DINERO - In the darkness of night, strangers frequently creep into this community armed with shovels.
They dig holes in the banks along the Nueces River, each person believing that he or she will be the one to find the treasure described in legends. Call it a myth, but some South Texans swear there's treasure buried nearby. Others aren't quite so sure.
Nonetheless, tales abound of ambushed soldiers hiding their booty in the ground, travelers with treasure maps scouring the area, and soldiers inadvertently scattering gold coins.
"Even to this day, you'll see places where people have come in the middle of the night and dug," said Lena Beall Porter, a Live Oak County historian. "Different people have dug many times out there near the river. One time, someone saw a print in the dirt of where a box or chest could have been taken out.
"There must have been some truth to the tale - they've been telling it for more than a hundred years. And people keep looking for it."
But, Porter said, she hasn't heard about anyone finding gold.
"If they did, nobody's talking about it," she said.
One legend tells of a group of Mexican soldiers ambushed by Indians near the Nueces River in the 1870s. Because the battle dragged on for about a week, the soldiers supposedly buried the gold for safekeeping.
Soldiers never returned for the gold, rumored to be under a live oak tree near the river.
Others say Mexican soldiers were hauling a payroll of gold coins when they were ambushed. The coins, scattered during the fight, were never retrieved.
Whatever the truth, legends continue to draw explorers to the community, located on Farm-to-Market Road 534 about three miles northwest of Swinney Switch.
The community, formerly known as Barlow's Ferry, was renamed Dinero - Spanish for money - in the early 1870s because of the legends.
Talk about the long-lost riches is enough to make John Morgan chuckle, shake his head and grin.
Morgan, who moved to the community 16 years ago seeking solitude, said he's skeptical about the tales.
"There's been some talk about gold buried out here. Some talk about banditos stealing, hauling and accidentally dropping the gold out of bags," he said.
Whispers of the nearly forgotten tales of gold continue to resound through the community.