Well, since Christopher quoted a comment of mine about Treasure Stuff, I'll chat about that for a bit. As a preface, not all of the information I have concerning the issue is in the Public Domain, so you cannot verify it all for yourself - do with that as you wish. Further, I won't reveal all of that non-Public Domain information. And that is because some of this stuff is still active, more than one person has ended up with a bullet in the head over this stuff, and I have already been warned to stay away by a multi-generational Mason/THer (Treasure Hunter), after that person figured out what I had figured out. People have also been blown to bits, buried under tons of rock, and drowned due to booby traps.
Those types of warnings don't go over very well with me, lol. Told that knucklehead to scurry on up the chain of command and tell his Masters that he spotted a Lone Wolf lurking in the shadows who was aiming to throw a Monkey Wrench in the Works. And I am dead nuts serious about that. As I told Ron earlier, I ain't gotta go to war with these a-holes on their Battlefield. I only have to find me one, wee little nail and grab it. And then maybe look over my shoulder and run like hell, lol. So, I'm dude on a mission. A real deal one, and this is my Life's work - getting that nail in my hands.
I will also briefly touch upon some of the Præternatural with this stuff. It might raise yer eyebrow, Christopher, if you knew that down on some sites in the Land of Enchantment (ever wonder why it is called that ... ?), you will find references to the Joker, and it being of import to some folks on treasure site layouts. But, deciphering and applying those references is another story, lol.
Hmm. Where to begin. First of all, if you ever do find yourself stumbling upon a legitimate Treasure Sign in the field, without Inside Information, what you'll end up doing is chasing your tail for decades (literally - some people spend decades on one site), wearing out shoe leather, and going nowhere. But, you'll get a little exercise, fresh air, and scenic beauty, so it won't be a total loss, lol. Secondly if you want to find out who the Masons are in a crowd of people, start talking buried treasure and treasure signs, and watch for those that give themselves whiplash spinning their head around to see who's talking. Thirdly, most of the Treasure Legends you read - the lost Mine of Henry Jones, the Bandit Loot of One Eye Willie, and, of course, the fabulous Spanish Cave of Gold and Spanish Mines, well, they are mostly bullshit. That doesn't mean that they are not of great import to the THer, or Truth therin, just that the story can often be a coded message, like Persher Code, and sometimes nothing more than a Red Herring. Many of these stories came out in local newspapers - a vehicle to communicate with those 'in the know' over distances. And then, you have the Templar related stuff, from centuries ago when they were over here. Oh yea, can't forget 'Ol Montezuma's Gold, either.
And what you'll also notice is that most of these Treasure Legends hit the Public Domain within certain time frames, like the 1860's, the early 1900's, the 1930's (a significant period of treasure activity that seems to be tied to FDR's making gold ownership illegal, among other things), the 1980's.
Perhaps the single group that has had their hands on this stuff the most in the last century, are the Knights of the Golden Circle, who I mentioned were eventually 'ousted' by the Order of American Knights. I think it was about 1916, IIRC when the Inner Circle of the KGC decide to fold up tent and seal the records for 50 years. The KGC were BOTH THers, and Treasure Placers. Now, while known to descendants of those involved who themselves became THers, the KGC was largely unknown to the amateur THer until about the 90's when Hillbilly Bob Brewer hit the scene talking KGC at conventions, etc., then he and Warren Getler put out a couple of books. I haven't seen it (G-Pa always told me TV turns Iron in yer blood to Lead in yer ass, so I don't have one, lol), but I think he has done a show or two on the History Channel. The notion put out by that group is that the KGC began gathering and stashing money, all over the US, as a means to fund a second Civil War, and it is also tied into guys like Quantrill, of Quantrill's Raiders, and that the intent was to form a nation of slave states of the South, Mexico and into the Caribbean Islands, forming a 'Golden Circle of Slave States'. That, version, widely accepted by the armchair THers, is BS, IMO.
Some of my info comes from a source (he's dead now and I didn't know him personally, but have connections to someone that did) that worked with Brewer on some sites, and was influential in Brewer's books. Brewer was going to write a third, but the aforementioned source backed out, for he did not like the turn in the subject matter Brewer wanted to present, and I'll leave that subject matter alone, for now.
Perhaps the most important figure involved in all of this is Albert Pike. The only Confederate General to have a bronze statue of him erected in D.C., and founder of the Scottish Rite Freemasons. You find his name attached to a Treasure Tale, like it is with the Spanish Cave 'O Gold on Marble Mtn in the SLV, and well, yer on a good 'un. But, don't rush back up to CO just yet, Christopher, for whatever that one was about, if there was anything there, it is long, long gone at this point. And again, some of these tales are nothing more than coded messages, not necessarily an actual Treasure Legend, so you always need to be on the lookout for that stuff. Just 'cause I am in the region, that RV park just south of the Dunes has three grave sites on it, on them having been a false grave that was filled with loot. And yes, recovered decades ago, and part of a larger treasure that ties in down south to Culebra. Well, pretty sure it was that one, and not the actual Mormon cemetery off of Urraca Creek to the south a bit. Urraca being the Aunt of King St. Louis of France, for whom the valley is obviously named.
Wanna see a Treasure Map? It ain't a secret one and has been in the public domain for at least 4 decades. About the best you can do for tracing its origins is coming out of Phoenix in the 1930's:
Now, all you need is the proper Key, a sextant, knowledge of celestial navigation, and from there you can decipher multiple locations in Colorado, New Mexico, and Mexico. But, this map doesn't get you to the spot of where to put yer shovel, just in the general vicinity. From there comes location of signs in the field and deciphering them, a task that without inside info will keep you spinning circles. Here are what some treasure signs attached to this particular treasure look like in the field:
The second to last is a covered up cache site, I'm pretty sure on private property, and the yellow outline is basically a claim of ownership of that cache. The third to last is a turtle, an important treasure sign here on Turtle Island, aka North America. These pics are on the east side of the Culebra Range, and were taken by one of those multi-generational Masonic THer Dudes. This particular THer also told me he tracked another cache site to Urraca Mesa, in northern New Mexico. It, too, is on private land, this time owned by the Boy Scouts. Now, Burnny ain't gonna like this much, but you need to look real hard at that Fleur-de-Lis of the Boy Scouts and ask why that symbol. Indeed, not everything is meaningful, but the Boy Scouts happen to be a selection source for things later on in life, that info being relayed to me by this particular Secret Society THer - he would know. Add to that this land being donated 80+ years ago by Phillips, of Phillips Oil. Important there, potentially (I haven;t tracked him in particualr), is that one of the things the KGC did with that money was invest it - more than one KGCer got invovled in big time industry and became Phillips type folks. Like Henry Ford. The claim of the book put out by The Organization is that Ford was given money to help get things off the ground. When you follow Ford through time and get up to pre-WWII, you find Ford involved in printing off a whole bunch 'o copies of the Protocols of the Elders of Sion. Yes, I said Sion. Is it Tsar, Tzar, Csar, or Czar? When you start transporting words across languages, things like z and s get interchanged, due to pronunciations. He was also admired by Hitler.
And, Hitler needed money, didn't he? For right now, I'll leave it at there being evidence for some of this KGC money to have gone that direction. If you go back to pre-1938, when Hitler kicked of his World Tour in Poland, Hitler, as well as Mussolini, were well admired by some, as was Stalin over here. But once the war broke out, and the truth of the savagery of the Bolshviks came out, it was a mad scramble to distance oneself. I'm talking politicians, big businessmen, and entertainers. After returning home from Italy, Roy Rogers couldn't speak highly enough of Mussoilini, as an example. This is also very potential tied into Major General Smedley Butler, and his being asked to lead a takeover of the US government in 1934:
Always with the lawless 1%ers, lol, and they got their grubby meathooks all over this treasure stuff.
Anyway, there are some very interesting things associated with the Præternatural and that site on the Boy Scout Property:
JeffBelangerCan you tell us why no one ventures in Pentiente Canyon?
Michael Connelly: Animals refuse to enter it. They can't even be dragged in.
It was apparently once a site where one of the ancient tribes practiced torture and human sacrifice.
Rockhauler2k1: They [the animals] know better. lol
JeffBelanger: Have you gone in?
Michael Connelly: The book reports on one such sighting in detail. No, I haven’t gone in. This particular site scares the hell out of me.
JeffBelanger: Do the Scouts ever camp there?
Michael Connelly: Some who have gone in have become disoriented and lost for days. Others have disappeared. The scouts don't use it. There are not even any hiking trails through it.
The Pentientes are an interesting group. Note the part I bolded (not associating them with sacrificial stuff, just find them an interesting group)...
Riders in the Sky: The Ghosts and Legends of Philmont Scout Ranch
This one has some nice tidbits, too:
Urraca Mesa: A Gateway to the Demon Realm | See the Southwest
Just to keep on the Præternatural a bit, let's head back north into the SLV. I'll quote some things out of another hard to get book, Treasure of the Valley of Secrets. The author of this book was a well known THer. He was 'one of them' according to that source tied to Brewer above, and, of course, a Mason:
I carefully inched up to the subject of a treasure in the Culebra Range to the east and got an immediate response. "Si!" they said, "there were several gold caves in the Sangres de Cristos but all of them gave off all sorts of sounds and lights."
In the THer realm, you find reports of blue lights around cache sites.
I found myself being shunted over into the San Francisco Pass and Peak area near the Colorado-New Mexico state line where a 'howling cave' at certain times of the year emits frightening sounds ...
I also know of two people that have claimed to have taken trips in UFOs as a result of their THing.
There is another Secret Society involved in this, and currently active.
This post is probably long enough ...