Is there really a lost hidden treasure?

Owners of Old Spanish Treasure Cave say, 'Yes,' and continue cave exploration

— Is there really treasure still hidden away somewhere in the Old Spanish Treasure Cave, owned and operated by Paul and Tracy Linscott? The Linscotts, like a number of people before them, think it’s there but don’t know if it will ever be found.

The Linscotts show the cave, located along Arkansas Highway 59 and once called Black Cave, and tell its story to visitors as a business, but Paul says he keeps exploring the cave’s many caverns and passageways and looking for cluesin hopes he may someday find the treasure that has eluded so many before him.

According to Paul, the Old Spanish Treasure Cave is an actual treasure site that dates back about 400 years to the Spanish conquistadors who explored the area and sought treasure for Spain.

“There have been artifacts found here, such as helmets, pieces of armor and a couple of gold coins,” Paul said.

He said the treasure was hidden in the cave after a group of the Spanish soldiers, who were traveling from deep insideMexico where they raided and pillaged Indian settlements starting with the Aztecs and Mayans and were making their way to what is now northwest Arkansas, took shelter in the cavern to escape a brutal winter storm.

“They realized they could not travel any further,” Paul said. “Their horses were dying and the carts they had were breaking down.”

According to the Linscotts, the Spaniards hid their treasure in the cave, making plans to come back with reinforcements to get the treasure at a later time.

“They set up camp in a huge room we call the Council Room,” Paul said. “Off the Council Room there is a natural chimney where they had their fire. This natural chimney goes all the way to thetop of the mountain; this is what eventually gave them away.”

According to Paul, the braves from one of the last Native American settlements the Spaniards had raided, while the braves were out hunting, tracked the Spaniards and noticed the smoke coming out of the top of the mountain.

“They came down and killed all the Spaniards except one,” Paul said. “He escaped ... finished hiding the treasure and drew a map on parchment paper.”

“The Spaniards never trusted just one source of documentation,” Paul said. “They always put it on a more permanent substance. Outside we have a map that has been carved into a rock. This map was discovered a little over 35 years ago by anarchaeologist that came up here from Texas. He dated this to be around 400 years old.”

According to Paul, the one Spaniard who escaped made his way back to Madrid, Spain.

“We know this because another Spaniard generations later found some documents in a family Bible that was handed down to him. In those documents there were maps of how to get here and treasure maps of inside the cavern,” he said.

“When he came up into this area, he got to this general locationbut could not find the cave, so he hired some of the local hunters who knew this area. They were looking for a hoof imprint carved into the bluff,” Paul said. “When they found this in 1885, the Spaniard hired these men to start digging for the treasure.

“This lasted about a year. Then the Spaniard became very sick, so he took his treasure map that he never showed the workers and carved another one into this old oak tree in the fall of 1886. This was not a full treasure map; it was only (enough) to get them to a certain point. They were to write to the Spaniard in old Mexico when they reached this certain point. The Spaniard left them some money andtook off.”

According to Paul, the workers never heard from the Spaniard again. When they reached the end point on the map, they had lost the Spaniard’s address. They waited for someone to show up and check on their progress, but no one ever did, he said.

A book entitled “Buried Treasures of the Ozarks” by W.C. Jameson tells of excavations in the cave by George Dunbar around 1900. He reportedly hired workers and built a railroad in the cave to remove dirt and rock from the many passageways, hoping to find the treasure. A year afterhis death, W.W. Knight is reported to have employed an even larger crew to open up the many passageways to find the lost treasure. He gave up on the venture in 1918. In the following decades, others too sought to find the treasure, but with no success.

According to Jameson, longtime residents of the Gravette area tell stories of an earthquake in 1812 which may have closed off passageways in the cave and forever sealed off the Spanish treasure.

Jameson’s book, published by August House in Little Rock, in 1990, gives greater detail to the account of the Linscotts of how Spanish treasure came to be concealed in the cave.

Whether or not it contains millions of dollars worth of gold, it is still a treasure to the Linscotts and to the many visitors who take tours, explore or spend nights camped inside the historic cave, for its dark caverns shed much light on the mountains and hills of the Ozark Region and provide unforgettable experiences.

The cave is open for guided tours from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. through March and April but is closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays. It will be open seven days a week, beginning on May 1 and running through the summer months. For more information, call 787-6508.

News, Pages 1 on 03/28/2012