Howdy,
I grew up in the area. As a young boy this was always my favorite bed time story. My mom wrote a paper on this topic that’s held at the humble historical society and I like to think that I am a bit of a history buff myself. I agree with you that it’s unlikely that any gold and silver was tossed in the lake. I am pretty sure there are no gold mines in Texas. Silver mine is more likely but not in this area. It is also not on the El Camino Royal. And most early transportation in Texas was done via the rivers. So why would anyone haul anything that heavy in some of the hottest and most humid thick bush environment when they could have taken a ship?
From my understanding what is left of Dead Man’s Lake is a funky swamp looking spot close to 59 and Forest cove area. It is private property! This area has always been intriguing to me. Large oak trees and Spanish moss and doesn’t really match the surrounding area anymore, Kind of spooky. Except for this one spot most of the area has changed drastically. The rest of dead man’s lake to my understanding is now buried under 30 feet of new soil under Hwy 59.
If I am right about the location of dead man’s lake and I feel pretty good that I am. Then there is another part of the story that to me does not add up. The party was headed East inland this makes me think they were headed towards Nacogdoches Texas. Dead man’s lake where they got attacked is damn good long way from where they found the bell on moonshine hill. If I had to guess I’d say it’s about 10 to 20 miles apart with the San Jacinto River flowing in-between. So you get attacked you ditch all your swords, muskets cannon and armor in a lake along with tons of gold and silver then run back the other direction for a few miles and over a river. Hide a gold bell in a tree as a “marker” so you might return one day to a bad marker that is miles away from the treasure.
A hidden gold bell makes a lousy marker especially when the practice of the day was to mark trees.
My theory if this is even real... Spanish could have just been exploring looking for an easier route to Nacogdoches. They may have come up river via the San Jacinto got as far inland as they could go i.e. black cat ridge. Ditched the boats got to some pretty nasty swamp where most of them were killed by Indians. They then high tailed it back the way they came in and hid the only treasure they had some religious gold bell in a tree. And like every story the treasure gets bigger and bigger.
I have heard in Mexico City there is a museum that has a goat skin map of this expedition. But I have never seen it. Just like I have never seen a single picture of the bell, or any other item associated with this.
As far as the bell goes I heard it was stolen from Rice University. I heard a rumor that it may be in the archives at Stanford University don’t ask me how. To me a 500 year old gold bell on a 300 year old expedition sounds like it might be the real treasure. When you take into account that it was hidden it only seems logical. The idea of tossing gold into a lake is not the best way to hide something it’s not like Indians couldn’t swim. My guess is the bell was not really stolen. If it was a real treasure it would belong to the State of Texas. Saying it got stolen is an easy way to cover it up and keep it either in private hands or university hands.
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« Last Edit: June 14, 2016, 01:05:32 pm by scubadilla »
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