A tale
comes down to us from the Overland Monthly, a popular travel magazine of
the late Nineteenth Century. A copy of the article is cleverly filed somewhere
in my study where it can easily be retrieved. The problem is that I have been
unable to locate it. To the best of my recollection, the author of the article
took down the story sometime during the mid-1860s from one of the two vaqueros
mentioned in the story. It seems that the two vaqueros came upon a derelict
small adobe in what was probably the eastern branch of Meier Canyon sometime in the 1830s. The vaqueros were looking for stray
cattle and had ventured over the hill from the Calabasas area. Investigating,
they found that the adobe contained an old table and three skeletons. On the
dirt floor was an old, small leather-bound wooden chest. Scattered about the
table and the room were about a dozen Spanish coins. From the evidence at hand,
they surmised that the three individuals had argued over the treasure and had
mortally wounded each other in the process. The argument and the fight must
have occurred during the 1820s, probably following secularization of the
missions. California remained very isolated during that
time, and life was hard, with few luxuries and little money. A dozen silver and
copper coins would have represented a substantial sum in those days -
apparently enough to kill over. The two vaqueros agreed to tell no one, divided
up the money and went on their way. According to the account, one of the coins
still hung on a thong around the neck of the dying vaquero.
Death comes to us all, but to those three individuals, they died anonymously
and without anyone knowing what had happened to them. In the 1820s in southern California, people did not have access to banks.
Valuables were buried or otherwise hidden in order to protect them from
thieves. When one died, the location of any horde usually died with them. The
decline of the San Fernando Mission, for example, was followed by decades of
individuals digging in the grounds and in the buildings searching for treasure.
Perhaps those three got lucky, only to succumb to greed and violence.
Is the story true? Or is it simply a romantic tale - the kind we all like to
hear. We will never know.