The San Francisco call., 1897-01-04
BOLO MURIE ETTA'S
HOARD is THEIRS
Proof That the Outlaws
Gold Was Found Near
Fresno.
Trunk in Which 1t Was Buried
Exhibited in a Firebaugh
Hotel.
Lucky DISCOVERIES of the Loot Guard
ing Their Fortune by Strictest
Secrecy.

| FRESNO, CAL, Jan. 3.-The men who
unearthed trurkfuI of gold near this
city few days ago, as reported III The
CALL at the time, are maintaining the
greatest secrecy in regard to their find.
They fear that if the facts find their way
to the authorities the State will put in a
claim for its share. For this reason the
lucky discovery is being kept as quiet as
possible.
One OF the finders of the fortune was
]. G. Wofford, bur the name of his COM
panion cannot be learned. Wofford, ac-
cording to his own statement, merely
accompanied the man to whom the for
tune belongs as friend, and he will not
say whether or not he received or Is to re-
ceive portion of the treasure.
1t was near the Firebaugh graveyard
and not the Mountain View Cemetery
near this city, as first reported, that the
trunk containing the large amount of
gold was unearthed. The spot was about
a quarter of a mile from the burial
ground.
The treasure is supposed to have been
buried by JOAQUIN Murietta, the notorious
bandit of the early days of California. 1t
come to Firebaugh to buy stock and had
the money in his trunk. The outlaw
M murdered the man and stole his trunk, but
was unable 10 carry the money away
with him. He therefore buried the trunk
and treasure where it was found.
For some reason Murietta was unable to
make use of his ili-gotten wealth. He
never returned for it. 1t appears that he
gave the description of the location of the
trunk to some friend, who recently died.
Before this person passed away he gave
Murietta's description of the spot where
the fortune might be found to Wofford' S
friend and tins man and Wofford were
not long in making a search for it.
The two drove from this city over TO
Flrebaugh at night in order that no one
would know where they went. They spent
the day in hunting for the spot where
the trunk was hidden, and so accurate
description had Murietta given OF
its location that they found it with COM
parstiveiy little difficulty.
The trunk was buried two feet below
the surface. 1t was pulled out of its rest
ing place, but the woodwork had all de-
cayed and it fell to pieces. Neatly packed
in bottom lay the bags of gold. There
| were twenty-forr of them-nineteen of
coin and five of slugs of bullion. The
finders appraise the treasure at about
$147, 1000, the exact value of the slugs hay
ing not yet been ascertained.
Wofford and his friend transferred the
gold from the smaller bags in which they
fouLd it, and which had rotted so that
they would hardly hold together. into a
sack they had and left the trunk on the
ground. They then returned to Fire
baugh and that night drove back to
Fresno. Wofford refuses positively to re-
veal the identity of his friend, to whose
interest he is, of course, very much de-
voted.
1t is reported that a hotel-keeper at
Firebaugh is in possession of the trunk in
which the treasure was found. He saw
the account of the discovery published in
THE CALL and then came to the conclu-
sion that the two men who had made a
strange visit to the town were the. fortune
seekers.
The fact that the treasure was supposed
TO have been buried by Murletta strength
ened his belief that it had been found in
the vicinity of Firebaugh, that having
been favorite stopping place of the ban
dit. He went toward the graveyard, in
the direction he had seen the two strangers
take, and soon ran across the trunk He
found twelve of the bags in which the
money had been buried, the finders hav-
ing taken the others with them as curios.
! The hotel man took the trunk, or the
pieces of it, back to Fire bau gh and is said
to pe exhibiting it.
The story of the discovery of the treas
ure is of course doubted by many. but
there are circumstances that justify the
opinion that the doubters may be pushing
their incredulity to extremes.