Llano County (KGC treasure area)

I am beginning research on a new historical project that has to deal with the Knights of the Golden Circle in Llano County, Texas. There is an old local legend of a buried treasure near Smoothing Iron Mountain in the NW section of Llano County. Locals have claimed for years that Pancho Villa buried some loot on the mountain, but the question is....how could Villa have gotten from Mexico, to Central Texas without being spotted, and not to mention with hordes of loot? Also why is it that Villa hid the loot so far from Mexico? None of the story makes sense at all...but that is in regard to Pancho Villa.

My family and I have a hunting lease near Smoothing Iron Mountain, the elderly woman that leases the ranch out to us has had the land in her husband's family for generations. She claims that there was a blacksmith shop located near the creek that runs through her ranch and that her husband, who has been deceased for over thirty years now, took her out to a site on the ranch that he claimed was the burial spot for Villa's treasure. For years my family and I had never really thought much of this claim until a few years ago when I was roaming around and discovered near the creek bank, an odd trail of large squre shaped boulders in the ground that could not have possibly been there naturally. Following this trail, it led me into a grove of small trees where I took notice that I was standing in the center of a large circle of these strange shaped boulders. I thought it was odd, but at that time I did not think much of it.

In the early 2000s my dad, who is one of the co-founders of the Llano County chapter of the GPAA (Gold Prospectors Assoiciation of America) and I, went to the Treasure Hunters show in Tyler, Texas and it was there that I came into contact with author Dr. Roush, who has researched and written several books on the Knights of the Golden Circle. From reading some of his boks on the Knights of the Golden Circle, I began to wonder about that site at our hunting lease. Sure enough I went out there one day after school, when I was in high school, and discovered near the site of the old blacksmith shop a triangle shaped rock with a chip of stone missing from the back corner. According to one of his books, Roush states that this was one symbol the KGC had used to point or indicate that the KGC had some form of buried money or weapons around that area. If I can ever find out how to post a picture of the rock I found onto this website I will.

As most of y'all, that have read up on the KGC, know the organization had intended to start a second civil war. They searched for places near Federal military installions to hide their weapons and money so when time came to start the war, they would have everything right where they could find it, and be able to seize federal forts extremely quickly. Llano County was the only county in the north western portions of Central Texas that voted in favor of seccession. It was also close to one of the greater forts of the Texas frontier called "Fort Mason" in present day Mason County, also to the south was the old site of a fort in Fredericksburg. With support from the people of Llano County, the KGC would have been able to quickly make a move upon Fort Mason and towards Fredericksburg in a hasty manner. The unpopulated frontier expanse in north western Llano County would have been ideal for a KGC hideout, and being near the base of a recognizable landmark, for Smoothing Iron Mountain is one of the highest points of the county, other Knights would have been able to locate the burial site promptly. We later discovered from a recently placed historical marker near the ranch about an old town site called "Esbon". In researching the old town, I discovered that it was basically a small town with hardly no history at all. But it was in existence during the late 1800s and the early 1900s, which would have made it a perfect area for KGC members to hideout.

To sum the whole essay up, I'm going to be researching the history of the KGC in Texas and will use the evidence I find to help bring about the conclusion that it was not Pancho Villa that may have buried treasure on Smoothing Iron Mountain, but was instead the KGC. I'll keep everyone updated on the process.     

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http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,14716.msg94041.html#msg94041

very cool stuff, i have just started myself, looking more into the KGC, and their activities here in Texas.

would be very interested in what you find!

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http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,14716.msg94128.html#msg94128

I know everyone has been waiting for an update on my project so here it is in a nutshell. I have just finished my research on the KGC in Texas before the Civil War and to sum it all up....there was a bunch of them. From my research so far, I have discovered that it was the KGC who got Texas into the Confederacy, and it was the KGC that oversaw the capture of all Federal forts in Texas, after the state had joined the Confederacy. When San Antonio was taken by Texas troops, over one-fourth of the volunteers that assembled there were members of the Knights of the Golden Circle.

After the Civil War, the organization defiantly disappeared but did they vanish forever...who knows? Right now, from the research I have so far, it can be safe to assume that the KGC did not disperse after the war, but rather may have joined the Ku Klux Klan and merged with that organization because they were basically united behind the same ideals. These are the results I have found so far, I'm beginning to dive deeper now into the possibility of the KGC being in Llano County. I'll keep posting updates as I go along.

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http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,14716.msg97863.html#msg97863

Good luck! Here is a book I am reading that you might like. Steve Warren  here on the board recommended it. "Shadow of the Sentinel: One Man's Quest to Find the Hidden Treasure of the Confederacy" by Warren Getler and Bob Brewer.

Jim

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http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,14716.msg98081.html#msg98081

While the KKK was not formed until the winter of 1865/66 in Tennessee there were earlier insurgent anti-reconstruction activities in Texas that have caused historians to identify these groups as "the Klan".
Whether or not this 'pre-Klan' was made up of former KGC members or  former Confederates is a matter of null supposition given the embedment of KGC members in the Confederacy

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