Hidden gold treasure

Among the trees is where the spring is located.

The Lore

Of

Buried Gold

          As the legend goes, someplace near the ghost town of Clifford there is supposed to be buried gold. 

          It all begins in 1862 at Coon Springs in Eastern Colorado.  Coon springs was a stop along the Smoky Hill Trail.  Taking advantage of the springs and plentiful water an Army payroll detachment had stopped there. 

          Some outlaws jumped them and subdued the soldiers.  The outlaws got the payroll, reportedly over 100,000 dollars in gold. Mounting up the outlaws began their escape, heading out across the plains loaded down with the gold. 

          The outlaws did not do a very good job of tying up the soldiers for shortly after the thief’s had left, the soldiers were free and mounting their horses to give chase. Galloping across the prairie the soldiers were quickly gaining on the highwaymen. 

          Being loaded down with the gold the outlaws ducked into a gully.  They were going to bury the gold and return afterwards to retrieve their ill gotten gains.  Shortly after riding up out of the gully, the soldiers caught the bandits. 

          The bandits were taken to jail and sentenced to prison.  After their release, two of the outlaws were killed in gunfights and the third disappeared.

 There were stories of what happened to the gold and how the burial spots were marked.  With no more outlaws in the area, treasure hunters galore showed up to search for the buried gold.

There were never any reports of the gold being found but there were stories galore of finding marker stones.  These reports would fuel the gold fever even more.  Even today, there are folks that say the gold in still buried out there somewhere. 

Searching today is a problem, it is all private land and most folks in the area don’t like people roaming on their pastures.  That does not deter the treasure seekers.  They show up with their metal detectors and want to go hunting.  

Galatea

 

Galatea was one of those towns that took me more then one attempt to find.  I had driver past it several times but never noticed it.  The railroad has a huge earth berm beside it and things on the other side are well hidden.  Where the county road turns off the state highway there is a small window to look back into it.  Then it still looks like no more another abandoned ranch house, which are plentiful on the plains. 

Galatea sits north of the junction of SH 96 and CR 27.  It had its beginnings in 1887 as a railroad camp.  The Missouri Pacific wanted to reach the Rocky Mountain goldfields and this route to Pueblo was almost a straight line from Kansas City. 

Most of the railroad camps became memories.  Galatea lasted for a bit.  Some shops were there plus homes.  Today there is mostly weeds, couple houses, some out buildings and lots of concrete piles from footers and foundations. 

The depression hit followed by the drought.  The lack of money and moisture took its toll on the early settlers.  The Dust Bowl of the 30’s blew many a settler out.  Most farm land was ruined and very little range land could be used. 

The railroad provided some work for the few that hung in there during the dust storms.  The land is still dry and the dust boils in the sky on occasion.  It is not an easy land to live on yet a few make a nice living.  Many people grudgingly left their homes, for here were their dreams, their own land. 

The railroad no longer carries trains, the rails are possibly going to be removed and the highway sees the occasional traveler.  Near by is the town of Eads, the County Seat.  Here are the stores and shops for provisions and take care of business.  Way over there someplace is a city or two.  Homes are few and far between.  Population for the entire county is less then 2000.  Galatea seldom shows up on maps and most travelers fly by not even noticing the few trees that struggle to survive marking the once town. 

Here one can walk the path of John Steinbeck and the Grapes of Wrath. 

Highway 96 begins in western Kansas and ends in Pueblo, Colorado.  Along this route are scores of little ghost towns like this.  After doing some more research on Galatea, I found there were numerous camps the railroad built that never became towns.  So I have future excursions along this stretch of road to go town looking again.  Have to find a better map that shows the railroad locations. 

It is a highway of ghosts that winds beside the railroad tracks, much like it did more then a century ago.  The code polls still stand and the rails are rusted and the highway glides on past these pages of times past.

Calvary outpost….. Ft Wallace

 

Took a short trip to check out an old steam engine and chase it.  Along the way there were other things to look at and take pictures.

One of the places I wanted to go to was Wallace, Kansas.  Here are the remains of an old military building.  It had been a museum at one time but Kansas changed their tax policies for places such as this.  Losing their money the locals closed it up and today it sits vacant.

 

It is given some care but for the most part it appears to sit neglected.  There are stress cracks here and there that probably will become worse over time.  Being made of rock it will wear pretty good.  I just hope Kansas will give some funding to it to keep it from falling apart.  Then it is not alone, I have run into other places that have closed up when the state pulled the funding.

I hate to see the funding pulled yet the local county is not all that poor and something more could be done with it.

Yet it is so typical, rely o n big brother, in this case the state, and all of a sudden big brother closes the pocket book.  People throw their hands up and …………

Ft Wallace came into being in the 1860’s to protect the Smoky Hill Trail and the railroad.  In 1868 the railroad stopped building and Ft Wallace became the railhead for a couple of years.  It was a wild and rowdy town.  Railroad workers hanging around, not much to do, gold seekers passing through and the outlaws plundering anything and everything.  Late 1869 the railroad started building west again and Wallace shrunk.  A few years later, most of the Indian problems were over and the Calvary had not much to do. 

On off went the Army to other jobs and the building was left behind.  The town of Wallace prospered until the depression and then dust bowl.  Today it has a few residents and lots of ghosts.  The building was fed and well cared for but today it is abandoned.

In back the horses await the return of the cavalry to go riding on the prairie looking for Indians and bad men.

Things like this I have no problem supporting with tax money but at what level.  So much tax money is spent on special interests and things like this get lost.  There also needs to be some local help and not reliance on big brother because look what happens when big brother changes his mind.  Maybe there is a lesson in there someplace but do we learn?

                     _________________________________

Other Notes

My pelvis is pretty well healed up and the tailbone is doing pretty good.  I am still battling the hematoma, but at least I can sit for a spell now.  I am looking at blogging some more and getting around to others also.  Got a bunch more stories from this short trip.  Some neat train pictures and buildings in the small towns.

Have a good week.

Out On The Range

 

Driving across the plains I can see remnants of cattle days and the wild west.  Cattle grazing on the hillside the occasional cowboy, usually in a pick up sometimes horse back.

The train rolling in the foreground and grazing bovines in back.  If the hill was dotted with trees it would probably be called a mountain.  It is about 7000 feet in elevation but no trees so it is but a big hill.  In the fall the cattle will be rounded up and moved to another pasture.  That is when the cowboys are out on their horses or ATV’s. 

The stage was routed through here in the 1860’s and then the railroad in the 1870’s.  Could you imagine walking across here and pushing a wheelbarrow back then. The gold fever brought a great collection of mankind across the great American desert.  Few had hand carts, others wagons but most were on foot. 

The wind has been blowing so spring must be getting closer.  Dust is floating in the air, making a nice haze.  bigger patches of green are peeking out and the robin has made its rounds in the weeds searching for bugs.

Been kind of droopy past couple of days.  Popped myself in the ribs with a steel bar.  got the pipe moved but I also moved the side a bit and the ribs let me know, especially when I sneeze, ouch. It is going away and I am sleeping better.  Next time I’ll let the steel bar lay at rest.

Sometimes the media fascinates me.  There are times they come off as some of the most uneducated people.  This deal with the nuclear plants amazes me.  Radiation exposure has been effecting us ever since birth, it’s called sunshine and there are other sources of radiation.  How many know what safe levels are?  Like any thing the body has a pretty good tolerance of lots of things.  Consider a poison called Arsenic is also a heart medicine when used in proper dosage..  There is also a thing called nuclear medicine.  Those with cancer understand this.  Radiation is used to kill cancer plus other things.  Yep its dangerous, then so are lots of other things….. even eating to much food.

Snow is in the forecast….. yahoo, didn’t get any real good snows this winter, just real cold days. 

Got up early to go to the clinic for the exam and was treated to a great sunrise.  I am not an early rising bird so for me to capture a sunrise is a rare occurrence.

The weekend is here, have a great and blessed one.

.

Chap 6 Travels Along The Rails

Chap 6

TRAVELS ALONG THE RAILS

Evan and Vern moved off the other direction from the wagons. In the fog it did not take long before the wagons faded into the misty fog. The brothers were going to ride along the creek a short distance and then criss cross the grass land looking for the lost ox. As they rode along the fog would be thicker then thin out. It was difficult to stay in sight of each other but they could whistle or shout to keep track of the other.

When they reached the crick Vern was going to ride up the bank and Evan would follow the edge. The rain had created small pools and mud bogs. They figured the ox had wandered into crick looking for a drink and was probably lying nearby chewing its cud, they hoped.

The plan was to ride about five miles back down stream. The going was slow because of the fog. Last thing wanted to do was have one of the horses step into a pool of quicksand. Whistling and hollering they made their way. As the morning wore on there were spots of bright sunshine and they could move a little faster through these spots. As they were riding along hollering and a patch of dense fog, Vern stopped and hollered at Evan and asked him if he heard anything. Stopping and being quiet, Evan said he heard a faint bellow a distance ahead.

Letting out a screech Vern galloped ahead, he got an answer of a bawl. As fast as Vern had galloped off he came to a stop. There to the right in the crick was a big old mud bog and there stuck in the mud was their ox. Evan rode up just as the ox cried out. Evan shook his head. This was a mess the ox was up to his belly in gooey mud. The ox bellered at them. The brothers got off their horses and walked towards the ox. Closer as they strode they could feel the mud grabbing the boots.

Stopping they pondered what to do. Evan said he will get a rope and see if he can get it over his horns and pull him out. The ox stood there looking at them. Evan walked back to the horses and took a rope off and headed back to the mud hole. He walked into the mud as far as he dared to toss the lasso. The first toss landed in the mud a little short. Couple steps closer Evan tried again, this time it fell off the animals head and slid into the mud. It took a couple of tosses but finally the loop went around the horns.

Struggling in the mud, Evan was able to back out and handed the rope to Vern. He walked up and led his horse back down to his brother. Took the rope and tied it around the saddle horn. Vern walked around the mud to be behind the ox. Evan gave the horse a pat to start pulling, the ox howled and struggled. Vern was behind the ox throwing mud at him and hollering. The ox was jumping and lunging, the horse was straining while Evan was beside his ear talking.