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Offline DragunX5Topic starter
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« Reply #40 on: November 01, 2009, 04:16:10 am »
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 Cheesy Love it!

At work now and really shouldnt be here hehe.

Makes sense really, Castle Gap (aside form castle gap park) is a very mountainous area. Looking at the area on Google Maps
would make the terrrain a very hard place to dig, and as we all know now, Castle Gap was a major gateway for travel
in those days....would Mr Murdoch risk leaving something so precious right underneath such a frequently used road? There
was also a spring located in Castle Gap which is why it made it such a popular travel route, clean, fresh water was at the travellers
disposal. Possilbly for this reason its understandable why many lost treasure are associated with the place.

The Geometry of Pecos River, which is where Horsehead crossing is on, is mainly made up of sand, salt cedar and silt......very soft compunds.

Although many are unsure where exactly Horsehead crossing was on the river. I have some images below of the location many people believe it is, due to the width of the river in the right of the image, and on the sattalite image you can see the faint trail from Castle Gap its self. There is also a map made in 1856 by G.W Colton.

So many accounts of the story....so it turns out that murdoch possibly did infact meet a Doctor to whom he told the location of the cache? If so then it is possible that the part where Bill gave him a map with the location is also correct, but like written before, the doctor said he could not find the location as the landscape had changed so much. So in essence, i agree with your theories now, that possibly Castle Gap has not the location of the cache (If there is one), Mountains eitherside of the trail would protect the trail its self from the effects of major elements. Horsehead Crossing however is out in the open, sand can get shifted, the rise and fall of the water level can change the landscape, especially with high winds.

Hmmm, im going to try and find all i can on this Doctor Black, although some articles i have read have had people say they have search for this man but found nothing....I will aslo try an aerial scan of the river....see if there are any remnants of any buildings, sometimes they can be seen from above but easily missed from the ground. the search continues....  Rider

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« Last Edit: November 01, 2009, 04:20:43 am by DragunX5 »
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« Reply #41 on: November 01, 2009, 06:53:32 am »
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Hello all

Idaho Jones and Dragunx5 well done with your findings.

Idaho Jones: It is a very interesting article you have found about the markers and early exploration of the area.

Dragunx5: Well done with that 1856 map. It really helps to put everything in perspective.

Your comments about Connor and Dr Black seem to be confirmed.

 It also appears as a note on the bottom of this article below that there is no record of Connor or doctor black.


Here is another story version by John A Kimmey Jr

 liberal for some Mexicans and Napoleon III wanted to collect a debt from Mexico and furtherThe Emperor of Mexico and Denton, Texas
by John A. Kimmey, Jr.

Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph (1832-1867) was crowned Emperor of Mexico on 10 June 1864. How this younger brother of Francis Joseph I of Austria came to be in Mexico and his lost fortune linked by legend to Denton, Texas is a story of political circumstance, schemes, lies and human greed.

While the United States was busy with its Civil War and the Monroe Doctrine was merely paper, a group of conservative Mexicans and the French Emperor Napoleon III contrived to put Maximilian on the Mexican throne. The Mexican government of Benito Juarez was far too his imperialist dreams in the Americas of a Latin league of Mediterranean countries and their former colonies. The debt Mexico owed the French was $15 million on which Juarez had suspended payment. To further this scheme Maximilian was lied to and believed the Mexican people had voted him their king. and he agreed to move to Mexico as elected emperor. Backed by support from the French army, Maximilian and his wife

Marie-Charlotte-Amelie-Augustine-Victoire-Clementine- Leopoldine (know as Carlota to her friends), daughter of Leopold I, King of the Belgians, set sail for Mexico in 1864. Maximilian seems to have thought of the Mexicans as simple peasants and felt called upon to rule with a paternal benevolence. The conservatives, landed gentry and the Roman Catholic Church, were disappointed in Maximilian as he refused to undo the sweeping land reforms made by the Juarez government. Maximilian's liberal plans were doomed to failure.

The American Civil War ended in 1865 and the United States demanded the withdrawal of the French from Mexico whose presence was seen as a violation of the Monroe Doctrine. Carlota went to Europe to enlist the help of Napoleon III and Pope Pius IX only to be rebuffed by them. She then suffered a complete mental and emotional collapse and never returned to Mexico. She spent the rest of her life in seclusion in Laeken, Belgium where she died in 1927. The French finally withdrew from Mexico in 1867 and Juarez and his Mexican army moved back into Mexico City. Maximilian refused to abdicate and fled, with a few supporters, to Queretaro where he finally capitulated on 15 May 1867. In spite of the protests by many of the crowned heads of Europe he was executed outside Queretaro on 19 June 1867.

Months before Maximilian was executed he sent what was left of his personal fortune in Spanish, Australian and American gold coin, gold and silver plate and some bullion back to Austria. The fortune never made it out of Texas, or so the story goes. The gold and silver were loaded onto wagons and the drivers instructed to go to San Antonio, Texas and then on to Galveston, Texas. The gold and silver were then to be sent to Austria where Carlota was waiting for the shipment.

This was 1867 - Reconstruction in Texas and times were bad and lawlessness was the rule of the day in many parts of the State. The Rio Grande was the dividing line between two kinds of men who felt themselves, because of circumstances, to be outlaws: ex- Confederates who could not or would not live in Reconstruction Texas; and, those fleeing Mexico because of sympathy with Maximilian whose power was fast coming to an end. It so happened that in this year a group of ex-Confederates heading into Mexico and some of Maximilian's supporters heading into Texas chanced upon each other. The ex-Confederates were hoping to make their fortune in Mexico; the Maximilianos were hoping to get to Austria with his gold and silver. Their immediate objective, however, was to get to San Antonio and they did not know the road conditions and solicited the aid of the Americans. Both of these groups were on the Chihuahua Trail when they ran into each other and when the political conditions in Mexico were explained to the Americans they agreed to help the Mexicans get to San Antonio with their cargo of "flour."

The travelling group was made up of fifteen people including one woman who was the daughter of the leader of the Maximilianos. It was not very long before the Americans noticed cautious the Mexicans were about their cargo of flour, staying by it all day and sleeping in each wagon at night. Quite naturally the curiosity of the Americans was aroused. Upon closer inspection, the flour turned out to be gold and silver. All this happened as they were approaching the Pecos River. Finally, the dirty deed was done at Castle Gap, fifteen miles east of Horsehead Crossing. All the Maximilianos, including the woman, were killed and the bodies and most of the wagons burned. So much gold and silver could not be carried by the remaining Americans so they agreed to bury most of it, make a map and return later for the loot. Having done this, they rode east with as much of the gold as they felt they would need for the trip.

The leader of the pack, Bill Murdock in some accounts, became so ill that he had to be left behind when the group reached Fort Concho. It was his good luck because his compatriots, who went on ahead, were attacked by Indians and killed. When Murdock was well enough to travel he set out for San Antonio. On the way he discovered the mutilated bodies of his friends. He now was the only person who knew the location of Maximilian's gold. He decided to go to Missouri and enlist the help of the James boys, then come back to Texas and divide up the fortune. On his way to Missouri it was his ill fortune to fall in with a group of men who turned out to be horse thieves.

A sheriff's posse from Denton captured the group and took all of them, including Murdock, to the Denton County jail. While in jail, Murdock's old malady resurfaced and a Dr. Black was called in to minister to him. Dr. Black felt that Murdock had little time to live and sent for a lawyer named O'Connor to try to secure Murdock's release. Murdock did not make it out of jail and in his last moments he told Black and O'Connor his story and gave them his map. He then died. Black and O'Connor eventually went to Castle Gap but time and the weather had so altered the landscape they could not read the landmarks on the map. To this day no one has been able to discover the whereabouts of Maximilian's gold, although many have tried.

NOTE: Most of the above information was gleaned from J. Frank Dobie's Coronado's Children. A search through the census records for Denton County for 1860 and 1870 turned up no Dr. Black nor and O'Connors.


Another thing I search for fort Concho and it seems they was only one recorded death of a soldier that died at the fort, in its entire history as a military camp. It was a Sargent, one of the buffalo soldiers who were stationed there. Not our elusive Mr Bill Murdock.

I tried to find any death records for the Denton jail for Bill Murdock. I found jail records but not 1867 records. It appears that the jail was operational from 1848 to present day.So perhaps the records are still out there somewhere?

Perhaps we have better luck searching family history forums and historical socites that might have death lists for the Denton area? That may help us find these three principle figures of the story?

If we cannot confirm any of the men mentioned in the story then what do we really have?

We have what we call of course a treasure legend.

Treasure legends are there to seduce us and bewitch us into believing a story entwined with some factual evidence and hearsay.

Unraveling the truth from the fiction is a journey in itself. And perhaps that is the real treasure? The Maximilan treasure story has been enigmatic and elusive as ever. But always fascinating.

It took me many years to finally understand to what fascinates me about researching treasure stories.
Its not the Destination of where the story goes, Its the Journey getting there that matters.



And I thank every one for making this thread a very interesting one.

hardluck  Cool

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Offline Idaho Jones
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« Reply #42 on: November 01, 2009, 09:59:31 am »
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Hmm so I should cancel my flight to Texas? I already bought a shovel...  Grin I totally agree Hardluck, there is more research to be done.

Yep Dragun if the soil in Texas is like the soil here it can be darn near impossible to dig a big hole. However if they were near a spring where the clay would be soft it might be different. They might have piled rocks on it, a common way to cover something in the desert. 

Black and O'Connor are either aliases or fiction. All the leads we have discussed have been run down a zillion times I would imagine by people over the years who still havent found it or did so very quietly.

I perused some of the old cemetary markers listed for Denton, not one Murdock/Murdoch. Since he was a confederate soldier and possibly an outlaw I would guess this was also an alias or fabrication. He just doesn't exist. Unfortunately some courthouse records also burned up in the late 1800s so perhaps it's just gone.

One more thought. If the part about finding out the flour barrels were gold is correct, they discovered them just before the crossing. 15 miles would be 2 days journey after the discovery most likely. I would guess they used oxen teams on the wagons and not horses. One evening to conspire and one more to do the deed. I would wait till night, probably convincing the austrian/mexicans that the ex soldiers would stand watch while they slept. If you could find wagon evidence that would narrow the search immensly. It's already a very small needle in a very large haystack.

The trick to the desert, and Texas desert is much like Idahos, is that it all looks the same. You can get lost just going over one hill.

Unless there are some significant landmarks you likely couldnt relocate that treasure. The map mentioned, if it existed at all, probably contained a triangulation of landmarks. One of which is a lake that sometimes goes dry. Since "Black" noted a lake that dried up I would guess he went summer/fall, and the flour train was travelling springish. Since we dont have any solid leads all I can say is run down the hearsay paths and see if anything new pops up.

Happy searchin  Smiley

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« Reply #43 on: June 09, 2010, 05:31:00 pm »
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Just adding a couple of interesting things

 I quote, inpart, from the long out-of-print The Prospectors Club Newsletter (a publication devoted to treasure hunting) for August 1965:
Lying about thirteen miles off shore from Biloxi, Mississippi, in Mississippi Sound, is an island discovered in 1699 by a French army five-man patrol.
No one knows why, but the soldiers identified it on their map as Horn Island. The island is thirteen miles long and varies from one to three-fourths of a mile wide, and tapers to sandy spits at both ends. The central portion is covered with slashpine, there are huge sand dunes as high as 30 feet, several large lagoons, ponds, and swamps.
Probably the most intriguing and least known story connected with Horn Island is the legend of the buried gold of Archduke Maximilian von Hapsburg, and the Archduchess Carlotta.
Carlotta and Maximilian had been rulers in Mexico less than a year when the Civil War ended and the battle-tempered Union veterans started to turn their attention to this Mexican problem.
Juarez, whom the French troops of Maximilian had driven from the presidency, was still holding out in the mountains. He received the approving nod of the United States, whereupon Napoleon III promptly withdrew his army and support from Maximilian, his puppet in Mexico.
In this crisis, Cariotta, accompanied by General Juan Almonte, a loyal Field Marshall of Maximilian, set out to return to France to appeal to Napoleon III, but their ship was wrecked off the shore of Horn Island. This ship also carried a treasure of French gold which Maximilian and Carlotta were anxious to get out of Mexico. Before the ship sank, this treasure was saved and secretly buried by General Almonte on Horn Island where Carlotta went insane and General Almonte died on March 23, 1869


By Jeff W. Henderson
From page 20 of the April, 1977 issue of Lost Treasure
Copyright ? 1977 Lost Treasure, Inc. all rights reserved

"There's no sense looking for Maximilian's treasure here in Castle Gap, because it was dug up many years ago," says Cliff Newland, 82-year-old treasure hunter of Crane, Texas.
"Look over here,' ` he told me. "You can see the hole those men from San Antonio dug in 1914. They came in here and camped a week or two. They left this hole. Both of them came here almost penniless. Soon after they left, they became prosperous ranchers over in East Texas. I think they found the Maximilian treasure."
But none of this discourages Newland. He started bunting Maximilian's treasure about 1909. Over the years he has come across leads to other rich treasures , one of which he's hot on the trail of now.

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« Reply #44 on: June 09, 2010, 06:29:07 pm »
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Hello Seldom

Thanks again for the interesting up date.

This treasure story seems to have a little more life in it yet? interesting possibility.

I read somewhere even today there are treasure hunters searching around Castle Gap.

Hardluck  Huh?

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« Reply #45 on: June 10, 2010, 12:16:37 am »
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More good stuff! The Horn Island lead is intriguing, it makes more sense than sending barrels of treasure with poorly armed amature troops. Lets see if it goes anywhere. Smiley

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« Reply #46 on: July 05, 2010, 10:14:17 am »
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Many have searched for Maximilians treasure but no one has found it. Why? It either does not exist, is lost somewhere else (like the Merida) or someone already found it. I believe that it was found in 1914.

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« Reply #47 on: July 05, 2010, 06:15:00 pm »
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Hello All

Maybe Maximillian's treasure was found in Mexico city in 1893?

Treasure legends are interesting as they twist and turn like a roller coaster. These legends seduce us, betray us and intrigue us. You never know where you will end up when researching them.

Perhaps that is why they are so addictive.   Grin

Hardluck  Wink

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« Reply #48 on: July 06, 2010, 01:39:27 pm »
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Only a portion was recovered before it started to flood... hmmm wonder if they got it all?

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« Reply #49 on: July 10, 2010, 01:56:18 pm »
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Hola friends,

I recently started to research Maximillians treasure. During my search I found this forum. I have to say, you guys have brought up some very interesting finds and insight's. I live in San Angelo, TX so Castle Gap is just right around the corner. Having lived in Texas for most of my life, I can say there has been plenty of talk about West Texas (around the Pecos) and the treasures lost there. Seeing as this would be my first "treasure hunt" would you guys have any suggestions on a good place to start?

Looking forward to it!

~j Cheesy
BTW Fort Concho is a block away from me. (in case you didnt know where San Angelo is)

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