drink of the first water they had seen since leaving Lampasas Springs, but the padre restrained them. He told them how faith had delivered them to water and bade them throw themselves on their faces and thank the Holy Father for their deliverance. The entire party did as they were bidden, after which they drank abundantly of the crystal clear waters, after which the padre blessed the great Tokonhono river of the Wacos, and conferred the name, "los Brazos de Dios", which translated is "The Arms of God" for, said he, had not God justified their faith and brought them to these sparkling, pure waters. And this last is the greatest treasure along this famed Trail of Gold.
CHAPTER XVIII The Dust of Kings Lampasas, "lily Pads" for that is the interpretation of the Spanish for the name of that beautiful river. It flows thru a wide valley in our beautiful hill country. Most of the soil in this region is stubborn and stony, and many people believe that in its miserly clutches it hold the dust of an Aztec King. After Cortez's first entry into the City of Mexico the native warriors arose in rebellion and drive the Spaniards and their Tlascalan Allies out, but not until the greedy Spaniards had filched the city of several million dollars worth of gold. Before the second attack upon the city by Spaniards and their hundred thousand Indian Allies the Montezuma notified Cortez that if he were able to re-enter the city he would find it barren of gold. When the Indian monarch was convinced that a second attack was about to be made upon the city he stripped if of every particle of gold and on the backs of fleet footed Indian runners, -- 87 -- he sent it to the far outposts of the empire to be hidden in secret places, safe from the violent, grasping hands of the conqueror. Pictograph maps were made of each locality where gold was hidden so that the rightful owners, could in time, retrieve the gold. Legend says that the "Mexican Charts" that we hear so much of, were made at that time and have been in he secret possession of the descendents of the Aztecs since that time 420 years ago when the Aztec empire was conquered by the Spaniards and their Indian Allies. Those charts are now being used by apparently humble Mexicans in efforts to locate the anciently hidden gold. Could old King Tut be brought to the hills of Coryell County and be shown the tomb of an ancient Aztec King that legend says the unrelenting hills holds in the miserly grasp, he would turn green with envy. The proverbial Mexican came to the Lampasas with a chart and fell in with a wood chopper. We was looking for a tomb containing three vaults, each lined with solid masonry. A location was made, and upon excavation modern coffin handles were found. Our Mexican had read his chart wrongly. To him the tomb is still lost, but one man, if no more in Coryell County, has it located. In the hills north of Owl Creek a hill farmer walks over this tomb every time he walks from his front gate into his house. He nightly snores in peaceful slumber within the length of his bed of a tomb containing three chambers. One chamber is empty; one contains the dust of an ancient King and a magnificent diadem made of hammered gold and studded with precious jade, sacred turquoise and glittering pearls. A crown that King Philip, in all his glory, was too poor to duplicate. The Aztec goldsmiths were the most excellent the world has ever seen, and into the third vault was thrown load after load of golden trinkets representing birds, beasts, gods and every other pattern is scited [sic] the goldsmiths fancy to fabricate. They were not jack loads, for there were no jacks available to the Mexicans of that day. They were man loads, for the Mexicans had no beasts of burden at that time, and all transportation was upon the backs of hardy Indians trained to that work. "Yes," my informant says, "it is there in that farm yard. I have tromped all over it. But what am I to do about it?" -- 88 -- There it is where it has lain for more than four centuries. Who will contrive to redeem it? Will a dead monarchs dust someday be thrown out to mingle with the dust of the silent cedar brakes, and his gold dissipated in riotous living. Associated with this tomb that holds the dust, and wealth of an ancient king, are a number of strange weird stories. W. A. Mathney of Waco, and others have done considerable exploring in the region along a line that follows an approximate straight route from the mouth of Station Creek on the Leon River to Sugar Loaf Mountain. The kings tomb is somewhat north of this line. On the Leon River near our starting point, Mathney and his confederates have found what they believed to be the remains of an ancient dam built by some prehistoric race that dwelt here, to impound the waters of the Leon River. This dam, however, is not ancient at all. Decedents of pioneers tell of a dam built by "Old Captain Graham" to impound water to turn a grist mill and I have talked with two pioneer sons who remember having gone to the mill there with their fathers. (We infer that "Old Captain Graham" refers to Captain Gideon Graham, whose small son was killed by Comanche Indians). Following the line toward Sugar Loaf Mountain several caves have been located. In one of them was found the skeleton of a man chained to a copper peg that had been driven into the living rock. Nearby were more skeletons. Further on toward Sugar Loaf was a strange well. When the wind blows from the south this well furnishes an abundance of water. The flow of the water was so strong that it floated out green leaves and small mammals from some unknown region and furnished a draft of air that would "blow your hat off". When the wind is from he north the well dries up. Mathney believes that there are extensive subterranean caverns that furnish the air drafts. Back along the route toward Station Creek, many lesser caves and some ancient mining shafts have been found. Over near Sugar Loaf are numerous caves and a surveyor has been employed to trace lines, and strange carvings found on stone, to their focal point. The point of supreme interest is back in the hills north of Owl Creek. On the way back let us go by Luther Stovalls cave south of Owl Creek. -- 89 -- |
||