Stories are how we interact as people and its how we grow. 0000003684 00000 n 154 0 obj Christian The enduring story of Hendricks Lake is a treasure legend that has been around for more than 150 years. Read More about Jean Laffites treasure in the Sabine River, USS Hatteras (formerly St. Mary) was a 1,126-ton steamer purchased by the Union Navy during the early part of the American Civil War. Plus, if when they come back and nothing can be found, he says they have the whole Texas coast and more to continue their search. 158 0 obj Sheriff of Carthage, who co-owned 470 acres on the northwest end of the lake with Corbett Akins. Pinkerton came across the Hendricks Lake legend while doing research for his book, Trammals Trace: The First Road to Texas from the North. In the 1950s, the Sabine River and the nearby lake (Hendrick's Lake) experienced a new onslaught of treasure seekers when the story of Laffite's silver was published by the True West magazine. 168 0 obj This book is the story of those people. Essentially, somehow treasure came up in conversation and I had asked him if hed ever heard about the story of pirate treasure being lost in East Texas and we started slowly looking into it. Pinkerton also maintains facebook pages Trammels Trace and Hendricks Lake Treasure-True Believers. Treasure Coast . Download Free PDF. For Pinkerton, the treasure of Hendricks Lake is its history and the people who have believed in the legend over the years. THE LEGEND A brig named Santa Rosa plundered in Matagorda Bay in 1816. Building on that production they are airing a new 8-episode series titled "Beyond Oak Island" premiering Tuesday, November 17 at 9:00 pm central. The various people that searched for the Hendricks Lake treasure hooked him. <>/Border[0 0 0]/Contents(www.easttexashistorical.org)/Rect[308.5376 282.2367 447.0903 295.1273]/StructParent 4/Subtype/Link/Type/Annot>> East Texas Gold From Mexico In 1839 Mirabeau B. Lamar, the newly inaugurated successor to Sam Houston as President of Texas, sent the Texas Army out to get rid of the Cherokees. Or Black Lake. Despite intense efforts at dredging, detecting, diving, and dynamiting for Hendricks Lake treasure, the only thing that was reportedly found in the lake was the rim of an old wagon wheel. No matter the evidence, they knew there were more ships filled with riches.. The 1907 theft included the removal of a diamond star, pendant, and the collars of five knights of the Order. He gave the loot to smugglers who were attempting to transport six wagonloads of silver ingots to St. Louis where the treasure would presumably be minted into coins. Joe spent many hours growing up around Milzie Williamson and later used his Fisher M-Scope metal detector to search those mysterious holes. But all the treasure hunters declared that I must be hiding the truth. There were treasure legends like that all over Texas, he said. Hendricks Lake, wATCH THE EPISODE HERE. No matter the lack of proof for a lot of these things, it just makes sense in your mind for a story like this to take place here.. To make this film a reality, we are seeking donors to help us meet our minimum budget goal. Before I started to work on the story running in the July 2009 issue (Sleeping Booty) about California musician Nathan Smiths quixotic attempt to find a lost Spanish treasure ship near the town of Refugio, north of Corpus Christi, I assumed that there was no buried treasure at all in Texas. The basic story is that in 1816 silver stolen by pirate Jean Lafitte from the Spanish brig Santa Rosa was being moved north from Matagorda Bay to St. Louis, Missouri, for disposal. The brothers meet with a Christian Roper who is actively hunting for the lost treasure of the pirate, Jean Lafitte. The Lagina Brothers, famous for their search for the lost treasure on Oak Island and featured in the show The Curse of Oak Island, now hosts a new show called, Beyond Oak Island. There will be people still in town who will remember Barnie Waldrop, Pinkerton said. No one's found the Spanish silver cache, but some treasure seekers in this area have struck gold-or gemstones, as the case may be. We report on vital issues from politics to education and are the indispensable authority on the Texas scene, covering everything from music to cultural events with insightful recommendations. Pinkerton went on to describe how there have been dozens of expeditions and attempts to find buried treasure between Hendricks Lake and the Sabine River. Host Mattie Blake and local movie maker Christian B. Roper (see Sunken Silver) led a team conducting underwater searching. The legend says that in 1816, Laffite and his fellow pirates plundered six wagon loads worth of silver from the Spanish. 153 0 obj Lake Ridge (5) Las Olas Isles (5) Las Olas by the Sea (0) Lauder Gate Isles (2) . The Irish Crown Jewels, stolen from Dublin Castle over a century ago, are still out there for treasure-seekers to find today. In 1884, the guy Tatum is named after thought he would drain the lake, Pinkerton said. Our new Privacy Policy will go into effect on January 1st, 2023. His website is www.trammelstrace.com. Mainly clear. 0000010052 00000 n My father did do a bit of treasure hunting and more notably he was involved in a few treasure hunting circles of scuba divers. Alternate versions of that story have been documented since the 1880s, with variations including that the silver was from Santa Anna and the battle of San Jacinto and that the treasure was in a different location nearby. Gary is currently working on a history of Spanish East Texas focused between 1770 and 1813. Texas is full of buried bootyor, to be a bit more accurate, full of stories about buried booty that no one has been able to find. Most of the cobs or old Spanish finds I've seen on the forum are either from Florida or the Upper East Cost. startxref endobj Spring is situated 3 miles northeast of Hendricks Lake. Palm City. In 1884 treasure hunters were all over the Sabine and a nearby lake that had been fed by the Sabine. Six wagon loads of silver carried north along Trammel's Trace. Christian and the treasure hunting team are looking forward to using new technology to scan the bottom of the lake for possible anomalies, and hope to find a treasure which was missed in past searchers. It certainly had promise since it was a round piece of wood, like the legend of the wagon sunk in the lake. And an MIT-trained electrical engineer who held a patent for underwater metal detection. 1``b`5 Y0$ Au`j`H@ The same thing is true for the Paradise Cove Lodge down California 178. According to legend, Singer hid the money he found in a large sand dune that he called Money Hill. But as fate would have it, he and his family had to abandon their Texas home during the Civil War because they were considered Union sympathizers. If pirate plunder and sunken silver hidden in a lake seem like the elements of folklore, they are. Now, more modern equipment was available, and one man used a metal detector and managed to get some interesting readings from the bottom of the lake. Although $25,000 worth of coins and jewelry have been accounted for, no one knows where the rest of the loot went, and Collins and Bass were killed before they revealed anything. Abilene Reporter-News, June 24, 1958. Blackbeard and the mysterious unsolved code of Olivier Levassuer, or The Buzzard, are mentioned. He initially doesn't release any details on the finder or location. During the Mexican War of Independence, the Laffites served as spies for the Spanish, after moving to Galveston Island, Texas. At the age of 25, Jean Laffite was living in New Orleans, operating a warehouse essential to dispersing the goods smuggled by his brother Pierre. Six wagon loads of silver carried north along Trammels Trace. More maps appeared showing various locations of a lost silver mine. The story died down but regained momentum when treasure hunting became popular again in the fifties and when True West magazine printed an article about the long-forgotten silver prompting treasure hunters to flock to Carthage and Tatum. Its got quite a long story in the community. The real story of Hendricks Lake is not the legend alone, it is about the people who believed it fervently enough to put their time and money on the line in the hope of recovering it. 159 0 obj Follow the link to read our updated Privacy Policy. 0000017011 00000 n The land was sold sometime in the last 20 years and is now within a restricted mining area. Id met his daughter, who when she was 12, they let her push the plunger on the dynamite to blow up the bottom of the lake.. Leave them blank to get signed up. Although it hasnt yet been decided if the film will first be released at festivals and then to the public, Sunken Silver will eventually be available through online streaming. 149 0 obj Over the years, Hendrick's Lake near Tatum has been a place where many people have visited in search of a legendary treasure that was supposedly left at the site by Pirate Jean LaFitte. They know it. For more information on Sunken Silver, visit www.sunkensilver.com. The Fenn Treasure was a cache of gold and jewels that Forrest Fenn, an art dealer and author from Santa Fe, New Mexico, hid in the Rocky Mountains of the United States. The story revolves around oil fields in Texas, USA. The ships turned out to be heavily armed privateers and they mounted a frontal counterattack that included heavy fire. Filming for Sunken Silver should be completed by late summer and the documentary released during the fall. Gary L. Pinkerton is an author and independent researcher. So read this, get up, and go after your pot of gold. He is the primary antagonist of season one of National Treasure: Edge of History. His website is titled True Believers: Treasure Hunters at Hendricks Lake but he is not a true believer himself. endobj Read More about Texas Tea Slot, about Jean Laffites treasure in the Sabine River. <> In doing the research, I ran across stories about Hendricks Lake, Pinkerton said. 160 0 obj Even though some, including Waldrop and Stotlar, had looked into draining the lake, there were no other attempts at that folly. As of 2019 much of the land surrounding the lake was in the permit area for the surface mining for lignite that covers thousands of acres. Roper himself had first heard the legend when he was a young boy and has returned to it intermittently throughout his life. The search is called off for the time being. Visibility is nil, so it is a touchy situation. In June of 2020, the treasure was finally found by a man who chose not to be named (perhaps understandably, as he was suddenly $5 million richer!). . After years of searching, Roper is still optimistic, and he said that his commitment to Hendricks Lake will still be there no matter what he finds. Captain Blackbeard's Lost Silver, said to be $1.5 million worth of silver bars. 0000001829 00000 n Click here to start your Free Trial (no credit card required), by Michelle Dillon michelle@thecherokeean.com. https://www.tshaonline.org, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/hendricks-lake. %PDF-1.7 % Discovering history is part of the adventure, and that never ends. Ocean Breeze. Roper believes that the Little Cypress Creek story and the Hendricks Lake story may have a common heritage. An estimated $340 million., And as I write, the treasure hunters are out there, hunting, hunting, and hunting. So nothing lines up; its just factually, there was no road that would carry wagons at that time. This is the list to receive occasional emails containing special offers, deals and promotions (like contests). Just about every book written about Texas in that era mentioned it. In Texas, the Laffites founded a pirate colony named Campeche. James Bowie went on an expedition to find it. 3 talking about this. Two oilmen from Texas actually brought a giant crane to the lake after getting some interesting readings from the bottom of Hendricks Lake. Legends live on! Gary L . After getting some readings at the bottom of the lake (Hendricks Lake), two Dallas oilmen actually brought in a giant crane and attached a drag bucket to the cable. <>stream There was a problem saving your notification. In 1915 in New Orleans a worker uncovered a chest filled with more than 1,500 doubloons . All Rights Reserved. Now, more modern equipment was available, and one man used a metal detector and managed to get some interesting readings from the bottom of the lake. down. Hendericks was a member of the Cras Est Nostrum and became Salazar at some point in the past. June 6, 2020 - Fenn writes on his blog that the treasure has been found. By using deep-sea sonar technology that can pierce the thick mud and clay at the bottom of the lake, Roper said he may have found a cart or wagon that might have moved treasure to the lake. In an interview . One person who is still committed to the Hendricks Lake legend is Jacksonville documentary film maker and treasure hunter, Christian B. Roper. Trammel's Trace-The First Road to Texas from the North is a 2016 book by Gary L. Pinkerton. Jean Lafitte's treasure Photo of Hendricks Lake, courtesy of Gary L. Pinkerton That set off a huge treasure hunting stampede. The Cherokees started getting their butts kicked. Somebody made fun of him; he clubbed the guy to death. The silver was never recovered. accessed March 05, 2023, Error! The divers do feel some round objects, and a piece is Skip Hollandsworth specializes in long-form narratives. There are two legends in particular that seem to have found purchase in the minds of East Texas treasure hunters. The Secret: Location of the Treasure in Lake Park, Milwaukee Mark Heffron 35 subscribers Subscribe 5.6K views 2 years ago In this video I reveal the location of the treasure in Lake Park,. Hendricks Lake is an oxbow lake one and one-half miles south of the Sabine River and about four miles northeast of Tatum in Rusk County, Texas (32.371864N, 94.493190W). It featured Pirate Treasures. The Sam Bass Loot In perhaps his greatest venture, Texass legendary stagecoach and bank robber Sam Bass traveled to Big Springs, Nebraska, with his sidekick Joel Collins and held up the Union Pacific Railroad. He maintains websites for Trammels Trace and for Hendricks Lake, as well as social media Facebook groups for both stories. Hendricks Lake was By the time the summer of 1958 had ended, Waldrop, buzzing again and the moss-laden oaks echoed the sound of the SoRelles, and all of the other treasure hunters spurred on heavy equipment and trucks pulling in for another attempt. . There is a legend surrounding a supposed lost treasure in East Texas, one that filmmaker Christian B. Roper and his team have been researching for a documentary production, Sunken Silver. The tale basically states Galveston-based pirate Jean Laffite, in the year 1816, plundered a Spanish ship named the Santa Rosa. :icon_scratch: Thanks, Ernie And if so is the treasure still there? Numerous springs within and around the lake keep it filled. In the 1950s, the Sabine River and the nearby lake (Hendricks Lake) experienced a new onslaught of treasure seekers when the story of Laffites silver was published by the True West magazine. 2018 Sunken Silver. Beyond Oak Island Episode 2 Summary: Wild West Gold and the Search at Robbers Roost Canyon for Butch Cassidys Lost Treasure, All can be found to have a questing theme within them, Third Annual Masquerade Tribute of Hunts for Charity, The Second Annual Masquerade Tribute Wrap Up, Privacy Policy, Disclaimer and Affiliate Disclosure. The self-proclaimed worlds greatest underwater treasure hunter wrote several articles about Hendricks Lake for pulp magazines of the 50s and 60s. . Hendrick's Lake treasure is focus of Houston historian's upcoming book, By Stella Wieser Jensen Beach. A.C. SoRelle, Jr., and his brother, Henry, were oilmen who brought detection equipment, draglines, and other heavy machinery to dig into the gumbo mud on the bottom of the lake. We'll send you a couple of emails per month, filled with fascinating history facts that you can share with your friends. This catch rendered a lot of attention and by 1884, the Sabine River was riddled with silver hunters. They are convinced that booty galore is waiting to be found, J. Barto Arnold, the former marine archaeologist for the Texas Historical Commission, told me. That lucky treasure hunter who finds where X marks the spot, will become an East Texas legend, just like the treasure they strove to find. In the 1880s through the 1970s East Texas was, in most parts, very poor, very rural and it gave people something to believe in, it gave them their attachment to the beyond,. After completing high school in Virginia, she moved to New York City and pursued a career as a model following her entry into a Seventeen cover contest. Pictured from left, Gary Pinkerton, Brackson McKnight and Christian Roper. <>/Border[0 0 0]/Contents( \n h t t p s : / / s c h o l a r w o r k s . That's . Continue Reading. <> In this work you will find what I hope you found in my first book solid, thorough research and a story with which we can all connect. At times the story stayed in circulation due to the efforts of Harry E. Rieseberg, a man who was the self-proclaimed '"worlds greatest underwater treasure hunter.. Laffite approached them and was granted a commission and given command over a 43-ton schooner named General Santander. In 1884, Tatum clubbed a man to death who made light of his attempts to drain Hendricks Lake. But theres just been this very persistent legend, and so in the late 50s, mid 60s, there were two really big efforts (to locate the treasure), tons of articles in the Watchman about these two different groups searching for it, dredging.. A brig named Santa Rosa plundered in Matagorda Bay in 1816. Christian knows his pirate history! In one Internet posting, I read the following: Texas has more buried treasure than any other state, with 229 sites within the states borders. %%EOF They then filled in the shaft. wagons to be pushed down an embankment and into a lake. As Laffite and his men raced through East Texas with the wagons, Spanish. The first episode premiered on Tuesday November 17 at 10PM EST on the History Channel. There was another story that said No it wasnt Lafitte, it was Santa Anna, and he didnt want the gold to be lost in San Jacinto, so he sent it on the wagon train. The guy from Iowa who did the treasure hunting had researchers in Spain, in the archives. Photo: WhisperToMe, Public domain. They got away with three thousand freshly-minted 1877 $20 gold pieces. His book, True Believers: Treasure Hunters at Hendricks Lake, focused on the variety of people and their attempts to discover the fabled hidden silver and was released this past April. 0000004529 00000 n It was one of the first times I met with Brackston after we graduated university last summer, Roper recalled. Christian B. Roper, Ryan Travis, and Brackston McKnight, all Jacksonville natives, are working toward a documentary film about Hendricks Lake called Sunken Silver. When a giant storm hit the region, the raft was washed away and destroyed. One particularly famous legend is that of Jean Lafittes treasure. May the hunters strike gold. A formal statement is due around noon in Moscow on Saturday when the first pictures of the gold will be revealed to the world's . Tyler oilman who partnered with Charles Fitzhugh Grice to do underwater metal detection in 1969. Houston oil men began a search for Spanish silver-thelegendary treasure of Hendricks Lake.! Jean Laffite was a French pirate and privateer born circa 1780. A semi-weekly newsletter with all of The Panola Watchman's sports coverage. Its just a great story and what intrigued me was the people engaged in that all over those 100 years.. A nearby lake fed by the Sabine River also caught their attention, since the silver might have been transported there by the current. Hendricks is an oxbow lake near where Rusk, Harrison, and Panola coun ties meet a few miles north ofTatum,Texas. There is a legend surrounding a supposed lost treasure in East Texas, one that filmmaker Christian B. Roper and his team have been researching for a documentary production, Sunken Silver. Texas oilmen who later drilled an oil well based on scripture. Barnie Waldrop. Many believe the body of water concealing the silver to be Hendricks Lake near Tatum, although other places have also been examined. During her time at the Watchman, she enjoyed writing features about businesses and local events. Calvin Wilcher is in charge of the scans..he is on watch for something not of Mother nature. Little Cypress Creek, north of Gilmer, is the site where legend says a cache of Mexican coinage was dumped, according to A Brief History of Upshur County a history book published in 1946. George Mallory (left) with Andrew Irvine in the last known photo of them on their fatal Everest climb in June 1924. Please post photos and a general area if you have . A TV repairman. The man who found a hidden treasure chest said to be worth about $2 million last summer in the Rocky Mountains one that had tantalized fortune seekers for a decade, led to at least two deaths. The popularity of treasure hunting during this time period was profiled in numerous pulp magazines and news features, and the business of supplying treasure hunters was page one news in the Wall Street Journal. Is there anything better than the tale of someone discovering a hidden clue, figuring out an obscure reference, finding the final piece of the puzzle, and then discovering a fantastic stash of gold or silver? 0000000756 00000 n He also noted there were a handful of other treasure legends that were nearly the same but with a different location or body of water and no specific piece of evidence regarding the Hendricks Lake silver on which he can hang his hat., When asked what he hopes Sunken Silver will accomplish, he answered just to tell the story.. It is now thought that the money is on the southernmost tip of Padre Island. No matter what, I come to believe throughout professional research or diving, I will always associate it with Jean Lafitte, with treasure, with piracy because its meant so much to the community, Roper said. <>/Metadata 144 0 R/Outlines 97 0 R/Pages 141 0 R/StructTreeRoot 102 0 R/Type/Catalog/ViewerPreferences<>>> Excited about the history, research, and prospects of this Drained Lake Delhi Revealed Some Treasures: One scavenger found 50 antiques, three rings and an old radio in the mud of this lake in Iowa. Little is known about his origins, but he was probably born either in Basque-France or in the French colony Saint-Domingue. A lookout for alligators and venomous snakes is Gary Pinkerton, True Believers: Treasure Hunters at Hendricks Lake, East Texas Historical Journal 47 (2009). "You're a liability, Sebastian" Hendricks[src] Agent D. Hendricks is an FBI agent and the leader of Cras Est Nostrum. Well, according to a story by Mary Rogers of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, there is evidence that in the early 1800s the theft did happen and that Jean Lafittes men, afraid that they were about to be ambushed, pushed several wagons loaded with silver ingots into the muddy waters. 2019. Only recently did I learn of a parallel effort to tell the story of the Hendricks Lake treasure legend via film. Exclusive opportunity to purchase 1843 S. Federal Hwy, Andy's Live Fire Grill & Bar. The Lakeview Motel's name is false advertising these dry days. Having already written a book on Trammels Trace, a road running through Tatum which he noted was the first road to Texas from the north, Pinkerton is now embarking on a journey to research the people and the reasons for the treasure hunting extravaganza for an upcoming book. Connecting the legend to peoples minds now so it doesnt die out, I think is important, Pinkerton asserted. 0000007400 00000 n Barnie Waldrop said he outlasted all the others and had seen fifty of em beaten by the lakes bog bottom. H-E-Bs True Texas BBQ Restaurant Is Slipping, West Texans Are Learning What It Means to Live in Bear Country. The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry. Signup today for our free newsletter, Especially Texan. Although the lake was searched in the 50s and 60s, nothing was found at that time. Texas Lege Watch: A House Republican Fights for Chicken Freedom, Texas Monthly Recognized by ASME in the 2023 National Magazine Awards. hunt presented by Christian, Rick and Marty offer to send Matty Blake down to They also had a raft built from which large pipes were sunk into the lake bottom, and used a metal detector to search the sediment. My favorite part of the legend is that the Guadalupe Mission in El Paso was built in way so that the shadows of the mission point to the Lost Padre Mine. I havent found anything to suggest that a centuries-worth of stories about buried treasure have any credence. The hidden fortunes of the Doan Boys Gang, said to be $2 million at least. He shows Rick and Marty the 1957 Every dollar helps. 5. In 1925, W.E. The earliest mention of the treasure legend of Hendricks Lake that Pinkerton could find was in 1884. Over the years there have been many who made a minimal effort or spent a little time at the lake only to discover that the conditions were too difficult and they had neither the time nor the money for such an undertaking. <>/Border[0 0 0]/Contents()/Rect[130.3037 595.1786 171.4307 606.1786]/StructParent 2/Subtype/Link/Type/Annot>> 152 0 obj click photo for more. Other stories of Pirate Treasures are discussed. The lake is located in the extreme northeastern part of the county along the boundary between Rusk and Panola. According to a story by Mary Roger of the Fort Worth Star Telegram, the silver was indeed robbed from a galleon by Laffite and his mean in the early 19th century. Christian Roper and Brackston McKnight lay eyes on Hendricks Lake, the alleged locale of sunken pirate treasure. e d u / e t h j)/Rect[230.8867 249.8227 390.0566 261.5414]/StructParent 5/Subtype/Link/Type/Annot>> Born in Longview in East Texas and living in Houston, Gary has published works of history born of his curiosity about what happened long ago in East Texas that played a role in the history of the Republic and of the State of Texas. Legend has it that Basss part of the money is in Cove Hollow, about thirty miles from Denton. But alas, nothing came of it. 01 April 2017. The tried to dynamite the bottom, but ended up with no silver for this efforts. Handbook of Texas Online, It was packed with tons of gold and silver. Aug. 6, 2015 9:51 AM PT. 24 Lake Toplitz In Austria Is Believed To Hold The Lost Treasures From World War II.
