Neal rode into camp two days later, leading four oxen roped together. It did not take him long to realize he had been double-crossed by his two partners. He noted that several of the leather pouches containing the treasure lay open and empty and several of the mule packs were missing. He said nothing, fearing that revealing his suspicions might get him killed. The following morning, the three men loaded the remaining treasure onto the oxen.
For the next two days, the outlaws herded the oxen northeastward toward New Mexico. Then, just before reaching the border, they turned northward into the Peloncillo Mountains. As they rode along, Neal noted that Grounds and Hunt often rode close together and spoke in whispers. Neal was convinced the two men intended to kill him. At the first opportunity, he broke away from the pack train and fled eastward. He later reported that Grounds and Hunt fired their rifles at him as he fled, but he was not struck.
Neal rode straight for Silver City. Here he discovered Brocious had been arrested for fighting and was in the jailhouse. Hughes was living in the outlaw’s cabin. Hughes had not seen Brocious since his return and had been unable to tell him the concocted story of Estrada’s escape with the treasure. When Neal told Hughes all that had transpired after he left, he grew angry. The two men decided that when Brocious was released from jail, the three of them would go after Grounds and Hunt.
When Brocious was finally released from jail, Hughes and Neal took him to a saloon where they explained what had occurred. On learning of the deception, Brocious grew livid. At some point, a young barmaid banged into his chair and the volatile Brocious, losing control, pulled his revolver and shot her dead. Realizing they were facing serious charges, the three men fled Silver City with a posse on their heels.
Some forty miles later, the posse caught up with and cornered the three outlaws at the little town of Shakespeare to the southwest. During the gunfight that ensued, Neal was killed. Brocious and Hughes were forced to surrender and within hours were hanged in the dining room of Shakespeare’s Pioneer Hotel.
By the time Brocious and Hughes were dangling from the rafters of the Pioneer, Hunt and Grounds, after filling their pockets with gold coins from the hoard, had buried the remainder of the treasure in a canyon running out of Davis Mountain near Morenci, Arizona. Then they moved to Tombstone.
Within weeks, word of the massacre of the Estrada gang in what was now being called Skeleton Canyon circulated throughout that part of the Southwest, but no one save Grounds and Hunt knew the circumstances. While maintaining their secret, the two men spent gold recklessly in Tombstone.
Grounds remembered a former girlfriend living in Charleston, a small town not far from Tombstone, and he went to see her. Since Grounds had left months earlier, she had taken up with the Charleston butcher. When Grounds arrived and showed her all of his gold coins, she decided to go back to him. One night as they were lying together in bed, he told her the story of the Monterrey raid, the treasure, and the incident in Skeleton Canyon.
The next morning after Grounds returned to Tombstone, the woman told the butcher what she had learned. The butcher rode to Tombstone to inform Sheriff Bill Breckenridge of the two murderers, Grounds and Hunt, living in his town. While the butcher was talking to Breckenridge, Grounds had returned to Charleston. The girlfriend immediately confessed to him what she had done. Panicked, Grounds rode his horse at a hard gallop back to Tombstone, told Hunt what had happened, and the two fled.
Before leaving, Grounds took a few minutes to write a letter to his mother who was living in San Antonio, Texas. In the letter, Grounds told her he was coming home, that he was tired of this “wild life.” He wrote that he had buried eighty thousand dollars that “I came by honestly.” He said he intended to purchase a ranch near San Antonio where his mother could live out her days. Enclosed with the letter was a map showing the location of the treasure buried in Skeleton Canyon.
There was no immediate pursuit of Grounds and Hunt, and they spent the night at a ranch owned by a man named Chandler located about ten miles from Tombstone. The next morning, however, the two outlaws were awakened by Sheriff Breckenridge, who called for them to come out of the bunkhouse with their hands up. Breckenridge, accompanied by two deputies named Gillespie and Young, had followed Grounds and Hunt from Tombstone.
Not wishing to be captured, Grounds and Hunt ran out of the bunkhouse firing their guns. Gillespie was killed immediately, and Young was incapacitated with a bullet in his leg. Breckenridge raised his shotgun and discharged it, the pellets striking Grounds in the head. Dropping the shotgun, the sheriff pulled his revolver and shot Hunt through the chest, inflicting a debilitating wound. The two wounded outlaws were tossed into a buckboard appropriated from rancher Chandler and transported back to Tombstone. Grounds died before arriving, and Hunt was admitted to the local hospital. On first examination, the doctor gave him no chance to live.
Hunt lingered on, requesting authorities to contact his brother Hugh. Days later, Hugh arrived from Tucson. The two visited for only a few minutes, then Hugh left. That afternoon, he leased a horse and buggy, clandestinely removed Zwing Hunt from the hospital, and drove out of town. The escape was not discovered until the next day.
On a hunch, Sheriff Breckenridge decided the Hunt brothers were headed to Skeleton Canyon to dig up the treasure. He gathered a couple of deputies and rode in that direction. Several miles from the massacre site, he encountered a freshly dug grave next to an oak tree. On the trunk of the tree, the name Zwing Hunt was carved. Breckenridge ordered his deputies to dig up the grave. Inside they found Hunt’s body. They reburied it and returned to Tombstone. The posse searched the area for hours but encountered no evidence of any digging.
By now, all of the participants in the caching of the Monterrey loot were dead.
The letter and map that Grounds sent to his mother in San Antonio are still in the possession of his descendants. They are reported to be in good condition, and the map supposedly provides clear directions to the location of the buried treasure. To date, and for reasons unknown, no attempt has been made by the Grounds family to recover the buried treasure in Skeleton Canyon.
Over the years, many have gone in search of the buried Monterrey loot, now popularly known as the Skeleton Canyon Treasure. In Skeleton Canyon, dozens, perhaps hundreds, of gold and silver coins have been found, likely those scattered by the pack mules while attempting to flee the site of the massacre. It has been written that just before he died, Zwing Hunt wrote a description of the burial site of the remainder of the treasure that was carried away on the oxen. He stated that it was cached in a canyon near the Davis Mountains. Many consider the directions worthless since there are no Davis Mountains in the area.
It is important to remember, however, that when Grounds and Hunt herded the treasure-laden oxen north after Neal rode away, they traveled for a few more days, turning north near the Arizona–New Mexico border. Conceivably, they could have reached the area of Morenci, Arizona. Just a short distance north of Morenci is a Davis Mountain.
The treasure buried in Skeleton Canyon has never been found. If located today, according to experts, the value could amount to more than twenty million dollars. Further, the remainder of the treasure buried in a canyon associated with Davis Mountain near Morenci has never been found, although in 1995 a man exploring in the area encountered evidence of a curious excavation. He also found the remains of oxen buried nearby. He revealed his discovery to two others but provided no precise directions to the location. Before he was able to excavate for the treasure, he passed away, and the location remains unknown.
14
The Lost Yoachum Dollars
An Ozark Mystery
America’s Ozark Mountains provide an abundance of lore and legend: ghosts, monsters, folk wisdom, and tales of lost mines and buried treasures. One of the most enduring, and tantalizing, legends to come from this fascinating mountain range is the one associated with the lost Yoachum silver dollars. There is no doubt that these dollars existed, hundreds of them
. Government records substantiate their presence and use during the mid-nineteenth century and collectors possess examples of them. The origin of the silver used in the manufacture of these coins, however, is still being debated. The mysterious cave where the silver was allegedly found is searched for today, as are hundreds, perhaps thousands, more of the coins.
This strange tale has its origins in 1541. In that year, Spanish explorers under the leadership of Hernando de Soto arrived in the remote, isolated, and rugged valleys of the Ozark Mountains in search of precious metals. Their goal was to find gold and silver, extract, smelt, and ship it back to the treasuries in Spain.
One of de Soto’s prospecting parties explored a portion of the Ozark Mountain country in southwestern Missouri. Ore was found, and a preliminary survey was promising enough to encourage the Spaniards to establish a small settlement in the area while the mines were developed. Atop Bread Tray Mountain, located near the junction of the White and James Rivers and three miles northwest of the present-day town of Lampe, Missouri, they constructed a fortress, the remains of which can still be seen.
While construction of the fortification was under way, a nearby shaft was found. In some accounts it has been described as a cave, but this is unlikely. Most conclude the low, narrow opening was the result of some small-scale and occasional mining by the Indians. Inside the shaft, a thick vein of silver was discovered. In short order, the Spaniards captured and enslaved a number of local Indians and put them to work in the mine digging out the silver. Within weeks, a forty-foot-long shaft had been excavated following the vein of silver. The ore was processed into eighteen-inch-long ingots. As the ingots accumulated, they were stacked against one side of the passageways until they could be packed onto mules and transported to a location on the Mississippi River. From there, the silver was to be floated to the port on the Gulf of Mexico where it would be loaded onto a ship bound for Spain.
The Indians were treated cruelly by the Spaniards. They were whipped, fed poor rations, and chained together at night so they could not escape. From time to time, guards reported that the activities of the Spaniards were being observed by other Indians watching from the nearby ridge tops. Fearing attack, the Spaniards doubled their guards.
When the Spaniards ran low of fresh meat, hunting parties were sent out to bring down deer, turkey, and other game. During these times, the hunting parties often ran into Indians and confrontation ensued. On several occasions, the hunters never returned. Increasingly, the Spaniards grew more wary of and nervous about the attacks and discussed the possibility of loading what silver they had processed and abandoning the area.
Early one morning as the Spaniards were finishing breakfast, hundreds of Indians surged out of the adjacent woods and attacked them, killing all but a handful. At the mine, all of the overseers were slain and the captive Indians released. During the melee, a few of the Spaniards escaped. The silver that had been accumulated was left in the cavern. With the Spaniards gone and the Indians returned to their villages, the cave remained undisturbed for two and a half centuries.
In 1809, a small hunting party of Choctaw Indians got caught in a violent spring thunderstorm and sought refuge in the mine shaft. While waiting for the storm to abate, they explored passageways in the mine and discovered the stacks of silver ingots. They also found several skeletons, most likely the remains of some of the Spaniards as a result of the attack 250 years earlier. The Choctaw, like most Indians, had little use for the ore save for the occasional ornament. Through increased contact with trappers and traders, however, they learned that they could trade the shiny metal for horses, guns, ammunition, and blankets. When the rain let up, the Indians conducted a two-day ceremony at the entrance of the cave designed to rid the place of evil spirits.
For years thereafter, the Choctaw made annual trips to the cave to retrieve enough silver to conduct trade and make a bit of jewelry. They carried the silver as far east as St. Louis, Missouri, to barter for goods.
One afternoon, a Choctaw scout reported that a party of Mexicans was riding toward the cave along a trail that paralleled the White River. The leader of the Indians, accompanied by three armed warriors, rode out to meet the newcomers and requested an explanation for their presence in the Indian homeland.
The Mexicans explained that they were searching for a silver mine that had been discovered and worked by their countrymen many generations earlier. One of the Mexicans unrolled a large sheepskin map replete with Spanish markings and symbols. The Choctaw chief recognized several landmarks indicated on the map. Concerned about the presence of the strangers in Choctaw territory, the chief said there was no such mine and told them to leave.
After the Mexicans rode away, the Choctaw were concerned that the strangers might return and find the silver mine, so the chief ordered that the entrance be sealed and the region abandoned until he deemed it safe to return. The cave remained closed until many years later when other Indians arrived in the valley.
Following the War of 1812, the Delaware Indians, originally from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, were relocated into the Ozark Mountains. New white settlers and their accompanying politics caused these Indians to be evicted from their native homelands and sent to a destination that landed most of them in the James River area of the Missouri Ozark by 1820. Here, they mingled with other tribes: Kickapoo, Shawnee, Potowatami, and Seneca, all likewise chased from their traditional lands in the east.
Around this same time, the Yoachum family moved into the James River valley and established a farm. The name has been found throughout the American South and Appalachians and has been subjected to numerous spellings: Yocum, Yokum, Joachim, Yoakum, Yochum, and Yoachum. Most researchers believe the members of the clan who moved to the James River area spelled it Yoachum.
James Yoachum, the patriarch of the James River Yoachums, was born in Kentucky around 1772. One year later, a brother, Solomon, was born. Two years later, a third brother, whose name is unknown, arrived. While the boys were young, the family moved to Illinois, where they established a farm. James, however, had a wanderlust and was not content with the tedium of farm labor. On the day he turned eighteen, he left home, deciding to travel to Missouri to pursue the life of a trapper in the Ozark Mountains in the southwestern part of the state.
James experienced some impressive successes as a trapper, so much so that he decided to return to Illinois and try to talk his brothers into joining him in his enterprise. When he arrived at the family home, he learned that his wife had died in childbirth, leaving him with a son. The boy, Jacob Levi, was being raised by Solomon and his wife.
James remained on the farm for several years but never took to the drudgery of manual labor. When he could stand it no longer, he informed the family that he was returning to the Ozark Mountains to resume his trapping operation. His two brothers, along with his son, agreed to join him within a few months.
On returning to the Missouri Ozarks, James met and married a Delaware Indian woman named Winona and built a small cabin near the confluence of the James and White Rivers. Some historians claim that the James River was named for James Yoachum as a result of the prominent and productive farm he established in the area.
As a result of a number of logistical difficulties, the brothers’ move to the Ozarks was delayed and they did not arrive until 1815. By this time, James had planted a large portion of the floodplain in corn and squash and was raising fine herds of cattle and horses. Most of James’s neighbors were Delaware Indians. The Delawares tended to be a peaceable tribe and often brought gifts of food to new settlers. In return, James shared a portion of his harvest with his new friends. Occasionally, he gifted a horse to a selected member of the tribe.
While living among the Delaware, James noticed that many of them wore jewelry and ornaments fashioned from silver. When he inquired about the origin of the ore, the Indians told him that many years earlier an aged Choctaw had told them of the existence of a huge fortune in silver ingots stacked shoulder-high in a remote cave
deep in the Ozark forest. From another Indian, James learned the story of the Spaniards’ visit and the development of the silver mine. When James asked about the location of the cave, he was informed that the Choctaw and the Delaware Indians made a pact never to reveal it to anyone.
Respecting the agreement made by the Indians, James never broached the subject again. Years passed, and the federal government initiated an Indian removal process wherein many of the tribes were evicted from their homelands and resettled on reservations in what was called Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). The new resettlement guidelines affected James’s neighbors, the Delaware.
As the tribe was packing their belongings and preparing to leave the area, James and his brothers arrived to assist. They brought along gifts for their friends, including blankets, cooking utensils, and horses. In gratitude, several of the Delaware leaders, after conferring among themselves, agreed to show the Yoachums the location of the secret silver cave. Within days after the departure of the Indians, the brothers located the cave. As with the Indians, the three brothers agreed among themselves never to share the information with anyone. With one exception, the Yoachums apparently carried the secret to their graves.
Whenever the Yoachums needed silver, they went to the cave and retrieved it. The trip from the farm would take two to three days. When they returned with a few ingots, they told their wives that they were taken from a stack of hundreds found along one wall of the cave. Over time, the brothers accumulated an impressive pile of the ingots.
In time more and more settlers arrived in that part of the Ozarks and more and more trading posts were established. As the Yoachums became deeply involved in the commerce of the day, they found opportunities to do business with the new settlers and the new establishments.
The Silver Madonna and Other Tales of America's Greatest Lost Treasures Page 11