Lost Treasures

This installment of my Lost Treasures series of posts finds us in Connecticut. No Gold Rush bandits here, so let’s explore what kind of Lost Treasures might be waiting for some lucky searcher to discover in the Constitution State!

Benedict Arnold’s Connecticut Treasure

With the state nickname, one can appreciate Connecticut’s ties to the American Revolution. One such tale involves the infamous Benedict Arnold. As the story goes, General Arnold, disenchanted by his perceived disrespect by his peers and superiors, and his court-martial for misuse of funds, agreed to defect and hand over West Point to the British in return for £20,000. Rumors say he buried at least a portion of his ill-gotten gains, perhaps in Connecticut. There doesn’t seem to be a document detailing the money he received or its disposition, but it is fun to think a buried Revolutionary War treasure could be near his home or along frequently traveled routes.

Winsted, Connecticut Bank Robbery

As most states do, Connecticut also has a bank robbery story. In 1861, thieves robbed the Winsted Bank of gold and silver coins and bank notes. The heist totaled about $50,000 (about $1.9 million in today’s dollars). According to the story, the robbers ripped up the floor above the vault, split the stone sitting on top of the vault, removed the valuables, replaced the stone pieces, and restored the floor. They fled, burying the coins along the way. The authorities captured the thieves, but never recovered the loot. Somewhere around Winsted, a cache of coins may be sitting there waiting for a lucky person to find it!

Captain Kidd’s Connecticut Treasure

No post like this would be complete without a good pirate story, and Connecticut has a few. My favorite involves Captain Kidd. Captain Kidd was a notorious pirate who sailed the waters around Connecticut (and many other places). This tale alleges that Captain Kidd hid treasure on Charles Island off Milford. Even though no one has found the treasure, if the story is true, it could be worth millions.

There is a darker element to the story. According to Atlas Obscura, the island is cursed! A Paugusset chief cursed the island after trading the land to European settlers. Then, in 1699, Captain Kidd cursed the island after burying the aforementioned treasure. Lastly, Connecticut sailors found an Aztec treasure stashed in a cave in Mexico. The Aztec emperor Cuauhtémoc supposedly cursed the loot, and most of the sailors who brought the treasure home died. The remaining sailor buried the spoils on Charles Island, transferring the curse to the island. If you want to go treasure hunting, mind the tides and maybe the curses!

That’s my short list of Connecticut’s lost treasures. There are certainly more missing treasures, so happy hunting!

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I lived in Colorado for a time when I was much younger. Unfortunately, I didn’t know about the wealth of minerals and the many stories of lost treasure, and I wouldn’t have been able to do much about them even if I had. As with my other lost treasure posts, Colorado has its share of lost treasure stories. Here are a few of my favorites!

Virginia Dale Stagecoach Robbery in Larimar County Colorado:

As the story goes, six gunmen robbed a stagecoach loaded with backpay for soldiers stationed at Fort Sanders (near the Wyoming border). The gold the bandits stole was $60,000 (about $2.5M in today’s money).

Luck was not with the bandits, however. A mounted cavalry unit chased them, and they buried the loot and fled. The cavalry unit continued the chase and dispatched five of the thieves. The sixth bandit, suspected to be Jack Slade (station manager for the company that was robbed), was kept under surveillance in hopes he would lead authorities to the gold. Unfortunately, he was hung in Montana for unrelated crimes.

The gold may still be out there for the finding!

Butch Cassidy’s Lost Treasure in Moffat County Colorado:

In the Moffat County area of NW Colorado lies Brown’s Hole (now part of the Brown’s Park SWA). Situated along the Green River, Brown’s Hole was a refuge for outlaws. Supposedly, Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and their gang hid much of their spoils in the area. Though no reports allege a specific value or particular robbery hidden there, it might be fun to explore!

Golden Jesus Treasure in the La Plata Mountains of Southwestern Colorado:

I think this is my favorite Colorado Lost Treasure story! Spaniards, miners, and other workers left the Utah Mountains to winter over in Santa Fe. The group carried small ingots and the military members of the group decided to smelt the smaller gold bars (in an effort to keep disgruntled miners and other workers from stealing the ingots), and cast them into a Golden Jesus statue. The resulting figure was too heavy to move easily. While it made it harder to steal, it also slowed the Spanish explorers as winter closed in. The military commander split the company and sent the workers ahead to Santa Fe with an escort.

A Native American raiding party took the opportunity to attack the remaining soldiers. The commander ordered four soldiers to flee with the wagon carrying the four-foot-tall Golden Jesus. The soldiers, fearing capture, hid the statue in a cave (or a large crevice, depending on which account you believe).

According to accounts from 1873 (note the Spaniards allegedly hid the statue in the 1770s), a treasure hunter claimed he found the statue. Since it was too heavy to move, he piled more rocks to hide it until he could return. The man died before he could either reveal or recover the statue.

If the story is true, somewhere in the La Plata Mountains of Southwestern Colorado, a Golden Jesus awaits discovery!

There you have my favorite lost treasure tales from Colorado! There are certainly many more, along with the amazing natural treasures that abound in the Centennial State!

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I haven’t done a lost treasures post in a while (since Arkansas), so let’s discuss the Lost Treasures of California!

We all know about the California Gold Rush and the stories of enormous wealth generated by the Miner 49ers. But California has stories of lost treasures (many of which involve gold from the gold rush days) that add to the lore of The Golden State! Here are a few of my favorites.

Carl Hause (Marin County California):

Let’s start with the story of Carl Hause. Carl wasn’t a gold rush-era character. He was a German whiskey smuggler during Prohibition. The legend claims that Carl, who successfully smuggled whiskey in the Marin County area, buried $500,000 in gold-backed currency somewhere between Inverness, California and the old Heims Ranch on what is now the Point Reyes National Seashore. Carl was shot to death in his car, and the money was never recovered. Maybe whoever shot him found it and spirited it away, but it still could be out there waiting to be found!

Holden Dick:

One of the wildest stories to come out of northern California is the tale of Holden Dick and his missing gold. Before we get to that, I have to give you background on Holden Dick. Holden Dick was a member of the Pit River tribe, but by all accounts, was a bad man who took every possible shortcut to get rich. For example, rumor says he started his gold prospecting career by hijacking a gold shipment and killing two of the guards. To be fair, he also allegedly let a third guard and the wagon driver go. Holden then took the wagon, drove to the South Warner Mountains, and hid the gold.

Occasionally. Holden visited Susanville, California, to trade gold ore for supplies and brag about his “mine.” Many suspected him of the hijacking, but with no evidence, he remained free. However, his freedom wasn’t to last. He was arrested for the gruesome murder of Samuel Shaw. He was convicted and sentenced to death. As he waited in jail, so one story goes, vigilantes broke him out and beat him to discover his gold stash. He refused to reveal its location, and they hanged him.

Is it possible that his ill-gotten gold remains in a cave in the South Warner Mountains? Who knows? But if you are hiking in the mountains, keep your eyes open!

John Winters and the Selby Smelter (Contra Costa County, California):

The Selby Smelter was the West Coast’s largest refiner of gold, silver, and lead. In 1901, a former Selby employee heard that a shipment of over half a ton of gold bullion had arrived at the smelter. The shipment was larger than the gold vault could hold, so a portion of the gold was stored in the lead vault. Winters took advantage of this storage solution by tunneling through the dirt and brick foundation to reach the vault. It took him over six weeks to complete the tunnel and another night to drill through the vault and make a hole. Once through the hole, Winters removed almost 900 pounds of gold and dropped the bars into the bay, planning to recover them later. At the time, the theft totaled $283,000 or $17,000,000 in today’s money!

Alas, Mr. Winters’ luck didn’t last. He was arrested a couple of days later and, after three days of interrogation, confessed to the robbery and was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. He served seven years and was paroled. Divers searched for the gold bars, and some reports say they recovered all of them. Other reports indicate that some of the bars remain under the muck of the bay. Which story is true, and are there gold bars just waiting to be discovered?

This is just a sampling of the stories of the lost treasures of California. There are many more, and they seem to cover the entire state! As I mentioned earlier, keep your eyes open. You never know what you might find!

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I haven’t posted about lost treasures in a while and this stop is in Arkansas. Coincidentally, I recently visited Arkansas to look for diamonds at Crater of Diamonds State Park and quartz crystals at a couple of other places. I’ll do a post on that trip soon, but now I want to talk about Arkansas’ lost treasures!

Stagecoach Robbery near Hot Springs, Arkansas

Our first lost treasure is connected with Frank and Jesse James. According to the story, the James Gang robbed a stagecoach south of Hot Springs, AR in January 1874. They made off with $32,000 in jewelry and cash from the passengers. A posse heard about the robbery and set off in pursuit of the gang.

The gang decided to bury the loot along the road, marking the location on a sandstone rock. Frank James later claimed the gang never returned for the loot.

The story gets a little more interesting as a farmer found the stone and took it home. He kept it for years before he heard the story about the robbery. Despite his efforts to find the treasure, it eluded him. If the story is true, somewhere on the Old Malvern Stagecoach road, a treasure is waiting to be found!

Lost Silver Mine near St. Joe, Arkansas

According to the story, a Native American named Woodward worked at a silver mine near St. Joe, Arkansas. He wouldn’t reveal the location and eluded anyone who tried to follow him to the mine. Eventually, Woodward decided to sell his mine. Several of the townspeople wanted to buy it but insisted on seeing the mine first. Woodward agreed to show them on the condition he could blindfold them and only take them at night. They agreed and Woodward took them to the mine. When the townspeople saw the silver vein, they agreed to pay Woodward’s price. He took them back to town, collected his money, and left for Oklahoma.

The townspeople searched for the mine after Woodward left, but were unable to find it. Assuming it existed, the mine, has not been found. If you are in the St. Joe Arkansas area, you might want to do a little exploring. Maybe you’ll find the treasure!

Treasure Cave near Brushy Creek, Arkansas

Our final stop in Arkansas leads us to the northwest part of Arkansas near the Pension Mountains in Carroll County. The tale says a doctor who visited his patients was captured by Native Americans, blindfolded, and taken to a cave to treat a young man with a broken leg.

When he removed his blindfold, he found himself in a cave full of armor, weapons, gold and silver bars, and chests of Spanish coins. He set the boy’s leg and his captors paid him with gold coins. They blindfolded him again, and returned him to site of his capture, and set him free. The doctor never saw them again and spent years fruitlessly searching for the treasure.

If you happen to be around Brushy Creek, look around and see if you can find the alleged cave!

There you have a few possible lost treasures in Arkansas. Are they real? No idea, but it’s always fun to speculate and explore!

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Arizona is our next stop on the Lost Treasures series of blog posts! I can’t wait for my readers to discover them. It was difficult to pick out which ones to share with you as the state is steeped in lost treasure lore. From its mines to treasures hidden by Wild West bandits, Arizona has a wealth of stories. Read on to find out which ones I picked to share!

The Lost Dutchman’s Mine in the Superstition Mountains in Arizona:

I think most people have some knowledge of The Lost Dutchman’s Mine. Rumored to be cursed and located somewhere in the Superstition Mountains near Phoenix, Arizona, people have searched for it for over one hundred and fifty years. Originally owned by the Peralta family, the mine allegedly produced tons of gold ore. The Apache, though, often attacked the miners as they moved to and from the mine. In a last ditch effort to mine what they could have leave, the Peralta’s closed the mine and left in wagons filled with gold. The Apache attack killed the miners (no word on what happened to the wagons of gold) and the mine remained untouched, as far as we know, for many years.

Years after the mine was closed, another Peralta family member took a small army of about 400 men to find the mine, but only one survived. The Peralta family never went to the mine again.

Around 1870, a German immigrant named Jacob Waltz learned of the mine’s location from a Peralta family member. Jacob mined the gold for years without revealing the location. In 1891, a flood devasted the Phoenix area and destroyed Jacob’s farm and homestead. The Petrasch brother rescued Jacob from the flood, but he contracted pneumonia. Julia Thomas nursed him while he was ill and Jacob gave hints to her and the Petrasch brothers about the mine’s location. Though they searched for it, the mine remains lost.

The Lost Opata Mine (near Nogales Arizona):

This mine is allegedly near Nogales, Arizona and is located somewhere the Tumacacori Mission. As the story goes, Spanish missionaries settled there to convert the Opata and Papago natives to Christianity. The missionaries discovered rich silver veins and used Opata labor to extract the ore. The mine yielded so much silver that it was piled into a large room in the mine. The Opata used the room to perform their rituals at night.

Apparently, the missionaries’ efforts to convert the natives achieved some success. As the legend goes, the Opata saw a Mayo princess traveling through the area and decided she was to be the next Virgin Mary. They kidnapped her and tried to force her to marry their chief and give birth to a savior. She chose to die rather than marry. The Opata tied her to the pile of silver and poisoned her. A missionary heard the commotion and came to investigate. Horrified by the dead princess tied to the silver and appalled by the corruption of their teachings, the missionaries closed the mine, leaving both the silver and the princess inside.

The area is now a national park, so it seems unlikely the mine will ever be opened again, but it would be a great discovery to find it!

Stagecoach Robberies in Arizona

My last Lost Treasures of Arizona story must involve stagecoach robberies. There are so many to choose from, but I finally settled on the Canyon Station robbery. Canyon station was a stagecoach stop neat Kingman, AZ. As the story goes, two men robbed a coach and took a strongbox full of gold coins headed to Fort Mohave. Rumor has it the men couldn’t carry the heavy box, so they stashed it somewhere near the station in the foothills of the Cerbat Mountains. The authorities searching for the gold killed one of the bandits, and the other died in prison without revealing the whereabouts of the loot. Maybe someone found it or maybe not. If you happen across the remains of the old stagecoach station, keep a sharp eye out!

What do you think? Are these lot mines and forgotten treasures just waiting for discovery in Arizona? If you go looking, good luck! Take a lot of water and a ton of sunscreen!

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As readers of the blog know, I enjoy gemstone hunting, gold prospecting, and all things treasure related. One of my favorite vacation trips was to St. Augustine, FL and the Pirate Museum, where we got to see, among other things, treasure from the Spanish ship Atocha. It’s only natural, then, for me to have an interest in lost treasure, which got me thinking about lost treasures in each state in the US. I thought I’d start with my neighbor to the west, Alabama! Let’s be clear, though. I don’t know if these treasures actually exist or if they are just rumors, but it’s fun to speculate.

Fort Morgan Alabama

A quick search reveals there are many potential treasures throughout the state, so I’ll only focus on a few of them. Let’s start with the area around Mobile. Rumor says the first treasure is buried near Fort Morgan and belonged to the notorious Jean Lafitte. it might be worth $10,000,000! Details are scarce, but it’s tempting to search for it!

Dauphin Island Alabama

Across the bay from Fort Morgan lies Dauphin Island, a favorite vacation spot for many people. According to the local legends, the island, which has hosted French, Spanish, English, and Federal forces, has numerous caches of treasure chests and other vessels filled with gold, silver, and jewels. In 1801, a Spanish galleon sank near the east end of the island with $1,000,000 in gold and silver aboard. Sounds like a great place to take a metal detector!

Henry Nunez’s Lost Treasure

As you might imagine, some of the stories revolve around the Civil War era. One of the most intriguing tales is the buried treasure of Henry Nunez. Mr. Nunez operated a ferry on the Perdido River about 16 miles north of Pensacola. The ferry, which allowed travelers to cross between Alabama and Florida ran from about 1815-1864. Mr. Nunez allegedly hid his gold and silver in wine casks and buried them on his property. A Union officer heard about the treasure and demanded Henry Nunez reveal its hiding place. He refused to tell, so the officer had him whipped and Mr. Nunez’s wife told the officer the whereabouts of one cask.

After the from that cask was depleted, the officer returned for more. Mr. Nunez refused, and the officer beat him again. His wife once again revealed the location of a second cask, and they union forces took it and left. Henry didn’t survive the beating and his widow left to live with relatives in Georgia. The treasure might still be out there to find!

Louina Alabama

Many other lost treasures litter Alabama. However, I’ll close with one last story. This one touches a tragic event in US history, The Trail of Tears. As the tale goes, a Native American woman named Louina owned a trading post in Randolph County AL. She accumulated vast wealth. Louina was named for her. At one time, Louina, AL had a population of 2500. However, because of the forced relocation of the Native Americas, including her, she sold her trading post, and left on the Trail of Tears. The story says she had so much gold and silver that her horses couldn’t carry it and she buried in the town. Louina is now a ghost town in Randolph County. Only a couple of occupied houses remain. The treasure, assuming it was real, hasn’t been found. Might be time to go metal detecting.

I hope you found this post interesting. Leave a comment and let me know. If you’ve already discovered lost treasure (in Alabama or elsewhere), or know about one, tell me about it. I’m busy researching the lost treasures of another state, so stay tuned for the next lost treasure post!

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