Caller-Times Interactive: LOST TREASURES
Saturday, July 17, 1993

Legends live on in the pages of treasure guide

In its pages, Penfield recounts legends dealing with sunken treasures, stolen payrolls and life savings buried by their owners.

Among the treasures supposedly hidden in the Coastal Bend are:

• Payroll for Spanish soldiers buried on St. Joseph Island's southern end.
• Gold and ornaments for a Vera Cruz cathedral buried on St. Joseph Island opposite Rockport.
• Valuables from a Spanish fort, Casa Blanca, hidden in a northeastern Jim Wells County cave.
• Money hidden in a rock pile at Casa Blanca.
• Gold valued at $125,000 buried along a former trail near Armstrong.
• Doubloons and pieces of eight stuffed into two large brass cannons on Padre Island.
• More than 50,000 pounds of precious metal from Spanish galleons wrecked off Padre Island.
• $1,000,000 off Padre Island from the Spanish galleon Capitana.
• Between $100,000 and $210,000 from the French ship Maria Theresa off Padre Island at the mid-point of Kenedy County.
• Canvas bags filled with $200,000 from the sidewheel steamer Paisano off Padre Island in Kenedy County.
• Gold buried in Kleberg County from a Spanish ship stranded 20 miles south of Padre Island's northern tip.
• A Lafitte treasure chest buried in Point of Rocks, a peninsula that juts into Baffin Bay in Kleberg County.
• Gold, silver and jewels hidden by Hernando Cortez, later unearthed and reburied by Jesse James near Three Rivers.
• Treasure hidden in the stone wall of Fort Ramirez in the southeast corner of Live Oak County.
• Treasure buried by Spanish padres near Lagarto in southeastern Live Oak County.
• A treasure chest buried on the west bank of the Nueces River where the old Laredo-to-Goliad road once crossed.
• An iron safe filled with treasure hidden near Old Fort Merrill on the west bank of the Nueces River.
• Two burro loads of gold bullion buried near the base of a large oak tree near Old Fort Merrill.
• Gold and silver bars stolen in Mexico buried in the banks of Lake Corpus Christi.
• Treasure belonging to a member of the Russian nobility hidden on the western side of Mustang Island.
• About $16,000 buried at the foot of a mesquite tree on the west side of the Nueces River at the old Paso Piedra.
• A pay chest for General Santa Ana's army lost in the Nueces River at Paso Piedra.
• Between $50,000 and $60,000 buried on Corpus Christi Beach.
• Money, jewels and gold plate belonging to Maximilian, former emperor of Mexico, dumped in Laguna Madre just off Flour Bluff Peninsula.
• Treasure buried in sand dunes on Mustang and Padre islands.
• A chest of gold and other valuables buried along the Nueces River on the Riverside Ranch.
• A Lafitte fortune buried under a millstone on the northern tip of Padre Island.
• A silver mine on the Nueces River near Edroy.

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