Treasure Tales, Arkansas

Here’s a couple of treasure tales for you in the state of Arkansas.

In the far northwest corner of the state, in Benton County, there is said to be a cave concealing a large Spanish treasure. There are two stories about the treasure, one says it’s supposed to be gold bars and chests full of gold coins and the other says it is gold statues taken from several churches in Mexico. Both stories say that the treasure is in a cave that at one time was an old Spanish mine. No matter which story you want to believe, at today’s gold prices this treasure would be worth millions of dollars. You just got to love today’s gold prices!

The treasure is supposed to be located in a cave on the side of a cliff and at one time a large oak tree stood near the cave with a map carved into the tree. Oaks can grow to be pretty old so maybe part of this tree is still there. This treasure site is just off of Highway 59 somewhere between Gravette and Sulphur Springs, just a five-mile stretch of road.

In 1895 a Spaniard arrived in Sulphur Springs with his own map to this treasure. He apparently found several makers about five miles southeast of Sulphur Springs on a farm. The farm was known as the “Dunbar Farm” but I don’t know what date this name is from, if it was from 1895 or later. This is supposed to be in the area of a cave known as “Black Cave”. The Spaniard and the men he had working with him worked for several years cleaning debris out of Black Cave, insisting that he would find the treasure in the cave. The Spaniard died in 1918, never making a recovery. Black Cave is also now known as “Old Spanish Treasure Cave”.

In Cross County, Arkansas a stagecoach robbery occurred in 1890. (I’m sure there was probably more than one, but I’m writing about one in particular.) A lone gunman robbed the stagecoach at Taylors Creek, three miles north of Colt, Arkansas, and made off with its strongbox that contained $7,500 in gold coins. The robber fled east from the robbery only to be found the next day.

The posse that set out after the robber trailed him to a spot about one mile east of where the robbery had occurred. There in the woods they found the highwayman dead from the only shot fired during the robbery the day before. The stagecoach driver apparently was a better shot than he knew.

The strongbox has never been found and it was thought to have been buried somewhere close to where the body was found.

This story should be easy to research and get some specifics about from old newspaper accounts. I doubt the robber had a chance to make many, if any clues but he probably didn’t get a chance to bury the gold very deep either.