History
Secret Buried Treasure in the Texas Hill Country?
Texas has an estimated $340 million in buried treasure, more than any other state in the U.S. Many of the 229 treasure sites are hidden under layers of limestone and spread across acres of hardy oaks in the Texas Hill Country. What are the chances of you discovering one of these buried treasures in the Hill Country? With permission from the land owners, all you need is a pick and shovel, and some treasure seeking luck.
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One buried treasure story takes place near where the town of Leander is now located. In the early 1920s, a train of pack mules carrying 40 jack loads of silver was being chased by a tribe of Comanche Indians through the Hill Country. The men in charge buried the silver well. To this day, no one has found the Spanish silver cache.
In 1878, outlaw Sam Bass was in Round Rock hiding from the law while making plans for another bank robbery. Before his death from a shootout with the Texas Rangers in 1879, they say Bass hid much of his loot from bank, train, and stagecoach robberies somewhere in the Hill Country by Round Rock. Another legend appeared several years after Bass died when maps leading to alleged treasures began to surface. The whereabouts of the loot is said to be in a hollow tree on what is now Sam Bass Road located about two miles west of Round Rock.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons/ Larry D. Moore
In the heart of the Texas Hill Country, outside Burnet, awaits a number of treasure troves. Longhorn Caverns host one tale involving, lo and behold, Sam Bass. It seems he used the cavern for a hide-out after a number of his robberies. No treasure to date has been found and many still use the Sam Bass entrance in hopes of striking it rich. However, it is rumored that in Llano, Sam Bass hid canvas sacks marked “U.S.” filled with gold in a cave on Packsaddle Mountain. One version of the story says the gold is still buried in the mountain.
According to J. Frank Dobie’s book Coronado’s Children, the Blanco Mine was rediscovered in the 1800s by a settler named Larimore who found the old mine filled with lead and a great deal of silver. Word has it, ole Sam Bass also buried $60,000 in gold and silver coins near Castell in the Hill Country. He hid the take in a creek bed and marked the spot with a rock in the fork of a tree. He also allegedly buried $30,000 in McNeil. Not much remains of the town and, word has it, no treasure was recovered.
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Austin is said to hold claim to the largest treasure, some $3 million dollars worth. According to one source, part of the Mexican payroll was stolen in 1836 and taken near where Shoal Creek empties into the Colorado. One of the outlaws drew a map that showed it buried five feet, close to an oak tree with a carving of two eagle wings.
These stories and more, according to Paris Permenter’s and John Bigley’s Legends of America, have been passed down through many generations and some were taken to the grave to remain a secret forever.