I read or heard this story years ago. All I have ever check out was writing a letter to the University of Texas who replied that they had no knowledge of the copper box or the legend surrounding it. I did find that a Dr. James Kirkpatrick was in the area at the time.Someone close by that can spend sometime researching may get lucky on this one.
In the late 1890s, a stranger appeared at a farm near Epley Springs, about four miles northeast of Goldthwaite, in Mills County, Texas. It was soon learned by the settlers in the area that he was searching for an iron spike driven into a pecan tree. According to the stranger, this was the key to a cave where a vast fortune in gold and silver from the Spanish mines of New Mexico and Colorado were stored during the late 1700s.
Four maps of the burial site had been made and three of these, placed in copper boxes, had been buried in separate locations within a few miles of each other. The fourth map had been kept by a padre, and this showed the burial place of the other three maps, all of which were necessary to locate the treasure. The stranger claimed to have possession of the fourth map, but refused to reveal where he had secured it, nor would he permit anyone to see it. After a prolonged search, during which nothing was found, the stranger left and was never heard of again.
When the story of the stranger was learned by Dr. James Kirkpatrick, a local physician, he went to see a man near Elpey Springs that had found such a spike while cutting firewood. Locating the tree stump, the doctor located one of the copper boxes about two miles west of Epley Springs. It contained the name Padre Lopez, the date 1762, and some jewels.
Some time later the doctor found a flat rock, near Epley Springs, with several symbols cut into it. With the help of some Mexican friends the doctor was able to decipher enough of the symbols to determine that there had been fifteen mule loads of gold and silver stored in a cave somewhere in the area. He never revealed to anyone, not even his wife, all that he deciphered from the symbols on the flat rock.
The owner of the land on which Kirkpatrick had been searching, now demanded the major portion of anything else that was found and since Dr. Kirkpatrick did not have a contract, he stopped searching for the other two copper boxes. Giving up in disgust, Dr. Kirkpatrick died in 1904. His widow kept the rock with the carved symbols and took it with her when she moved to California.
In 1932, another one of the copper boxes was found by a man named Hollenback. This was supposedly turned over to the University of Texas, but cannot be located today. In 1936, a series of mine tunnels, or caves were found that are still known as the Guthrie caves. In late summer of that year, the Colorado River flooded, filling these tunnels. Since then, extensive searching has been dozen for this cave, even as late as the 1970s, but the treasure cave is still undiscovered. It is believed to be somewhere near Epley Springs.
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If you believe everything you read you are reading to much. Treasure is a Harsh Mistress
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