Missouri Treasure Hunting

More Missouri Treasures

spaniard.jpg (166x153 -- 5958 bytes) Spanish Treasure in Cass County - On October 24, 1879 an article in the Cass County Times-Courier described the location of a hidden Spanish treasure near Harrisonville, Missouri. The text read:

"Before being massacred by attacking Indians in 1772, several hundred Spaniards buried 15 loads of gold averaging 130 pounds each and 1,000 bars of silver weighing an average of 20 pounds to the bar... in the area four or five miles west and one or one and one-half miles north of Harrisonville. The silver was buried within one-fourth of a mile of where the present day Rodman School is standing; the gold is three fourths of a mile farther northwest.”

More than fifty years later, a construction crew was building a bridge in 1930. The location was several miles southeast of the old Rodman School. During the excavation, the crew found evidence of a battle between the Spanish and the Indians, locating old weapons, skeletons, and part of old armor.

Harrisonville has dramatically grown in the last several years, so locating the exact location of the old Rodman School will, no doubt, require some sleuthing skills.

Reader Update: I live in Cass county, just north of Harrisonville and a little east of Peculiar, Missouri We have always heard the legend of the Spanish gold and have been told that it is on some land that we had when I was a child and I think mom and dad still own. My sister, brothers and I are going to hunt this weekend, weather permitting. There is an area that dad could never get any grass or anything to grow on. We will look there. Thanks for the research that backs the claims that we have always heard. - Teresa, October, 2004

Reader Update: I've been researching the "Harrisonville" legend and have found the "Rodham" school. I am planning on a trek this weekend to the area. I was viewing some of the maps online and found a topographic map and aerial photo of the area, approximately a 1/4 mile from Rodham school. On the aerial photo there appears to be a concentric ring that does not appear on the topo. I am still trying to find other aerial photos of the is area. See here: Treasurenet. For some reason this "legend" kind of gets my blood pumping. While the Spanish were in the area at the time, I would like to see if I could find records from the Spanish missions in the area. Perhaps they might hold more documentation of the massacre. I believe the Indiantribe was the Osage. I can't say for sure but that seemed to ring a bell. Perhaps some of the old Osage tribal leaders might have information about it. -From Rex, "Flatlander With Gold Fever," April, 2005

Outlaw Loot at Huzzah - About three miles out of Huzzah, Missouri is said to be a cache of stolen outlaw loot. The treasure was carried up a small hollow from Haunted Springs to a rock shelter, placed in a fox hole under the bluff and covered with rocks. At the time it was buried, the skull of a horse head was left as a marker. Huzzah, Missouri is approximately 100 miles southeast of Jefferson City, Missouri on Missouri Highway 8.

More Spanish Treasure - Legends abound throughout the area of Noble Hill that a cache of Spanish treasure is buried in the area somewhere. Noble Hill, is about thirteen miles north of Springfield, Missouri on Missouri Highway 13 on the Polk-Greene County line.

Kaffer Treasure - A cache of gold coins known as the Kaffer Treasure is said to be buried in the area of Armstrong, Missouri. Armstrong is about forty miles northwest of Columbia, Missouri.

Sunken Treasure in the Mississippi - In the Mississippi River that runs along the banks of St. Louis, Missouri there were several steamships that went down in the river long ago. Some of these are said to be laden with gold coins.

Hillary Farrington Loot - The outlaw Hillary Farrington was said to have buried a cache of loot on the Old Duram Farm at Jeona, Missouri.

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Missouri Steamboat in the late 1800's, courtesy

Library of Congress

Independence Jewelry Heist - Sometime around 1927, $25,000 in jewelry and gems was taken by bandits who robbed an area jewelry store. Supposedly, the bandits were said to have buried the loot at the foot of an old oak tree between two large roots about six miles east of Independence. Now, for the difficult part. If the "six miles east of Independence" was back in 1927, this could be very difficult to find today as Independence, Kansas City and other small suburbs have virtually melded into one large metropolitan city.

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Independence, Missouri in the early 1900s, courtesy Heritage Museum

Forty Niner Gold in Missouri - Long ago a Missouri man was said to have struck in rich in the gold hills of California. Returning to his home near Waynesville in Pulaski County, he was said to have buried $60,000 in the hills.

Spanish Mine in the Ozark Hills - Three centuries ago, Spaniards worked mines in the
Ozark Hills of Missouri. One of the mines containing lead and silver, eighteen miles
southwest of Galena, was worked by seven men, who could not agree as to a
division of the yield. One by one they were killed in quarrels until but a single man was left, and he, in turn, was said to have been killed by the ghosts of his previous victims. In 1873, a man named Johnson from Vermont went there, trying to find the old Spaniards' mine. He did work there for one day, and was then found dead at the mouth of the old shaft with marks of bony fingers on his throat. The exact location of the cursed mine remains unknown.

Sinking Creek Mine - A St. Louis doctor by the name of Tyrell was treating a dying man who was delirious. In his delirium, the man told the doctor of a silver mine near Sinking Creek. The next thing you know, the doctor started buying up land near the creek and built himself a house. His son, followed in his footsteps and continued the search believing that the area contained sulphite of silver. The mine was never found. Sinking Creek is in Shannon County, Missouri.