It says so much about East Texas folklore. 155 0 obj Boise County - Near the Nevada state line at Rye Flats, a shipment of newly-minted gold coins . Ho-hum, right? Six wagon loads of silver carried north along Trammel's Trace. Palm City. Akins and one of his former deputies were landowners along the lake and active onlookers with a piece of the action. Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) Its just a great story and what intrigued me was the people engaged in that all over those 100 years.. If you would like to help, our fundraising campaign can be found here. During the investigation, Roper found Gary Pinkertons book, We met with Gary in January and we had no clue about his book coming out, we just knew that he was kind of the expert on this trace, this route that had been taken in the story by this group of smugglers carrying all the silver, Roper said. Since that time, many parties and individuals have endeavored to find the Lost Treasure of Hendricks Lake, with searches as early as 1884 and as recently as the 1970s. In an interview . 159 0 obj 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. Christian Roper and Brackston McKnight, film makers. 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. One particularly famous legend is that of Jean Lafittes treasure. "My father and his friends shared the Hendricks Lake treasure legend with me when I was very young, perhaps 6 or 7 years old," Roper said. 0000001390 00000 n Success! <>/Border[0 0 0]/Contents(United States History Commons)/Rect[137.2383 228.9906 279.5625 240.7094]/StructParent 6/Subtype/Link/Type/Annot>> 152 0 obj Pinkerton is an enigmatic figure. 0000002304 00000 n Both were the surnames of early settlers in the vicinity. 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. 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. Off the shores of Nova Scotia is Oak Island, a place where unimaginable riches (or absolutely nothing) can supposedly be found at the bottom of a money pit that has eluded treasure seekers for centuries.Originally, the money pit was found in 1795 by a teenager named Daniel McGinnis who claimed he saw mysterious lights coming from the island, and upon investigating, found a small circular hole . Hendricks Lake near Tatum is now off limits to the public because it is on land owned by a mining company. It was one of the first times I met with Brackston after we graduated university last summer, Roper recalled. 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. Markers are dropped, and divers are sent down. By The Siberian Times reporter. Read More about Texas Tea Slot, about Jean Laffites treasure in the Sabine River. To the north of Tatum, in the middle of the forest, lies Lake Hendrix. Some said it was Santa Annas gold sent north from San Jacinto, and others say it was not even in Hendricks Lake, but in Martin Creek. 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. True Believers: Treasure Hunters at Hendricks Lake. A man named Nathan Smith thinks he's found the remnants of a sunken ship from an 1822 hurricane north of Corpus Christi - thanks to Google Earth. The idea of finding a lost treasure has universal appeal. :P1N8ihB:Ap"4qau_-6)aqhcgZ!=(!~qB3&\S%I}Dc{M6H31jiet_Ya dZ`URw#ser6QcS$JJrnlHN_f1`>!nUA{:_>vtZ)F+/z#~+PDG-+\X?U89XfDD\%E%R! b#[\Z}%dw2Q cDDp=_Em&>M!$]5yors8%52]Tp%>E]SV)IW%]Ka("Y4'7QuFf$a He sent soldiers to look for it, but they found nothing. s f a s u . A Book by Gary L. Pinkerton, author of "Trammel's Trace". though. In 1915 in New Orleans a worker uncovered a chest filled with more than 1,500 doubloons . Every dollar helps. Exclusive opportunity to purchase 1843 S. Federal Hwy, Andy's Live Fire Grill & Bar. When I found out theres essentially a documentary, a great one right here in East Texas waiting to be put out there, I was just excited to try to do everything I could to make that happen, he commented. The various people that searched for the Hendricks Lake treasure hooked him. 0000017195 00000 n When he got on board is when things started getting fairly serious.. My father did do a bit of treasure hunting and more notably he was involved in a few treasure hunting circles of scuba divers. Calvin Wilcher is in charge of the scans..he is on watch for something not of Mother nature. Filmmaker Brackston McKnight uses a metal detector on his property, searching for lost treasure. As a young girl, Diana pushed the plunger to set off dynamite. Not one of them found any of the reported treasure, but that never prevented the next person from trying. It featured Pirate Treasures. Gary L. Pinkerton, Trammels Trace: The First Road to Texas from the North (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2016). 0000003684 00000 n Peter Walker Adams lived in one of the houses on the hill near the lake and figured prominently in many of the newspaper stories. TV repairman in Carthage who kept up his efforts for years and was the local expert. 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. 0000010052 00000 n ingots were in transport, but the Spanish had set a trap. The desire to believe that millions of dollars of silver bars still lie at the bottom of Hendricks Lake is not for the treasure hunters only. Read More about The wreck of La Belle, Did the infamous privateer Jean Laffite steal a $2 million fortune in silver from a Spanish galleon and bury it in the Sabine River near the East Texas town Sabine? Waldrop believed this man had many treasure secrets, but he was a well-known fraud. This lake has its dangers, of course. The silver was never recovered. Sight was acquired & transformed back in 2018 by Anthony Bruno, founder of Anthony's Runway 84 & Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza along wit endstream North of Tatum, in the middle of the woods, lies Hendricks Lake. trailer Legend has it that Basss part of the money is in Cove Hollow, about thirty miles from Denton. George Mallory (left) with Andrew Irvine in the last known photo of them on their fatal Everest climb in June 1924. When a producer for The History Channel contacted me in early summer, the legend was about to add a new chapter to the story.The Lagina brothers of Oak Island fame were beginning a new series, Beyond Oak Island, and the story of Hendricks Lake was the premiere episode on November 17, 2020. The son of the founder of the town of Tatum. Despite this, no silver bars were found. mATTY BLAKE (HOST) AND cHRISTIAN B. ROPER. A nearby lake fed by the Sabine River also caught their attention, since the silver might have been transported there by the current. Many came to the lake to drain, dredge, dig, dynamite and scan its murky depths. Pinkerton. Tales of pirate booty and Mexican gold have captivated minds for generations, and it all could be closer than you might think. I havent found anything to suggest that a centuries-worth of stories about buried treasure have any credence. <>/Border[0 0 0]/Contents(Provide feedback)/Rect[392.1938 211.9047 476.7295 224.7953]/StructParent 8/Subtype/Link/Type/Annot>> Snavely of Taylor, who had hunted treasure for 60 years, found a ruby arrowhead weighing 15 karats, along with many other gemstones. None of (the rest) lines up, but 1860s, 1870s, there was enough yada yada to create some story.. 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. 4. 0000004529 00000 n Eventually, the Mexicans unloaded the moneygold and silver coinsso they could make an escape. Not a treasure hunter, but a character who built an amphibious tractor he called the Watt-a-Bug which he drove into Hendricks Lake. Brackston has been on board about 12 of those months. 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. Connecting the legend to peoples minds now so it doesnt die out, I think is important, Pinkerton asserted. Like everybody else, he tried to find it over and over and over again. He is portrayed by Armando Riesco. The self-proclaimed worlds greatest underwater treasure hunter wrote several articles about Hendricks Lake for pulp magazines of the 50s and 60s. In 1925, W.E. 158 0 obj Or Black Lake. Tales of pirate booty and Mexican gold have captivated minds for generations, and it all could be closer than you might think. In 1884 treasure hunters were all over the Sabine and a nearby lake that had been fed by the Sabine. They know its there. They both were at the lake during the treasure hunts of 1957 and 1958. . The duo are currently working to make a documentary about the local legend of sunken silver ingots in the lake near Tatum. That set off a huge treasure hunting stampede. Jean Lafitte's treasure Photo of Hendricks Lake, courtesy of Gary L. Pinkerton Larry Holzwarth - May 12, 2018. . 148 0 obj The crescent-shaped lake is less than a mile long, thirty to fifty yards wide, and twelve to forty feet deep. The Hix boys from Baytown were featured on Discovery Channel's "Expedition Unknown" for their quest . 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. 161 0 obj Since that time, many parties and individuals have endeavored to find the Lost Treasure of Hendricks Lake, with searches as early as 1884 and as recently as the 1970s. That historic trail passed just to the east of the lake, with the trail making up two-thirds of the boundary between Rusk and Panola counties. I always thought it was interesting that people had reason to believe there was pirate treasure 200 miles from the coast.. The box was hidden by millionaire art dealer. 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. 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. e d u / e t h j)/Rect[230.8867 249.8227 390.0566 261.5414]/StructParent 5/Subtype/Link/Type/Annot>> for the most familiar version of the legend. 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. 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. Meanwhile, his younger brother John was exploring the coast of Texas. To make this film a reality, we are seeking donors to help us meet our minimum budget goal. During the Mexican War of Independence, the Laffites served as spies for the Spanish, after moving to Galveston Island, Texas. There are many stories about the famous pirate Gene Lafitte, but one of them places his lost treasure at the bottom of a lake right here in East Texas.
