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« on: August 03, 2012, 08:56:12 pm »
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I got this story off the net but did read about this site many years ago but never did any real research on it maybe somebody will pick up the ball.

Early in the morning of a warm June day in 1892, the payroll stagecoach rumbled along the well-traveled dirt road toward Fort Sill. The coach left Wichita Falls, Texas, just before sunrise, and as the driver guided the horses northeastward, his only thoughts were of a safe crossing of the Red River and arriving at the military post in the allotted three days. Accompanied by two shotgun-toting guards riding next to the driver, the stagecoach carried nearly $100,000 in gold and silver coins, which was intended as part of the month's payroll for the fort.

The driver and two guards had covered this same route on seven previous occasions, each involved with delivering a payroll and each uneventful. Initially, a mounted military escort consisting of six to twelve armed soldiers accompanied the payroll coach, but as the months passed and no threat to the cargo ever materialized, the large guard was withdrawn. On this morning, however, as the relaxed driver and guards sat atop the spring seat of the coach joking and smoking, a trio of masked riders suddenly appeared from behind a cluster of trees, shot the two lead horses pulling the coach, and wounded one of the guards.

When one of the outlaws ordered the three men off the coach, the second guard grabbed his shotgun and fired at the mounted bandits, killing two of them instantly. The third outlaw, wounded badly in the shoulder and chest, shot and killed the guard. After ordering the driver and the wounded guard to lie facedown on the ground, the remaining outlaw, bleeding badly, removed six heavy saddlebags of coins from beneath the driver's seat and loaded them onto his dead companions' horses. He then instructed the two men to begin walking back to Wichita Falls and, with the two payroll-laden horses in tow, continued along the trail to the northeast.

Though he originally intended to travel to Oklahoma City with the stolen payroll, the outlaw, suffering great pain and loss of blood, decided to seek medical help. The closest physician was located at Fort Sill, so daringly, he rode toward the military post. The bandit arrived at the fort just after sundown on the following day and stopped at a well near the side of the trading post. As he watered his horses, he looked around for some suitable place to hide the money, because he knew if he were caught with the payroll he would be hung.

Making certain that no one was mingling about on this warm and moonless night, the outlaw strode a total of ten paces from the well, scooped out a hole just deep enough to contain the coin-filled saddlebags, and deposited them within. After filling the hole, he walked his horses back and forth across the surface to remove any indication of the recent excavation. After receiving treatment for his wound, he decided, he would return to the site, remove the payroll, and continue to Oklahoma City.

The outlaw identified himself to the post surgeon only as Allen and told him he had been injured in a hunting accident. After plucking buckshot from the wounds and covering them with bandages, the doctor gave Allen an injection for his pain and suggested he try to get some sleep on the cot in the office. Weak from loss of blood, the long horseback journey, no sleep, and the medication, Allen dropped into a deep slumber.

It didn't take long for the news about the robbery to reach Fort Sill. By the time Allen had arrived at the post, several high-ranking officers had been advised of the holdup, and at least six platoons were combing the countryside searching for some sign of the surviving bandit. The driver and the wounded guard were on their way to the fort even as Allen was being treated by the surgeon.

The next morning, the driver and guard identified Allen's horse as belonging to one of the outlaws who had robbed the coach. Allen was quickly arrested, tried, found guilty, and sentenced to prison at Huntsville, Texas, where he remained for the next thirty-three years. When Allen was finally released from prison in 1925, the first thing he did was seek work. Eventually, he landed a job on a farm near Levelland, a small town in the Texas Panhandle, but at the first opportunity, he returned to Fort Sill and tried to recover the rich payroll he had buried near the well so many years before.

Though Fort Sill had changed dramatically during the more than three decades since Allen had last visited it, the ex-convict was able to locate the site of the old trading post and the well. Three factors, however, served to discourage Allen's quest for the treasure: it appeared that at least four to six feet of fill dirt had been added to the yard; the old outlaw could not remember which direction from the well he paced off ten steps; and a military guard considered him a vagrant and escorted him off the post. Discouraged, Allen returned to Levelland but continued to make plans to journey once again to Oklahoma and recover the treasure.

Several more years passed, and though Allen never gave up on his desire to recover the treasure cache, he never found the opportunity to return to Fort Sill. During that time, he became close friends with G. W. Cottrell, the owner of a neighboring farm. When Allen decided he could trust Cottrell, he told him about the robbery of the payroll stage and the subsequent burial of the loot. Allen gave Cottrell directions to the huge cache and told him that he should try to find it. Allen admitted to his friend that he was too old to do anything with the fortune even if he did recover it. A few months later Allen passed away.

As soon as his cotton crop was in, Cottrell, seventy-two years old, traveled to Fort Sill. After spending a few days looking around the military post, he entered the office of Master Sergeant Morris Swett, the post historian and librarian and explained his purpose. Swett introduced Cottrell to higher ranking officials who told the old farmer to fill out several pages of forms requesting permission to dig for treasure on military property. After doing so, Cottreli returned to Levelland to await approval, and several weeks later he was notified he would be allowed to carry out his search.

On January 27, 1937, Cottrell returned to Fort Sill and located the site of the old well-now filled in-in one corner of a maintenance building located near the intersection of McBride and Cureton Streets. The trading post had long since been torn down. Having no idea of the direction and distance from the well the payroll had been buried, Cottrell could only guess at its location. Using only shovels, he supervised the excavation of several deep holes a few feet north of the well but found nothing.

Deciding he needed to employ some heavy equipment in order to increase his chances of recovering the buried coins, Cottrell returned to Levelland with the intention of contracting material and workers to aid him in his search. Illness and the obligations of running his farm kept Cottrell in Levelland for the next several years, and in September 1940, he decided to share the secret of the buried treasure with his friend Van Webb. After writing a letter of introduction to Fort Sill officials, Cottrell financed Webb's trip to the military post to try and find the treasure. Webb, however, was not authorized to conduct an excavation and was sent away.

A month later, Cottrell, accompanied by Webb and a woman named Edna Crowder, returned to the military post. While Webb employed a divining rod to try and find the buried coins, Crowder consulted a crystal ball. The trio was unsuccessful and went back to Texas, never to return. The matter of the buried payroll was dropped and quickly forgotten by most until April 1, 1964, when the army announced it had sufficient evidence of a buried payroll's existence and would try to recover it. Employing bulldozers and augers, army engineers excavated a total of fifteen holes, each ten feet deep, in an area just south of the maintenance building. Nothing was found.

Those who observed the army's attempts at recovering the 'treasure were appalled at the unprofessional and careless manner in which the excavation was conducted. Many were dismayed that, after only digging into a relatively small area, the army completely abandoned the search. Historians and treasure researchers are convinced of the truth of Allen's claim that the treasure was buried near the well and that it rests there today. Repeated requests over the past twenty-five years by interested individuals for permission to search for the treasure have been denied by Fort Sill officials who claim there is nothing to gain from a renewed excavation. Nothing, says one researcher, except for a fortune in gold and silver coins. Gold the Stagecoaches Never Delivered

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If you believe everything you read you are reading to much.
Treasure is a Harsh  Mistress

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« Reply #1 on: August 03, 2012, 11:45:08 pm »
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This story has several things going for it that make it at least plausible including the fact that there were and are several Cottrells in the Levelland-Lubbock area (even dating back before the Levelland portion of this story takes place) and cotton is and was a prime crop for the region (a fact that might not be widely known).     On the downside, I can think of a lot of places closer to Ft Sill than the Levelland-Lubbock area even staying in Texas.

BA

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« Reply #2 on: August 08, 2012, 02:39:12 pm »
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good story, have not heard that one before.
would seem to be a lost cause being on a military base

a true shame if that stays in the ground!

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« Reply #3 on: August 08, 2012, 02:57:05 pm »
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Quote:Posted by foolsgold
would seem to be a lost cause being on a military base



Depends upon how much the boundaries have changed and what part of the military facility you're talking about.    For instance, if you read an account about Ft Sam that is old enough that they are referring to the "Quadrangle" and the area immediately around it, there are plenty of civilian owned pieces of property just across the street and well within range of a well thrown baseball.   So the questions become, "was the trading post referred to ON the post or adjacent to the post?   And if it was, is the property still on post?"

As for the my comment about Levelland being a bit far from Ft Sill, a couple of the accounts I have read since say Allen had property there (where as my assumption was that he was working for someone else).   If he or a family member had property in the Levelland area either before or after (especially after his release from prison) it would make sense for him to use Levelland as a base of operation.   And in researching this, I'd make the initial assumption that "Allen" is last name, although I wouldn't guarantee the doctor got the correct spelling.

BA

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« Reply #4 on: August 08, 2012, 04:07:09 pm »
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Here in NM the Military Reserves have gotten larger not smaller.   Bummer.

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« Reply #5 on: August 08, 2012, 04:33:48 pm »
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Quote:Posted by homefire
Here in NM the Military Reserves have gotten larger not smaller.   Bummer.


That's the typical scenario across the country, but there are exceptions...or, like Ft Sam Houston, they have expanded in the other direction....not that Ft Sam can expand now since it is basically landlocked into its current space.


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« Reply #6 on: August 08, 2012, 06:00:33 pm »
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Good story. Nice follow up BA. You would think some of those details would be traceable since there was some documentation done in applying for permission.

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« Reply #7 on: August 08, 2012, 06:04:13 pm »
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would be interesting to see how fort sill has changed over the years,  I was of the same frame of mind that it would have gotten bigger and taken up more properties around it  

Posted on: August 08, 2012, 06:01:08 PM
that's a good point Idaho, where would these records be, at the national archives or fort sill?

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« Reply #8 on: August 08, 2012, 06:21:47 pm »
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If there is any truth to this story, there should be records of Allen's trial.  Either court records, newspaper reports or prison records.  Prisoner release rcords shoud exist also.  Census records should exist placing Allen in the vicinity after he was released from prison.

It's another great story!  I'm going to have to see if I can find more references to this one.

Thanks for another great story Seldom!             Detecting

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Government can not give anything to anyone...  without first taking it from someone else!

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« Reply #9 on: August 08, 2012, 06:37:48 pm »
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Quote:Posted by ArfieBoy
If there is any truth to this story, there should be records of Allen's trial.  Either court records, newspaper reports or prison records.  Prisoner release rcords shoud exist also.


I agree.  Huntsville would be a logical starting place as would newspapers in the Witchita Falls/Ft Worth/Dallas area for the second half of 1892 or one of the Oklahoma papers of the time (Arapaho Arrow or the  Taloga Accident maybe).    If there is no robbery reported in those papers and no "Allen" or "Alen" or "Allyn", etc serving time for payroll robbery or something similar in Huntsville, then this would seem to be at best a mislocated lead and at worse a flight of imagination.


BA


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