The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1911-06-06
SOMEWHERE IN THE OZARkS A
GREAT TREASURE LIES BURIED
ACCORDING TO INDIAN LEGEND.
Sc ARCHED IN VAIN FOR THE CAVE
A Century Ago the Chickasaw Indians
Hid Their Valuables in a Cavern
Lined With Silver and Then Con.
cealed the Hiding Place.

jefferson City, June Somewhere
in the mountain country of the Ozarks,
where the White River winds amonr
the hills, there lies buried a cave the
discovery of which would bring for
tune to the man or woman who hap
pened to stumble across it. The cave
is lined with great masses of silver,
according to the Indian legend which
is still told among the people of the
country
One hundred years ago the Chicka-
saw Indians, who made Marry county
their hunting ground, knew where this
cave was. 1t was discovered one day.
according TO the legend by Il brave
who was forced TO take refuge there
from IA storm. He found the whole in
terror of the place cleaning with sill
yer. The discovery was made known
to the tribe, who at once proceeded to
make use of it. Silver was melted
in followed out rocks and cast into
great bars which We're stored in the
cave. Massive silver earrings and or
naments were made. which members
Of the tribe took to St, Louis and ste.
Genevieve on their occasional visits
to those towns and traded for blank
cts and other less useful, but more en-
tertaining products of cilvization.
Fled Rather Than Fight.
Rumors reached the villages of the
Chckasaws that a band of Spanish
gold hunters was headed for their
settlement, and in order TO avoid a
fight which the chiefs felt sure could
only be fatal to the tribe, the Chicka
saws prepared to seek new hunting
grounds until the invaders should have
come, made their search and departed
All the valuables of the tribe were
placed in the cave of silver, and the
entrance was closed up with rocks and
earth scraped from the mountain side
Marks were cut on the rocks and trees
around so that there would be no dan
ger of not finding the cave again when
the tribe returned. Then the Indians
set out for "the land of the setting
sun"
They had only gone little way
when they We're attacked by the Span
ish gold hunters, and many members
of the tribe were killed. The others
fled back to their old haunts and tried
to set up again their tribal govern
ment. But the Chickasaws of the
Ozarks were doomed. One of those
sudden pestilences of which indian
tradition tells so often, swept down
on their village and wiped it out Men,
women and children, the Chickasaws
perished and with them perished the
knowledge of where the cave of silver
was to be found.
Search in Vain for the Cave.
The rains of fall and the winters
SHOWS fell over the scar on the noun
tain side and in the spring green
things pushed up through the bare
soil. More winters and summers pass
ed and no one came to disturb the
buried treasure. Trappers ana pros
pectors heard the story of the lost
cave and hunted for it and at night
by their campfres wondered whether
some day they might not stumble
across it and grow rich. But they new
er did.
Today the blocked up entrance to
the cave probably is deep in tangled
shrubs and creepers. The trees where
the Chickasaws carved their hierogly-
phics have long since fallen and grown
green with moss and crumbled into
earth again. The lost cave of the
Chickasaws is lost forever.