Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1935-08-29
Golden
PhantOnlS
FASCINATING TALES
OF LOST M 1 N E s
THE HILL OF SILVER
q. BY Edisha L. Watson

for wonderful silver mine. This
mine was supposed to be near the old
fort of San Luis de las Amarillas, on
the San Saba river. 1t was known to
legend as the Hill of Silver, and a
vast fortune in that valuable metal
awaited the man, or men, who should
be lucky enough to find it.
It-or something like it--had been
found many times before. The In
dams knew about it, and rumors of
it's wonders had reached the Spaniards
of Mexico as early as the Eighteenth
century. The Apaches indicated its
direction; the Lipans brought silver
from it's veins to San Antonio; the
Comanches knew its location, and the
Caddos, Wacos, and Tehuacanas, who
survive only by their names on maps
of the south, fought off the white men
who Travelled near it. Don Fernando
de Miranda, lieutenant general of the
province of Texas found mine which
he claimed was of vast extent, and
from which he brought samples of ore,
and reported that he had been told of
even richer mines farther on. Early
eastern adventures established little
smelter for gold and silver; some dis
lance away they had mine, which
they claimed had been worked by the
Spaniards; all this was somewhere in
the extensive territory of the Hill of
Silver.
| The little group of eleven men from
San Antonio were not hunting blindly.
Their leaders were James and Rein
Bowie, who were supposed to have
seen with their own eyes the fabulous
wealth of this hidden mine to which
they were going. James Bowie, who
heroes of the Alamo, was said to have
joined the tribe of Lipans who guarded
| the mine, for the express purpose of
| learning it's location. Having succeed
| ed he organized this company to go
| back, fight off the Indians, and secure
| as much as they could of the rich
| ore.
The old fort was only $50 miles from
| San Antonio; both BoNNies had been at
the mine. Putting these facts to-
| gether, one might suppose that the
travellers would head straight for the
source of the treasure. But for some
| obscure reason, they wandered about
for three weeks, following James
Bowie, who was Cooking over the lay
of the land" and finally wound up
| about six miles east of the fort-where
they were attacked by large band of
| hostile Indians. A day or so before,
friendly Comanche had warned them
of the projected raid, so they were
prepared to fight, but one man was
killed and three were wounded and
| there were no means of caring for the
injured. So, as soon as they could
move them, they took their casualties
back to San Antonio, making the trip,
though crippled and halting, in ten
days.
Perhaps reasoning that if he had
gone straight on to his objective the
expedition would have met success,
James Bowie organized another party,
of thirty men this time, and started
out again for the silver treasure. This
time he led them to the right location,
but legend disagrees as to whether he
| found the mine or not.
| That there actually is Hill of Sill
yer in that region is substantiated by
| records In the archives of Mexico.
| According to these records, the mine
| was worked in the early days of the
San Saba mission. When the local
Indians uprose and killed everyone at
| the mine, it was considered polite to
abandon the place for while, until it
should be safe to return and continue
operations. But during the years after
this massacre, so many things of great
Importance occurred to the Spaniards,
and so many of those who knew the
location of the mine were killed or re-
turned to Mexico, that the Hill Of
Silver became actually lost.
Several years ago silver bullets were
found in the bottom of San Saba
springs, and this find served to bring
the lost site to notice again. 1t is said
that treasure seekers are now hunting
over an area of more than $500 square
miles, hoping to find the wonderful
silver hill.
Other lost and hidden treasures OF
Texas include the famous "Nigger-
head" in the wild country along the
Rio Grande border. There is not much
of story to go on in the search for
this mine, but it is said that a negro
who worked for a ranch below San
derson found the ore and brought
specimens Of it into camp. He dis
appeared shortly afterward, and ever
since then the hunt has been keen, but
with no results. Then there is that
deep spring one hundred miles south
west of San Antonio, where "seven
jackloads of silver" were thrown in
early days when bandits attacked the
transporting party Not long ago
drouth caused the water to become
much lower than ever before, and
bucket which scraped the bottom of
the spring brought up a Spanish silver
coin dated 1912.
After every violent storm along the
coast of Texas, Spanish doubloons are